The story goes a little like this....
Last night I noticed that my tank temp was abnormally high at 81; my tank is set to 78-79. I figured it was just the ambient and that the plumbing goes under my house which is warm as well. Basically...I did not think anything of it.
Shortly after, I went into my storage room and before I turned the light on in the room, I noticed a glow in my sump. My heater was ON. I quickly logged into my Apex and found that the outlet was in AUTO and the status was OFF, programming was correct. Only it was obviously ON as I could see the light was on, I even switched it to OFF and it stayed ON. This is one of the main reasons that I run 2 heaters where one no its own can not over heat my tank. Both my heaters have their own control as well and that is set at 81 to avoid any conflicts with my Apex programming.
So I checked out their forum and ended up emailing support. Basically it is a mechanical issue that needs to be repaired. The only problem is that the power bar is 4 years old and well out of warranty. A little more in-depth is that the TRIAC on outlet 7 was blown (there are TRIAC outlets on 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7 while 4 and 8 are mechanical relays). When a TRIAC blows, it stays in the ON position and needs to be replaced. You can test this easily by unplugging the 120V POWER DISCONNECTED and all AQUABUS, use an ohm meter and measure between the power and return pins on the outlet. A good TRIAC will read open a shorted one will be closed/beep. I tested and confirmed that when unplugged it was still closed.
Although I have 3 EB8's, I do not have any spares and they are too far apart to consolidate them while I send one away for repairs. So I am stuck with needing to rewire the fish room, buy an EB8 and send this in for repair (approx $40 USD plus shipping both ways to the US), buy a new one and trash this one, or try and fix it myself. Well we all know me and off to google for information. I found a great thread on R2R Repairing EB8 blown TRIAC and figured what the hell. You can by a 10 pack off ebay for a whopping $4 or so but up to 6 weeks to get here. You can get them cheap online in other locations for cheap, but shipping rapes you. Then I remembered I have an old style DC8 and what do you know...they have the same TRIAC chip.
Off to dissect the DC8 and steal some components. Muahaha....
Last night I noticed that my tank temp was abnormally high at 81; my tank is set to 78-79. I figured it was just the ambient and that the plumbing goes under my house which is warm as well. Basically...I did not think anything of it.
Shortly after, I went into my storage room and before I turned the light on in the room, I noticed a glow in my sump. My heater was ON. I quickly logged into my Apex and found that the outlet was in AUTO and the status was OFF, programming was correct. Only it was obviously ON as I could see the light was on, I even switched it to OFF and it stayed ON. This is one of the main reasons that I run 2 heaters where one no its own can not over heat my tank. Both my heaters have their own control as well and that is set at 81 to avoid any conflicts with my Apex programming.
So I checked out their forum and ended up emailing support. Basically it is a mechanical issue that needs to be repaired. The only problem is that the power bar is 4 years old and well out of warranty. A little more in-depth is that the TRIAC on outlet 7 was blown (there are TRIAC outlets on 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7 while 4 and 8 are mechanical relays). When a TRIAC blows, it stays in the ON position and needs to be replaced. You can test this easily by unplugging the 120V POWER DISCONNECTED and all AQUABUS, use an ohm meter and measure between the power and return pins on the outlet. A good TRIAC will read open a shorted one will be closed/beep. I tested and confirmed that when unplugged it was still closed.
Although I have 3 EB8's, I do not have any spares and they are too far apart to consolidate them while I send one away for repairs. So I am stuck with needing to rewire the fish room, buy an EB8 and send this in for repair (approx $40 USD plus shipping both ways to the US), buy a new one and trash this one, or try and fix it myself. Well we all know me and off to google for information. I found a great thread on R2R Repairing EB8 blown TRIAC and figured what the hell. You can by a 10 pack off ebay for a whopping $4 or so but up to 6 weeks to get here. You can get them cheap online in other locations for cheap, but shipping rapes you. Then I remembered I have an old style DC8 and what do you know...they have the same TRIAC chip.
Off to dissect the DC8 and steal some components. Muahaha....