New Chinese lights (Scosi)

[bhazard451]

Not good. The neutral whites they use are entirely too pink. I'll have to see if I can solder in different ones.

The tank mounts and hanging kit are decent. The LCD isn't bad either. They have default summer/spring/winter/fall timer settings with 9 time points. 4 channels.

Its a sleek looking light, but stay toward their default whites.

 

[STHILL]

Which light did you get??
Was it the led T5 combo?

 

[jr973]

Not good. The neutral whites they use are entirely too pink. I'll have to see if I can solder in different ones.

The tank mounts and hanging kit are decent. The LCD isn't bad either. They have default summer/spring/winter/fall timer settings with 9 time points. 4 channels.

Its a sleek looking light, but stay toward their default whites.

Where the white 10k or 18k you went with?

 

[bhazard451]

Where the white 10k or 18k you went with?

4500k.

 

[bhazard451]

I'm going to solder in different whites. Once better white leds are found for this that they offer, its actually a very solid fixture, and so far comparable to the reefbreeders/evergrow. Need to test PAR at some point after adding new leds.

 

[lnevo]

Let me know what you find out about the drivers

 

[iliriano]

Hey bhazard can I stop by and see the light not far from you.(today that is )

 

[STHILL]

Where the white 10k or 18k you went with?

Hey jr did your light come in yet???

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

4500k.

Can you ask them what model/brand of the 4500K they used, so that I can avoid using the same?

 

[bhazard451]

Hey bhazard can I stop by and see the light not far from you.(today that is )

Wait until I can solder in better white leds. The light is not usable in its current form. I'll let you know.

 

[bhazard451]

Can you ask them what model/brand of the 4500K they used, so that I can avoid using the same?

They confirmed Bridgelux, but it has to be a different phosphor. It doesn't look like Evergrow's BIN at all, and is visually almost pink in the tank. I'd ask for a spectral plot to decide on choosing which led of theirs to use. The reds, blues, and violets are fine.

Their customer service is a little lacking too. They basically didn't offer to help with new leds, where Evergrow/Reefbreeders would have offered me the option and then shipped extra leds.

I'll try to crack it open next week when I have some time.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

When I back to NY, I would like to meet to trade some LEDs to check on the variations of the bin/model/brand and so forth.

Actually, I also want to see the build of this light. It looks pretty solid in the pics

BTW, I respect your enthusiasm in trying and sharing all the experience in new stuff, OBJECTIVELY.

They confirmed Bridgelux, but it has to be a different phosphor. It doesn't look like Evergrow's BIN at all, and is visually almost pink in the tank. I'd ask for a spectral plot to decide on choosing which led of theirs to use. The reds, blues, and violets are fine.

Their customer service is a little lacking too. They basically didn't offer to help with new leds, where Evergrow/Reefbreeders would have offered me the option and then shipped extra leds.

I'll try to crack it open next week when I have some time.

 

[bhazard451]

Thanks. We would never know about different options out there if no one tried them. Having 4 channels at the same price as 2 channel fixtures is a nice touch.

The lights still ramp by steps, but they do it automatically from 99 to 0 over 9 set time periods, so its less abrupt than how Evergrow does it at every half hour.

The actual build is really solid. It looks more sleek than other standard chinese lights, and even comes with Maxspect Razor like tank mounts along with the adjustable hanging kit. I just need to check the internals to see if they are quality too. Customer service and how they would treat a warranty is iffy though. I don't get the warm and fuzzies that they'll be very helpful if something goes wrong.

The remote is a little confusing, and the LCD screen points upwards, so I need a step stool to see it and change options when its hanging.

I'm interested to see someone try the T5/LED model, but with the standard default whites or different whites than I tried. I would not suggest experimenting with different whites unless you are comfortable soldering in new ones.

 

[iliriano]

would like to see the end project...best of luck

 

[bhazard451]

Things just got interesting. The led drivers are PWM. They can technically be controlled by a RKE or Reef Angel.

 

[bhazard451]

Here's a tear down of the light. Much more complex than the Evergrow ones, and I'm not totally sure that's a good thing. Much harder to work with inside.

Complex enough? optics are glued to the fixture:


AC power runs through these drivers/power supplies?. They are unlabeled boxes, and when I opened them, it proved difficult to remove the internal pcb part to see what was underneath so I left it as is. No idea if it is a driver, power supply, both?

http://s10.photobucket.com/user/bhazard/media/IMG_20130618_222016_zps5cc3856f.jpg.html?sort=3&o=4



These seem to be the led wires for the 4 channels, going into 2 green boards sandwiched on top of each other.



This is the LCD. Those two connectors are called PWM1 and PWM2. Each has 4 wires running into them. 2+ and 2- dimming port type wires on each. Maybe its possible to just disconnect those and run them to a PWM Reef Angel or RKE?



I'm not sure which light I like better. The Sosci is still just a little too pink for me, even with violets and reds off, and using Evergrow's 4500k like in the fixture next to it (they were easy to solder in). Makes no sense. I think the optics are causing it. I'm going to add some of those 10k or 14k leds mixed in to see if it helps.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Wow,. they use a lot of circuit to balanced the voltages/current for the different LEDs!!! Custom coloring with other colors (DIY fashion) will be SOB.

 

[bhazard451]

My pcb is custom though. It was probably required to get the 20 neutral whites, 40 blues, 12 violets, and 4 red into 4 channels. It probably isn't this crazy with their normal layout. Their default 10k whites and somewhat default layouts with a little more violet added might actually work best because of the weird optics.

 

[Rob&Gab]

i love Alibaba there awesome chines lights are very well made me and my girlfriend have tao tronic's above the 45gallon. also ali express is a good site to the free shipping method is very good also. this site saves you soooo much money on a lot of things.

 

[bhazard451]

i love Alibaba there awesome chines lights are very well made me and my girlfriend have tao tronic's above the 45gallon. also ali express is a good site to the free shipping method is very good also. this site saves you soooo much money on a lot of things.

Not always. I've had poor service from Twilight before, and there are quite a few not so good chinese lights out there.

These lights look like they would be a huge pain to try to fix yourself if a driver died. Customer service is a gamble on these too. The price is very good however, if it lasts.