Orphek Or3 Blue+ stopped working

[Rabidsquirrel]

Reviving a somewhat moribund thread. Just lost one of my OR3 90s. Blinks on and off. Verified voltage at the driver pulses up and down slowly, from about 20v to 80v. Definitely a bad driver. Messaged Orphek, hopefully I get a response.

 

[ReefingInMadrid]

Reviving a somewhat moribund thread. Just lost one of my OR3 90s. Blinks on and off. Verified voltage at the driver pulses up and down slowly, from about 20v to 80v. Definitely a bad driver. Messaged Orphek, hopefully I get a response.

If you are out of warranty it will be easier to just source the meanwell driver locally... Orphek will charge you for it, ask for delivery costs and you will have to pay for customs too...

If still on warranty fight them so they cover everything.. Good luck!

 

[Borat]

It is very rare that led driver fails...

 

[PeterErc]

How many milliamps are the driver? May want to run a lower amperage for less heat

 

[Rabidsquirrel]

It is very rare that led driver fails...

As an electrician I don't find that to be true. I've replaced many LED drivers that have failed, of a much better quality than the incredibly cheap one supplied with this fixture. I could be wrong though. I've pretty much written this light off though so I'm going to be experimenting with it.

If you don't think that the driver failed, what would explain the voltage fluctuations, strobing on and off, staying on for a few seconds, etc? No LEDs are burnt out, and they all light up, however briefly.

If you are out of warranty it will be easier to just source the meanwell driver locally... Orphek will charge you for it, ask for delivery costs and you will have to pay for customs too...

If still on warranty fight them so they cover everything.. Good luck!

That's what I'm going to be doing. It's only out of warranty for a few months. A new driver from Orphek is ~$60 shipped, when I can get an appropriate Meanwell driver for the same price that should last years.

How many milliamps are the driver? May want to run a lower amperage for less heat

Driver is rated 40-82v at .5amps. I've got a driver laying around that's 0-10 dimming capable and I'm going to set it to the same current and see what happens. I really like the lights, but not if I only get a year out of them.

 

[PeterErc]

As an electrician I don't find that to be true. I've replaced many LED drivers that have failed, of a much better quality than the incredibly cheap one supplied with this fixture. I could be wrong though. I've pretty much written this light off though so I'm going to be experimenting with it.

If you don't think that the driver failed, what would explain the voltage fluctuations, strobing on and off, staying on for a few seconds, etc? No LEDs are burnt out, and they all light up, however briefly.



That's what I'm going to be doing. It's only out of warranty for a few months. A new driver from Orphek is ~$60 shipped, when I can get an appropriate Meanwell driver for the same price that should last years.



Driver is rated 40-82v at .5amps. I've got a driver laying around that's 0-10 dimming capable and I'm going to set it to the same current and see what happens. I really like the lights, but not if I only get a year out of them.

I have had drivers fail, also have used the $1.99 +- drivers that are in still functioning after years of use on and off. Resistors, caps, rectifiers, traces on circuit board all have failures like any other electronic device.
A lot of products boast 3w LED then run them at 1-2 watts, misleading if ya ask me. I am always curios of the amperage of units.
I use led for viewing when main lights are off. DIY in a canopy is my drug of choice. Meanwell 350ma constant current and inexpensive COB are good enough for my purpose

 

[Borat]

As an electrician I don't find that to be true. I've replaced many LED drivers that have failed, of a much better quality than the incredibly cheap one supplied with this fixture. I could be wrong though. I've pretty much written this light off though so I'm going to be experimenting with it.

If you don't think that the driver failed, what would explain the voltage fluctuations, strobing on and off, staying on for a few seconds, etc? No LEDs are burnt out, and they all light up, however briefly.



That's what I'm going to be doing. It's only out of warranty for a few months. A new driver from Orphek is ~$60 shipped, when I can get an appropriate Meanwell driver for the same price that should last years.



Driver is rated 40-82v at .5amps. I've got a driver laying around that's 0-10 dimming capable and I'm going to set it to the same current and see what happens. I really like the lights, but not if I only get a year out of them.

"As an electrician" - I can already see a statistical bias here: unless you are an electrician specialising in reef tank lights

The reason I am saying the driver is less likely to be faulty is because most of the light failures are caused by LED failures.

Here's what I see as potential issue:
- the driver provides constant current and drives voltage up, this is subject to both maximum and minimum voltage ranges that the driver is rated for
- if drive voltage is either below the minimum or above the maximum, the driver would often start flashing LEDs - and its achieved by varying output voltage

So what you might be seeing is the driver indicating that there is something wrong with the LEDs wired in series, rather than the LED driver mulfuntioning.

 

[PeterErc]

I don’t own the Orphek’s. Are there resistors on the PCB that one could possibly have gone bad or became loose from heat? It could be a failing component on the board that is causing the line fluctuation as stated above.

I am not an electrician, electronic technician, instrument tech or anything electrical related. I have however done some trouble shooting and repair on electronic devices. What does that mean? Nothing… just hear to learn and maybe give some positive input

 

[oreo54]

As an electrician I don't find that to be true. I've replaced many LED drivers that have failed, of a much better quality than the incredibly cheap one supplied with this fixture. I could be wrong though. I've pretty much written this light off though so I'm going to be experimenting with it.

If you don't think that the driver failed, what would explain the voltage fluctuations, strobing on and off, staying on for a few seconds, etc? No LEDs are burnt out, and they all light up, however briefly.







Driver is rated 40-82v at .5amps. I've got a driver laying around that's 0-10 dimming capable and I'm going to set it to the same current and see what happens. I really like the lights, but not if I only get a year out of them.

I also would suspect the driver first BUT as to the above question.. yea driver ic's can have err.. limp modes where they just do the on/off thing due to a short/ over/under voltage conditions.

SAdly those large ac/dc drivers are often odd and hard to find a match for.
If you have dimmable matches I'd appreciate you listing brands.

I've rarely found a dimmable one that was an exact match like within the voltage range and same current and adding dimming

LCM-60U would work in this case though.
Out of stock but specs..

LCM-U Series Mean Well 40~60W Multi-Output CC LED Drivers

www.ledsupply.com

 

[Rabidsquirrel]

"As an electrician" - I can already see a statistical bias here: unless you are an electrician specialising in reef tank lights

The reason I am saying the driver is less likely to be faulty is because most of the light failures are caused by LED failures.

Here's what I see as potential issue:
- the driver provides constant current and drives voltage up, this is subject to both maximum and minimum voltage ranges that the driver is rated for
- if drive voltage is either below the minimum or above the maximum, the driver would often start flashing LEDs - and its achieved by varying output voltage

So what you might be seeing is the driver indicating that there is something wrong with the LEDs wired in series, rather than the LED driver mulfuntioning.

Turns out we were both right, but whether the chicken or the egg came first I'm not sure. Hooked up a Meanwell HLG-240H-C2100B with 5v on the dimming wires and got nothing.

I took all the diffusers off and started checking LEDs and found one bad one initially. Jumped it out, turned the driver on and she came to life ( 5v on the dimming wires only brought the current down to 1.1 amps btw, 2.5v got us at the correct .5 amps. Oops.) I'm guessing double the current also took out another weak LED so it shut off again. I jumped out the second LED and with the right current set the fixture seems fine.

Just to be thorough, I hooked the old driver back up. She's dead, Jim.

I also would suspect the driver first BUT as to the above question.. yea driver ic's can have err.. limp modes where they just do the on/off thing due to a short/ over/under voltage conditions.

SAdly those large ac/dc drivers are often odd and hard to find a match for.
If you have dimmable matches I'd appreciate you listing brands.

I've rarely found a dimmable one that was an exact match like within the voltage range and same current and adding dimming

LCM-60U would work in this case though.
Out of stock but specs..

LCM-U Series Mean Well 40~60W Multi-Output CC LED Drivers

www.ledsupply.com

This is what I found for an actual replacement: HLG-60H-C700a if you don't mind using your meter to set the current. I'm debating what I'm going to do though. I'm worried I'm going to be chasing bad LEDs now on these fixtures.

My lighting right now looks like:

VIPARSPECTRA - Kessil A360WE Tuna Sun- Kessil A360WE Tuna Sun in the back
2x Orphek OR3 90s in the front.

The VIPARSPECTRA replaced another Kessil that blew a hole in the board. I'm using the Tuna Suns because I had them. I could just put the $45 into another VIPARSPECTRA and do something like this, moving a Kessil into reserve:

VIPARSPECTRA - Kessil A360WE Tuna Sun - VIPARSPECTRA
__________________________Orphek___________________________

Ugh...

 

[Rabidsquirrel]

Don't want to double post, but apparently you can't edit after so long. Polarity is also backwards from what was marked on the LED boards....

 

[ReefingInMadrid]

That's what I'm going to be doing. It's only out of warranty for a few months. A new driver from Orphek is ~$60 shipped, when I can get an appropriate Meanwell driver for the same price that should last years.

Didnt your orphek came with one already? Mine (OR3) came with a Meanwell driver, the ELG - 75 - C1050 more exactly. Mines are the 150.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Reviving a somewhat moribund thread. Just lost one of my OR3 90s. Blinks on and off. Verified voltage at the driver pulses up and down slowly, from about 20v to 80v. Definitely a bad driver. Messaged Orphek, hopefully I get a response.

Likely diodes and last I heard, few are left as manufacturer has focused now on Icon line

 

[Rabidsquirrel]

Didnt your orphek came with one already? Mine (OR3) came with a Meanwell driver, the ELG - 75 - C1050 more exactly. Mines are the 150.

Nope, came with a Shenzen Josun or somesuch. Never heard of them.

Likely diodes and last I heard, few are left as manufacturer has focused now on Icon line

It turned out to be a combo of diodes and the driver. I made a detailed reply here. I ended up grabbing another VIPARSPECTRA. I have a feeling I'll be chasing bad diodes on this light. I found some replacements on eBay, but they would have taken 2-3 weeks to get here from China, so this light will go into the reserve pile for parts to fix my remaining light when it has problems.

 

[piranhaman00]

Pretty amazing another high end led is not so high end, actually I guess it’s not that amazing, seems pretty common.

 

[Borat]

Pretty amazing another high end led is not so high end, actually I guess it’s not that amazing, seems pretty common.

Ophek does not use high end leds (as far as I know) : Chinese EPILEDs, EPISTARs and "Crees".

 

[piranhaman00]

Ophek does not use high end leds (as far as I know) : Chinese EPILEDs, EPISTARs and "Crees".

I meant the fixture themselves

 

[ReefingInMadrid]

Pretty amazing another high end led is not so high end, actually I guess it’s not that amazing, seems pretty common.

The build quality is there, and my series at least come with a good driver, but the internals and led selection are clearly lacking...

Likely diodes and last I heard, few are left as manufacturer has focused now on Icon line

What do you mean? they are still pushing the bars, they just released some months ago the osix controller to be able to program dime, etc the bars.. basically to have full control and be able to choose the spectrum you want with the bar selection..

 

[vetteguy53081]

The build quality is there, and my series at least come with a good driver, but the internals and led selection are clearly lacking...


What do you mean? they are still pushing the bars, they just released some months ago the osix controller to be able to program dime, etc the bars.. basically to have full control and be able to choose the spectrum you want with the bar selection..

I know they still have bars. Im referring to diodes. There are others on here who reached out to Orphek for diodes and they offered to sell a new unit at discount because they are short on the diodes from previous models.

 

[ReefingInMadrid]

I know they still have bars. Im referring to diodes. There are others on here who reached out to Orphek for diodes and they offered to sell a new unit at discount because they are short on the diodes from previous models.

Aaaah, ok understood.. didnt know they got shortage of (mediocre) diodes...

maybe a sign to swap to decent LED's..