I have a question about a cheap Chinese black box.

[Aidanwolf]

I recently bought a cheap Chinese black box light for my 29 gallon biocube. I put it on a coral life timer but every time the timer turns the light off and on the light changes cycles. Is there a way to fix this?

 

[sbash]

Can you post more details on the 'Chinese black box'?

I have several different iterations of these and none of them will do what you describe...

That said, it sounds like they might have a built in controller, which is being reset every time you cut the power. Are you user the Coral Life timer is needed with these lights?

 

[Aidanwolf]

I will try and find the link to the one I bought

 

[Aidanwolf]

I believe this is it http://www.ebay.com/itm/391721599146.

 

[Aidanwolf]

I think you might be right about it being the controller getting reset. Is there a way to fix that?

 

[EthanDouglas]

It looks as though it should have come with a remote you control it from, so the timer would be unnecessary. If it didn't come with a remote, I would try contacting the seller to work this out.

 

[Aidanwolf]

It did come with a controller but It doesn't have a timer on it.

 

[Aidanwolf]

I need a timmer on it so when I go out of town.

 

[sbash]

Ugh, sounds like a real pain...

Post up pictures of the remote, and any markings on the fixture... The link you provided has implications of a scheduler, but without seeing the entire interface it is hard to give advice.

As mentioned above, contact the seller right away!

 

[Aidanwolf]

 

[sbash]

Well, if that is it, then you might be out of luck. You cannot set a timer without a clock!

Even if you rip out the controller, there is no other dimming mechanism, so the lights would be 100% unless you found a compatible dimming circuit.

 

[Aidanwolf]

So there is no way to use a external timer without it changing cycles?

 

[sbash]

Based on the information provided, unfortunately, without physically modifying the device, the external timer will continue working in the same fashion.

Did you reach out to the seller? There could be a way to change the default behavior (or commit your settings for example).

This is a big risk when ordering these lights from over seas. I have five black box lights, one of them came with the wrong LED configuration. It took me many hours to map out each LED and swap out the diodes to make it useful.

 

[Aidanwolf]

I haven't talked to the seller yet,because it has been more than 30 days since I bought the lights on ebay, so the lights are not under my recent purchases.

 

[Aidanwolf]

How would you modifi it,to make it so that it doesn't go through the cycles?

 

[sbash]

First, we should gauge your comfort level. Was you would need to do is similar to this:


Watch that, and let us know if you are comfortable with that sort of procedure!

 

[Aidanwolf]

I could probably do this, Is this going to fix my problem.

 

[sbash]

I could probably do this, Is this going to fix my problem.

I imagine that literally would fix your problem if you have an Apex.

If not, then instead of going from 'dimmer knob to Apex' like in the video, then you would need to from 'remote dimmer to dimmer knob'.

First thing, make sure yours look pretty much the same as the one in the video on the inside.

Next you need to figure out what potentiometer you are going to need. The size of the unit will likely dictate the specs of the potentiometer, so even if I could pull one of mine down, it would be a different pot. So, I would say, open it and take it into a local electronics shop (you know, like Radio Shack used to be), where they sell capacitors and resistors and such. Usually their employees have a decent grasp at basic circuits.

Once you open it up, post some pictures - especially of the power supplies (the stickers).

You also might need to figure out how many LEDs are on each channel.

 

[Aidanwolf]

Okay I will try and do that. But if I took out the dimmer remote receiver I wouldn't be able to use any of the light settings.

 

[sbash]

Okay I will try and do that. But if I took out the dimmer remote receiver I wouldn't be able to use any of the light settings.

Well, not really...

Yes, if you took out the remote dimmer module, it would break the circuit so nothing would work.

However, your goal is to replace the remote dimmer with a manual dimmer knob (the potentiometer); similar to what they do in the video I posted (well, the opposite). But, like I said, take it apart and post up pictures so we can see what we are dealing with BEFORE disconnecting anything.