How many variable speed ports?

kirkwood · Post by **kirkwood** » Thu May 09, 2013 5:28 am

I am still doing comparative shopping on controllers and would like to know how many ports on the reef angel are variable speed?

The Apex Lite has zero variable speed ports while the Apex has 4 variable speed ports.

lnevo · Post by **lnevo** » Thu May 09, 2013 6:09 am

The RA includes 2 PWM or Analog dimming channels on the relay box. A dimming module would add another 6 channels of controllable ports in either PWM or analog.

kirkwood · Post by **kirkwood** » Thu May 09, 2013 10:12 am

lnevo wrote:The RA includes 2 PWM or Analog dimming channels on the relay box. A dimming module would add another 6 channels of controllable ports in either PWM or analog.

If I connect my blue and white LEDS to the 2 dimmable channels can I use a multi-outlet plug for each channel so that I can plug 3 whites and 3 blues into each of the dimmable channels?

DrewPalmer04 · Post by **DrewPalmer04** » Thu May 09, 2013 10:18 am

Outlet plugs can take care of on/off for LED drivers. The two dimming ports can handle 3 drivers each I believe.

kirkwood · Post by **kirkwood** » Thu May 09, 2013 11:33 am

So are all 8 outlets on the RA created the same? I thought I was reading something that said powerheads should be plugged into ports 5 and 6 or something like that.

I am just trying to make sense of all this, and understand everything the RA can do out of the box before I make a purchase.

At this time I won't be using the dimming functionality but I want to make sure I but the correct RA (PWM or Analog) so that in the future I have the right tech. Roberto has recommended analog to me, but I see a lot of people getting the PWM unit and then in the future they can get the analog expansion.

binder · Post by **binder** » Thu May 09, 2013 11:47 am

DrewPalmer04 wrote:Outlet plugs can take care of on/off for LED drivers. The two dimming ports can handle 3 drivers each I believe.

it depends on each drivers current draw. the ra can only output a max mA on each channel. i forget what that value is. i know it is posted somewhere on the forum.

enigma32 · Post by **enigma32** » Thu May 09, 2013 11:54 am

You could also work around the current limitation without too much effort, to control more drivers.

lnevo · Post by **lnevo** » Thu May 09, 2013 12:25 pm

Port 5 and 6 have dampening circuitry to handle the constant on/off and inrush current from the powerheads constantly cycling.

Sacohen · Post by **Sacohen** » Thu May 16, 2013 6:34 am

lnevo wrote:Port 5 and 6 have dampening circuitry to handle the constant on/off and inrush current from the powerheads constantly cycling.

So a Jebao WP40 should be plugged into 5 or 6?
The dimmer controls the speed of the pump when it is on correct?

lnevo · Post by **lnevo** » Thu May 16, 2013 8:57 am

The power for the wp40 doesnt need to plugged into ra at all. 5 and 6 are for non controllable pumps that we control by turning them on and off very rapidly.

Sacohen · Post by **Sacohen** » Thu May 16, 2013 9:11 am

Ok thanks. I may have it plugged into my power strip that is plugged into the RA so when I do maintenance or feedings it turns off.

lnevo · Post by **lnevo** » Thu May 16, 2013 10:15 am

You can just set the pwm/analog port to go to 0% for the same functionality.

Sacohen · Post by **Sacohen** » Thu May 16, 2013 10:20 am

Yeah I was thinking of that too.

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