GHL Maxi Doser

[kalkwasser]

Before I sold my Doser 2.1 I was already anticipating the Maxi. And have read numerous first batch users complaining
about the instability of the Maxi. Being it froze during dosing, froze after some extended dosing ( like my new maxi ) or some other mechanical or software issue.
I think they should have made sure they iron out all these problems during the RnD. Rather letting us customers to do it on their behalf after we bought them.
The problem here is the time and the effort coordinating all the feedbacks, returns and downtime of the device.

These high tech and premium goods are mean to give us a piece of mind. But many times it rather give us the "high tech" problem and
no piece of mind. (keep worrying if its dosing or the tank as overflow while we were away ).

 

[kalkwasser]

@crayon:

SO what is your current status with your Maxi?
Are you running it? If yes any issue? If not, are you still without one after returning to them and still waiting for a reply from GHL USA?

 

[kalkwasser]

Does anyone has the same issue like crayon and me that our Maxi doser froze when simutanously dosing Pump 1 and 2 manually say for 2000ml each?
I test it out again today and it happen. The maxi doser froze. Doser does not dose again after that no matter what you do over the computer controller.
Only LED lights on and off but actual pump not moving if I try to toggle from GCC.

 

[WWIII]

Does anyone has the same issue like crayon and me that our Maxi doser froze when simutanously dosing Pump 1 and 2 manually say for 2000ml each?
I test it out again today and it happen. The maxi doser froze. Doser does not dose again after that no matter what you do over the computer controller.
Only LED lights on and off but actual pump not moving if I try to toggle from GCC.

I will test mine a little later today. Does the ml used go down on GCC and Connect even though it's not moving? Just interested to know if the doser stops moving, will the software say it's still dosing as normal, or will it say nothing has been dosed when it's not moving?

 

[kalkwasser]

I think ALL of us should test this.
What my guess is it could be a software bug. Reason is when both are running simultaneously.
The Maxi is drawing about 1.23 amperes @ 24Vdc. The AC/DC power supply that come with is rated a 5A.
So its not the power supply issue.

I accidentally discover this issue while trying to run-in the doser first time.
What I did was this: Maybe you guys can try to replicate:

On the GCC, I set both pump speed to #2 speed. Save it. Does not matter if pump are calibrated.
I go to PUMP 1, manually dose 2000ml, then while its dosing, I go to PUMP 2 and dose the same and start it.
And just check if it froze along the way. If it does, when you try controlling the pumps via the GCC, it should be not responding ( the pumps ).
The GCC will function as normal , for example. If you dose 20ml, the liquid quantity would decrease, but pump does not move.

The only way to regain pumps back is to do a hard power on/off on the doser.

 

[WWIII]

I just ran mine, dosed 250 ml on each head simultaneously with no issues. I did have an issue with the first maxi I purchased where the head would stick, but that seems unrelated to this. GHL was good about getting a replacement out to me asap, which can be a little difficult as most they recieved from Germany were sold already or very quickly.

Mine is a stand alone maxi. It dosed fine with both heads running at the same time. This was on speed 3, I can try a lower speed this afternoon.

 

[WWIII]

Ok I went back and dosed 2000 ml on each head simultaneously on speed 2. It worked perfectly with no stops or sticking. Again this is a stand alone maxi with the latest firmware.

Edit - Just now got done with the complete dose. No issues and doser went back to normal after. I normally only dose 88ml at any one time. I do that 150 times each day on each head for my AWC. I wonder if the motors are getting warm in your case if you dose 2000 ml often? I think @Mortie31 had an issue with that early on? Maybe it was someone else?

 

[Mortie31]

There was an issue when running both pumps simultaneously for several minutes it triggered a thermal cutout, new dosers now have a heat sink that should solve this problem, I was sent one by Matthias to fit myself, however I found yesterday that running both pumps simultaneously for 15mins triggered it again but I haven’t emailed Matthias yet about it. I can run both of my pumps for 1800 mls, but if I ask them to do 2000ml it will cause the thermal cutout. This is reset by powering off and on.

 

[kalkwasser]

So it confirm that. @Mortie31 thanks for letting us know. Why it wasn't made know to customers when we had to find it out ourself?
Now my question is does that means this Maxi doser is at all times not or unable to run both pumps simultaneously at all times even when the software allow it to do so.
It just restrict or I must say reduce the potential of the doser. To be honest 2000ml is not a lot.
Imagine someone had it program to run at same time or about the same time to dose or siphon water out of 2 tanks and when away for a holiday.
Only to discover all the stocks dead upon returning home because the pumps froze. That sucks!

 

[Mortie31]

In my experience to get around this problem I have staggered the times of my pumps or done more frequent smaller periods, to get the desired volumes, currently I’m doing 24 x 1500ml on both pumps for AWC giving me 36L per day in and out, and this doesn’t cause any overheating and in fairness it’s a fairly large daily water change. But certainly not continuous use...

 

[kalkwasser]

But I would argue that pumps froze at 1000ml of dose each ( if one is running a 360ml/m rate ) that mean it stopped after 3 mins of running.
That is not a lot to be honest.

 

[kalkwasser]

Ok I went back and dosed 2000 ml on each head simultaneously on speed 2. It worked perfectly with no stops or sticking. Again this is a stand alone maxi with the latest firmware.

Edit - Just now got done with the complete dose. No issues and doser went back to normal after. I normally only dose 88ml at any one time. I do that 150 times each day on each head for my AWC. I wonder if the motors are getting warm in your case if you dose 2000 ml often? I think @Mortie31 had an issue with that early on? Maybe it was someone else?

@WWIII its really nice to hear that yours are working fine even dosing both pumps at 2000ml each at the same time. But its funny that your does not have the problem me and @Mortie31 faced.
So same pump but we had 3 different problem. @WWIII is okay even for 2000ml dose, @Mortie31 pumps froze at 1000ml and mine before the 2000ml dose finish.
Is this look like a software issue or hardware? Because I am like @WWWIII having new firmware 1.2.8 for maxi and 1.1.2 for the GCC but I am facing issue.
What you guys reckon? Should I contact Germany directly and get a replacement?

 

[kalkwasser]

Ok I went back and dosed 2000 ml on each head simultaneously on speed 2. It worked perfectly with no stops or sticking. Again this is a stand alone maxi with the latest firmware.

Edit - Just now got done with the complete dose. No issues and doser went back to normal after. I normally only dose 88ml at any one time. I do that 150 times each day on each head for my AWC. I wonder if the motors are getting warm in your case if you dose 2000 ml often? I think @Mortie31 had an issue with that early on? Maybe it was someone else?

@WWIII its really nice to hear that yours are working fine even dosing both pumps at 2000ml each at the same time. But its funny that your does not have the problem me and @Mortie31 faced.
So same pump but we had 3 different problem. @WWIII is okay even for 2000ml dose, @Mortie31 pumps froze at 1000ml and mine before the 2000ml dose finish.
Is this look like a software issue or hardware? Because I am like @WWWIII having new firmware 1.2.8 for maxi and 1.1.2 for the GCC but I am facing issue.
What you guys reckon? Should I contact Germany directly and get a replacement since @WWIII pumpis fine stock?

 

[Mortie31]

But I would argue that pumps froze at 1000ml of dose each ( if one is running a 360ml/m rate ) that mean it stopped after 3 mins of running.
That is not a lot to be honest.

My pumps when calibrated only run at 150ml , due to the 50 feet they pull from my garage

 

[Mortie31]

@WWIII its really nice to hear that yours are working fine even dosing both pumps at 2000ml each at the same time. But its funny that your does not have the problem me and @Mortie31 faced.
So same pump but we had 3 different problem. @WWIII is okay even for 2000ml dose, @Mortie31 pumps froze at 1000ml and mine before the 2000ml dose finish.
Is this look like a software issue or hardware? Because I am like @WWWIII having new firmware 1.2.8 for maxi and 1.1.2 for the GCC but I am facing issue.
What you guys reckon? Should I contact Germany directly and get a replacement since @WWIII pumpis fine stock?

You perhaps need to check if you have the model with the heatsink fitted, mine was an early one shipped to the UK all new models I believe have them fitted as standard now, my new one does and doesn’t have any issues. The below pic shows where the heatsink should be.

 

[WWIII]

I know that my replacement maxi doser that I'm currently running is fresh off the boat so to speak. It arrived at my house a week or so ago. This makes me think @Mortie31 is on to something with the heat sink deal. Something to look into anyways. I would also contact GHL directly to let them know your issue for documentation and hopefully a quicker result.

 

[kalkwasser]

@Mortie31, thank you for taking the effort to show me and all others about this fix.
After you install the hetsink. Did you try how much you dose running both pumps simultaneously before it call it quit?

For my case, Im waiting for Vinny and Germany side to tell me what they plan do before I open mine to prevent warranty void.

 

[Mortie31]

@Mortie31, thank you for taking the effort to show me and all others about this fix.
After you install the hetsink. Did you try how much you dose running both pumps simultaneously before it call it quit?

For my case, Im waiting for Vinny and Germany side to tell me what they plan do before I open mine to prevent warranty void.

Before the heatsink if I remember correctly I couldn’t dose more than 600/700ml simultaneously without it triggering the cutout

 

[kalkwasser]

Hi guys,

Im corresponding with Vinny while reporting back here so all of you who is reading this thread can also check your set.

I have done a series of test just now to determine if my doser froze was due to any overheating issue on the motor chip on board.
And indeed, it is!
Done a test as requested by Vinny and before completing the last instruction. My doser pumps froze. Had to do a hard reset to resume back.
So its confirm that my set could be one of those earlier batch of Maxi that are affected by overheating issue when both pump execute task simultaneously or in a back to back sequence.

Now waiting for Vinny to get back regards on what to do next.

 

[LondonrulesJL]

Hi, I have had one for a month or so in the UK, I did post a few pics on on a thread, overall I’m really happy, these things are beasts!! I use it for AWC and it primes and pulls my saltwater 60 feet from my garage. They are a lot noisier than the 2.1 dosers and I don’t get the really high flow rate listed only 160ml/min, but over this distance I’m more than happy. Initially there have been a few software issues but Matthias has sorted most of them, the thermal cutout switch on mine is very sensitive and I have to use several small (48 x 700ml to give 33.6L/ day) doses in and out, rather than the big ones I would like, (saying that more frequent changes may be better in the long run) but again Matthias is trying to resolve this and has emailed to let me know he has a solution and all should be ok in a few days. I like this one so much I’m considering buying a second to run my ATO but unfortunately I’m maxed out on level sensors and would have to buy an expansion box as well as the doser and £600 is a lot of money to save me carrying a water barrel every few days..

Can I ask what size tubing you used with the Maxi?