Apex died after 4 months.

[therman]

Was majorly unhappy today to see my Apex (purchased Dec 2010) suddenly dead, status light off, and unable to access it through network even with extensive help from Neptune.

It ran for 4 months controlling 2 reef systems without issue, worked great via my iPod touch, and had 4 EB8s fully programmed. Had to yank the base unit to send it back for service tomorrow. They have no advance replacement or loaner policy, so I had to run around with all my old timers trying to rig everything up for the week or more until I can expect it back. At least the fallback modes worked on the EB8s.

I have everything set up with backup power and routers on a UPS so I could always get a notification. Turns out you don't get any notification when the Apex takes a dump. Luckily I was home today to see it happen, and not out of the country...which was half the reason I got the thing...peace of mind...which I now don't have.

Can you buy just the base unit to swap out in case of this happening again? I was about to rig dimming up on my LEDs, but now I think I won't. That would be a MAJOR PITA to try to dial them all in by hand to the right current if this happens again. Also really glad I don't have my reactors or anything else critically controlled by the Apex.

*sigh*
Tim

 

[swearint]

Nothing is immune from failure, you just have to do your best to plan for contingencies. I had to send my unit in to have the VS ports repaired. Neptune received it, fixed it, and shipped it back out on the same day. So I was without it for a week and a half, mostly due to shipping time. They do offer just the base unit for sale:

http://www.neptunesys.com/index.php...facturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=26

You might contact them and see if you can get the Apex Lite base unit, I did not find it on the website.

Todd

 

[danil]

Thats what I did. I got a base unit (light version) as a temp replacement for my faulty one. Sent original to Neptune and get it back in two days.... and still running the new one! It works great.. no issues and I'm afraid to switch back... :dance:

 

[therman]

Main difference is the variable speed ports between lite and regular, correct? How much was lite base unit?

Problem is if I hook up the dimmable drivers that would be the primary issue that I'd need to contend with in case of an outage and the Lite couldn't accomplish that.

 

[pencil3]

If you have a complex program and plan on doing a save and load on the new base unit verify that you can indeed load the file from a full base to a lite base first.

 

[kurt_n]

Thats what I did. I got a base unit (light version) as a temp replacement for my faulty one. Sent original to Neptune and get it back in two days.... and still running the new one! It works great.. no issues and I'm afraid to switch back... :dance:

Along the lines of the last person that posted... were you able to load your program from the full-blown Apex into the Lite? Obviously, anything related to variable speed and ORP wouldn't work... but did the programming port across OK?

Just the other day, I was thinking about getting a Lite base unit only as a "spare", but was wondering if it could read in my non-Lite's program.