Reef Angel Forum

I'm wanting to get new lights. I would love recommendations for inexpensive but good lights for a 50 gal mixed reef. I have an opportunity for a good buy on a maxspect razor,but not being controllable is bumming me out.

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Honestly, the best value right now is the Chinese black boxes. The best spectrums are not the ones on eBay or Amazon though. Check out the group buy lights on the Chinese Blackbox LED Proof Group on Facebook. And better than those are sbreeflights.com. The basic versions are easy to modify for 0-10v controllability.


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I like building my own with RapidLED stuff. Seems like they've gone up recently though.

lnevo wrote:Honestly, the best value right now is the Chinese black boxes. The best spectrums are not the ones on eBay or Amazon though. Check out the group buy lights on the Chinese Blackbox LED Proof Group on Facebook. And better than those are sb reef lights. com. The basic versions are easy to modify for 0-10v controllability.


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I am glad you said that, I have SB Reef Lights 32 WIFI, do you or anyone else know how to make them controllable through RA Device? I seriously would LOVE help with that!!!

Mike has videos on his page. Ask in Chinese Blackbox LED Proof group. I dont know how easy it will be with the wifi. You may have to disable that functionality. Honestly you'd be better off replacing with a basic. Either way it's nice that the reefangel can handle analog or pwm

I'm really looking into sbreeflights.com 32" lights without WiFi. He told me it could be modified.

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I have talked to Mike and he is seriously working on solutions to resolve the WIFI issue, however, since I already spent the extra 200.00 for this option, it would suck to pay for and then lose that functionality. He is well aware of the shortfall, but the fix for the other black boxes he has videos for, do not bode well with the wifi piece.. And If I were to do that at this point I would void my 2 year warranty. So.. There it is.

CRAP!!

Maybe I will see if he can refund/replace that functionality. I do want to lose my warranty

I hear ya...hard to do anything. I switched the drivers on mine to PWM ones and I lost the functionality to use the dimmer knobs that was working with my previous hack. I have some work around that I may try at some point but not in any rush. In the meantime my dimmer knobs don't work. I would be more frustrated to have an app that no longer functioned like that...

Exactly, I have some old Black Boxes that I have been able to remove the potentiometers and wire it to a wireless controller and it worked ok. But this is a little bit different. I may just wait for the hardware fix, Its a hardware issue and not the application Mike created. It will allow for 250+ settings, so once they identify an alternative solution, Mike said he will send it to me to test. When that happens, I will make sure to post results and functionality on here as well.

This might mean that my lights wont be controlled by the RA device, but that just means I will have a couple extra outlets for devices

Now my next project is to take a couple of these LED panels and cut them in half and mount them to make a long controllable led light bar. Then I can use the RA controls and the dimmer to run that. (supplemental lighting)

Now to research Chinese Box Led hacks to find the best solution...