Apex Power Outage Notification

[m-six hundred]

I came across a post on Facebook by Tony Vargas about how he loved his Apex and he only wish it would notify him of a power outage. He was immediately corrected by fans that it actually does have the capability of notifying you when the power goes out.

So I did some looking around in the manual and noticed that the Apex has a 12v power supply connection on the Apex base module and there is a IF Power command.

The Belkin Battery Backup BU3DC001-12V can be used as a back up power supply for the Apex head unit and the base module. This way the Apex can send out an email alert that power is out.

For this to work, you must have your modem on a back up power supply too. Because your internet still has to be up.

In the Outlet Setup, under EmailAlm_I5 you place this code in the advanced set up box.

If Power PowerBar Off 000 Then ON

PowerBar is what I named my EB8 power strip in the module set up page. You would use what ever you named yours or the default name. You will have to look that up.

This would also be great if something trips the breaker while your away from your home too.

Try it out and let me know what you think.

If you don't already have one of these back up batteries. I think I found a local supplier for them dirt cheap. I will post later if they in fact have the battery I am looking for.

 

[m-six hundred]

Bump anyone try this?

 

[zrogst]

I haven't tried it yet but I do plan on it for my propagation tank. Conveniently it's in the room with my router so I figure a good BUB should be enough to at least send me an SMS when things go down.

Have you tried the Belkin one yet?

 

[scolley]

Sorry if you were looking for just club responses. But I've got both my Apex and my network gear (router, cable modem, etc.) on UPS's, and it works like a charm. Power drops, I get an email. And a text message.

What I find frustrating is that when you do that, it's not easy to set it up so that you also get a notification when power is restored. If I'm rushing to get home to deal with an unpowered reef tank, I'd like to know if the crisis goes away too. Here's a thread where I deal with the topic, though I have not yet tried the final recommendation to get it to work.

 

[m-six hundred]

I've set my APEX and modem up on this and it works great. These batteries are pretty cool. Bugs posted about them for a Vorteh DIY backup Battery.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2276372

 

[NaClH20NMYVEIN]

Elliot set this up for me on 2 different tanks and it works great. Amazing piece of mind.

 

[frogg21]

reeftronics.net warning

reeftronics.net warning

I got a warning email this morning from reeftronics.net because my DYNDNS routing had expired. This site polls my apex frequently and generates a webpage/graphs/history of all the data. When it attempts to poll apex and can't find my apex online, it sends texts and emails. At that point I know that either something happened to my internet connection or power outage.. just thought I'd share another possibility if one has apex but not backup.

 

[evolved]

Also, if you're an SRP customer, you can sign up for email notification when there's a power outage in your area.

 

[m-six hundred]

Right, but how long does it take them to confirm that there is a power outage and notify the customer. Could be awhile. That's like saying Cox communications knows my internet is down with out someone complaining.

 

[evolved]

When the power has gone out, their website has been instant on the map update, fwiw.

 

[dotcommer]

I got a warning email this morning from reeftronics.net because my DYNDNS routing had expired. This site polls my apex frequently and generates a webpage/graphs/history of all the data. When it attempts to poll apex and can't find my apex online, it sends texts and emails. At that point I know that either something happened to my internet connection or power outage.. just thought I'd share another possibility if one has apex but not backup.

I tried joining their site about two weeks ago and the signup form wasn't working. It is a great way to go since that is an offsite solution.

 

[Elliott]

The Apex dashboard (old status), at the bottom of page, provides power failed and power restored date/times status