Apex brain possibly dead?

[porterreef]

Hey everyone I woke up to a not so wonderful event. There is a nice thunderstorm with some lightning which may have dried the brain/head unit of my apex. My apex brain was hot and didn't have the status like on at all no blinking nothing! My tank had everything running and it hasn't turned off for its reset itself. My internet is down also so I want to wait to see if that sparks a connection to "wake" the unit back up. Is my unit fried? It's a little over a year old and everything else is stuck in the ON position so it's not to bad if I need to order a new unit. Let me know what you think!

 

[GoVols]

Hey everyone I woke up to a not so wonderful event. There is a nice thunderstorm with some lightning which may have dried the brain/head unit of my apex. My apex brain was hot and didn't have the status like on at all no blinking nothing! My tank had everything running and it hasn't turned off for its reset itself. My internet is down also so I want to wait to see if that sparks a connection to "wake" the unit back up. Is my unit fried? It's a little over a year old and everything else is stuck in the ON position so it's not to bad if I need to order a new unit. Let me know what you think!

Well,
If no one gives you an answer:

I'd start right here:
https://www.neptunesystems.com/support/contact-support/

 

[porterreef]

Well,
If no one gives you an answer:

I'd start right here:
https://www.neptunesystems.com/support/contact-support/

Thank you I checked it out. Looks like BRS is getting an apex order tomorrow. Until I hear from neptune.

 

[GoVols]

Thank you I checked it out. Looks like BRS is getting an apex order tomorrow. Until I hear from neptune.

Your welcome.
I know it can be frustrating.

 

[rkpetersen]

It doesn't sound good. I've never heard of a controller actually getting hot to the touch. If the outlets on your energy bar are on and your devices are operating, the bar might be in fallback mode with an unresponsive controller. However that only works for some devices. Definitely try manually rebooting the controller if you haven't done so, by using the manual reset pinhole with a paper clip (hold down for 6 seconds on the first try.) Or if that doesn't work, unplugging and reattaching its aquabus cable. And try hooking it up to a different aquabus port on the energy bar, on the off chance that it's just the port that's gone bad.

If nothing helps and it really is fried, at least you can buy just the controller now and not the entire system. Also hopefully you kept a backup file of your Apex settings and programming, or your setup isn't overly complex. And keeping an Apex on a UPS isn't a bad idea either; I figure my aquaria are at least as important as any of my computers.

 

[porterreef]

It doesn't sound good. I've never heard of a controller actually getting hot to the touch. If the outlets on your energy bar are on and your devices are operating, the bar might be in fallback mode with an unresponsive controller. However that only works for some devices. Definitely try manually rebooting the controller if you haven't done so, by using the manual reset pinhole with a paper clip (hold down for 6 seconds on the first try.) Or if that doesn't work, unplugging and reattaching its aquabus cable. And try hooking it up to a different aquabus port on the energy bar, on the off chance that it's just the port that's gone bad.

If nothing helps and it really is fried, at least you can buy just the controller now and not the entire system. Also hopefully you kept a backup file of your Apex settings and programming, or your setup isn't overly complex. And keeping an Apex on a UPS isn't a bad idea either; I figure my aquaria are at least as important as any of my computers.

What UPS do you use I've been thinking about getting one. I'm pretty positive it's in fallback mode I've tried resetting it and nothing happens. Thank you for the helpful advice.

 

[rkpetersen]

I have each of my Apex systems on one of these. I've seen them kick in several times as our power around here can be unstable, and am very happy with their performance and features. With my first Apex system, for quite a while I had intermittent issues with spontaneous reboots, weird glitches, and lost network connections. The system stability problems resolved after I put it on a UPS, although I was also taking other troubleshooting steps at the time as well. With the second Apex, it's been on a UPS from the start and has been stable from the start.

Another nice thing about having your Apex on a UPS is that you can set up the power monitor feature, which will let your Apex detect a power failure and respond by shutting down optional devices.

 

[BigHildy53]

It doesn't sound good. I've never heard of a controller actually getting hot to the touch. If the outlets on your energy bar are on and your devices are operating, the bar might be in fallback mode with an unresponsive controller. However that only works for some devices. Definitely try manually rebooting the controller if you haven't done so, by using the manual reset pinhole with a paper clip (hold down for 6 seconds on the first try.) Or if that doesn't work, unplugging and reattaching its aquabus cable. And try hooking it up to a different aquabus port on the energy bar, on the off chance that it's just the port that's gone bad.

If nothing helps and it really is fried, at least you can buy just the controller now and not the entire system. Also hopefully you kept a backup file of your Apex settings and programming, or your setup isn't overly complex. And keeping an Apex on a UPS isn't a bad idea either; I figure my aquaria are at least as important as any of my computers.

A backup won't help with a new brain unit. My brain fried and I had to replace it. Learned the hard way that the restore option only works on the unit the backup was performed. So you'll have to setup everything manually.

 

[porterreef]

A backup won't help with a new brain unit. My brain fried and I had to replace it. Learned the hard way that the restore option only works on the unit the backup was performed. So you'll have to setup everything manually.

This is my second brain that has fried on me and I can't figure out why. All the controller equipment is away from the tank and so it can't get wet or salt damage. New house,new state, new brain and new lots of stuff for the tank. Anyone know the warranty on neptunes head units? Hopefully they can offer some good news other than it's going to cost you.

 

[mtraylor]

Apex will also fix the unit for a fee.

 

[porterreef]

Apex will also fix the unit for a fee.

Most of the time its 50 bucks less than a new unit.

 

[mtraylor]

When I sent my Neptune Classic in for repair. It was quoted $30 - $150 estimate. The $150, I think is a basically they cant fix it and that that is core charge. Not sure if its the same for the new Neptune Apex.

 

[rkpetersen]

A backup won't help with a new brain unit. My brain fried and I had to replace it. Learned the hard way that the restore option only works on the unit the backup was performed. So you'll have to setup everything manually.

That's not entirely true, although you're right that just saving the backup file is not enough to do a restore successfully (it should be, but it isn't.) You have to make sure that all the modules are connected in the same order, with the same aquabus addresses, as previously, before restoring. To do this, the easiest way to keep the info is to save a screenshot of the modules page somewhere, before things go bad. Then when you go to connect the new brain to the EB, first disconnect everything else from the aquabus, plug in the brain, and then reconnect each module one at a time, confirming that it has the same aquabus address as before. Then you can do a restore and it should work, although some things like tile placement will still have to be done manually. In addition to the backup config file and a screenshot of the modules page, I save screenshots of all major Fusion pages as well as a full Configuration Summary webpage. Also screenshots of the season tables, if you use them.