ReefKeeper 2 question

[serpentman]

I have a question for you RK owners out there. I just got the unit in and am a little confused. On the power controller, I see channel 4 & 8 are designated relay channels. What exactly does this mean? Is this where I should put the expansion modules?

 

[itZme]

No it means that those are designed for ballasts and instead of using a solid state switch it uses an actual relay that opens and closes contacts to turn the ballasts on and off like a wall-light switch. If you are going to switch MH ligthing you should use one of those. If you aren't then you can use them for anything like any other channel.

Here is the quote from the manufacturer's site. "New! - 2 of the 8 channels (Ch 4 & 8) are traditional relays best used for light ballasts. Some ballasts do not light reliably with triacs (switches used in most controller products). This provides users with maximum flexibilty"

The idea behind the expansion module is that the regular channel (triac) will activate a heavier-duty mechanical relay to feed power to the high-powered items instead of using a channel to feed all the power to that item. It is as if you plugged an extension cord into another outlet and then use one of your RK2 channels to turn it on and off remotely.

Sounds like you are having fun hooking everything up

HTH
-- Kevin

 

[Tbohinc]

If you are using MH you need to use thoes plugs I know because I had 1 set of my mh plugged into 3 and 1 pluged into 4 the one on 3 would not turn on sometimes and other times not turn off I moved it to 8 and no problems

 

[serpentman]

"Sounds like you are having fun hooking everything up"

Always fun getting a new toy! Actually, this thing was a breeze to set up once I knew where to put the MH's