I looked at the last order list for the GB and they were charged 15% less than the list price... so I think they did get a discount. Thirty5 can confirm that though since he was one of those purchasers.
...
So a little while back I put a post about Chinese brand LED's and quite a variety of them to be exact. Here's a breakdown for anyone interested. I'm no electrician but having seen the mod done its no harder than twisting wires together since the units come wired already.
Apollo LEDS are Eshine/Chinese 3G customizable units. They are shipped wired WITHOUT the dimmable drivers already built. Depending on the SIZE of the dimmable driver that you use the process is simply removing the top case covering and HSF and then wiring the 2 wires to the mean well drivers. 1 for Blue 1 for Whites. Your options at this point is to
A.) Mount the dimmable drivers inside the case... or
B.) Use a wired braided cable to mount the box externally.
B1. The First gen Mounted the ballasts internally and though they got warm it wasn't that bad. The ballasts were bigger and tighter fit inside the case. Caused a slight bulge but not noticeable unless you knew what to look for.
B2. The Second gen mounted the ballasts externally which freed up space inside the fixture and led to cooler lighter fixtures.
C.) Optics- the Optics though configurable feature 3 types 30,60,90. They are usually arranged with the tighter optics on the sides and the wider optics in the middle.
Eshines 4G units are different quality and feature better build material and do compete par for par and perform better than the comparable SOL fixtures for approximately 1/2 or less the cost.
For reference
Eshine also just released Dimmable 24w X 3w CREE LED fixtures for 150 dollars each. AI's for 1/2 the price.
For a local repair person if one exists in your area..
Eshine will usually send a SHELL or a Ballast depending on what happened to your light. Eshine also has a repair guide in PDF form that they can send to you along with the parts needed to repair. Its a little DIY but for the cost.... eh...
Apollo's are a great product.. But if you can live with lowering/lifting your lights until corals adjust thats the only period i can think of that dimming functionality is useful. The rest of the time its just so you can show off your thunderstorm and give your fish heart attacks.
Joe (?, I'm assuming that is you),
First off, welcome to our club forums! Glad you decided to sponsor here and appreciate you stopping by to comment in my thread. I've sent you a few emails and you provided me with good replies. I've seen just about every vid made by your customers and have searched / read countless forum threads everywhere and haven't heard any negative posts except a couple with bleaching due to the lights being too strong... and improper acclimation was almost certainly the fault.
As for the post you quoted, regardless of Asonitez previous post, I was not convinced that you were selling the eshine fixtures at all. In fact, pretty sure I stated that below. I don't think Asonitez works for Eshine either, but he did present us with a group buy option a while ago since he was in contact with them from another forum. I think he just assumed it was being made by them due to the similar cases.
Anyway, I was/am very interested in your LED dimmable fixtures. In fact, I was about to pull the trigger and order 2 of them just before Christmas but you were sold out (well, the "add to cart" option was no longer there.)
I've seen these lights in person at our frag swap, and IMO they clearly looked brighter than any other light on display there. Not coming with controllers was my biggest hurdle and I spent a lot of time pricing Apex controllers and trying to decide if I wanted the Jr + VDM or if I wanted to go full tilt and utilize the full range the controller has to offer. After not being able to order your Dimmable units, I started considering AI Sols as they are readily available and have their own controller for about $80 extra.
But I didn't buy the AI's either. I started having second thoughts, knowing I wouldn't be happy with something I knew wasn't as good as what I could have had. I then began considering a DIY LED system instead. I'm finding that pricing is almost as much as your units when I total up the materials, soldering gun, controller, etc. So I may wait for yours to be available if I don't find a package that makes sense cost-wise.
Is there any way I could connect your dimmable units to a Reef Angel controller? I think if I had to get a controller to handle your lights, I'd like to get something as customizable as this. The issue would seem to be adapting the ethernet port from your fixture to the PWM channel ports on the Reef Angel.
See Page 3 of this .pdf for info on the connection.
I like the addition of the 403nm LED ... I have been crying about that for some time. Looks great and I am happy that a US manufacturer makes it. Can you tell us how many o fthem are there per fixture? The back of the fixtures with all the inputs certainly doesn't look the same.
Group buy!!!!!!
Hello, I am the owner of Apollo Reef LED. I have contacted the forum moderators to sponsor this forum however in the meantime I've seen this post here and other forums and really need to tell you that your info regarding our lights is inaccurate as can be and possibly a guise to shill for Eshine.
I will make this very clear . We do not deal with Eshine Systems. Period. We do not receive our units "pre-wired". All assembly is done here in the USA right down to installing the network jacks for connectivity to the controllers. We don't trust Chinese assembly, they don't follow instructions well or consistently. we've seen the issues over and over with inconsistency and errors.
We had spoken with Eshine Systems months ago when they solicited US. Mr Gene Wong failed some very basic tests, like the use of thermal conductive grease ( Arctic Silver ) between the LED and the PCB. He had no idea what I was talking about and I had to send him a link. Then he told me, "oh we dont need that! Our boards are perfectly machined!" FAIL! And no heat sink in their fixtures either? Yes my friend you get what you pay for and we have incorporated value into every detail of our fixture right down to the waterproof rocker switches and FULLY adjustable hanging kits. I suggest you read some reviews from people who actually own our lights and can give a REAL analysis.
I am not sure how you see a similarity between our units in the Eshine 3G or 4G systems but those are exactly like one of our competitors.
Anyway 2012 will see an entirely new fixture from Apollo, COMPLETELY manufactured here in the USA, we will do our part to help bring jobs back to the USA as small as we are. Companies like ours are the backbone of this country and we ALL need to do what we can to put our fellow Americans back to work.
We've been working on a prototype and contracts with several companies right here in the states to build various components for us and have nearly everything nailed down.
Now are you shilling for Eshine or are you someone I know who that I wouldn't sell wholesale too and got upset? Ive seen this same post in more than one forum and it is certainly very suspect. I hope the forum moderators can see the shill attempt for Eshine here.
HENCE, HIRE ME AS THEIR PROJECT MANAGER.
as the market now a day, they should give me a medal of Labor since I can create more works for the company and people in the area . I don't care if you the person is 5 6 7 8 9 or 99 years old, as long as they work, I would have a spot for them child labor? what is that mean ? never hear of it .Yeah, that's what you need Olivier, more work!
George,
the point i want to bring up to them is that get something out the door to save them money in the initial of their capital investment with the simple dimmable programming for user. thus, will draw more buyer. then along the way come up with software upgradable to the simple dimmer. such as add on firmware update and new controller that has all bell and whistle. for me, all i need is a simple dimmer with sunset , sunrise. or they might think about 2 versions just like those controllers. one with simple and one with bluetooth linkable to those controller or whatever their creative engineer can come up with. HENCE, HIRE ME AS THEIR PROJECT MANAGER.
Olivier, this is a fairly new company and they didn't even have a dimmable unit until a few months ago. They've spent most of their design research into making their fixture to be dimmable and with such demand they decided to produce one that would work with already available controllers (Apex and Profilux) to save time in the design/production.
I know they plan to include their own controller at some point and I think they're working on that design now. But, knowing their desire for quality and obvious desire to compete with AI, EcoTech, etc... I doubt it will be anything simple like you mentioned. Could they provide something simple in the near future? Yea, but I believe they will hold out for something a bit more special.
I've already asked about using the Reef Angel controller as an alternative and didn't get a response yet... but I'm working both angles and now have the makers of Reef Angel contacting Apollo for more info to see if they can make an adapter to control these LED's.
I'm hoping both companies realize that a solution would benefit both parties, and me too!