ARC Aquarium Light Screen Discussion

[JayP]

After receiving my new Aqua Rock Colorado backlight and spending a short time setting it up, I thought it might be useful to have a thread to share info with those that already have one, and those considering purchasing one.

Let's get this out of the way first, and this is really why I'm posting this. The light screen did not come with any documentation.....none. There is no remote, just a bar code on the controller, that sends you to its app. The app won't even start up if it can't find a device, so you have to figure out what plug goes where and power it on. once the app finds and connects to the device, you'll see there is a forum and some videos. Both are basically worthless since this app is apparently used for controlling all this company's LED devices, so finding info specific to this device is a challenge.

Bottom line: This is probably the least intuitive app I've ever seen.

I should first mention, I have the RGB version which allows for color gradients without the use of special filters. I sat fiddling with buttons, sliders, modes, and settings for quite awhile trying to figure out the most basic thing I wanted the light for...displaying a blue/white color gradient (white on top and blue on bottom ). I finally went to ARC's website to send them a message asking for help, and I realized the video clip showing the light's capabilities, did in fact demonstrate what I was trying to do. So I sat for awhile watching the clip over and over, carefully focused on the person's button presses as they switched through solid and gradient background colors. After some time I was finally able to replicate the series of button presses to get what I wanted, but geeeeez!, this is a very raw development app and the buttons are not labeled in any way that would explain their function to the average person. After I finally got this figured out, it was time to turn it off and move to other tasks for the day, but wait.....now I can't even turn the light off . Hitting the power button at this point only turns off one LED strip, so now I have an all blue screen LOL! It seems you have to now backtrack a bit from the steps you took to get a gradient, in order to turn the entire screen off.

It's obviously going to take some time to get a good grasp of how to control the light. Fortunately, after tomorrow, I have a full week of time off to work on it in between other aquarium projects.

So, if you have either the RGB or non-RGB version of this light, please share any thing you've learned that can help others that might be considering it. I'll be putting together a set of instructions as I go along that will hopefully save a few from the headaches I've had today.

Mini Lowes bucket for focus.

ARC Backlight.webp

• JayP
• Yesterday at 7:36 PM

 

[MrJG]

For a sec I was like cripes that tank is HUGE!

I wish I had something more constructive to offer.

 

[JayP]

For a sec I was like cripes that tank is HUGE!

I wish I had something more constructive to offer.

It is huge. That bucket is a whopping 0.4 L

 

[Capraquaria]

I am happy to try to help. I had mindblocked how frustrating the app was when I first installed mine. It is not the most intuitive, but with a little messing around it will become easier to use. First, does your app screen look at all like this? I have 'Ring' mode selected at the top, and RGB mode selected from the menu at the bottom of this app screen.



I use my backlight entirely via the RGB mode shown in that bottom left corner. I have no desire to make the fish dizzy setting the LEDs to music, or going through some insane set of flashing sequences. I don't look at those other three modes at the bottom of the screen (the 'Mode', 'Custom', or 'Music). RGB only.

Next, you need to make sure the app connects properly. Sometimes if I am too far away from the tank when I launch, it doesn't see it at first. If you click the Hamburger on the top left, (mine here has 0 under it, as it wasn't connected), it should slide open a panel from the left like this:



If you click that refresh icon next to the word 'Groups', it will rescan for the device, and you should see some text say 'scanning' while it searches. Once it sees the device, that '0' under the hamburger should read '1'.

Then there are 3 primary focus points for the RGB screen. You access the screen's focus control via the 'gear' above the power icon in the upper right. On my app the focus points display as K1, K2, and K3.



IIRC K1 is whole screen mode. You can either select a preset color from the color squares on the app screen (red, green, blue, white etc) and it will change the ENTIRE screen to that solid color. Or you can pick a color from the wheel.

K2 is the upper half of the screen. Press K2, and choose a color, and you can also set the brightness for that channel. I have mine set as a pale blue, currently at 100% brightness. I just slide my finger on the screen across the color wheel until I find a color I am happy with, and then the brightness slider can be adjusted independent of that.

K3 is the lower half of the screen. Mine is set to a yellowish color at the moment, at about 80%.

At night, when I shut the screen down, I do it through the app. I press the gear icon, I select K2, and then hit the power icon twice and it switches off the upper half. Then I select K3, and hit the power icon twice again, and the lower half switches off. I do the reverse when I turn it back on.

I think I was so traumatized figuring it out the first time, I sort of mentally blocked it out. It is a clunky app (seems to be par for the course with aquascaping equipment lately), but once you figure out its idiosyncracies, you do have a good range of color.

I will stop there, in case your app is different (I am running on Android), or a different software version. Let me know if this helps at all, and I am happy to try to help further. I have no idea why they couldn't just make a simple 'get started' mini manual. It would have saved a lot trial and error. I like the screen, the app is meh.

 

[JayP]

Thank you @Capraquaria for providing these instructions and saving me that task. Yeah this is what I have, and as I alluded to above, I gradually did figure these steps out. The Chinese manufacturers are great at producing cheap electronics (cheap to produce that is, not as cheap for us) but don't seem to care about putting much time or effort into creating solid user friendly intuitive apps. Even the Chihiros, Week Aqua, and Netlea (from what I've heard), apps could all use substantial improvement. I will say the app for my Jebao pumps isn't too bad, but it's just a pump.

I have to imagine others looking at your instructions are thinking WTH! Why are those buttons not called something that explains what they are....and why do you have to hit so many buttons just to turn off the light. And that's not even the half of it. While most won't use the other pages with the modes, there's one page (the custom settings page) with a graphic of a segmented "Snake" in which you can set each segment to a different color, but I haven't figured out what on earth that does LOL!

And yes, I agree the connectivity wasn't great either. It went in and out several times while I was trying to figure things out, and I was sitting right in front of the tank. It's good that I'll probably just find the settings I want and pretty much just leave them there.