Powerbar problem

[AquaProject]

Hi,

I've been using a digital powerbar for controlling lights (among other things) for a few months without problems. But this morning I found out that lights had stayed on for the whole night. The led on the powerbar is telling that there's no power coming to that specific socket, which is not correct. Any ideas what might be causing this and how to fix it?

 

[AQD_ottawa]

Stuck relay sounds like you have a series one which does not have the 200 amp surge protection relays, this was changed about 3-4 months ago.

Quick fix give the back of the power bar and jolt this should release the relay.

There is heaps of info on here about surge protection and the advise of using high amp expansion sockets with high striking load devises such as MH lighting.

 

[AquaProject]

Thanks for the reply! I'll try that. I've been using that socket for powering 4 x 54 w T5 tubes. It's a EU version, a few months old.

I just hope this won't happen again when I'm away for a few days...

Now that the version is European, it should be less prone to this kind of failures, am I correct? So does it matter which of the sockets I use for there 4x54 watt tubes?

I lost track reading the old threadrs since I'm not an elecrician, just a person intrested in reef hobby - equipment overall is secondary. I ran to this kind of problem already earlier when I was asking GHL support to help me reset a water level alarm. We'll, the response was that it's in the manual. The manual is telling that resetting alarm is done by "resetting the machine's error status". That's complete nonsense, that kind of operation is covered NOWHERE in the manual. I sent a further query and NEVER got a response. So that's it - RTFM and you're on your own. So if you guys are too stressed to respond stupid and simple questions, you need to really pay attention to the readability and understandability of your manuals. A professional Technical Writer would easily improve the quality of manuals, adding a few examples on how different configurations are done. Don't assume that the average reader know about amps or high currents, just tell what kind of devices should be plugged to a specific socket.

At the moment configuring Profilux is pretty complicated, I wouldn't recommend it to anybody who doesn't have understanding of electronics and isn't prepared for using hours for planning, investigating and troubleshooting work. Manuals are just not good enough!

 

[Matthias Gross]

"So does it matter which of the sockets I use for there 4x54 watt tubes?" - yes

From the manual of the powerbar:
"The digital powerbar has 2 types of sockets:
• High power: Up to 10A, NOT protected against high inrush currents, these are S3 and S4
• Inrush current protected: Up to 6.3A, protected against high inrush currents, these are S1, S2, S5 and S6
...
A high inrush current can be defined as a current peak (> 100A) at the moment of switching on a device (usually for about 10ms) . Devices with typically high inrush currents are for example: Lamp ballasts (conventional AND electronic versions) or switching power supplies. Please connect these devices to an inrush current protected socket! Otherwise the relays will be damaged."

Last year we changed the hardware design of the powerbars. All sockets are suitable for high power AND high inrush currents now!

To the level "problem"
In the manual is written:
"In the event that an on-time limit is exceeded (a socket with the function Water is switched on too long, see 3.11.3 Maximum on-time) or the leakage detection reports an error the error status of the device must be reset. This will also reset the alarm. Water-level regulation will remain disabled for as long as the error status isn’t reset!"

I really have no idea about what you are complaining here. To be honest, we are not used to this aggressive tone here in this forum. Usually I don`t reply to this kind of posts, but I wanted to avoid a wrong picture of ProfiLux or GHL.

 

[AQD_ottawa]

To follow on from Matthias, and every single user of this forum will back me up on this, I spend 7 days a week glued to this forum answering all questions pretty much 16 hours a day and we have never had a single complaint about this highly dedicated level of customer support, in fact it is documented very clearly by users that they have never come across such a high level of customer care anywhere else in the industy.

At times when the answer is clear we do ask people to first check the manual, this cuts down on a high level of easy answer traffic, but if a person is really stuck we will spend every minute of our day until that client is happy.

I think as you are from Europe you have been seeking support on a UK or or EU board possibly?

I do hope this reasures you in the highest level of customer care that GHL North America offer, we can not comment on other distribution areas

 

[AquaProject]

I apologize if you found my message aggressive, that was not the purpose. I'll try to formulate this message in a more constructive manner.

First about the socket problem: The socket that got stuck was S2, so it's a protected one. So shouldn't this mean that it's ok to use that socket for powering T5 tubes?

Then about the level error resetting problem: I seem to have difficulties explaining my point. Yes, I read the manual and understood that I have to reset the "error status of the device". Well, I started wondering what I'm actually supposed to do. Is there a separate button somewhere for this? There's no such resetting option in the Alarm menu. There's no shortcut button for Level functions, nor is the error status reset functionality under the 'functions' button. Well, accidentally I found out that there is a separate Level menu - you can access it by the confirmation button! I had to check once again if I'd been sloppy reading the manual, but no, I still can't find it mentioned there are also menus under the Confirmation button (there also some other such submenus in the list that could also be accessed directly by function buttons).

Now, having read the manual once again, I started figuring out that chapter 3.11 is actually describing actual menu items, not just level adjusting functionality on a general level. I might have figured out this earlier if I had found the menu earlier. I didn't have to, since I'd configured the settings with a PC.

So it all comes down to usability problems in the manual. I have nothing to complain about support on this forum, the only support channel I've been using before this was contacting GHL directly. I think that investing in making the user instructions more user-friendly would be worth it - that should be the primary information channel, even though it's excellent that personal support is available.

A couple of other things that have caused headache: it doesn't say in the manual which voltages should be used for Tunze pumps. Configuring sockets to dosing pump and powerbar was a pain, a couple of examples would help a lot.

 

[Harry_Fish]

I have to agree the manuals need work.

I am an electronics & computer guy and a lot of it is not clear to me.

I can understand the frustration as my interest is keeping my
aquarium not trying to figure out a controller with a poorly
written manual (and no Help function in the program).


The mark of a superior product is it's ease of use.

 

[AQD_ottawa]

As with a product such as this and GHL being so advanced in releasing some highly useable and demanded functions it is often a matter of time keeping up with the manual.

The reason for this forum is so you have a resource other than the manual to refer to. We always say read the manual first but if something is not clear, one word - ASK

We are here to help - Always!

 

[Matthias Gross]

back to the topic and to make it short:

If you think you have a functional problem with the powerbar then contact your local retailer or GHL directly, please.

 

[LesMartin]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12649731#post12649731 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Matthias Gross
"So does it matter which of the sockets I use for there 4x54 watt tubes?" - yes

From the manual of the powerbar:
"The digital powerbar has 2 types of sockets:
• High power: Up to 10A, NOT protected against high inrush currents, these are S3 and S4
• Inrush current protected: Up to 6.3A, protected against high inrush currents, these are S1, S2, S5 and S6
...
A high inrush current can be defined as a current peak (> 100A) at the moment of switching on a device (usually for about 10ms) . Devices with typically high inrush currents are for example: Lamp ballasts (conventional AND electronic versions) or switching power supplies. Please connect these devices to an inrush current protected socket! Otherwise the relays will be damaged."

Last year we changed the hardware design of the powerbars. All sockets are suitable for high power AND high inrush currents now!

To the level "problem"
In the manual is written:
"In the event that an on-time limit is exceeded (a socket with the function Water is switched on too long, see 3.11.3 Maximum on-time) or the leakage detection reports an error the error status of the device must be reset. This will also reset the alarm. Water-level regulation will remain disabled for as long as the error status isn’t reset!"

I really have no idea about what you are complaining here. To be honest, we are not used to this aggressive tone here in this forum. Usually I don`t reply to this kind of posts, but I wanted to avoid a wrong picture of ProfiLux or GHL.

I've just purchased a UK spec 6 way Digital Powerbar ( Powerbar6D-UK) and the instructions that came with it state that sockets S3 and S4 are High power and NOT protected against high inrush currents. Do I have the older version or are the UK bars all of the older design ?

 

[redbull99]

The Uk powerbars are all of the old design currently, due to the more accommodating 240v it isn't such an issue over here. As new stocks arrive from Germany we may well change over to the new powerbars.

Steve

 

[LesMartin]

OK. Thanks.