Pacific Sun Kore 5th dosing Fan Club

[serenity]

Please write to service@pacific-sun.eu
It's best and only address when you can get professional support in everything about Pacific Sun products.

Regards

Przemek

Sent one yesterday haven't heard back.

 

[Przemek_PacSun]

Probably it was sent after service work hours.They will reply to your questions on Monday at least.

 

[serenity]

Probably it was sent after service work hours.They will reply to your questions on Monday at least.

Perfect. Well, I am fully invested into your product. Hope it works out well!!

2nd unit arrived

 

[truepercs]

"Similar like in Ed(truepercs) case - our service try to figure it out - a specially that dozer was bought few years ago, from previous reseller and after checking it in our company everything was working ok - we have detailed reports confirmed by three persons(one service chief finally).
We paid also for shipping it back to USA on our own cost.
We just want to be fairly judged in this thread."
Thank you for understanding.



Przemek,

Your right... It's not going in the right direction, now the doser is too old.
I have been trying to work with you guys for a long time. This is my last post I am just giving up on the doser. 3 months of this time it was in the mail. I sure wish this had an hours meter, to track use. My mistake upon receiving it I should have initially set it up and seen if it would work fine.

You would expect us to pay round trip shipping? 200? Take a leap. As far as "complex" give it break...you take temp and turn on and off a series of motors for a set time. I was an application support person working directly with development for 10 years for one of the biggest automotive software companies in the world. Your software is not "complex" NX is complex...

Thanks,

-Ed

All, I hope your doser works just fine, apparently mine was an unfortunate rare occurrence.

 

[Przemek_PacSun]

Ed,
As I told many time - we will not left you without support/help.
Simply please wait for reply from our service tomorrow(they not work during weekends) and I'm sure that it will be solved properly.
You have right - software is not complicated from technical point of view - problem is that every computer is different - different windows settings, privileges , radios, installed devices, antivirus software etc.On some unified platforms/hardware like Mac OS it's very easy to manage and imagine by programmer how it will/should work. Hardware is the same, software is much better supported by manufacturer(Apple) than on Windows.
Almost one year ago we had many issue reports made by Mac users - before Sierra was released.
All of them reported problems with connectivity, discovering etc.
In that time we also informed that it should work fine - and we see(from developer side) that problem is sourced by OS internally.
After one updated released by Apple(and fixed Airdrop/BT connectivity is started working without any changes in our software).
In fact - that kind of technology which we are using is not more complicated that heart belts (BLE) or keyboards on BT.
But for some operations(like firmware updates etc) there have to be good quality bluetooth installed in computer. Sending binary file from computer to device(like Kore 5th) is something different than sending single chars from keyboard to computer.
I dont know why it was 3 months in mail - today I cant check it - but I'm sure that in our service checking/updating firmware was done very quickly and send back to you without any delay.
But that more detailed informations can be provided by office/service directly because they can read details from our CMS and service reports in database.
So don't give up - please wait for Tomasz reply.
I wish nice Sunday.
Thank you.

Regards

Przemek

 

[Griff500]

Eventually you will need to update.

Why? If it ain't broke...

I don't use the ATO. When I tried it I wasn't left feeling confident about using it, not helped by the float switch being supplied upside down. I've gone back to a very simple dual float sensor ATO that works absolutely reliably and if I was going to change I would use my Apex as I have more confidence in it.

I hadn't realised the market for dosers in Europe was large enough to sell 9,000 units in two years.

The current brochure says 'wirelessly programmed' and then has the Bluetooth logo AND the WiFi logo... Really?

Using local software is a pain in the backside but PS are committed to it for some reason. It only takes one OS update and suddenly you have problems, aside from the complexity of Windows OS and hardware variations.

I found that I had to make one change, save it, wait a while (there was no confirmation that the change had been completed) and then disconnect, connect again and read the settings to be absolutely certain that the change had been made. Operation of the software was definitely somewhat clunky.

When calibrating I nearly always have to do it several times as pressing 'stop' doesn't always stop the pump - more often not. I always have the laptop perhaps 3 feet from the doser when calibrating, cabinet doors open. When saving the calibration I always reconnect and read the settings to ensure they were saved correctly. I'm using a top-end Macbook Pro - apparently an excellent Bluetooth radio. Once calibrated it seems to be reliable but it is absolutely a tedious process.

In the early days I did have to do a complete reset and put new firmware on it. If I recall correctly, this was due to connection issues probably corrupting the data when updating firmware - error checking would have prevented this? Customer service were quite helpful and reasonably responsive and it was eventually resolved.

I've no idea if the latest versions of software or firmware have been improved and I don't intend to find out. When programming my Apex I see the progress of changes being saved and get confirmation that it saved the changes successfully. It's the same with Ecosmart Live, which will make changes to multiple devices without issues and confirm that each device has been programmed.

I think the hardware appears to be well-made. I'm not sure about the quality of pumps used - that isn't a negative comment, I simply don't know. I seem to get quite consistent dosing, which is the most important aspect of a doser. The only other issue is that the clock seems to not quite keep track of time (or the date when I recently happened to notice this - perhaps a power cut is enough to completely reset the clock and date).

At present I am only using it for carbon dosing (one pump). I have used four pumps previously when using Triton (never again). It seemed to be fairly reliable and I didn't have any disasters. I have been using it for approaching two years.

If it ever stops working it will be interesting to see if I buy another or go for something else. I happen to think that PS make some decent quality products with some nice ideas (one of which isn't local software and bluetooth). Their customer service can be good but there are too many examples of the customer always being wrong.

I'm not sure I would recommend it if asked, although I also wouldn't say it should be avoided. It's a decent bit of kit and well-made but a bit of a pain in the backside to calibrate and program. I have no experience with other devices to compare it with.

 

[Griff500]

Started with Mac

Is it a laptop?

 

[vhuang168]

Why? If it ain't broke...

I don't use the ATO. When I tried it I wasn't left feeling confident about using it, not helped by the float switch being supplied upside down. I've gone back to a very simple dual float sensor ATO that works absolutely reliably and if I was going to change I would use my Apex as I have more confidence in it.

I hadn't realised the market for dosers in Europe was large enough to sell 9,000 units in two years.

The current brochure says 'wirelessly programmed' and then has the Bluetooth logo AND the WiFi logo... Really?

Using local software is a pain in the backside but PS are committed to it for some reason. It only takes one OS update and suddenly you have problems, aside from the complexity of Windows OS and hardware variations.

I found that I had to make one change, save it, wait a while (there was no confirmation that the change had been completed) and then disconnect, connect again and read the settings to be absolutely certain that the change had been made. Operation of the software was definitely somewhat clunky.

When calibrating I nearly always have to do it several times as pressing 'stop' doesn't always stop the pump - more often not. I always have the laptop perhaps 3 feet from the doser when calibrating, cabinet doors open. When saving the calibration I always reconnect and read the settings to ensure they were saved correctly. I'm using a top-end Macbook Pro - apparently an excellent Bluetooth radio. Once calibrated it seems to be reliable but it is absolutely a tedious process.

In the early days I did have to do a complete reset and put new firmware on it. If I recall correctly, this was due to connection issues probably corrupting the data when updating firmware - error checking would have prevented this? Customer service were quite helpful and reasonably responsive and it was eventually resolved.

I've no idea if the latest versions of software or firmware have been improved and I don't intend to find out. When programming my Apex I see the progress of changes being saved and get confirmation that it saved the changes successfully. It's the same with Ecosmart Live, which will make changes to multiple devices without issues and confirm that each device has been programmed.

I think the hardware appears to be well-made. I'm not sure about the quality of pumps used - that isn't a negative comment, I simply don't know. I seem to get quite consistent dosing, which is the most important aspect of a doser. The only other issue is that the clock seems to not quite keep track of time (or the date when I recently happened to notice this - perhaps a power cut is enough to completely reset the clock and date).

At present I am only using it for carbon dosing (one pump). I have used four pumps previously when using Triton (never again). It seemed to be fairly reliable and I didn't have any disasters. I have been using it for approaching two years.

If it ever stops working it will be interesting to see if I buy another or go for something else. I happen to think that PS make some decent quality products with some nice ideas (one of which isn't local software and bluetooth). Their customer service can be good but there are too many examples of the customer always being wrong.

I'm not sure I would recommend it if asked, although I also wouldn't say it should be avoided. It's a decent bit of kit and well-made but a bit of a pain in the backside to calibrate and program. I have no experience with other devices to compare it with.

THIS!! I share your concerns and frustrations. Which is why the unit was pulled and sitting on the shelf. For a few months, I was only using it as an ATO and dosed manually.

But this pushed me to start my CaRx and I have not looked back since!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Alfrareef]

I'm not going to update anything after reading what I just read. It works perfect now, why mess with it??

Exactly! I'm still 2 versions before and quite happy with my Kore 5th.

 

[Alfrareef]

I was meaning your setup for the doser .

I just watched this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ0qNlJpymk

and just ordered this

https://www.amazon.com/Avanti-SHP17...363998&sr=1-1&keywords=Avanti+Avanti+SHP1701B

And this - Hopefully it will fit 2 bottles on it, if not it is cheap enough ill pickup a 2nd. I will store them in the fridge.

https://www.amazon.com/BIPEE-SH-II-...&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=magnetic+stirrer&psc=1

I will drill 4 holes in the top and will run CV and Bak in there, along with a Stirrer to mix the 2 before dosing. I will either run these off the Kore 5th or pickup a 2 channel pump to dose with. I won't store the doser in the fridge, just a couple small holes in the top of the fridge.

I think I just got extremely lazy lol.. but with travel and such for work.. I don't want to ask my wife to have to monitor anything. I will setup a couple cameras in the fish room to help monitor. Sorry to get this thread off topic, just excited to use the Kore 5th to make my life a lot easier!

Hi,
While looking at your plans I remember that some of the liquid stays inside the tube after leaving the fridge. Aren't you afraid that that portion of liquid might get spoiled?

 

[nova65ss]

Man this is a huge thread trying to fish through everything and see if it is the right doser for me. A few questions maybe you can answer....

I am a basic reefer 2 part alk and calcium and ato. Had an apex but they are overkill for what I am doing.

1. Is the dosing system bugs worked out and reliable for simple 2 part dosing?

2. Is the ato and float switch reliable?

3. The temp sensor is this something that can be monitored via an app or what exactly does this do?

4. I see it has bluetooth can you plug it into the internet via cat5?

Sorry for the simple noob questions I appreciate your help!

 

[Griff500]

Man this is a huge thread trying to fish through everything and see if it is the right doser for me. A few questions maybe you can answer....

I am a basic reefer 2 part alk and calcium and ato. Had an apex but they are overkill for what I am doing.

1. Is the dosing system bugs worked out and reliable for simple 2 part dosing? It can and does work well for a lot of people.

2. Is the ato and float switch reliable? Probably, but I don't use it because I like to easily turn that off when working on the sump and especially during water changes - if the level drops I don't always want it to top up with RO.

3. The temp sensor is this something that can be monitored via an app or what exactly does this do? No. It just tells you the temperature in the software (maybe on the screen as well - not sure because I don't use it). I don't think it is useful for anything other than telling you the temperature.

4. I see it has bluetooth can you plug it into the internet via cat5? No.

Sorry for the simple noob questions I appreciate your help!

 

[andrek787]

Tech question. What's the longest pumps 4 and 5 run continuously? I got my AWC setup with remote drain disposal through 40ft of 1/4" to line, getting 80ml/min flow rate. My plan is to do only use it for a week once a month, but want to change out 40-50 gallons during that time, that roughly equals 10min run per hour? Can the pump handle that?

Sent from my STV100-1 using Tapatalk

 

[nova65ss]

Thank you!

 

[Voodoojar]

I 'm really not trying to sound like a jerk with this post, it's just my honest feel after experiencing the Kore 5th. The Kore 5th to me is supposed to represent an ultra premium doser. Something that's a clear step up from the Jebaos and Bubble Magnus dosers out there. It should be inline with GHL and Neptune DOS in terms of quality, usability and reliability.

After using the Kore 5th for the past several months I feel like PacSun hit it out of the park with the hardware. The Kore 5th and all of accessories are top-notch. The problem is the software side, and it is a complete failure. It lacks refinement, and suffers from poor design and usability. While it technically gets the job done, most of the time. It's very unpleasant to use and lacks so very obvious features.

One obvious feature is scheduling. You cannot schedule when the dose take place other than assigning the start and number of doses per day. So if you only want to dose when the lights are out you have to get creative or only do one big dose. This is just an example of functionality that is missing or poorly thought out, and there are many more. The save/read buttons are also terrible UX.

Pacfic Sun, please before it's too late, and it actually might be. You're ruining your brand by creating cheap software. The time to act is now, hire a new dev team, pay a third party do whatever you have to do to fix this. Start over, create an app that actually compliments your hardware rather than hurts it.

Hire a usability/UX expert and listen to them. This is not something that can be fixed with a patch and it's destroying your brand.

 

[erik2302]

Have many people had issues with it dosing correctly? I am reading story after story about people are upset with software. If I have no issues connecting it to my mac, which I did not, connected right away. I was able to setup the dosing, etc. without any issues at all, should I be concerned with the unit itself or are people overall happy with it. It seems like GHL and others have issues of their own, and if the major issue is connection (which I have ZERO issue with), then maybe I am lucky and just need to go with it?


Thanks

Just keep an eye on it, I've had times where I thought everything was working perfect and just luckily caught it doing something whacky before a disaster took place. Once you get it set how you want, don't touch it! It's a reliable unit as long as you don't adjust the settings too much. Anytime you adjust something double check every other page...I've had pages I never touched get completely screwed up when I went from 100ml daily to 110ml daily.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[serenity]

Just keep an eye on it, I've had times where I thought everything was working perfect and just luckily caught it doing something whacky before a disaster took place. Once you get it set how you want, don't touch it! It's a reliable unit as long as you don't adjust the settings too much. Anytime you adjust something double check every other page...I've had pages I never touched get completely screwed up when I went from 100ml daily to 110ml daily.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[erik2302]

I 'm really not trying to sound like a jerk with this post, it's just my honest feel after experiencing the Kore 5th. The Kore 5th to me is supposed to represent an ultra premium doser. Something that's a clear step up from the Jebaos and Bubble Magnus dosers out there. It should be inline with GHL and Neptune DOS in terms of quality, usability and reliability.



After using the Kore 5th for the past several months I feel like PacSun hit it out of the park with the hardware. The Kore 5th and all of accessories are top-notch. The problem is the software side, and it is a complete failure. It lacks refinement, and suffers from poor design and usability. While it technically gets the job done, most of the time. It's very unpleasant to use and lacks so very obvious features.



One obvious feature is scheduling. You cannot schedule when the dose take place other than assigning the start and number of doses per day. So if you only want to dose when the lights are out you have to get creative or only do one big dose. This is just an example of functionality that is missing or poorly thought out, and there are many more. The save/read buttons are also terrible UX.



Pacfic Sun, please before it's too late, and it actually might be. You're ruining your brand by creating cheap software. The time to act is now, hire a new dev team, pay a third party do whatever you have to do to fix this. Start over, create an app that actually compliments your hardware rather than hurts it.



Hire a usability/UX expert and listen to them. This is not something that can be fixed with a patch and it's destroying your brand.

110% agree with this post. I will likely never buy another PS product due to my experience with this one.

Hardware 10/10
Software 0/10


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[Griff500]

You're wasting your breath guys.

 

[Przemek_PacSun]

Man this is a huge thread trying to fish through everything and see if it is the right doser for me. A few questions maybe you can answer....

I am a basic reefer 2 part alk and calcium and ato. Had an apex but they are overkill for what I am doing.

1. Is the dosing system bugs worked out and reliable for simple 2 part dosing?
There is no any bugs with dosing. There is no any bugs overall, as I read some Customer noticed issues with communications/software connect with dozer but it's not hardware/firmware related.

2. Is the ato and float switch reliable?
Yes, of course. Actually(and since Spring last year) we offer dosers only with optical sensors with quad photoleds. There are very precise and work perfectly.

3. The temp sensor is this something that can be monitored via an app or what exactly does this do?
It measure your water temperature and show it on app/screen LCD. Kore 5th can control external fans using that informations (fans can be connected thru multi port on dozer output). If measured temperature will be higher/lower than set in software dozer can start audible alarm.

4. I see it has bluetooth can you plug it into the internet via cat5?
No, Bluetooth is device2deive communication protocol and can't be encapsulated into TCP/IP protocols.

Sorry for the simple noob questions I appreciate your help!

Tech question. What's the longest pumps 4 and 5 run continuously? I got my AWC setup with remote drain disposal through 40ft of 1/4" to line, getting 80ml/min flow rate. My plan is to do only use it for a week once a month, but want to change out 40-50 gallons during that time, that roughly equals 10min run per hour? Can the pump handle that?
Peristaltic pumps are not designed for pumping our/in so much of water in single works. For that kind of activity we suggest using DC AWC set which is designed for that. If you will use it by your channel #4/#5 your pump heads will have to be replaced very quickly(average work time for similar heads/rolers is about 200-300 hours depending from working parameters - like pressure, used tubing etc).

Sent from my STV100-1 using Tapatalk

I 'm really not trying to sound like a jerk with this post, it's just my honest feel after experiencing the Kore 5th. The Kore 5th to me is supposed to represent an ultra premium doser. Something that's a clear step up from the Jebaos and Bubble Magnus dosers out there. It should be inline with GHL and Neptune DOS in terms of quality, usability and reliability.

After using the Kore 5th for the past several months I feel like PacSun hit it out of the park with the hardware. The Kore 5th and all of accessories are top-notch. The problem is the software side, and it is a complete failure. It lacks refinement, and suffers from poor design and usability. While it technically gets the job done, most of the time. It's very unpleasant to use and lacks so very obvious features.

Thank you for your feedback - I appreciate that and I promise to forward it to our IT/R&D team.
About other brands dosers.
It's hard for me to talk/discuss about other companies products, however I think that if we will compare technical parameters/precision and all advantages included in dosers our product dont look much ore expensive in compare to BM, Kamoer or Jebao.
For example:
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/bm-t11-dosing-pump.html
That dozer cost 289,00 USD.
It's three head dosing station which can dose only liquids - thats all.
Oiur Kore 5th Starter Edition("naked" version of Kore 5th - without any additional modules/parts) cost 299,00 USD.
For that price you are getting 5 channel dosing station(BM - 3 heads), with very precise minimal amount of dose(0.01ml - one drop is 0.04ml), wireless(it cons as I see ;-) ) apps, liquid virtual bottles with lowe level alarms, possibility to upgrade dozer to ATO/AWC, and full two years warranty(dose is made in Poland, completely by our company).
About Jebao:
It's hard to "compete" with them - and we even don't want to do that.
Price factor is very easy to explain - they are selling their goods almost directly to Customers - without Distribution chain.
I don't know how much this pump cost in USA, in EU they are about 60% of our Kore 5th price.
But if you will compare to other "brand products" made by Jebao -like ATI doser or AquaMedic - you will see that price difference is much smaller in compare to Kore 5th.
But - finally I clearly know what about you are talking guys - please let me share that informations with our programmers, Im sure that they will try to find best possible solution(maybe changed transmission protocols) to improve that "software" issues and make that product even more better than actually is.
Again - thank you for your objective opinions - we really appreciate it!



One obvious feature is scheduling. You cannot schedule when the dose take place other than assigning the start and number of doses per day. So if you only want to dose when the lights are out you have to get creative or only do one big dose. This is just an example of functionality that is missing or poorly thought out, and there are many more. The save/read buttons are also terrible UX.
It's not like you said.
You don't have to do any "special tricks". There are special dosing programs like C5/C11 which do 5/11 corresponding hour after hour dosing.
So if you need to dose alkalinity solution in the night (and calcium during the day) you can set this programs for proper channels.
For example: If you will set C11 start on 9:00pm - it will dose requested amount every hour and last dose will be at 7:00am.
The same is with C5 program.
Additionally, there are included special programs like Smooth Dose - it's 144 doses per day (every 10 minutes) and it's perfect for alkalinity liquid dosing because it guarantee very stable parameters..

Pacfic Sun, please before it's too late, and it actually might be. You're ruining your brand by creating cheap software. The time to act is now, hire a new dev team, pay a third party do whatever you have to do to fix this. Start over, create an app that actually compliments your hardware rather than hurts it.

Hire a usability/UX expert and listen to them. This is not something that can be fixed with a patch and it's destroying your brand.

You're wasting your breath guys.

I don't think so - until we talk about facts and there is real feedback all shared thoughts can only improve our products quality.

Regards

Przemek