Ecotech radion g5 knock off found!

[Shooter6]

The spectrum graph above looks like every other black box Chinese fixture in the last 12 years. Thin and dull. Come to think of it, the A8 Chinese box and the Neptune Sky spectrum graphs look near identical.

Wheres the graph? Where's the ecotech graph for comparison? Seems if they are both using the same nm leds the spectrum will end up the same give or take a little for exact nm for each diode, which both would have.

 

[damsels are not mean]

Whoever says Ecotech uses higher quality components than “x” either never owned an Ecotech product and is regurgitating what they were told or has only ever owned an Ecotech product and loves Ecotech. Their retail price comes down to corporate greed. Simple as that.

I have and will likely always own something Ecotech. I like the lights and most of their equipment. I’m always upgrading/downgrading/changing my system and Ecotech gear holds value. I would love to test out all these “knock off” lights but if I don’t like it I can’t imagine getting 10% of what I spent back.

My previous display tank ran 3 radion g4 pros. The second display ran 3 hydra 62hds. Frag tank ran 6 radion Gen 2s with the second frag tank running 4 AI prime HDs. My coffee table reef uses an AI prime and my current display runs g5 radions. I’ve had radions/AI lights dating back to their release dates.

I’ve bought some lights used, some new. There has been no correlation between equipment failure regardless of buying new or used. I’ve had a few radions crap out which I recently repaired with the help and advice from a member on here. The replacement parts were sourced locally, very cheaply, and work just like the originals. I’ve had ballasts fail (I actually have replacement part coming from China to fix old aluminum sink white ballast on radion, guess where the original “high quality” part was made?) I’ve had Vega, and Ai prime lights that caught on fire. Interestingly only happened with AI, support told me I was crap out of luck and offered a 5%(?) Discount but I’d need to cover return shipping. Ended up being more expensive than buying a new one locally). I’ve had fans fail on multiple radions. Replaced them once again with a generic 8015 Chinese fan. Same specs as the ones used on radions. I’ve bought “broken/parts radions” and have repaired them myself. Parts once again came from China. Identical to the parts initially used.

Anybody who has worked with consumer electronics at all period knows almost all if not all the components in both the ecotech and the knockoff are chinese and might even come out of the same factories.

This ripping off of products by the CCP is not funny nor should we do business with the likes of Alibaba and the other 40 thieves of the CCP. The theft of intellectual property is codified into Chinese law and business practices. You wonder why Red Sea has seam failures just look at their attempt to rip off German made Silicone for a possible answer. You are required to reveal the end use and specifications for components manufactured in China by the 40 thieves. This is why we have a chip shortage and why everything from jets to lights look like something designed and built in other countries. China is not a reliable business partner period and that is why I am not selling products made in China. About 10 years ago I was researching rimless tanks for import to the USA and as a result it was a no go period.

I recently was asked to install a complete kitchen and laundry room quartz counter from China. It was only $1200.00 U.S. Nothing fit the application and lots of modifications would be required to make it work. The cost of materials sold in the U.S. would cost over $5000 but at least it would look great and function like it should. I don’t feel sorry for the customer since he orders full house remodels from China and flips the homes at a big mark up with very sub-standard products made to look good but are much lower quality. His counter humped up a 1/4" at the center of the seams and the parts coming off the assembly line were off 1/2" at seam width. I would have scrapped the job and started over as not one in my customer list would accept such shoddy workmanship.

You get what you pay for period. If you want sub-standard keep on buying Chinese made products and start a thread to complain about it. Mike drop.

China is just better at making consumer electronics. It's that simple. Their golden age of economic growth coincided with a boom in computers and other appliances and the amount of investment that went into designing their main export cities around this made it quite easy for them to totally take over the market. Almost all products with electronics in them are partially if not entirely made in china, even if the final product is assembled in the U.S. Ecotech or a "chinese knockoff" are both using mostly components made in china. A panel of LEDs is not a particularly revolutionary concept. It's not like they stole the wet/dry powerhead design that is actually novel.

 

[damsels are not mean]

The spectrum graph above looks like every other black box Chinese fixture in the last 12 years. Thin and dull. Come to think of it, the A8 Chinese box and the Neptune Sky spectrum graphs look near identical.

It looks like every reef LED fixture in the last 12 years... including the radion...

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

It looks like every reef LED fixture in the last 12 years... including the radion...

Not remotely true.

 

[ScubaShane]

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[telegraham]

The spectrum graph above looks like every other black box Chinese fixture in the last 12 years. Thin and dull. Come to think of it, the A8 Chinese box and the Neptune Sky spectrum graphs look near identical.

I can appreciate dataless opinions, but more often than not, they're just opinions. This is a similarly priced Gen 6 XR15 with all channels at 100 ghosted over the A8. The Gen 6 is narrower but does have a higher relative 420 bump and the red. Whites are obviously higher, too, placing the A8 is between the Pro and the Blue.

Regarding the Sky, maybe you meant that it looks nearly identical to the Gen 4 XR30 and ViparSpectra. This is the Sky over the Gen 4, both running their respective AB+ templates. Note the lower relative intensity of the Sky. This graph is scalled for PPFD.

 

[telegraham]

Not remotely true.

It's very true, and the data is easy to find. I'm aware of three companies that offer lights with differentiating spectrums...ReeFi, Mahina Corals, and Luxdium (although these, for now, are just upgrades to older AI fixtures).

The next argument with be regarding growing corals. Yes...they all do that, too. After that will come spread, blending, customer service, warranty, and power. They all do that, too.

 

[telegraham]

Ah it is Shooter6....that says it all.

Dismissing @Shooter6 is simply dismissing. It doesn't mean he's wrong. I'm retired USAF, my 'Merca card has been punched, and for the most part, I agree with our friend Shooter6. US manufacturers' interest in shareholder value, or lining the pockets with the money they print, has made the US manufacturing machine weak. We're incredibly dependent upon China, and we've done that to ourselves. We are an electronics developing country, and China is the superpower.

Have you seen the cars in reefing gear manufacturers' parking lots? I have. They appreciate your support.

 

[Iccis Linn]

Did you ever try to measure par value for a7 ? I'm interested to get 1, but didn't get any real par val

Did you ever try to measure par value for a7 ? I'm interested to get 1, but didn't get any real par value yet,

I haven't remembered A7 par value alone. I just blend in with my other lights and set it up. But I remember it's pretty good and close to what they advertise. I remembered at full power it's draw 93w. It's my fav light for budget, power output and controllability.

 

[Lousybreed]

I will chime in there. I am the owner of Quanta LED light bars. I have read thru this tread. Lots of good exchange going on here. My current line up of LED light bars are built in China. That being said my newest light will be built in the US. There are certain things that will be sourced from China and Taiwan. Mainly the LED chips. Power sources are another very common component from China. Ditto for the Bluetooth or wireless connection to the app. Besides that, I will be looking at assembling the light engines, aluminum extrusions, all machined plastics, bolts, screws, tank mounting options (minus the hanging hardware which is almost exclusively made in China), final assembly, quality testing, prototyping, R&D, packaging, and warehousing will be done in the US with a significant amount of the material sourced locally in WI. Will it cost more? Yes. Will quality control and protection of my IP be better? Yes. There are a ton of barriers to manufacturing in the US compared to China or Mexico. A lot of it is imposed upon us by our government. But with my direct to consumer business model I will still be able to supply a superior product at a greatly reduced price point to the consumer when compared to the premium lighting options in the reefing lighting market. And in the end, the juice is worth the squeeze for me. I know I will have to innovate and work much harder for my business model to work. I have been working in US based manufacturing for 20 years and this experience is critical, I could not imagine trying out US manufacturing without extensive experience and knowledge. I hope you all find this post helpful.

 

[Shooter6]

Dismissing @Shooter6 is simply dismissing. It doesn't mean he's wrong. I'm retired USAF, my 'Merca card has been punched, and for the most part, I agree with our friend Shooter6. US manufacturers' interest in shareholder value, or lining the pockets with the money they print, has made the US manufacturing machine weak. We're incredibly dependent upon China, and we've done that to ourselves. We are an electronics developing country, and China is the superpower.

Have you seen the cars in reefing gear manufacturers' parking lots? I have. They appreciate your support.

Nice to see a fellow Air Force brother or sister here!

1T2XX myself.

91'-98' then called back 15sept01 until 03'.

 

[Shooter6]

Anybody who has worked with consumer electronics at all period knows almost all if not all the components in both the ecotech and the knockoff are chinese and might even come out of the same factories.



China is just better at making consumer electronics. It's that simple. Their golden age of economic growth coincided with a boom in computers and other appliances and the amount of investment that went into designing their main export cities around this made it quite easy for them to totally take over the market. Almost all products with electronics in them are partially if not entirely made in china, even if the final product is assembled in the U.S. Ecotech or a "chinese knockoff" are both using mostly components made in china. A panel of LEDs is not a particularly revolutionary concept. It's not like they stole the wet/dry powerhead design that is actually novel.

To add to this Chinese manufacturing does not have the restrictions placed on it like the U.S. ones do. No epa,no employment regulations
No mandates on pricing ect. It's far cheaper for companies to out source manufacturing to China, and import the products then it is to manufacture the same product state side. Half the components probably cannot be produced here at this point due to epa regulations.

 

[telegraham]

Nice to see a fellow Air Force brother or sister here!

1T2XX myself.

91'-98' then called back 15sept01 until 03'.

PJ…nice!!! I have a PJ interview story, but ended up as a 2A6X6 ‘88-‘08. Tankers, Desert Storm/Shield/Calm (boring), then Edwards for the B-2 and Airborne Laser. Good times!

 

[Shooter6]

PJ…nice!!! I have a PJ interview story, but ended up as a 2A6X6 ‘88-‘08. Tankers, Desert Storm/Shield/Calm (boring), then Edwards for the B-2 and Airborne Laser. Good times!

Awesome! I'd love to hear that story some time. Very few ever even entertain the thought of trying the pipeline. My route to it was a funny one as well.

 

[damsels are not mean]

To add to this Chinese manufacturing does not have the restrictions placed on it like the U.S. ones do. No epa,no employment regulations
No mandates on pricing ect. It's far cheaper for companies to out source manufacturing to China, and import the products then it is to manufacture the same product state side. Half the components probably cannot be produced here at this point due to epa regulations.

very true unfortunately

 

[Sm1nts2escape]

I haven't try A8 but I got A7. Their first very kessil A360 knock off. I run for 1 yr. Love the light. Serious quality in hardware but it's Abit hard to learn their apps in beginning but after a few time it's get easier.
I run 2 of A7 with 3 viparspectra for my 5x2x2
Just simple budget tank.

Does the A7 have the shimmer? I have AI26HDs for light but want a couple Kessils/A7 for the Shimmer

 

[Manny’s Reef]

Does the A7 have the shimmer? I have AI26HDs for light but want a couple Kessils/A7 for the Shimmer

I bought the A7 just to open it up and try it out. It had the same shimmer as the actual kessil. The only visible difference was that you could see reds and yellows shimmering on the rock. It didn't blend the colors as the kessil does.

 

[GrizFyrFyter]

I have had an A7 running for about a year. The original power supply died right after the 3 month warranty expired. They have since upgraded the power supply and extended the warranty to a year.

The app sucks. It isn't fully translated into English and the dialog boxes that are in Chinese are not intuitive (confirmation on the left, cancel on the right). Not a big deal after you dial the lights in with a PAR meter & spectrometer. I run it at low power since it's over a 29g biocube.

It look like a kessil. It shimmers like a kessil and it grows corals. It definitely will let you make bad spectrum decisions, which is something kessil is probably better at.

I won't send another $ to kessil after discontinuing perfectly functional and fairly priced lights to push their latest generation of the most expensive par/$ lights.

I am looking at lights for my 100g tank and I would not hesitate to get a handful of the A7 or a pair of A8.

The Reef lighting companies like ecotech and kessil are on the never ending "bigger, better and most importantly more profitable" track and I'm sick of it.

 

[albano]

The Reef lighting companies like ecotech and kessil are on the never ending "bigger, better and most importantly more profitable" track and I'm sick of it.

You got that right!
And don’t get me started with the price fixing (MAP) companies.

 

[Harold999]

It look like a kessil. It shimmers like a kessil and it grows corals. It definitely will let you make bad spectrum decisions, which is something kessil is probably better at.

Don't pretend the A7 is a 360X, the only thing that reminds me of a Kessil is the looks of the fixture. Pure lightning wise, the Kessil is a much better light with perfect color blending. The A7 shoots colors all over the place.