Solaris Power Supplies

I've got the 4' Solaris H4 LED system. I've been quite happy, but earlier this week a strong storm took out one of my power supplies. With the fact that PFO is bankrupt due to the patent infringement case against them, something I'm none too happy with, I was very worried about getting a replacement. I did a search on the net and found a guy (Mark) who not only ordered about 100 of these units from the original supplier in Taiwan, but also worked with them to figure out (and fix) the reason they have been failing in the first place.

I'm heading out of town for about two weeks this weekend and emailed Mark with my predicament. He promptly FedEx'd out one to me. I got it in today, did a little soldering (normally you send him yours and he does the work and sends it back), hooked it up and everything is back to normal.

In case anyone else has an issue, his email is: ARS @ ADVRESOURCESOLUTIONS . COM

 

thank you for gathering and sharing this information with the rest of the 3Reef community.* Karma to you.

 

I also found a diy power supply from computer power supplies on reef central as I have worried about something failing on mine. I will leave it up to everyone to find the article as I don't know if it is okay to post a link to another forum.

 

It is as long as it for informational purposes vs advertising purposes.

 

here is the link to the article it took me some time to find it again. i thought it was a good thread about the solaris as far as trying to fix the power supplys and i believe it also has how to replace the leds (i didnt read the hole article again to make sure) hope this will be helpful to some others.

 

i guess it helps to actually put the link in there LOL

Reef Central Online Community - Solaris i-4 led light fixture parts

 

My second power supply is now ready to give up the ghost and I'm getting another from Mark (ARS).

Notes:

- The DIY exchange using a computer power supply will work for a while, but will eventually give up like the originals. PFO used computer supplies and according to Mark, who is obviously an experienced electrical engineer (and I worked with enough when I was a mechanical engineer at NASA to know), the computer power supplies can't handle the variations in power levels and will tend to burn out.

- Mark has found a supplier of power supplies in Taiwan that can handle the power profile requirements and has ordered a bunch. They require a minimum order of 100 so he put out some serious $$ to support the hobby and people who have a Solaris. He did just tell me that he has had a lot of demand and will be ordering another batch of 100.

- Evidently his next shipment will be in water resistant housings, which is nice for people who have them near their sump.

So in short, you can do the DIY, spend probably $70-100, but you will expect to do it again in a year or two. If I remember correctly (I'm currently waiting on the new quote) it was a little over $300 from Mark. I'd rather have something that I can count on and don't have to continually repair so I spent the extra $$.

 

An update to this...

The bill I got from Mark was just under $240.