Apex users: Public Service Announcement

[David S]

Hi everyone,
I just received a refurbished Apex-EL, from Neptune, to replace my current EL which was functional, but was way off when calibrating probes - particularly my Ph probes.
To be honest, I'm somewhat limited when it comes to programming an Apex and I was hoping there was a simple way to transfer my settings from the old to the refurbished Apex.
The instructions Apex support provided, just gave me a headache.
I did find the instructions that @SuncrestReef provided (many thanks) a bit easier to handle and I was able to save the Apexcfg.bin file to my PC.
The question I have is where do I go from there?
Is the Bin file in my Apex account as well?
If not, how do I bring it over?
Will it retain ALL of my original settings?
Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[dburnsworth]

Public service announcement for all Apex users:

If you use an Apex but do not currently have a backup file of your configuration, please create a backup!!! If anything goes wrong with your Apex, you will be glad you have a backup file to restore from.

Follow these steps to create a backup:

1. From a desktop or laptop computer, browse to http://apex.local
   NOTE: If you renamed your Apex during setup, or have changed the Hostname under the Network Setup screen, then use that hostname rather than "apex". Example: My Apex is named SuncrestApex, so I go to http://suncrestapex.local. Alternatively, if you know your Apex IP address, you can browse directly to the IP address: http://192.168.0.20
   
   
2. Log in with the local Admin account. This username and password is different from your Fusion account. If you never set it, the default is:
   Username: Admin
   Password: 1234
   
   For the Apex (2016) or Apex EL:
3. Click the Apex menu, then click Misc
   
4. Click the Load/Save icon at the top. It looks like a hard disk:
   
5. Click the Save Configuration button
   
   
   For the Apex Classic:
   
   
   
   
   
   

This will download an Apexcfg.bin file to your computer's Downloads folder. You may move this file to a new folder if you like. I typically rename the file to include the date, and that way I can keep multiple copies whenever I make a significant change to my Apex. This allows me to go back to a particular configuration if needed rather than just the latest backup:

• Apexcfg 2019-06-29.bin
• Apexcfg 2019-06-03.bin
• Apexcfg 2019-04-17.bin

In addition to the backup file, I also like to save a text version of the system summary as a PDF file. This can be handy if you just want to see what settings or programming you had, without needing to restore the full backup to the Apex.

To get to the summary, click the Apex menu and then click Summary. From there you can scroll through the whole config, or click the Print icon at the upper right. On most computers you can choose to Save as PDF from the Print screen.



Trust me, you will thank me later if you ever find yourself in the position of needing to restore or repair your Apex config.

 

[dburnsworth]

Hello. Did the RMA ship with Apex to get a new EL head…followed your directions to save the config file. My question is: do I just now replace the old head with the new one, plug things in as they are on the existing one and load this config .bin file in local…and that’s it? What about aquabus sequences and all that?
Thank you! I love/hate these things!

 

[SPS2020]

Hello. Did the RMA ship with Apex to get a new EL head…followed your directions to save the config file. My question is: do I just now replace the old head with the new one, plug things in as they are on the existing one and load this config .bin file in local…and that’s it? What about aquabus sequences and all that?
Thank you! I love/hate these things!

To be sure, you only have the one Apex eL? I ask because I purchased a second Apex eL as a backup and if you do that, you will need to rename the original prior.

Aside from that, when I loaded the config file to the new Apex eL, everything seemed to be correct when looking at Fusion. All the switches were there and DOS programming looked correct in the settings, etc. However, I did not turn on\off any outlets to verify anything before I put it away (was in a hurry). I'll need to go back and be sure things work as expected before this is needed in an emergency.

 

[AZReef13]

Thanks

 

[SPS2020]

Hi everyone,
I just received a refurbished Apex-EL, from Neptune, to replace my current EL which was functional, but was way off when calibrating probes - particularly my Ph probes.
To be honest, I'm somewhat limited when it comes to programming an Apex and I was hoping there was a simple way to transfer my settings from the old to the refurbished Apex.
The instructions Apex support provided, just gave me a headache.
I did find the instructions that @SuncrestReef provided (many thanks) a bit easier to handle and I was able to save the Apexcfg.bin file to my PC.
The question I have is where do I go from there?
Is the Bin file in my Apex account as well?
If not, how do I bring it over?
Will it retain ALL of my original settings?
Any help is greatly appreciated.

Somehow, I overlooked your request for assistance. Did you get everything sorted out? Issues? Successes? No guru, but will try to help.

 

[dburnsworth]

To be sure, you only have the one Apex eL? I ask because I purchased a second Apex eL as a backup and if you do that, you will need to rename the original prior.

Aside from that, when I loaded the config file to the new Apex eL, everything seemed to be correct when looking at Fusion. All the switches were there and DOS programming looked correct in the settings, etc. However, I did not turn on\off any outlets to verify anything before I put it away (was in a hurry). I'll need to go back and be sure things work as expected before this is needed in an emergency.

Yes. Just swapping old for new (refurb). Wish me luck!

 

[dburnsworth]

Somehow, I overlooked your request for assistance. Did you get everything sorted out? Issues? Successes? No guru, but will try to help.

Gonna try today following advice above. Wish me luck! These things really should be easier to deal with than this. As said other places, wish it was all cloud based so things were more plug and play.

 

[dburnsworth]

Gonna try today following advice above. Wish me luck! These things really should be easier to deal with than this. As said other places, wish it was all cloud based so things were more plug and play.

One last question before I proceed. Here is my diagnosis suggestion via fusion:

If I replace old with new and load saved config file…am I also uploading whatever corruption is causing my issue? This is really frustrating. Am I better off starting from scratch with the new one?

 

[SPS2020]

One last question before I proceed. Here is my diagnosis suggestion via fusion:

If I replace old with new and load saved config file…am I also uploading whatever corruption is causing my issue? This is really frustrating. Am I better off starting from scratch with the new one?

You may want to follow the advice and open a Support ticket, provided that your system is operational. Is there any reason of which you are aware that would cause the disconnections?

How complex is your Apex programming at present? If it is relatively simple, then you could always start fresh.

Forgot to mention, if you have not downloaded the Configuration Summary (in addition to the backup), make sure to do that for reference.

 

[dburnsworth]

You may want to follow the advice and open a Support ticket, provided that your system is operational. Is there any reason of which you are aware that would cause the disconnections?

How complex is your Apex programming at present? If it is relatively simple, then you could always start fresh.

Forgot to mention, if you have not downloaded the Configuration Summary (in addition to the backup), make sure to do that for reference.

Update: I installed the new (refurb) EL controller and it connected right away and has remained connected. I tried to upload the config file and it really messed things up (aquabus order)
I had scheduled a support call with Taylor at Apex for the disconnections, decided to keep the appointment and I am glad I did. He was able to get me back up and running. His advice, despite lots of info available was never to try to apply the config file to a different head as they are specific to each head even beyond assigning aquabus slots upon install…he said this causes many more problems than it’s worth. Just start fresh and reprogram as needed.

 

[GlassMunky]

Once you get into the local and hit "Save" it asks for the user name and password again, but this time using the same info, it says that the user/password is incorrect and wont save anything.
What gives?

 

[GlassMunky]

Once you get into the local and hit "Save" it asks for the user name and password again, but this time using the same info, it says that the user/password is incorrect and wont save anything.
What gives?

super weird.... to login to the local apex i have to use one set of credentials (the user name and password i created).... but to save it i have to input a different set of credentials (admin as the user name but my setup password).....

they really make this stuff super confusing, thats for sure!

THANKS for the writeup tho.... hopefully this saves me some headache in the future when it inevitably erases things again.

 

[David S]

Somehow, I overlooked your request for assistance. Did you get everything sorted out? Issues? Successes? No guru, but will try to help.

Same here.
I'm only seeing you're message now LOL.
Anyway...
The refurbished unit was garbage and it was replaced with a new unit.
Still had communication issues and was working with the Apex team for several weeks.
Ultimately, though, I downloaded a file from Apex which shows the IP address of the unit. From then on it was easy.
As best I recall, some of my info was already available and since I had limited programming (still have a Reefkeeper controller for some of my tasks) on my Apex it was simpler to just manually input the other tasks.

 

[alindell]

@SuncrestReef okay I created an apex bin file after saving it from apex local. I am unable to open it. My question let's say I'm unable to access fusion and I can not get my apex to reconnect so I do a master reset; am I able to somehow plug that bin file into the new factory reset apex? How would go about accessing and using that file to reupload into the factory reset apex? What use does it have? For some I can't open it on my laptop. I get an error message so I'm not even sure what's in there.