My Reefbrite LED's - update... 1 unit failed

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by Myka

Jeez, this sounds like Solaris all over again. I wonder if other people are having troubles with this particular brand/model. Sorry to hear about your experiences.

I'm not sure this issue is comparable to the Solaris fiasco. They appeared to have poorly designed power supplies for the size of the fixture and the patent lawsuit finished them off.

I was at bkelly's place yesterday and he has a Reefbright on his tank for supplemental lighting. It's a relatively simple fixture with no dimming or other fancy features, not even a built in timer. Kind of makes me wonder why the price is so high. Just two banks of LEDs run by a 24 VDC wall adapter. Must be good quality LEDs, so certainly worth trying to fix.

If the power supply is working, the next thing to look at would be the driver(s) inside the light stick itself and the individual LEDs. One bank of six is working at half brightness & the other not at all if I got the diagnostics right. Could be just a loose connection, or a single bad LED taking out one bank of six & affecting the power to the other. Someone with a multimeter and knowledge of how to use it might get it going again fairly quickly.

Pop it open and post a few pics, I'm curious to see what the guts look like, build/soldering quality, how the LEDs are mounted etc. I'm still fence sitting with LEDs as my primary lighting choice, waiting for further development & price drops.