Apex no graphs: my SD card fix with preservation of programming

ConsummatePro

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This week my Apex graphs started showing up blank on Fusion. Here’s my solution to at fixed the issue and saved my extensive programming in case it helps others. As usual YMMV and do at your own risk.

I knew of the SD card issue but mine is under warranty still.

Neptune checked in and initially did say the unit needs to be exchanged under warranty. I wrote back and asked if it is the SD corruption issue and he confirmed it was. I then wrote back to get in writing: will they honour the warranty if I attempt to change the SD card myself (a $10 fix) and he confirmed YES. I figured this would save the time and hassle of a ship and replace and get my system back much faster.

I did the change and all is working (with a huge caveat: I did a restore my own way, see below). Neptune logged back in and confirmed no further read write errors.

Note my experience may not be yours and doing a restore like I did is a possible risk!

Here are some things to know that no one seems to outline:
1. Changing the SD card will wipe out all programming and you will need to start fresh as if a brand new Apex.
2. Neptune said to save the pdf summary so there is a log of all the programming to manually re-program everything afterwards (copy and paste manually into each outlet).
3. The official statement is the downloadable backup file (the binary backup) may not be reliable due to possible corruption in the file system so they suggest starting from scratch.

I understood all of this but my system is very complex with 15 modules, all profile slots programmed and over 30 virtual outlets programmed over the years. I did not relish doing this hugely tedious task manually. I was hoping my symptoms were just present for 2 days and it was not yet too widespread.

Here is my detailed process. Again I took the risk to avoid redoing my complex system.

1. Opened the Apex. The video people show does not correctly show how to removed the card (he couldn’t take it out). The little metal flap covering the SD card needs to be slid horizontally TOWARDS a the outer edge of the PCB. It will slide over 2 mm and click. You can then flip the door up and take out the SD card.
3D758767-F063-405F-97C8-776354B7DF67.jpeg

5676EBB5-BEAF-4A3A-B0B7-416C2F52106F.jpeg
791D9CE8-3AA6-4465-A8EC-E0C21E3EB768.jpeg

2. Replace the new SD card noting the little tab in place to hold it in the proper orientation. Close the flap, pressing down firmly and sliding it back toward the inside of the PCB (eg the top of the SD card) until it clicks and locks into place.

I did the following to preserve everything: including all of my manual log entries and programming. I didn’t even need to make a new Fusion connection or re configure wifi.
1. With my current (no graph showing corrupted SD card) Apex running, I painstakingly labeled each Aquabus cable and unplugged them in the Aquabus order from 1-15. I basically unplugged one module at a time and refreshed the Modules page to confirm it was the right cable and device, and noted the module’s Aquabus number. This will allow plugging them back in on a later step to preserve all the programming.
2. After taking out the old corrupted SD card I put it into a card reader on my Mac and did a Disk Utility disk repair. I did a fschk and fixed a small error on the file system.
3. I then manually copied ALL of the files on the old SD card onto a brand new SanDisk 16 GB SD card (I confirmed the new card was formatted in FAT32 and renamed it to “eA” which was the name of the original Apex SD card). I am NOT sure if it matters at all the name of the SD card.
4. I put the newly copied card back into my Apex with NO Aquabus cables attached but powered via an AC adapter and let it boot up.
5. Happily it connected to my wifi and I was able to see it on Fusion and apex.local. The modules page as expected was entirely red since nothing was attached.
6. I reattached each module in numeric order, refreshing the module page after each module to be sure it was connected and assigned.
7. I’m back in business with full functionality and all my old logs saved and visible!!

I certainly think it’s terrible Neptune is unable to do a full restore from the cloud, and the underlying architecture should reconnect and identify Modules regardless of Aquabus address but at least there is a potential path for restoration. FDCE5EA3-ADF1-4ED4-BCD3-D4AE09AA88DD.jpeg
 
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A_Blind_Reefer

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Thank you for this link. I searched for this issue and posted about my problem but didn’t really find much of anything. I would have rather swapped out an sd card and been back up and running in a day over the warranty exchange where it takes three days to get a refurbished apex that you have to pay for upfront and get reimbursed for later. I think it’s a bigger problem than let on. You’re lucky in that it was only your graphs in fusion that was affected. Mine lost all of its programming but was still reading live probe data and was still connected to fusion, so no alarms were sent to the display, email, or the app. As far as fusion was concerned everything was fine. Meanwhile, all my outlets locked in whatever state they were in when the memory failed. Lights stuck on 24/7, no automatic feed modes. Skimmer stuck on and overflowed without alarming or shutting down, Co2 solenoid stuck on, and according to fusion all was fine. I was lucky to have noticed that there was no dos auto water change amount in fusion, I’m severely visually impaired now so I rarely ever check fusion as it’s not that easy for me. Now I know this will most likely never happen again but I’m pretty paranoid about it. So much so that I installed a juice goose device on my power bar outlet for a filter roller and connected it to my smart home. The juice goose is a normally open or closed dry switch that changes state when powered on and off. My filter roller powers off three times a day for feed cycles. I programmed my smart home hub so that it will notify me if my filter roller is still powered on during a feed mode or off after a feed mode. Basically a safety net in case the outlets lock up again. Within twelve hours I get a notification. If I had a spare outlet, I would have used that and programmed it to cycle on and off every two hours. I wish Neptune would update the heartbeat function to catch when the apex bricks. I thought they could embed a virtual outlet that cycles on and off that fusion would monitor to see if the apex bricked and the outlets locked.

Edit. Also learned to always, always keep a current summary page saved to a device where you’ll actually remember where it is and what you named it months or years down the road.
 
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Gut Pile

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Having this issue + can no longer control EB832 ports. On powerup it won't find my neptune sky or trident. This happened on my original unit and this will be my 3rd apex within a year. Really hard to trust this or any other apex product at this point. Something is very wrong with whatever inventory they produced around 2022 or so. Also mention this on askbrstv facebook forum and your post will get deleted.
 
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ConsummatePro

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Having this issue + can no longer control EB832 ports. On powerup it won't find my neptune sky or trident. This happened on my original unit and this will be my 3rd apex within a year. Really hard to trust this or any other apex product at this point. Something is very wrong with whatever inventory they produced around 2022 or so. Also mention this on askbrstv facebook forum and your post will get deleted.
I really think it was a bad batch of SD cards from Sandisk. I hope this has worked its way out of the chain.
 

Gatorpa

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Having this issue + can no longer control EB832 ports. On powerup it won't find my neptune sky or trident. This happened on my original unit and this will be my 3rd apex within a year. Really hard to trust this or any other apex product at this point. Something is very wrong with whatever inventory they produced around 2022 or so. Also mention this on askbrstv facebook forum and your post will get deleted.
I had the same issue with it connecting and disconnecting a million times. When it did connect the temp worked but there were all these other amp measures all over.
Apex said send back but I saw the same issue online and just swapped out the ss card.
Boom back to normal.
The pictures above were invaluable as I could figure out how to get the dang card out.

Cost $8.
This was an Alex Jr I bought in like June.

Lucky it’s for a frag tank that only monitors pH and temp and controls a small EB unit so I didn’t have a pile to reprogram
 

RelaxingWithTheReef

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Has anyone checked their Apex to find the graph data missing for a few hours or a day? Essentially deleted data creating a gap in the recording. My Apex is doing this more and more often. I'm concerned its slowly failing, and will shortly stop graphing entirely.
 

Gut Pile

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Has anyone checked their Apex to find the graph data missing for a few hours or a day? Essentially deleted data creating a gap in the recording. My Apex is doing this more and more often. I'm concerned its slowly failing, and will shortly stop graphing entirely.
Yup it's prob writes failing. I'd go ahead and clone/swap now.
 

braaap

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I really think it was a bad batch of SD cards from Sandisk. I hope this has worked its way out of the chain.
Unfortunately the cards in A1 and A2s were knockoff Toshibas. Not even legit branded cards. Same with the **** usb wifi dongle. It’s some cheap Chinese clone. Look it up and it comes back at like 12 cents each in bulk. Typical Neptune stuff. Skimping as much as they can.
 

jon9508

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Wow. This worked. I was worried all day until i stumbled on this post. Started acting up on Sunday. Now it's back. Super simple to do. I replaced it with a high speed. So for no problems. Thanks for the write up.
 

BZOFIQ

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Didn't realize there is an SD card in the APEX controller.

A1, A2, A3

or AOTA?
 

braaap

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Didn't realize there is an SD card in the APEX controller.

A1, A2, A3

or AOTA?

Not sure what AOTA is but the A1,A2 and A3 all use a microsd card. Supposedly they put real cards in the A3 but I havent opened one. The A1 and A2 are junk chinese clones.
 

MarineGP

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Thank You .... Just started happening to me today ..... Out of warranty so will try the self fix .....
 

MarineGP

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Thank You .... Just started happening to me today ..... Out of warranty so will try the self fix .....
Able to move the data from old card to new card --- plugged the connections back in --- and so far perfection --- no reprogramming at all. Graphs all up including my Trident. THANK YOU !!!!
 

Tcook

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Thanks for the write up! I totally agree with this:

“I certainly think it’s terrible Neptune is unable to do a full restore from the cloud, and the underlying architecture should reconnect and identify Modules regardless of Aquabus address but at least there is a potential path for restoration.”

Unfortunately, my 15 modules have aquabus cables crossing every which way under the sun so there is no way to connect them in the same order. Rediculous that they didn’t figure this out.
 

65newbie

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I was told by Neptune that the micro sd can only be an 8gb or 16gb card. Is this true? I’ve checked 2 Walmarts, Best Buy, and Menards. 16gb is so small compared to today’s standards. What happens if I use a bigger capacity micro sd card?
 
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