What do you think?

melev

melev

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One of my American DJ power panels is giving me grief. It has worked perfectly until today, and now it is driving me crazy. The front of the panel has a little trip circuit button, the kind you press in if it trips.

Today, it continues to trip when I try to run all the things on it like it has done for the past year. What I'd like to do is remove that reset button and just wire it directly. The DJ panel is plugged into <u>its own circuit</u>, protected by a GFCI breaker .

At this point, all that is running on it are the heaters, the Calcium Reactor, the VHO and one MH bulb. If I try to turn on either of the other MH, it trips within 60 seconds. My fish don't know if it is day or night. :lol:
 
Stupid question... But just to be SURE it's the DJ unit that's failing... You say "One of my", that implies you have more than one of these. Swap ths one that keeps tripped with another one to see if the problem follows the unit or keeps happening in the same place. If the problem follows the unit, I'd go ahead and make the mod you're talking about, but then again, I like living on the edge. If the problem does NOT follow the unit, I'd look for a problem with the items plugged into it...
 
Switching the outlets around would be a total nightmare, as I'd have to unscrew both power stations and unplug and replug 16 outlets in the back of an area that is simply not user-friendly.

I did check on it a few minutes ago, noticed the swtich to my heaters was off so I turned it on. 60 seconds later, that little trip button popped out and I lost my lighting again. :x

So I ran an extension cord from a different outlet and plugged in the other MH finally so the corals get at least a few hours of light today. Geeze.

I do know what you mean about switching everything over.

I'd rather rip out the offending trip button. Surely it is just a thing with two wires that needs to be wire-nutted together, or maybe I can get a new trip button in case this one is just old and tired?

The other option is to buy a new DJ station for $30 and be done with it. :roll:
 
@Marc wrote:
The other option is to buy a new DJ station for $30 and be done with it. :roll: said:
That would be my solution!! Time is money baby!

But I would unscrew and see if like you suggest a quick wire nut could fix the issue if that is easy to do!
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Marc,

Find out why the circuit is tripping. Unplug the heaters, the Calcium Reactor, the VHO and one MH bulb. Then plug in one heater, wait awhile then the other heater then the CA. until every thing is running. I suspect along the way the circuit will trip. One of the heaters or the CA or the lights have a short.

One of my power strips started tripping. Turns out it was the UV sterilizer.

Don't by pass circuit breakers. They are there for a reason. IMHO
 
Good point. Circuit breakers are there for a reason, however, they do tend to degrade over time when subjected to heavier loads. We witnessed this first hand at work when the servers and cabinets I deployed 3 years ago started to experience failures due to my mistake of installing power strips with 20 amp breakers. :oops:
 
Is the problem that you are exceeding the 1800W limit or applicable amp limit running through it? I know what you have plugged into it is not exactly the same as last winter and the problem may now be manifesting itself as your tank needs the heaters for the first time. The heaters my now be overloading the power station. Trying pluggin them into the other powerstation or split them between the two.
 
the problem may now be manifesting itself as your tank needs the heaters for the first time said:
this was my first thought...i would figure out what is causing it before i try to bypass a portective measure.
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Everything plugged in is the same as a year ago, in that section. Other stuff has changed, but that is plugged into the other power center.
 
I ordered a device to figure out how much power each item connected to my tank pulls.

http://www.spytown.com/kilwatwatkil.html

About a week ago, my top DJ Power Station tripped its reset button repeatedly. I bought a new one figuring the older unit might just be tired after a full year of usage, but the new one is doing the exact same thing. :sad:

Since I don't know what is causing the problem, I figured this device might be my next best choice. It cost me $36 shipped.
 
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