Watercolors 250g (565g total) build
- Thread starter WatercolorsGuy
- Start date
I am personally finding it to be a PITA to work with. It took three tries to get the firmware to update on the head unit. Then my powerbar locked in firmware update mode, and that took me a bit to figure out that I needed to reflash the bar. This morning the temp probe started reading 20.7 degrees, which means either the probe or the port died after the firmware update. Then there is the issue with the time on the unit.
It is constantly telling me that power failed about two hours from now... yes, two hours in the future according to the Apex. And the time issue seems to be affecting the basic timers on the lights. My T5 outlet is programmed to go off at 2130 and come on at 0530. I was up at 0500, and the T5's were on. I hit the sack too early last night to know if they ever turned off.
So maybe I just got a bad unit, but right now I am unimpressed with the ease of basic setup. And for reference, this is a brand new unit, bought locally, turned on for the first time Friday the 11th, and already has me wishing I had looked closer at the other options. It was just that I kept reading everywhere that the Apex was the best. Well if this is the best, then aquarium automation has a very large upside potential.
It is constantly telling me that power failed about two hours from now... yes, two hours in the future according to the Apex. And the time issue seems to be affecting the basic timers on the lights. My T5 outlet is programmed to go off at 2130 and come on at 0530. I was up at 0500, and the T5's were on. I hit the sack too early last night to know if they ever turned off.
So maybe I just got a bad unit, but right now I am unimpressed with the ease of basic setup. And for reference, this is a brand new unit, bought locally, turned on for the first time Friday the 11th, and already has me wishing I had looked closer at the other options. It was just that I kept reading everywhere that the Apex was the best. Well if this is the best, then aquarium automation has a very large upside potential.
First attempt was Apex plugged directly into the router with the laptop wireless. Then I plugged both devices into the router. Then I said forget this, and plugged the laptop directly into the Apex. The last one finally worked with no timeouts. I did both the main firmware and the web pages with this setup.
I then hooked everything up normally, and found out that the modules needed to be updated. Assuming the firmware was being pushed from the head unit to the modules, I just told it to update the display and powerbar. No indication if that completed, but I went along my merry way. Only to discover an hour later than nothing I did would affect the power outlets.
The powerbar was running in fallback mode. I unplugged devices, reset the head unit, and troubleshot the USB cable. No luck. Finally I went on the net and found out that the powerbar can get "stuck" in update mode. So I unplugged the bar for two hours, and then plugged it back in and tried the update again. This time it seemed to work, and the bar responded to commands. It was 20 minutes after this fix that I noticed the temp probe was not reading anymore.
I have not had time to troubleshoot the temp issue other than unplugging and re-pluggin the cord, and verifying the probe was still actually in the sump. I guess I will be contact Neptune Support tonight to figure out the issues with the probe and the internal timer.
Sorry to hijack the thread.
I then hooked everything up normally, and found out that the modules needed to be updated. Assuming the firmware was being pushed from the head unit to the modules, I just told it to update the display and powerbar. No indication if that completed, but I went along my merry way. Only to discover an hour later than nothing I did would affect the power outlets.
The powerbar was running in fallback mode. I unplugged devices, reset the head unit, and troubleshot the USB cable. No luck. Finally I went on the net and found out that the powerbar can get "stuck" in update mode. So I unplugged the bar for two hours, and then plugged it back in and tried the update again. This time it seemed to work, and the bar responded to commands. It was 20 minutes after this fix that I noticed the temp probe was not reading anymore.
I have not had time to troubleshoot the temp issue other than unplugging and re-pluggin the cord, and verifying the probe was still actually in the sump. I guess I will be contact Neptune Support tonight to figure out the issues with the probe and the internal timer.
Sorry to hijack the thread.
