Apex ATO Help

[AmandaRaeJean]

I've had an Apex ato for some time now, and havent been able to get it to actually work yet. It works when I manually turn on, but it doesnt work on auto. Can some one please help me with the programming !? I also need to set up a leak detection but havent been successful with that either.

Trying to set it up to auto top off from my reservoir.

 

[bknope]

I would review the switches. Which one is 1, 2, 3, and 4?

Also, you want the optical sensors to point upward and not down (https://forum.neptunesystems.com/showthread.php?18373-Optical-Sensor-(OS-1)-Info-amp-Usage). I noticed this gave me incorrect results when one flipped in my reservoir

Edit:
Also, your min time of 60 minutes may be throwing it off. For testing, maybe change to 1 minute or 1 second to see if the programming is working. Also, the programming will only work when on “AUTO”

 

[Sean Duggan]

The way this ATO is supposed to work is it kicks on once an hour not whenever it sees the switch open. It also comes with a built in fail safe so it shuts off after 5 minutes. So if it runs longer trying to fill up it automatically goes into the off position. It seems like you have it programmed right and installed correctly. Does it not run at all in auto or does it go to the off position.

Also here is how I programmed mine

 

[AmandaRaeJean]

I would review the switches. Which one is 1, 2, 3, and 4?

Leak detection is 4
The float switch has two connections to 1 and 2
The sensor that detects low water level in ato reservoir is 3

 

[bknope]

Leak detection is 4
The float switch has two connections to 1 and 2
The sensor that detects low water level in ato reservoir is 3

This seems correct. Please see my edit in my post above. Maybe the 60 minute wait between runs is making it look like it’s not working? Try changing it to like 10 seconds. Make sure to change the switch to AUTO so it uses your programming

 

[AmandaRaeJean]

This seems correct. Please see my edit in my post above. Maybe the 60 minute wait between runs is making it look like it’s not working? Try changing it to like 10 seconds. Make sure to change the switch to AUTO so it uses your programming

I switched it from 60:00 to :03 and set it to AUTO and it appears to be working... I think... Is there a solid way to make sure its 100% working so I don't walk away from it and trust it, to find it not working at a bad time....lol I raised and lowered the float inside sump to watch it turn off and on .... it did...if thats all I needed to do, my next question is going to be setting up the leak detection properly, and by properly I mean with the alerts etc... and also, do I need to change the :03 to something else?

I also fixed the senor in the reservoir as well. Maybe that did the trick too.

 

[bknope]

I switched it from 60:00 to :03 and set it to AUTO and it appears to be working... I think... Is there a solid way to make sure its 100% working so I don't walk away from it and trust it, to find it not working at a bad time....lol I raised and lowered the float inside sump to watch it turn off and on .... it did...if thats all I needed to do, my next question is going to be setting up the leak detection properly, and by properly I mean with the alerts etc... and also, do I need to change the :03 to something else?

I also fixed the senor in the reservoir as well. Maybe that did the trick too.

If it’s working I would change it back to 60 minutes and just monitor it.

For leak detector, you need to edit your “EMAILALM_” and do something like:

Set OFF
If ATOLOW OPEN Then ON
If ATOCRI OPEN Then ON
If LEAK1 CLOSED Then ON
If LEAK2 CLOSED Then ON

If you include more in here, make sure you keep your leak sensors at the bottom. These statements get evaluated top to bottom and the last one that is set “ON” is put in the notification you get on your phone. I’m assuming nothing is more important than detecting a leak!

Was there more you wanted to do with the leak sensor?

 

[AmandaRaeJean]

No, I just want it to alert me if there is a leak. Nothing extra needed. That's perfect. I'll change the :03 back to :60 and monitor. The timing of this...the 03, and 60...can you explain exactly what that is....

Thank you so much. I've had this apex ato for literally over a year and havent been successful in setting it up. Finally got around to having extra time after the move.

 

[bknope]

My understanding from it being MIN TIME is that the ATO will only run once every hour (60 minutes) at the max and only if the first optical sensor is OPEN (meaning the water is below the sensor and more water is needed).

We lowered it to 3 so it could run every 3 seconds or minutes (whichever it was) and only if the other conditions were met so we didn’t have to wait an hour to see if it works.

My email alarm should work for by replacing LEAK1 with the name of your sensor. If you need help finding the alarms just tell me

 

[AmandaRaeJean]

Gotcha. Okay. I think I have it set up right.

 

[AmandaRaeJean]

How do I make this nonsense stop?