Maxspect R420r Repair/modding Line.

Neopimp

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I had one broken wire connector. 4 bad leds. 1 Blown out driver board. 1 bad temp sensor that controls the fans. 1 bad LCD connection.

To fix the third I need to buy 2 led plates and I believe it will function 100%

I thermal pasted a bunch of things relocated the temp sensor so the fans start more often. Re soldered a few things.. jumpered out a couple blown LEDs.
 

Neopimp

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Who thinks this is a bad idea:)
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Neopimp

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I think I know why the maxspects changed a different set of leds. The large square one in the blue channel suck badly.


They start to lift from the circuit.


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Winks

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So now I'm scared to ask. Why the frying pan? Does that help the lifting in some way?
 

Wagonpitt

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Yay for Sunday projects.


Anyone else have a busted maxspect while I'm at this.


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I do ! Blue line went out and i remebered this thread. I read that its one of the pads messing up the circuit. If i replace/upgrade pads it should fix it. White works on all modes. Is this what you you were talking about too and why had to replace pads for third fixture. Seems to be known issue.

Just wondering if you have any input. It went out on me now as lights were ramping down blue flickered and then out completly.
Saturday night so cant order anything yet. Just trying to make sure this is the problem. Anything else i should check first ?

Thanks @Neopimp
 

Neopimp

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You have the old style pads. They are notorious for burning out. Its the larger cluster leds on the blue channel that are really bad, they start to delaminate from the circuit and open the circuit so nothing works on that channel anymore.

The new pads a totally different, different leds, restistors and diodes all added to the new pads. They require new lens as well.

You can sometimes get the busted blue leds to light again by putting a little pressure on the top of the small led emitter. IT never last long though. I was able to get it to last for quite a while using a type of glue to reseal them but they ran hot enough that eventually that fails too.

Now if you contact coralvue and explain whats going on they will make the offer to replace all pads and lenses for roughly 120US. But they want you to ship it back to them. IF you can convince them that you can fix it yourself AND get them to ship to Canada they may just send you the parts.

I searched everywhere for the individual LEDs used on the old pads and guess what, they don't exist anymore.... why? Because they sucked.

I can send you my old pads where you may be able to heat the pad up and replace the individual led. But I would try to see what coralvue will do for you. They are usually pretty good with helping out their customers.

They gave me a great deal on parts for my three fixtures, after a few months of scabbing things together I emailed them and explained what was going on. I live on the border though so I never had to convince them to ship to Canada.

I was told that they really only warranty united states addresses, however I have been able to get around that with a bit of patience.
 

Neopimp

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So now I'm scared to ask. Why the frying pan? Does that help the lifting in some way?
Its how you heat the pad up enough so the solder releases on the led chip. I was replacing burnt ones from spare pads I had lieing around. Just start at minimal heat and have some patience, leds are very resilient so the solder will let go long before the leds get damaged.
 

Wagonpitt

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Hey thanks. I didnt want to wait i ordered 2 new pads and lenses from reefsupplies put the old 16k in the middle and have 2 new pads on the outsides . Good enough for now. If the 16k goes i have one good spare.
 

kapelan

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It is always a good idea to have spare parts.
In a fact if the light goes down which options do we have?
- buy immediately new fixture
OR
- wait one day in a panic and buy immediately new fixture
--
PS: I have 16 channels fixture, even if 50% of them are dead corals will survive.
 

Neopimp

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Hey thanks. I didnt want to wait i ordered 2 new pads and lenses from reefsupplies put the old 16k in the middle and have 2 new pads on the outsides . Good enough for now. If the 16k goes i have one good spare.
Keep the two brokem pads. You can likely scavange individual leds from them to keep the middle old pad running for a long time.

I have 9 pads here that mostly work so if you get depserate we can work somethign out.
 

Wagonpitt

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Thanks. I looked online rc and other forums and a few threads said the leds cant be fixed individually so i ordered the new ones right away. Kapelan messaged me and said i could probably fix the led but had already ordered by then. From the 16k only one broke but instead of having 2 16k and 1 15k i figured 2 15k will look better with 16k in middle. So i have good 16k in middle and another good 16k as spare and a broken 16k.

Would it be possible to get a psupply for the broken 16k and use it as a refugium light, since only white chanel works that should be good or no ?

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Neopimp

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Well i know for a fact you can remove the indvidual leds and solder on replacements froma scab pad... did ir many times using nothing but a frying pan a pair of tweezers and some solder:)

doesnt change the fact that the old pads blue multiled chips were crap.:)
 

Neopimp

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Any light over the refugium would work.

those pads are not anything complicated took me all of 5 minutes to figure out the circuit you cant see under the plastic film.

you can buy a very simple led driver board that suits the pad/led set up and solder it together.
if you buy driver boards from maxspect you will have to set up a hack cicruit to take the place of the dimming control board.
You would need a heat sink of somesort and possibly a fan to dissapate heat of course.

probably easier just to mount cheap anythign light above the fuge and put it on a timer.
 

Wagonpitt

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More complicated then i thought. Forget i even asked lol. Thanks for getting back to me though.

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Wagonpitt

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Hey im having couple issues with the fans. Is it possible to fix them or just replace.
Only one is properly working on my 4ft. 1 makes noise sometimes, i have to tap it. 1 barly spins its very slow, and one doesnt spin at all.
Ill take it apart tonight when lights off and see if theres anything inside to clean up. Any ideas though?
Thanks
 
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