Neptune Apex Driving Me Nuts!!!

[viperfish]

I think I've had more trust in my $15 timer from Wal Mart! This thing has done nothing but give me grief since I got it. If there is one piece of equipment that you can't take chances on is a controller. It should be as simple as telling an outlet to do something and it does exactly that, we're not talking fancy commands or tons of variables, just something as simple as on/off.

At this time I don't have the network enabled, just wired directly to the computer via Ethernet. Ever since I got it there have been weird little anomalies but never anything serious, things like reboots at random, an alarm coming on for no reason etc. The real issues developed when I downloaded the new firmware with hopes of correcting the little glitches, was I ever wrong. I only have one EB8, I have all my essentials running through this power bar. I have my two dosing pumps connected to 4 and 8 to ensure they come on, the other outlets may not sense the voltage and I can't afford to screw up my dosing. Well, these fancy outlets started out by coming on about one minute after the controller said it was on, now they seem to have a mind of their own sometimes working (with a one or two minute delay) and sometimes not at all.

The last couple of nights were the worst. I go to bed with everything all programmed and wake up in the morning with everything running at the default because during the night the controller has created a new module and is totally ignoring the program I put in. I wake up with a temp at 82.5 because my heater has changed to a chiller and my dosing pumps went nuts and had overdosed Calcium throughout the night. I reinstalled the original firmware the next day and the following night the same thing happened this time I get up and I have three modules in total, and of course it's ignoring the one I programmed.

I have spent a small fortune on my SPS tank and the one item I rely on for piece of mind is an absolute failure. I don't know what kind of quality control is put into these but there was no quality put into mine, let alone quality control. If it wasn't for the $500 I would be out I'd take it out and run the damn thing over! I guess I'll be contacting Neptune and hopefully they can do something or I'll be getting in touch with Digital Aquatics or GHL Profilux!

[burrows14]

That is odd. I set mine up 2 months ago and did my firmware update thursday night. Ive had not a single problem with my controller at all. Poontang on here seems to know a lot about the apex maybe he could help you out

[Blue World Aquariums]

That's really odd for sure. I'm running several and no issues at all. Definitely contact Neptune...and post your results please.

[Milad]

same here
i just set it and then forget it
works flawlessly
and i have some really fancy programming in it.

[andestang]

Just a suggestion, but do you have the controller near any other electrical devices or cables ? Maybe you're getting some electrical interference.

[Coleus]

That is odd. I have mine running for over 5 months now and loving it. Everything do correctly just how I want them. Maybe you got a defect unit or got some electrical interference.

I did not upgrade firmware because it is not broken of what i am doing so I don't want to mess it up.

[viperfish]

Oh trust me, I would love to be singing the praises of the Apex just as you guys are. It was all the positive feedback that helped me make up my mind to buy it. After my little rant yesterday I decided to reinstall the firmware and reprogram everything and as of this moment everything seems to be holding steady and the controller has not changed the address of EB8. The only issue remaining appears to be switch 8 which is my Alkalinity, is not working. Switch 4 (calcium) is working fine and the icon does indicate that switch 8 is enabled, it just doesn't come on. I tried my dosing pump on a live outlet and I know it works fine. I tried to do the "manual on" and no luck. I'll still have to give Neptune a call. One thing I have noticed is when I go into the Module Setup, it shows the EB8 module as "OK" but the Display Module is "Old". Is this typical? The other thing is the display slows down drastically and speeds up for no apparent reason when navigating the through the menu on the display module. I suspect this is because the processor is busy executing a command but that's just a guess.

[foreverfortune]

i too must say that there might be something wrong with yours and you should have it checked out by neptune.
ever since i have set mine up it has worked flawlessly just set and forget. the programing wasnt too hard either, i have most of my times and temps coincide with the seasonal table delayed by 4 hours so lights start at 10 and not 6 am.

[foreverfortune]

One thing I have noticed is when I go into the Module Setup, it shows the EB8 module as "OK" but the Display Module is "Old". Is this typical?

you can upgrade the display module, just select your display module, select upgrade firmware, and press submit module change.

[viperfish]

you can upgrade the display module, just select your display module, select upgrade firmware, and press submit module change.

I tried, after I select Submit it still comes back as old.

[PoonTang]

I tried, after I select Submit it still comes back as old.

Something is just not right. Have you tried reading the "other" manual...
http://reeftech.webs.com/ much better instructions in here in regards to programming and updating. Your modules should not read "OLD" it will cause problems. Have you tried getting support from RC in the neptune thread, all the right people lurk there including the guy that designed the system. Also send Curt a email at Neptune, their customer support is top notch and so is their warrenty services should it come to that.

[viperfish]

Well I finally got the display to accept the firware update and everything seems to be working fine! The problem I was having before was it would hang at 30% complete and seem to stall, instead of fooling with it I just left it alone an went out for a bit, when I came home... voila! It was done. Finally the module is "OK" instead of "Old" and by the way the EB8 is working, that was the glitch. It may have been Windows 7, Internet Explorer security settings, who really knows. All that matters is (fingers crossed) it's fixed. A huge thanks for the help and comments, nice to know people are there to help! Take care all.

[PoonTang]

Awesome! hope all is well now and you will finally get to enjoy the freedom it provides.

[Milad]

let me give you something to live by as an IT guy
When something says firmware upgrade, try everything else before you have to upgrade the firmware. As an IT guy, that is the last thing I want to do.
Second, if you have to do a firmware upgrade, make sure its not on a stormy day or any day you may lose power or something might go wrong. And never interupt a firmware upgrade, even if its taking days.

firmware upgrades can make paper weights, and by that i mean you can have this nice fancy piece of equipment and you do a firmware ugprade and the power goes out, and boom, you have a nice paper weight. most IT guys cringe when they hear firmware upgrade.

[daniella3d]

I would not take any chance and have this thing exchanged or repaired. You cannot take that chance with a controller as you say, it is the most important thing and it means the life or death of your tank.

I hate firmware update. My Playstation 3 stopped reading DVD after the software update and it is now a huge worthless piece of junk.

Oh trust me, I would love to be singing the praises of the Apex just as you guys are. It was all the positive feedback that helped me make up my mind to buy it. After my little rant yesterday I decided to reinstall the firmware and reprogram everything and as of this moment everything seems to be holding steady and the controller has not changed the address of EB8. The only issue remaining appears to be switch 8 which is my Alkalinity, is not working. Switch 4 (calcium) is working fine and the icon does indicate that switch 8 is enabled, it just doesn't come on. I tried my dosing pump on a live outlet and I know it works fine. I tried to do the "manual on" and no luck. I'll still have to give Neptune a call. One thing I have noticed is when I go into the Module Setup, it shows the EB8 module as "OK" but the Display Module is "Old". Is this typical? The other thing is the display slows down drastically and speeds up for no apparent reason when navigating the through the menu on the display module. I suspect this is because the processor is busy executing a command but that's just a guess.

[rkelman]

Why not give Neptune a chance to fix it before berating them in a public forum? You would find them the be very quick and helpful as I have.