IONDirector updates

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

robbyg

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 8, 2019
Messages
2,303
Reaction score
2,859
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The marketing for this is really kind of strange!
If I was running the company this is the time when I would be really showing off the product in order to keep the public interest high.

It's not just a matter of selling more Ion Directors or calming the nerves of pre order customers, it's also giving the people who are trying to make up their minds whether to go into the Neptune platform or buy into the GHL platform a good reason to go GHL. I am pretty sure a lot of people have jumped onto Neptune platform because of the Trident.
The timing IMHO is important as we all know that BRS is now selling GHL controllers and they made it sound like this is something they would continue to do only if the sales justified it.
 

tastyfish

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 7, 2017
Messages
525
Reaction score
444
Location
Hampshire
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The marketing for this is really kind of strange!
If I was running the company this is the time when I would be really showing off the product in order to keep the public interest high.

It's not just a matter of selling more Ion Directors or calming the nerves of pre order customers, it's also giving the people who are trying to make up their minds whether to go into the Neptune platform or buy into the GHL platform a good reason to go GHL. I am pretty sure a lot of people have jumped onto Neptune platform because of the Trident.
The timing IMHO is important as we all know that BRS is now selling GHL controllers and they made it sound like this is something they would continue to do only if the sales justified it.

GHL are first and foremost an engineering company. They don't do flashy marketing, make exaggerated claims and generally aren't as good with marketing as some other vendors.

However, they are fairly meticulous in their products and testing.

When I ordered my GHL, the LFS commented how many people had recently been buying GHL over Apex in the UK and Europe. Personally, although Trident concept fan, the IonD is a far better concept IMO, but probably harder to get right.

I don't mind saying, a little bit of wee came out when they said the IonD was with the field testing community. :)
 

sylvius

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 26, 2020
Messages
109
Reaction score
39
Location
philadelphia
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
IOND looks really cool and after reading the preliminary manual the biggest question is when is the right time to order.

I was interested to see that the waste and return water drain to gravity whereas KHD uses a pump for the waste. Can we anticipate a KHD update that would allow gravity drainage to save a pump head?
 

IKD

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 13, 2015
Messages
3,127
Reaction score
4,513
Location
Orlando Area
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
The marketing for this is really kind of strange!
If I was running the company this is the time when I would be really showing off the product in order to keep the public interest high.

It's not just a matter of selling more Ion Directors or calming the nerves of pre order customers, it's also giving the people who are trying to make up their minds whether to go into the Neptune platform or buy into the GHL platform a good reason to go GHL. I am pretty sure a lot of people have jumped onto Neptune platform because of the Trident.
The timing IMHO is important as we all know that BRS is now selling GHL controllers and they made it sound like this is something they would continue to do only if the sales justified it.
I was one of those waiting and waiting and ended up going with Apex after the last postponement and lack of communication (this started a year before my tank was even set up). I have to say I was planning to be disappointed with Apex but I’m actually quite happy 3 months in. Maybe GHL will knock this out of the park and have a perfectly engineered product as folks claim is their wheelhouse and I’ll look to switch. In the meantime, I’m happy with the choice.
 

tastyfish

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 7, 2017
Messages
525
Reaction score
444
Location
Hampshire
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I was one of those waiting and waiting and ended up going with Apex after the last postponement and lack of communication (this started a year before my tank was even set up). I have to say I was planning to be disappointed with Apex but I’m actually quite happy 3 months in. Maybe GHL will knock this out of the park and have a perfectly engineered product as folks claim is their wheelhouse and I’ll look to switch. In the meantime, I’m happy with the choice.

Apex isn't a bad system, I've run one for 7 years. Easy to use, but the quality of the hardware and firmware is poor vs GHL, IME.. The Trident is good, easy to use, but seems to have drawbacks around drifting results as reagents oxidise or the level in the containers drops.

Anyone who was following the Trident launch would know the even longer delays and false starts Neptune had, followed by supply/demand issues, reagent and logistics etc.

As I said then, people need to be patient and give them time to get it right. Especially in a global pandemic. The good thing with the IonD and kHD is that they can be run independently of the brand of controller you chose vs the Trident, where you have to buy the Apex.

So you're not forced to change your controller to one which doesn't match your purposes (Why I changed from Neptune to GHL as the non-US power bar is nearly 10 years old and out of date).

I was one of those waiting and waiting and ended up going with Apex after the last postponement and lack of communication (this started a year before my tank was even set up). I have to say I was planning to be disappointed with Apex but I’m actually quite happy 3 months in. Maybe GHL will knock this out of the park and have a perfectly engineered product as folks claim is their wheelhouse and I’ll look to switch. In the meantime, I’m happy with the choice.
 

tastyfish

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 7, 2017
Messages
525
Reaction score
444
Location
Hampshire
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I'm going to love the day I don't have to test mg and ca. .only deal with po4. Come on ion!!!! Let's goooo I go on vacation beginning of may. It would be nice to track while out of state But not gonna plan on it. Lol

I hate testing PO4... I was really hoping that GHL would find a way of getting the ionic probe to detect phosphorus, but hey ho. I would be more than happy with Ca, Mg, NO3, K & Na and no reagents. :)
 

Cunning_plan

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
May 21, 2020
Messages
132
Reaction score
96
Location
London
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I hate testing PO4... I was really hoping that GHL would find a way of getting the ionic probe to detect phosphorus, but hey ho. I would be more than happy with Ca, Mg, NO3, K & Na and no reagents. :)

I guess that if you can correctly do those without reagents it allows you to optimise which gaps to fill in with an alternative - if neptune can do 3 I see no reason you wouldn't just do a similar product to fill in the gap. So do kH, PO4 and maybe Fe? on a seperate tool. Or better still, just make the dang thing generic - sell reagants for whatever they want and have colorimiters calibrated for a set of different reagents so we can add up to 3 reagent based tests ourselves...
 
OP
OP
CEReefer

CEReefer

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 7, 2019
Messages
589
Reaction score
329
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I guess that if you can correctly do those without reagents it allows you to optimise which gaps to fill in with an alternative - if neptune can do 3 I see no reason you wouldn't just do a similar product to fill in the gap. So do kH, PO4 and maybe Fe? on a seperate tool. Or better still, just make the dang thing generic - sell reagants for whatever they want and have colorimiters calibrated for a set of different reagents so we can add up to 3 reagent based tests ourselves...
So basically a reefbot. https://www.reefkinetics.com/product/reefbot/ or a mastertronic http://www.focustronic.net/products/core-products/mastertronic.html ;)
 

tastyfish

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 7, 2017
Messages
525
Reaction score
444
Location
Hampshire
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
OP
OP
CEReefer

CEReefer

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 7, 2019
Messages
589
Reaction score
329
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
If you wanted to automate manual tasks by using automated manual tests... :)

I like the different approach of the IonD to the brute force of the Reefbot, MasterTronic or Triton.

I just hope it will be all it promises to be. :)

I do to, but if he wants to pick reagents, those 2 are the way to go
 

robbyg

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 8, 2019
Messages
2,303
Reaction score
2,859
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Apex isn't a bad system, I've run one for 7 years. Easy to use, but the quality of the hardware and firmware is poor vs GHL, IME.. The Trident is good, easy to use, but seems to have drawbacks around drifting results as reagents oxidise or the level in the containers drops.

I am one of those people experiencing problems with the Trident or possibly it's reagents. At this point I kind of treat the unit like a pH probe! Like a pH probe I know its correct right after calibration and then I have to take into account a kind of predictable drift until I get to the next calibration. All in all it's not ideal.

As for Apex hardware reliability, that's a deal breaker for me. It's fine for monitoring the Trident but I would not trust it with chillers, heaters and my pumps. I am a lazy reefer, I try to make everything as reliable as possible and as automated as possible so as to avoid unexpected disasters. Sometimes my laziness comes back and bites me in the rear and that happened last night!

One of the reasons why I like AC return pumps is that they are very reliable and give the owner plenty of notice before they are going to break down. My Reeflo Dart had been giving me the noisy sound of bearings going bad for almost three months. Due to my laziness I kept on putting off changing the pump over to my spare due to the work involved.

Last night at about 10pm the pump let off a loud rumble that vibrated the walls. The sound would come and go every minute or so. I knew that one of the bearing balls had probably gotten stuck on the Race and was not moving. I was hesitant to do anything as the pump change over is going to be a 4 hour job due to the tight space and etc. So I left it for the night and the whole family put pillows over our ears.

In the morning when I woke up the sound was gone and the pump was just making it's typical bad bearing sound. I ate breakfast and then I suddenly heard my controller start beeping. The flow rate had dropped to zero and triggered two of my programs.

On inspection the pump was so hot that I could not even touch it with my thin work gloves. I had wait an hour for it to cool off. Four hours later my backup pump was installed and luckily the first pump had not killed the outlet on my powerbar. I am getting some weird ohm reading from the old ones motors coils so I suspect the coils are toast.

Oh well, it had done 16 years of service and had it's bearing replaced 4 times so I cannot complain. The one I put in is brand new and is completely silent.
I had planned to retire my original pair of pumps due to age so I was prepared, but had just put the work off for to long.
 

MartinWaite

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 1, 2017
Messages
307
Reaction score
253
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I reckon I'll be sticking with the Mastertronic which should be in the UK any day now. I know that it's Po4 that I want testing to figure out why it keeps on bottoming out.
 

eliasi

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 11, 2020
Messages
46
Reaction score
31
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Surprise, surprise..... more delays. What erks me even more is that not ten days ago, the word from GHL was that they were on track and field testing was very strong. Now another delay until end of March and still no announced shipping date! Looks like they’ve run out of excuses too... back to recycling the original pandemic-induced supply issue excuse. Poor form GHL. I’m done with jumping to your defence and I’m done with waiting. Will be getting my money back after you’ve had it for over a year and cancelling my order. I’m glad someone will be delighted to have moved up one place in the queue for a product that doesn’t exist.
 
OP
OP
CEReefer

CEReefer

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 7, 2019
Messages
589
Reaction score
329
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Surprise, surprise..... more delays. What erks me even more is that not ten days ago, the word from GHL was that they were on track and field testing was very strong. Now another delay until end of March and still no announced shipping date! Looks like they’ve run out of excuses too... back to recycling the original pandemic-induced supply issue excuse. Poor form GHL. I’m done with jumping to your defence and I’m done with waiting. Will be getting my money back after you’ve had it for over a year and cancelling my order. I’m glad someone will be delighted to have moved up one place in the queue for a product that doesn’t exist.

Where are you getting that information?
 

Member No 1

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 17, 2017
Messages
625
Reaction score
429
Location
Rehoboth, MA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Where are you getting that information?
I got an email:

ION Director beta testing and shipping update​


IOND beta testing is going well. Our test group continues to provide valuable data which has further helped us apply the finishing touches to the IOND.

The IOND hardware has proven to be rock-solid, and the software also works reliably. The analysis of the beta test results has shown that different environmental conditions can affect the IOND readings, so the chemical composition of the sensors will be optimized again, which will require another test run with the new sensors.

Because we understand the importance of maintaining top level reliability and accuracy, we have decided to extend our test phase a bit longer to make sure that you receive the polished product you deserve.

What does extended testing mean?
Since day 1, our primary goal has been to produce only the most reliable products and with the IOND it will be no different. Extended testing will allow us to better understand the potential variables in aquariums and see how these play a role in the IOND’s performance. If our tests and group feedback gives us an opportunity to improve the already impressive results, we’re definitely going to take the time to make the product even better!

How does this affect shipping?
Due to the current situation, many processes are severely slowed down, for example, sourcing raw materials for testing and production, manufacturing as well as shipping to testers takes longer than usual, which also makes beta testing more ineffective and time-consuming.

From today's point of view, the essential beta test will last through March 2021. It would be irresponsible to deliver a product that has not been 100% tested and that does not deliver optimal performance in every operating situation. As soon as the beta test is successfully completed, production and delivery will start immediately – we are prepared for it!

Meanwhile also the IOND manual has been published, please download it here.

Sincerely, Your GHL Team!
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 74 37.4%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 68 34.3%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 12.6%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 29 14.6%
  • Other.

    Votes: 2 1.0%
Back
Top