Basic Profilux II Plus EX Install Questions

[Oldtimer]

I bought this system about a year ago and am now finally at the point of hooking it all up to my reef (long project). I also purchased two of the high power lighting expansion bars (2 sockets per bar), one dimmable power bar and one 4 station dosing unit. My intention is to control the following via the Profilux controller and I have a few questions...

* 3x 250W MH's for main display - Via high power expansion bars
* 1x 4x24W T5 fixture for frag tank - Via high power expansion bar (switched together with MH's)
* 2x Advance Mark 10 dimmable ballasts each powering an 80W T5 - Via dimmable power bar
* Return Pump (Sequence Dart) - Via 6 way Digital Powerbar
* 2x Tunze Wavebox - Via 6 way Digital Powerbar
* Refugium Lighting (3x 36" VHO powered by Icecap 660) - Via 6 way Digital Powerbar
* 4 station dosing unit - Via 6 way Digital Powerbar
* Heater - Via 6 way Digital Powerbar
* Chiller or fan depending on season via 6 way Digital Powerbar

My questions are (and forgive me that I have not studied the manual in depth, although I did confuse myself sufficiently after an initial read)...

1.) I believe I may be short a few power sockets on the Digital Powerbar, if so what do you recommend I get to make it work?

2.) Do I have enough L and S ports to control all this? Leads to question #3

3.) Would you please advise how to connect all mentioned power/expansion bars & dosing unit(power cords and contol lines)? I have an idea, but not entirely sure if it's correct.

Thanks in advance,
Andy

[aqua_digital]

Hiya

Will give answer tomorrow first thing, my eyes are on stalks from 15 hour first day back at AQD HQ :eek:

[Oldtimer]

No problem - I just posted here after I read your post in the RC forum stating to post technical support questions here. I haven't kept up on the forum in a while so had no idea.

[aqua_digital]

Answers -

1) This depends on how many high amps you have, by the looks you could do with one more 6 socket power bar, if this is the case and you have or are planning on upgrading to P3 I suggest getting the PAB power bar so you have current (amp) monitoring.

Tunze wave box does not require any sockets on the digital power bar

dosing pump does not require any sockets on the digital power bar

2) Yes you have enough L and S ports

3) The MH and T5 lights (non dimmable) are controlled via the digital power bar. The high amp control line uses a switching socket on the digital bar to turn the power on and off to the high amps

The advance ballasts are plugged into the dimmable bar and the control line for this goes to an L port (NOT S-PORT!!!)

Tunze control line plugs into the L port, if you have two then you require Tunze1 and Tunze2 and YL2-1 splitter. The AC power for the Tunze will come from any wall socket.

The dosing pump is daisy chained and programmed in with the digital power bar, the AC power for this comes from any wall socket.

Hope that helps

[Oldtimer]

So, let me get this straight...

Tunzes, Dosing Pump and Dimmable bar plug directly into wall sockets for power.
The two high power bars used for the MH and frag tank T5 lights plug into two sockets on the Digital bar for switching and then into the wall for power.
The return pump, refugium lighting, heater and fan/chiller plug into remaining 4 Digital bar sockets.

The Dosing Pump control line can plug into one of the control line sockets on the Digital bar. And then the dimmable bar into the dosing pump. The Digital bar plugs into an S-port.

I have three L ports on the back of the controller. So, if I have a dimmable bar and a set of Tunzes with the splitter, I only need to use two of the three L ports.

Lastly, if I add a PAB for more sockets, I can daisy chain it's control line with the Digital power bar.

Is any of that incorrect?

[aqua_digital]

The dimmable bar plugs into an L port not a dosing pump :eek:

L ports

Each L port is two ports in one to utilise both ports you have to split it with YL2-1 so if you have two Tunzes you would require tunze 1 cable and Tunze 2 cable and this would all run off L1L2 for example

If the dimmable bar will plug into for example L3L4 it uses both channels no splitter required, so ineffect you are using 4 ports L1L2 L3L4

PAB power bars can dasiy chain to unrestricted amounts but can not be mixed and matched with standard digital. PAB power bars daisy chain off each other from the PAB port just like digital ones do off the S1S4 port.

[Oldtimer]

OK, shows how much I have to learn! Actually, I know you said the dimmable bar doesn't plug into an S port, but I keep thinking it does for some strange reason. I'll blame it on a lack of sleep.

So, fundamentals here... L1L2 are 2 channels on one port. I follow that. So, dimmable bar gets one of the ports with two channels. Tunzes get one of the ports with splitter so each pump is on a separate channel. That's it for L ports as far as I need, right?

How do the S ports work then? I mean, let's say I have two digital bars and a 4 channel dosing pump. Don't I only have 8 channels on the S ports? So, how do I control all 16 channels with only S1-S8?

[aqua_digital]

S ports - only talking here about port marked S1-4 on he back of the controller

This is a programmable switchable data socket for digital power bars and dosers

So you have a digital power bar that is factory programmed to respond to S1 through to S6 (as it has 6 sockets) but you want to dasiy chain a dosing pump to this also, which would react as S7-S10 being 4 pump doser?

So you need to tell the doser it is to use S7-S10

Unplug the digital power bar data cable from S1-4 socket on back of controller and plug the doser data cable in instead with power applied

Now go to socket outlet function in profiLux control and click on "program digital bar and doser" select doser and set the first numbered pump to S7 the program will do the rest. Save your changes and unplug the doser data cable from S1-4 and plug the digital power bar data cable back in.

Now plug the doser data cable into the spare socket on the digital power bar, you have now daisy chained and programmed your doser.

[Oldtimer]

That makes sense. Thanks.

One more question - with regard to the level sensors - If I want to turn on a pump that will supply top off water to the sump or if I want to turn off the return pump when the water in the sump gets too low, do I need to plug these pumps into the 6 way digital power bar? I have two level sensors and I know that they plug into the controller directly, so my assumption is that they only relay the signal to the controller and then in order for the controller to react and control the pumps in the desired manner, the pumps must be plugged into the 6 way digital bar. Did I get that right? Thanks.

[aqua_digital]

yep the pumps plug into the power bar ;)

[Oldtimer]

Thanks. So, I've come to realize that I'm at least one socket short of being able to run all my components. That being said, you mentioned in the first post that I should consider the PAB bar if I want to upgrade to Profilux 3. Now, I have to admit, this system appears to go through upgrades about as fast as the PC world and I don't know if I can keep up. :) But, if I were to upgrade to Profilux 3, does my current digital 6 way bar become a paper weight or can it still function along side the PAB bar? I'm asking because in a later post, you mentioned that the PAB bars cannot be daisy chained with standard digital bars, but I'm unclear if they can't be ran off of independent ports on the back of the controller. Basically, I don't want to spend the money twice if it makes more sense to get the PAB now. If it makes my unused $300 digital bar a paperweight, however, then I'll stick with another standard digital bar.

[aqua_digital]

;) And this is what makes profiLux so great.

OK the low down on PAB power bars.

Your old bars are not dead in the water, they will stay where they are and work as they do just now.

The NEW PAB power bars plug into the PAB socket on the ProfiLux 3 and can be daisy chained with no limits, they also soon will be able to monitor current loads on each socket.

Once the PAB software is finalised you will have two menus

socket outlet function
PAB socket outlet function or something similar.

You lose nothing only gain.

If you do wish to upgrade you have to send your controller into us to be done.