apex down for the count.

[cilyjr]

well its been 12 hours and my apex base unit has no life. none of the lights are up and it isnt responding to anything. damn i will be spending the morning dealing with their award winning customer support. lol

 

[cilyjr]

Well it magically started working as i was waiting for them to open to call. I had heard others say the same. I have no idea why it happened but I'll take it.

 

[ro_nicu]

an arduino controller will run you about 50$; touch screen and 6 channel pwm, plus abbility to monitor 2 tems, run 2 pumps, heaters, chiller, pwm the fan for cooling the lights. software is free online (meepduino). the most painful part is waiting for parts from china, ...

 

[s_kelley]

Weird about the apex, glad its back up and running though.
Only $50 for the audrino? hmmm these sound better and better all the time!

 

[cilyjr]

Damned thing is messed up again. At least this time it has power. Sent them an email. It's 4years old though so warrantee.


Thing about switching arduino is not having control through my cell phone or IPad. I have gotten used to turning stuff off and on remotely including ro/di water making.

 

[JohnK]

That's super annoying. Can you still controll it via ipad?

 

[cilyjr]

Nope it's down. It works for about 2minutes then it resets or something. It has reset all the outlets and only shows 4. I think I am sending it in.

 

[ro_nicu]

you might loose the remote, but maybe not. have a look at johntans code that integrates raspberry pi with arduino; not sure what's in there exactly (have not tried it yet) but looks VERY promising.

I have a 15$ touch tft and an arduino 1560 mega. with meepduino code it controls lights, heater, 2 pumps. all can be triggered by sensors. the mega and the screen together were under 50$

 

[cilyjr]

Well maybe it's something to consider. But if they can fix the apex it would be the easiest route for me.
My interest is piqued however

 

[GaryDN]

Chris what are you doing for a backup with the apex down?

 

[cilyjr]

Nothing. It only controls a few things now so it's more annoying then an emergency.

 

[cilyjr]

The Neptune systems people are being helpful and have more ideas then I would of thought. And I am seeing some progress. I am now hopeful I won't need to send it in for repairs.

My apex only controls
Calcium reactor which was off anyway while I am switching salt brands.
Kalkwasser pump. Off for same reason
Heat. Annoying but heaters have their own controls
Fans and exhaust but they don't go on since I went to led.
My rodi system. Which I turn on and off manually through the remote system on my phone.

I seem to be able to monitor temp and ph still.
It had been resetting itself every few minutes but it has been enough for it send the data to the phone.

Every step they give me to try seems to make it a little bit better though and I have 8 outlets showing again. I lost all my programming but at least they are there. Now I'm waiting to see if it stops resetting.