A2 to A3 Pro Upgrade procedures

[spicymikey]

Replacing an APEX controller is often not an easy swap-out procedure. Even though there is the ability to create a backup (from the MISC tab in a local connection), that is often only ideal when reloading the same APEX after a factory reset. Even then, it often will not work when connecting many modules in a daisy chain wiring setup due to potential race conditions causing Address IDs to be unpredictably assigned. For this reason, you must connect ALL modules one by one to guarantee you have the exact same Address ID for the new APEX as now exists in the current APEX. In the case of going from an A2 Apex to an A3 APEX Pro, the built-in Fluid Monitoring module in the A3 Base Unit will guarantee to create a mismatch with IDs no matter what you do.

So below are written procedures I created for myself after going through this painful ordeal. For those with a small setup it won't be as bad, but for me it took 2 1/2 days to rebuild the same environment by hand, even with the below techniques. If you are planning an upgrade soon, read this to understand the scope of the effort so you can prepare accordingly. Realize I wrote this for my future self to read after I had forgotten everything I did. So, it's written for my setup and refers to my equipment. I left it all in there in case that can be helpful for you to create your own version. Hope this helps others. I included the original MS Word document inside a zip file so you can edit it. Good luck reefers!

 

[blaxsun]

I couldn't open this on my iPad but I plan to read through this later today on my Mac (will comment again later!)

 

[spicymikey]

I couldn't open this on my iPad but I plan to read through this later today on my Mac (will comment again later!)

That's interesting. Maybe because I used the built-in compression routine in Windows 11 to create a zip file. I would hope that it's a open protocol format that they used. So let me know if you have any problems. This site will not let me save a Word document but I could always trick it by just changing the extension type and putting an extra X on the end. As far as your comments, absolutely share and make the document better for everyone's benefit. Thanks

 

[blaxsun]

That's interesting. Maybe because I used the built-in compression routine in Windows 11 to create a zip file. I would hope that it's a open protocol format that they used. So let me know if you have any problems. This site will not let me save a Word document but I could always trick it by just changing the extension type and putting an extra X on the end. As far as your comments, absolutely share and make the document better for everyone's benefit. Thanks

It's probably because I have a really old iPad and it can't cope, lol. The first thing I tried doing was saving a backup configuration and I was able to get as far as the orange "Save Configuration" button, but it then opened a new window and prompted me for a userid/password (which wouldn't work no matter how many times I tried it). Apparently you need to use "admin" and "1234" (so you may want to add this to your doc).

After reading through everything I sure hope I don't have to upgrade my Apex A2 anytime soon. I would've though the backup configuration included all of the stuff you manually have to recreate. I see a lot of screenshots in my future! lol

 

[spicymikey]

It's probably because I have a really old iPad and it can't cope, lol. The first thing I tried doing was saving a backup configuration and I was able to get as far as the orange "Save Configuration" button, but it then opened a new window and prompted me for a userid/password (which wouldn't work no matter how many times I tried it). Apparently you need to use "admin" and "1234" (so you may want to add this to your doc).

After reading through everything I sure hope I don't have to upgrade my Apex A2 anytime soon. I would've though the backup configuration included all of the stuff you manually have to recreate. I see a lot of screenshots in my future! lol

You're right to save or load your backup configuration you need to use the local connect credentials. I thought I mentioned that in my document but I will double check later. As you mentioned it's default setting is : admin 1234

Regarding your question about the backup configuration containing everything. It does contain everything but unfortunately in this particular situation you would not be able to use it. So if you are going from an A2 to an A3 Pro, or for other similar situations, you would want to print out the summary report that the dashboard provides. You also can reference the old/current unit if you keep it online. With both methods you can cut and paste your code over to the new unit and also see the configuration. But honestly, I found it easier to mostly just go from the top to the bottom of the summary report, saved as a PDF, and just recreate each object one by one. The summary report includes everything in alphabetical order so you have all the inputs, outputs, virtual Outlets, etc. After trying it a few different ways I found that was just the fastest. I also went back and forth to the Old Apex and dashboard to reference certain things and also to remember how I had the dashboard configured. That was very helpful also.

Fyi, I said it took two and a half days to reload. But that is what it would have taken with this document. It actually took me an entire 5 days because that included all the false starts and stops as well as the time spent writing the document. So it was a very painful eye opening experience. That's why I feel compelled to share it with others so they know what to expect beforehand.

For easier access, here is the document in PDF

 

[MickeyCT]

I realize this is an old thread, but since I'm facing this task now I thought I'd add something I've learned. Copying from the Apex screen to word is definitely a cleaner option and more complete. But if you want to save to PDF instead, you'll need to scale down to avoid the weird omitting of lines. It still formats badly but it works better and is more complete than saving to PDF at 100%. Not as easy to ready as the copy to Word option because it still splits some things into two lines, for example Device number or names.

In my case I scaled it down to 75% and I'm still not sure it's not omitting lines and some identifying information is still harder to decipher. The word copy is much better but lots of pages (mine is 100+pages).