Updated RKE problemo!

[Chris Witort]

My RKE has been working fine since I got it, But now that I installed the update I am having some malfunctions:

I came home to find that both PC4 were showing red overload LED. I have four 200 W ebojager heaters on one unit and the switch to my CO2 and a florescent light for a refugium on the other. My temperature had dropped to 76 F. I checked the graph for the outputs for the heaters, they had been off for quite a while. I tried to turn the PC4s off with the switch on the units; nothing. I then disconnected the bus from both and reconnected them; everything came back on. I thought oh boy this isn't good, no problems till I update then gremlins! The refugium light is set to come on at 9:00 pm and off at 9:00 am; at a little before 10:00 pm they went off for a few seconds then back on again; uh oh now I'm really beginning to worry!

I will check the graph in the morning to see if they stayed on the rest of the night?!

[Linina]

I had the same problem. Both my PC4s went to red overload mid-day. Cycled breaker power in our case which seemed to reset everything.

[Chris Witort]

Checked system this morning at 5:30 when I had to feed my crazy dogs, both PC4s showing overload again! Disconnected them and reconnected them from the bus presto they come back on line. What the heck do I do now!!

[DA_Jack]

We will look into this issue for you. A help to us right now, would be for you to monitor the current on each of the PC4s so we can get a better idea of what is going on.

[Chris Witort]

I am getting around .2 amps on the PC4 with CO2 and sump light, and arond 5 amps on the one with the heaters.

[Linina]

I came home to check on mine today before going out for the night and both were in amber red again.

[Linkblaze]

This just happened to me as well. In my case I have my MH lights on channel 1 (2 150W MH electronic ballast, Current USA Outer Orbit fixture), return pump on channel 2 (65W OR 3500), and a 250W heater on channel 4 though it was currently not running as temperature was in range.

I had just programmed the lights as MH and the blue light for them was flashing (assuming this is the MH safe start mode). I left and came back and the bar was flashing red, I presume it went down when it tried to fire the MH bulb. I could not get the unit to come back on unless I unplugged the whole thing...the breaker switch would not work. Incidentlly, in this case my other PC4 continued to function as normal.

[Linina]

my PC4 keeps overloading (or whatever this is) when my lights are on. It has shut off several times today (and shut off yesterday and the day before). The amps are currently 9. It never did this until I updated the firmware. Now I wish I hadn't!

For info purposes I also happened to notice it shut down in the time period when only one of my light ballasts was on - iirc the amps were around 3 then and it turned off.

the PC4 is set up with:
Channel 1: icecap 660 ballast running 4-48" bulbs.
Channel 2: 2 heaters
Channel 3: 2 fans
Channel 4: icecap 660 ballast running 2-48" bulbs.

At the point in time when it first shut off today channel 1 and 3 would have been on, and possibly channel 2.

Update : it shut off again, and I moved the 2 bulb setup from channel 4 to a different power source, leaving the 4 bulb in channel 1. It powered off again a few minutes later, we cycled it by disconnecting the bus cables and then tried to move the 4 bulb from channel 1 to 4. It disconnected the pc4 immediately upon plugging into channel 4. Reconnected it, it stayed on about 20-30 minutes or so and just shut off again. Moved the other ballast to another power source as well....

[Linina]

Another update: we rolled back our firmware version and we'll see how it holds up. However part of this bug seems to apply even to the old firmware, and that is that EVERY time we have plugged the lights into channel 4 while the channel is on/active, the unit overloads/powers off.

[scuzy]

mine overloaded as well. I am not sure whats the cause of this problem thou.

[digitalaquatics.com]

Linina,

Yes. We do know of this issues. I will post either tomorrow or Monday with more details. We're on it!

SFB

[scuzy]

yeah one of my PC4 jsut overloaded again. This going to be a bumpy ride my new chiller worked all day yesterday this morning the pc4 is overloaded.

[Chris Witort]

Okay just to update my problems,

PC4 with heaters will not function for more than a few minutes without going into overload, other PC4 "seems" to be running the CO2 the lights came on last night at 9:00 but were off this morning at 6:00 and led flashing green ( seems to flash green whenever it wants not just when being accessed by head unit). UGH, again none of this was happening before I "updated".

[Linina]

I rolled back to the original firmware and my lights PC4 has mostly been working (though when the final outlet kicked on, the power flashed but didn't overload).

Today when I got home just now the lights (1st) pc4 was still on but the second one was overloaded (this one running all pumps and powerheads - nothing big draw like the lights).

I guess I should upgrade back to 1.02 and try to turn off the overload.

[digitalaquatics.com]

Linina,

We'll have a new firmware for the PC4 out by Wednesday we hope. We're having a couple customers test it first but we think we've got a better algorithm for it. We'll know after testing!

[Chris Witort]

Here is a new one,

I decided to check the graphing on the SL1: this has a ph probe in my calcium reactor, and a temp probe in my sump. It showed my min ph to be 5.12 which is possible but I really doubt? Then I checked my temp graph it showed my min temp to be 51.2 which I know is wrong! The other puzzling thing is the ph and temp readings are the same if you move the decimal one space. Coincidence I doubt it.

[Chris Witort]

I thought I should give an update after the latest software revision. Seems to be working! I have had the system running for 6 hours now and the PC4s haven't conked out. I'm still seeing some graphing issues though. after 6 hours no data showing for temp or ph.