Lighting Issues Resolved

I contacted both Aqua Illumination help line as well as Digital Aquatics for help in figuring out why only one of my two AI Sol Blue modules was following the Advanced Lighting Program I placed in my Reefkeeper Elite Head Unit.  I have to admit, both companies were really quick to respond with useful suggestions…..Thanks Guys!

Ininitially diagnosing the problem, I executed the program using every combination of options for hooking up the serial input cables.  Each AI Sol unit has two so there are 12 combinations of how the units can be daisy chained together.  I also ran each module as a single unit as well as swapped power suppliee bewteen units.  In all cases module 1 followed the programming flawlessly wihilst #2 would come on for a couple of minues, suddenly get bright, momentarily turn off and finally just stay off for good.

Aqua Illumination quickly mailed me out this new control board plus instructions on how to install it.  The boards looked slight different with the new one labeled R8.1 vs. the R8 it was replacing.

The actual swap was very easy but have a gentle hand!  The entire cover comes off with 4 allen  screws and the optics lift off of the LEDs very easily.  The board itself is connected to the base through 3 phillips head screws but the board is very thin, so take care when pulling it off of the four sets of LED pins.  I can see how an unknowing brute could flex the board and snap it.

Same warning when installing.  Make sure all fo the board sockets are lines up with the LED pins before gently pushing the board home in all sockets.  When replacing the phillips and Allen screws, just tighten them minimally.  I can see how it would be easy to strip the tapped hole in the thin plastic of both the board and the cover.

After reassembly, tried out the lights and they both worked great, following the program in perfect synchronization.  Time to start aquascaping!