GHL Mini 4 Debate

[HuduVudu]

Seems like there is much disinformation going on here.

Care to comment on the disinformation that is being presented.

There is much opinion here, and I think everyone is adult enough to understand that is just that ... opinion.

One fact though is that GHL products that are on WiFi make excessive DHCP requests, even if there is static address. This is not expected behaviour for WiFi network negotiation, and the static address DHCP request is a flat out bug. This is fact not opinion. Take it how you will.

 

[169468]

Care to comment on the disinformation that is being presented.

There is much opinion here, and I think everyone is adult enough to understand that is just that ... opinion.

One fact though is that GHL products that are on WiFi make excessive DHCP requests, even if there is static address. This is not expected behaviour for WiFi network negotiation, and the static address DHCP request is a flat out bug. This is fact not opinion. Take it how you will.

Pretty much the whole of this post:

How is somthing that does not do what it's soposed to do

Better then anything else out there

Not to mention the amount of DOA probs I see and in consistent reading with the machine needing repaired right out of the box

No quality control so I may get a lemon then have to wait to get a ew one ummm no


A working product that does as it sopoed to is better then this any day every day

And from what u see trident does exactly this as long as you calibrate it monthly

Same with Alkatronic and mastertronic best all around

Kh guardian WORKS THE BEST FOR ALK FROM WHAT I CAN TELL

so I'm sry but no ghl might be one of the worst out there

I'm not sure where the reports of all of the DOA probs come from with GHL. I have seen one person with a bad probe that had it replaced by GHL.

Where are the facts behind the 'no quality control' statement.

GHL does do what it is supposed to do.

Trident does not do the same as anything in the GHL product lineup.

Alkatronic/Mastertronic best all round. Lol. On what basis has that statement been made?

GHL worst out there? Not even close. It may not be perfect, and I admit to being a critic of the Wifi and the software, but it's still one of, if not the, best controllers out there (in my opinion). They've sold thousands of units and they are still catching up with IOND deliveries as that unit has been so popular, so they can't be that bad.

 

[Lasse]

I have found 1 person with 1 unit out of 50 or so with ghl that has not had it disconnect for no reason at rnd times

How many units of WiFi based GHL equipment's are sold worldwide - do you know that? - and how many have had issues with the WiFi set up - do you know that?

It is also important to say that there is two different WiFi chips for different GHL products. One for ProfiLux 4 serie, Mitras LX 7 and ProfiLux Mini/Light WiFi. This chip gets updates rather often - here. In the Doser 2.x Stand Alone serie - there is updates in the normal FW updates which you can find in latest GCC. The GCC has been updated 5 times since 2021-06-18. P4 FW have been updated once the last year, however the FW for the WiFi chip have been updated 4 times the last 12 months.

In very noisy electrical environment - the dosing WiFi works slightly worse than P4x's WiFi and I prefer hardwiring through ethernet in those cases

One very important thing is that the computers/SA dosers management of the whole system is not WiFi depended - it is hardwired through the PAB communication system. Should Internet be shout down, your internet connection go down or your router broke - you can still rely on that the computer/SA doser does its job. Your data is saved internal and you can use their old interface for logs in P4 and P4e. If everything goes bad with WiFi - you can still manage your GHL devices with an USB connection and PC software. If your PC going bad - you can still communicate withP4x through the mini display on the unit. If you lose your WiFi - it is only one of several interfaces between human and computers that goes down - not the function of the device.

One thing that can be frustrating is the FW update of different devices - it must be done through the USB connection and if it is PAB devices - individual for each device through USB connection to the main unit and after that an individual update of each PAB device (if needed - which it seldom is - most devices FW ´s are the same as at the introduction. With exception for the dosers that is in constant development.

This complicated update process can be seen as outdated compared with some other brands that update´s automatically through the web. For me - it is not that way. An aquarium computer is the brain for a life supporting system - if it fail - the life of our animals are in danger. I want to have full control over my update with possibility to do backups before an update, with possibilities to chose when and with possibilities to check the result of the update. If GHL starts with mandatory automatic updates - I would sell my GHL gear directly

@Lasse Care to jump in? Seems like there is much disinformation going on here.

Better not - I answered him/her in another thread and his/hers posts is more written DoS attacks on the GHL brand and a hope that it develops to a DDoS attack rather than a honest wish to understand the GHL system.

I'm not sure where the reports of all of the DOA probs come from with GHL. I have seen one person with a bad probe that had it replaced by GHL.

I had a probe that get bad after a short time (not DOA) but it was replaced immediately and this new one have works very good, This is the last month in low precision mode.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Tankkeepers]

I understand what your saying honestly I do but your not going to change my mind here

Yes it can do all this but you are missing my entire point

I will not be home for a month or more at a time

And I will not want a system I can not depend on to be able to be remotely controlled all the time

The wifi being a problem with no other default option on a close to 1000 dollar device needing a work around is ridiculous

If this is fine with you then by all mean show these companies you will buy broken crap

Even problem I see with ghl is one of 2 thing the wifi does not work right but other then that dependable

Or they didn't set it up right

I understand this can run without

It should not have to it should of been fixed

It is aparently a software issue that cause the usit to send requests way way way way to often and mess up the router verivied by another first hand user that sold everything ghl

I have done alot of reading and talking to first hand users watching videos etc over the course of 2 weeks or so now about 6 to 8 hours a day as I don't have alot else to do right now

So I fully understand what I'm talking about

Yes these units work

Yes these units work without wifi

They are finicy to get setup no big deal

but every user iv talked to except lasse on here on another page who informed me the wired connection on the 2.1 cant be used if slaved to the controller has gad wifi problems

I thought a work around was to connect to the 2.1 doser pump via its connection but you lose that when connected to a 4 or 4e so again another really dumb design

I HAVE 0 USE FOR THIS IF I CAN NOT DEPEND ON IT TO STAY CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

WAY WAY WAY TO MANY OF THESE UNITS DO THE EXACT SAME THING THAT SHOULD OF BEEN FIXED ALONG WITH FEATURE THEY HAVE NOT RELEASED IN A RESANABLE TIME FRAME

Forthen I have concluded that these units are decent if you don't care about remote control but worthless if you want remote control without a bunch of extra stuff to do what the unit should if in the first place

And the fact they don't include a hardline on their flagship model is a joke

So I'll pass

Have fun with your units I hope they serve you well but I'm not the only person iv talked to that went somthing else vs ghl due to them not being so good

As in alot of bad probs

More then a few units with bad readings(that may be user setup error tho)

And almost ever single one with a wifi problem

In the last week i could count including myself more then 50000 in lost sales to ghl due to the wifi problems

That's just the people iv personally talked to not counting the fourms videos etc

 

[Tankkeepers]

I'll put it this way apex has about the same amount of user complaining about somthing

I chock most of this up to improper use or setup including ghl

But the fact that apex seems to have the same wifi problems as ghl but included a hardline sold me as iv found 1 user that has it disconnect from the hardwire

The power bars burn out alot with apex tho
That the mist common complaint with them

Not to mention the web interface is way better with apex vs ghl

 

[Tankkeepers]

@Tankkeepers you are confused by who is posting and you are insulting me for no reason. I have not disagreed on the issue of GHL. In fact stated the exact reason why they fail.

I suggest you calm down and go back and read the posts. You are coming across as looking for a fight. You are just inciting a flame war.

A calm opinion will be better for all involved.

Um mabey I'm missing somthing here but I was not talking to you was talking to fishyfishfish

 

[Tankkeepers]

I bought a complete GHL Profilux 4 set and a doser 2.1 a year ago, and it didn't drop wifi a single time.

Guess what happens with your LAN connection when the router fails? It drops as much as the WiFi.

Even when disconnected from the network, it keeps on chugging along as usual.

This thing is litterally set and forget.

Do you seriously think that happy customers take the time to post about how happy they are with their products?

Disgruntled customers will comment on the internet, happy ones do not.

@Lasse Care to jump in? Seems like there is much disinformation going on here.

I post as many positive comments even more so then negative

And I also want to point out I was not trying to start a fight you all did

All I said was ghl lost a costumer due to them having a defect in there internet connectivity
That if they fixed their crap they would have sold me but instead I'm going apex or mabey Alkatronic with a Mastertronic idk yet

And I have stated facts I have found

Again good luck there was no reason to try and defend somthing that may work for your needs but is broken out of the box

 

[laverda]

I don't care what you buy, but i think your fooling yourself and making a mountain out of a mole hill. I don't have GHL, so I can only comment on my Apex. I do not trust my Apex to control any critical functions on my tank after several failures that killed most of my corals. On top of that I have a brain that failed, two displays and 2 of their power bars. You could not give me a trident or a doser.
The internet connectivity is useless if your controller turns a outlet from auto to on and dumps the content of your Alk dosing container into your tank. Especially when the alarms set up to warn you of a PH spike never go off! Assuming they did, you would probably still have to fly home to fix the issue.
The reality is if you're going to be gone for a month at a time you need to have someone that can check on your tank when needed. Either a fellow hobbiests or a professional service.
Set up your router to restart once a day if your that worried about it. Put your controller, router and modom on UPS battery backups for power failures.

 

[Lucas815]

Forthen I have concluded that these units are decent if you don't care about remote control but worthless if you want remote control without a bunch of extra stuff to do what the unit should if in the first place

I monitor and control my P4 away from home all the time, without issue.

I also receive push notifications without fail, and can act on them immediately through MyGHL cloud connection.

You have no idea if the proportion of users with issues represent 100%, 50%, 1% or 0.1% of the total number of GHL owners. All you have are anecdotes.

What I can say is that these units are designed and built in Germany, they are still in business today, they are sold in many parts of the world, and are also used by professionals in research and business contexts.

I think we can assume that GHL is doing just fine, and users with issues represent a small portion of the user base, otherwise they would have closed shop a while ago.

 

[Lasse]

@Tankkeepers - IMO - you should your buy your Apex and go further with your life and stop to yell at people. Using uppercase in internet posts is the same as yelling loadly

but every user iv talked to except lasse on here on another page who informed me the wired connection on the 2.1 cant be used if slaved to the controller has gad wifi problems

I thought a work around was to connect to the 2.1 doser pump via its connection but you lose that when connected to a 4 or 4e so again another really dumb design

You can´t have two brains in the same network.

If you want a hardwire connection to your profilux computer - try to buy a used Profilux 3.xx. It has nearly the same capacity as Profilux 4 but comes with a wired ethernet connection - however no WiFi. All new hardware have been designed to work with the P3 serie and the firmware for P3 is still updated to fit with most things that P4 can do. It is a work horse that have been operativ in more than 12 years.

SINCERELY Lasse

 

[gbroadbridge]

I understand what your saying honestly I do but your not going to change my mind here

Yes it can do all this but you are missing my entire point

I will not be home for a month or more at a time

And I will not want a system I can not depend on to be able to be remotely controlled all the time

The wifi being a problem with no other default option on a close to 1000 dollar device needing a work around is ridiculous

If this is fine with you then by all mean show these companies you will buy broken crap

Even problem I see with ghl is one of 2 thing the wifi does not work right but other then that dependable

Or they didn't set it up right

I understand this can run without

It should not have to it should of been fixed

It is aparently a software issue that cause the usit to send requests way way way way to often and mess up the router verivied by another first hand user that sold everything ghl

I have done alot of reading and talking to first hand users watching videos etc over the course of 2 weeks or so now about 6 to 8 hours a day as I don't have alot else to do right now

So I fully understand what I'm talking about

Yes these units work

Yes these units work without wifi

They are finicy to get setup no big deal

but every user iv talked to except lasse on here on another page who informed me the wired connection on the 2.1 cant be used if slaved to the controller has gad wifi problems

I thought a work around was to connect to the 2.1 doser pump via its connection but you lose that when connected to a 4 or 4e so again another really dumb design

I HAVE 0 USE FOR THIS IF I CAN NOT DEPEND ON IT TO STAY CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

WAY WAY WAY TO MANY OF THESE UNITS DO THE EXACT SAME THING THAT SHOULD OF BEEN FIXED ALONG WITH FEATURE THEY HAVE NOT RELEASED IN A RESANABLE TIME FRAME

Forthen I have concluded that these units are decent if you don't care about remote control but worthless if you want remote control without a bunch of extra stuff to do what the unit should if in the first place

And the fact they don't include a hardline on their flagship model is a joke

So I'll pass

Have fun with your units I hope they serve you well but I'm not the only person iv talked to that went somthing else vs ghl due to them not being so good

As in alot of bad probs

More then a few units with bad readings(that may be user setup error tho)

And almost ever single one with a wifi problem

In the last week i could count including myself more then 50000 in lost sales to ghl due to the wifi problems

That's just the people iv personally talked to not counting the fourms videos etc

I routinely travel away for more than a month at a time and I have no problem leaving control of the aquarium to a Profilux 4.

I have no desire to babysit the controller, nor any wish to micromanage it. I often have no internet even if I wished to check in on it.

The controller hardware is rock solid, and the underlying PLC design
sound.

The interface could be tarted up a bit, but function is more important than presentation in a life support system.

 

[ingchr1]

I was just away for a week and had no worries of being gone with my tanks under GHL control. Got my P4 daily text every day and no issues with remote login. Arrived home with everything just fine, just a lot of algae on the glass.

 

[169468]

I post as many positive comments even more so then negative

And I also want to point out I was not trying to start a fight you all did

All I said was ghl lost a costumer due to them having a defect in there internet connectivity
That if they fixed their crap they would have sold me but instead I'm going apex or mabey Alkatronic with a Mastertronic idk yet

And I have stated facts I have found

Again good luck there was no reason to try and defend somthing that may work for your needs but is broken out of the box

But it's not 'broken out of the box'; that's just an emotive false statement. We can debate facts but we can't debate irrational baseless statements.

There was equally no reason for you to come here and attack something, as there was for others to defend it, but it's a forum so if you post something then you can't then criticise somebody for replying just because they disagree with you.

I'm done here as this will now just continue to deteriorate into mud-slinging.

 

[HuduVudu]

Set up your router to restart once a day if your that worried about it.

This will not work. The GHL controller floods the router with DHCP requests. The problem is not with the router so power cycling it is pointless.

 

[Lasse]

The GHL controller floods the router with DHCP requests.

This is something I do not understand. Here is my local settings for my P4 chip. Local adress (my network) 192.168.1.122 DHCP is not activated at all

Here is the manual assigned IP adress in my DHCP server (it always have the same IP)

Here is my log of DHCP loans. 192.168.1.122 (my P4) has not even a loan. It does not use DHCP at all

This is the P4 chip - latest FW.

I do not understand how it can fload the routers with requests in this case

Sincerely Lasse

 

[HuduVudu]

@Lasse I am not trying to be combative, I just want this to be seen.

You need to be able to look at the traffic logs. I don't know if you can do that on your router. What I saw in my traffic logs showed the DHCP request from the GHL that was then ignored by the GHL on handshake, even though the GHL was configured for a static ip. You are absolutely correct the GHL should NOT be making this request, hence my belief that there is a bug. From my logs the router never finishes the handshake so the static IP stands.

My speculation is that perhaps intermittently the GHL completes the handshake. This would cause a possible stuck situation. I can not be certain because I will never see the source code.

I do know that this does happen and only on the WiFi. It does not seem to occur on the wired line.

I spent an afternoon fighting with this and rebooting and changing and this is what I found.

 

[Lasse]

I would do a ticket and show how it looks for the developers - I can´t see this in my logs.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[HuduVudu]

I would do a ticket and show how it looks for the developers - I can´t see this in my logs.

Sincerely Lasse

Sorry Lasse don't have the equipment anymore. :(

 

[gbroadbridge]

This is something I do not understand. Here is my local settings for my P4 chip. Local adress (my network) 192.168.1.122 DHCP is not activated at all

Here is the manual assigned IP adress in my DHCP server (it always have the same IP)

Here is my log of DHCP loans. 192.168.1.122 (my P4) has not even a loan. It does not use DHCP at all

This is the P4 chip - latest FW.

I do not understand how it can fload the routers with requests in this case

Sincerely Lasse

You're running Web Module v7132, and device firmware v7.28 ?

I see no DHCP requests using tcpdump utility on my router when my P4 is configured with those versions and static IP address.

 

[Tankkeepers]

But it's not 'broken out of the box'; that's just an emotive false statement. We can debate facts but we can't debate irrational baseless statements.

There was equally no reason for you to come here and attack something, as there was for others to defend it, but it's a forum so if you post something then you can't then criticise somebody for replying just because they disagree with you.

I'm done here as this will now just continue to deteriorate into mud-slinging.

Except it is broken out of the box

You take it out of the box set it up and the wifi does not work correctly

How is that not broken out of the box exactly

Not broken out of the box would imply that at some point the hardware just fails

Both of these are unacceptable

I was not being combative in the first place I was simply stating a fact

Then you all get on here and defend a piece of equipment that does not work as intended and call it ok

I'm sorry but you need to take a step back and take a look at what your saying

All I hear is you have to run a bypass on the system to get it to work as it should in the first place

This is not a 35 dollar unit from Amazon

This is a 700 to 900 dollar unit and the fact it has any manufacturer defect via software or hardware is completely unacceptable

At this price point it should work flawless it does not that's just a fact

Buy a car that only starts half the time you need it to and you'd be returning it in a heart beat not defending it like it's God's gift to man