Twinstar 300CC - Dimmer / Controller issues

[Smithyithy]

Hi all, decided to register as I read the forum quite often during my Googling and general research for the tank I'm putting together..

Anyway I have the Twinstar 300CC, and I'm trying to get a dimmer / controller to connect and work with it correctly..

We have a Fluval Chi already running with an aftermarket 'clip-on' LED, with a dimmer working perfectly..

However, I've bought 2 different units from Amazon:

An 'S2 Pro' that seems to be one of the popular choices:



And one of these, that is currently working fine with the Fluval:



Now I had read that the 300 series (and other Twinstar models?) require a 5.5 / 2.1mm connection. I've tried the 2.1mm connector from the dimmer above, and it literally just falls out of the Twinstar female end. So I tried the 2.5mm connector, and it won't fit at all.

So it seems that the Goldilocks connection would be a 2.3mm? However they seem to be like rocking horse poop, so I must be missing something, and it's driving me nuts!

Could anyone with a 300Cx Twinstar and a dimmer please let me know what your connections are like?

This is the second 'issue' I've had so far trying to get the light working as I'd like haha - although the first issue was a simple mix-up! It can shipped with a 3-pin UK plug like this:



But the power block that came with it required a 2-pin connection like this:



Luckily the good chap at the store I ordered it from sent a new plug in the post.

It's a lovey piece of equipment but I sure hoped getting it turning on / off and dimming would a simpler task than it has been so far

All help and advice welcome!

Chris.

 

[Siege]

I can’t help you I’m afraid but why not order it from the same shop as the light, they would have made sure it fitted and helped you surely?

Amazon may be cheaper but they won’t give you much advice 😂

 

[Smithyithy]

I can’t help you I’m afraid but why not order it from the same shop as the light, they would have made sure it fitted and helped you surely?

Amazon may be cheaper but they won’t give you much advice 😂

FIXED IT!! Jeez, what a game...

I was swapping and changing the dimmers, the adaptor leads, and even a little adaptor plug I found in a box in the garage - and eventually got it working lol...

It looks like a proper daisy-chain of adaptors and connectors, bit of a mess but as long asthe connections are secure it should be okay, the cables will be hidden once the dimmer has been programmed and tested...

I could've got one from the same seller perhaps but it was just much cheaper from Amazon. And to be fair to Amazon, I've bouht and returned so many things over the past couppe of months and they haven't had any issues

 

[LondonDragon]

An 'S2 Pro' that seems to be one of the popular choices:

My S2 Pro came with an extra little adapter to convert it to a Twinstar! You sure there wasn't one in the box? Aquarium Gardens sell it and its guaranteed to work with the Twinstar 😉

 

[Smithyithy]

My S2 Pro came with an extra little adapter to convert it to a Twinstar! You sure there wasn't one in the box? Aquarium Gardens sell it and its guaranteed to work with the Twinstar 😉

Unfortunately not, the S2 Pro came in a little plastic case barely big enough to fit the controller itself inside lol, the other 'Nicrew' one however came in a decentr sized card box with an adaptor..