BIG AND LOUD CONTROLLER COMPARISON THREAD

[Daniel Bodily]

Arduino, raspberry pi, bare bones black all can be controlled by anything that you want to use and are off the beaten path.
But you will need to learn to code.

And they can all be controlled by Blue Tooth or WIFI

 

[Daniel@R2R]

The Puratek Insight 24/7 is one of the lesser known controllers but very good IME.

Here's a video review I did on it:

 

[Robthorn]

All 3 of these units are at different locations and 1 is a different city. Not like my house gets blasted everyday with power spikes killing them. Which did happen on mine for 1 of the repairs but I did not list that break down because it was not the manufacturers issue. That was a full board replacement so no residual damage was possible there.
So we have 1 in repair right now and need to send another one back for repair as well. Lol Just how many back ups are we supposed to buy?

If your houses get "blasted everyday with power spikes", you would be losing other electronics left and right. Can't be your power.

Did your Profilux ship/arrive yet? If not, any word on ship dates?

Trying to decide whether to go cheap and upgrade my RKE (with it's many modules) to Archon or look at Profilux or Apex. Based on my own experience (not terrible, not great) along with comments in this thread and other threadss, leaning towards Profilux.

No Profilux yet but from pictures of qa , final assembly and what appeared to be full pallets I think we are getting close.

I need to get my extras ordered. I have a list provided by Marco I just have to pull the trigger.

 

[BCSreef]

No Profilux yet but from pictures of qa , final assembly and what appeared to be full pallets I think we are getting close.

I need to get my extras ordered. I have a list provided by Marco I just have to pull the trigger."

Great to hear. Thanks! Just placed my order. Now the wait. I'll phase out the current controller when the Profilux arrives.

Hope you have better luck with the Profilux! I'm sure you will.

 

[n2585722]

[/QUOTE]
Trying to decide whether to go cheap and upgrade my RKE (with it's many modules) to Archon or look at Profilux or Apex. Based on my own experience (not terrible, not great) along with comments in this thread and other threadss, leaning towards Profilux.[/QUOTE]
Bob I have had the Archon since the beta units were released. If you have questions regarding the unit give me a PM.

 

[n2585722]

What controllers work with Chromebooks, Macs, Windows phone, and other platforms that are off the beaten path?

The Archon will work with almost any device with a web browser. Firefox seems to be the best browser to use with it. I have used Safari without any issues.

 

[Terence]

When talking about cross platform capability with any controller there are a few different things to consider. First is the day to day operation. Does it work on mobile devices? If so, does it require an app to do so? Or does it have a universal web interface? Does it connect via a cloud server? Or do you have to put a hole in firewall and set up external access on the internet into your home?

Next is setting up and then the ongoing updating of the device firmware or operating system. Can it be done over the Internet wirelessly? Does it require a computer? If so, what kind of computer? Does the updater work on Windows or OSX? If the latter, does it require boot camp or parallels and a copy of windows? These are all things to consider.

 

[powers2001]

You forgot Tunze. Tunze came out with a controller this past summer. Someone could contact Roger Vitko about it.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

You forgot Tunze. Tunze came out with a controller this past summer. Someone could contact Roger Vitko about it.

That would be a cool one to include in the conversation. Is it for sale yet? I haven't seen much on it?

 

[powers2001]

That would be a cool one to include in the conversation. Is it for sale yet? I haven't seen much on it?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Daniel@R2R]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Cool! I do remember seeing this at MACNA now. Is it available for sale?

 

[reefwiser]

Roger said on RC first week of February. They where just starting to ship 1/27/17 tp USA

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Roger said on RC first week of February. They where just starting to ship 1/27/17 tp USA

Ok. So if they're not available yet, it's not yet possible to compare them here, but it is exciting to see another option available for consumers.

 

[reefwiser]

kind of hard since no one even has one. From the video posted it is a very limited controller compared to a Profilux or Apex.

 

[hybridazn]

In case anyone is curious to see ghl's response to questions about their products that were brought up in this thread.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/c...hs-about-ghl-or-profilux.286663/#post-3498066

 

[Terence]

I think this is a great thread to collect all the input from many different sides. I believe manufacturers participating here is a good thing so that you get the answers to your questions as well as get any misperceptions cleared up. So far I believe I have only stated what the Apex can do, and then asked the question when I did not know if something could be done by another company's product. The company can then choose to answer or not.

Mattias in his own thread posited that one does not need more than 5 controllable outlets on a power bar because you can only control up to 15A anyways. Well, in most aquariums these days, the sum of all their equipment is far less than that 15A. We have a large percentage of our customer base owning 2+ Energy Bars connected to the same 15A home circuit - something that would not be possible if the sum of all of the devices was more than 15A. They just like to control things! And even with variable speed or variable dimming products, customers often want to program failsafes that completely power off the device based on some additional criteria that might be monitored. For instance, a malfunction in the pump controller might make the flow rate go to 100% (and in the Apex you could know that via its power consumption) which would make it exceed your overflow/drain and then you might want to cut power completely and send you an alert.

Another point was made that the Profilux has current monitoring. I did not see it posted anywhere if it actually had power (watts) monitoring so some clarification should be made. Due to the power factor, this is the only true way to know what kind of power a device is using. You do not pay for amps, you pay for watts, and due to power factor the simple electrical equation does not always hold true. Does the Profilux directly measure Watts?

I will reiterate that with the new Apex, no outside computer application is necessary - not even for firmware updates. It has a built-in web server that is cross-platform compatible and then our Apex Fusion cloud service can do about 98% of all the functions as the built-in web interface. Since there is no Mac control software on the Profilux, it might be helpful to the consumers to understand what can only be done through the PC software and not on the myGHL cloud interface. The Apex also has an iOS app and iOS alerts. We do not yet have a new Android app for the new Apex - our approach for android is that our web app works well across many flavors of Android.

Just for clarification, the Energy Bar 832 has Fallback states if communication is lost and it uses our AquaBus standard which is also an industrial control standard. It also has five DC outlets (for a total of 13) for use with other devices. I do believe that customers should look at cost per outlet - it is a very valid metric when two devices are so similar. For those that do not know, the Energy Bar 832 costs $249. Our Energy Bar 8 costs just $159.

 

[n2585722]

Terence, I agree that for most of us all our equipment added together doesn't add up to 15 amps. So there is no reason not to have up to 8 controlled outputs per power bar. You would have to have some high wattage heaters or some large pumps to go over 15 amps.

 

[hybridazn]

With the GHL's I am assuming you can utilize more than one power bar per unit. How many could you use per system and what is the cost per unit?

 

[glavaron]

Personally, I think the customer service at Neptune is horrible. I currently have a DOS pump that quit working and it took two weeks of back and forth emailing and sending power supplies for them to authorize it to come in for repair. Well once this authorization took place it was my money that was spent to return their defective product.

When I was actually able to talk with someone on the phone he was less than enthusiastic to help me.

Based upon the above I decided to switch and have ordered the Profilux 4 and Doser 2 to replace my Apex Gold, DOS and DDR. The new system will be in sometime in the next two weeks.

While I don't have many terrible things to say about the Apex I am not impressed with their customer service. For a company who sells so many products why is there a recording on the service line that says they are busy and to email them? When you do send an email it takes 12-24 hours for someone to reply. Of course, when they reply they have a question that you have to respond to. Well after you respond you will wait hours for the next reply. This type of service is ridiculous. Beyond that, this is the first time I have had to pay money to return a defective product under warranty. Most companies at least give you a pre-paid return label. Not Neptune.

I called GHL and immediately spoke to someone. This person was more than helpful and I was able to order a new controller and dosing pump.

As for the manufactures chiming in I don't see how that's a great benefit. They are going to tell you what is great about their product. They are going to specifically point out their products "unique" features. Personally, I cannot blame them and I would not work somewhere if I didn't like/believe in their products. I look at it in the same aspect as car shopping. You don't go to a Ford dealership and hear the salesman tell you how great Toyota is compared to Ford. I wouldn't expect anything different here.

Again, I am not bashing Neptune but I have too much money tied up in their system to spend more to fix something that breaks under the warranty period. Therefore, I made a switch and never plan on purchasing anything from Neptune again.

One thing that also helped me make GHL my choice was the ability to fix it myself as well as expand. For me, I had owned the Apex for a couple of months when they released the 2016 model. I would have to buy a whole new controller to benefit from the new upgrades. However, with GHL they sell kits which allow the user to upgrade to the new features for a fraction of the cost.

In regards to the post about the number of negative reviews being relevant to the number of products sold, I find that to be a arguable point as well. Personally, I believe in quality over quantity. If a company makes a 1,000 units of a product with no negative reviews I consider that to be a good quality product. However, if another company makes 10,000 units of a product and receives 1,000 negative reviews I would consider the product to be substandard or a lower quality.

 

[Water Dog]

When it comes to controllers, it's all about reliability.

Why do so many Neptune Apex users feel the need to even have a 2nd head unit as backup? Everyone is quite familiar with the poor QC of parts used in some of the units when the 2016 Apex was released leading to bricked units. For me personally, why the heck do my Vortechs disconnect from my WXM and show up as "missing" in Fusion every other month!?!

I'm curious as to how many issues the newly released GHL Profilux 4 will have. Friendly wager anyone? I dunno, but I'm taking the under.