New WaveBox problems

[GMAX]

Roger:

I think I need help. New wavebox came today. I read through all the directions this afternoon and again this evening. Only then did I start trying to put the wavebox together. When I plugged it in I clearly could hear a motor hum. On the box outlet it seems to be putting out water in a stream ( like my other tunze pumps) but the chamber inside does not seem to fill and empty like I have seen on another reefer's tank. No wave of any size either. I made sure the photocell was not plugged in so that it could not be the culpret. I get no lights ( NONE of the three ) on the controller. I do not have it wired into my multicontroller either as I wanted to try to start simple. I did try to dial up the wave frequency but no action. I have now just unplugged it since I did not want it to start working in the middle of the night and cause wakes over the side or some other catatrophy.

Do you think the controller is malfunctioning? Can I bypass it and use my multicontroller to diagnose or ????

Perhaps I have done something wrong. I would say the directions read like something written in another language and translated, and some of its is a bit confusing. I got the two pumps and the multicontroller to fire up first time when I did that a couple of weeks ago.

HELP!

 

[bljohnson]

Are you sure you have the master wire on the controller hooked up to the driver? I just received my WB today also. All lights are working - they alternate between stream on/off. I messed around with it for a while and could not get a decent wave. I finally found the correct setting - if you look at the whole distance you can turn the dial it is at about 20 to 25% on the dial. I have a similar tank, I have a 180 AGA with Megaflows. One word of advice - turn down the power on the *DRIVER* before you start adjusting the frequency. Mine came with power at 100% on the driver. When I finally found the right frequency I had monster waves that I thought were going to overflow the tank. I found out that at 100% the water just bearly touches the lip of my tank. Also take you adjustments very slowly - ie bearly moves the dial and let sit for about 30 seconds before readjusting. For what it's worth I also have minimal rock in my tank so they may be the reason my waves are so high. I will be surfing for a while tonight if you have anymore questions.

Brian

 

[GMAX]

Master wire

Master wire

Yup. I double checked that about three times. Master plugged in, not slave. And I even unplugged and replugged it into the driver. I should be getting lights but I am not getting any. I think the controller is bad but maybe its something else. I am curious why this is not in the troubleshooting tips of the manual too, unless its the only time its ever happened ( my luck ?).

 

[bljohnson]

Are the holes on the back of your box open. I have one or two holes on the back that literally pour water in the box when it is empty. Also when you initially put it in the tank, did the blue line on the wave box matched your water level? Does the stream put out a nice flow and does it alternate on/off?

Brian

 

[GMAX]

Yup noticed at least one hole had water flowing in. I matched line on front with water level. I installed it with magnets so that part was pretty easy. Stream works just like a stream. Just not like a wavebox. Water should fill chamber and then purge and repeat. does not happen. Which combined with the lights not coming on makes me think the controller is bad. I bet I can use the multicontroller to diagnose it, but I want Roger to walk me through that.

Thanks for trying to help BTW.

 

[bljohnson]

Is the WB completely full of water? I agree with you that you may have a bum controller. Not to add insult to injury but the WB rocks. You will not regret buying this once you get all the kinks worked out. I have 2 3/4" SS hooked up to a Mag 24 and a Mag 5 pushing water through a SQWD and going to stock outputs. I just recently acquired another 3/4" SS. I have my WB on the right side of the tank and I think I am going to remove the stock outputs and just use the Mag 5 hooked up to a SS on the left corner (I happen to have a corner bracket).

 

[rvitko]

Sorry, I was at a meeting in California and just got back. I would double check that plug is firmly pressed in. It can sometimes not be puched in fully. I would say if that doesn't work, hook it up to your multicontroller by itself , if the multicontroller runs off of it then we know the controller is faulty and I'll exchange it for you.

 

[GMAX]

Tell what to do to hook it up to the multi controller. Do I take everything else off the multicontroller first ? Does the connection poart on the multicontroller matter?

I will unplug and replug the master cable into the driver once more first but if you can talk me through the use fo the multicontroller I would appreciate it.

 

[GMAX]

OK

Here is a weird one for ya. I went to do as you said and verufy the connection on the master wire to the driver was complete. Took it out put it back twice, nothing. wiggled it to see if any effect, still nothing.

Then for absolute grins I plug the slave connection in to the driver, leaving the master cord unplugged to anything. Controller springs to life. Pump light on and other two lights alternate in pattern back and forth. I go check wavebox and box is similarly filling and purging. I am getting a wave although it is quite small. I would say around 10 mm +/-.

I do note that the pulse button seems to be set up so that quick pulse ( filling and purging the box much more rapidly or many times per minute ) is first and dialing around clockwise seems to slow the pulse cycle. Is this the way it is suppose to work or I am correct that this is backwards.

Anyway I was worried that I would get a swamp over but that aint happening. I really expected a bigger wave. Am I doing something wrong or is this controller still not factory spec?

I did check the driver and the screw does seem to be turned all the way up so that I am getting 100% of it.

Was this controller miswired for it to act this way, both master slave and fast to slow pulse?

 

[GMAX]

All right I now have a good size wave. I had been making too large of changes in pulse and going past the resonance point, apparently. Amplitude ( top to bottom ) around 35 mm, I am guessing by eyeball only. Wave comes up to the Top of the Tunze logo on the right side of the wavebox. When waterlevel, at rest without wavebox on, is at the line on the left side of wavebox. Very cool.

Should I worry about the controller being wired incorrectly?

Thanks for your response.

Gary

 

[rvitko]

It sounds like they just put the wrong cables through the wrong holes, if you pop the cover off you can just reroute the cables through the right holes. You need to pry the knob off and undo the two screws on the back. When the box is tuned right you get one wave, it crests on one side and the trough is on the other, I think it just isn't properly tuned yet- it needs to be slowly turned in hair width increments and you have to watch and wait for a while, it can take a few hours to get tuned properly. I think everything is right, it just was a simple mistake in assembly.

 

[GMAX]

Roger

You know Germans put their verbs before the nouns too, so perhaps the cable switch is fitting. Should be no reason why I need to switch them, just remember that master is slave and viceversa. I am continuing to monkey with wave. You are right, hair width changes can make significant diff.