I have purchased 4 Mars Hydro lights in the recent past. I buy them directly from them, not Amazon. Three SP-3000 and the FC-E 6500. The SP 3000 are trouble free and work wonderfully. They also use MeanWell Power supplies.
These power supplies are "switching Power supplies" and function somewhat differently than typical (or used to be typical) linear power supplies. They are compact and very usefull for many applications, like these lights. One of my other hobbies is building Class A Stereo amplifiers. Class A amps run the power supply wide open whether at idle or full power. They are usually large amplifiers for the given output power, and put off a lot of heat. People trying to reduce size of class A amps have looked at Switching power supplies to reduce size. Most switching Power supplies just dont provide enough current/amperage to drive a Class A amp, unless tiny. MeanWell is the only outfit I have ever heard of that builders were having luck with. The FC-E 6500, unlike the 3 SP-3000 units do NOT have the Meanwell driver/power supply.
Is this why? I do not know that at all. This may be a better unit than Meanwell. I do know it doesnt hum, click, get warm, nothing. No giggling of wires does anything, it is stone cold dead, no flicker, nothing. The fans and other things on the power/timer unit worked still, tried light in other known good sockets nothing. It turned itself off while running. If they have me keep this power/timer unit, Im going to open it up and have a look. If they do nothing, and I really think they will, but if not, I will get a meanwell power supply of matching specs and replace.
Bubba