Project Apex (Black Edition) by Elder1945

Black Pearl · Jun 16, 2017

Ty Hamatake said:
Dude, this is SO brave! Lol I most definitely would've quit as soon as I pulled the faceplate off of the energy bar... I guess it helps to know what you're doing though. Completely stoked to see what you come up with!

Absolutely and I hear the theme song of Star Trek in the background

chefjpaul · Jun 16, 2017

Hahaha...this is awesome.
Always love your stuff.
Getting bored waiting on the V2?

Still waiting on my ghl setup....[emoji4][emoji4][emoji4]

Fr4nkthet4nk · Jun 16, 2017

Following this!

lennyd19 · Jun 16, 2017

@Elder1945 you never seem to stop delivering crazy new ideas. I think it is going to be awesome to see your rendition of the apex. Can't wait.

Ty Hamatake · Jun 17, 2017

Elder1945 said:
Yea, having the pcb's flat helps to stream line the apex head unit. It was 3 pcb's layered onto of each other. They used 16p connectors so i can get them off the shelf. I did however change the male connectors as I did not need the crazy pins that they use.

I am happy how they construct the head units but wonder how much interference they get between the readings in the probes with this stack approached.

Ha ha, I didn't understand most of what you said, but really looking forward to it. So you'll be making the head unit flat? That is my biggest complaint, that it's so bulky.

clsanchez77 · Jun 17, 2017

This is impressive. I specifically bought the classic for several reasons. The arrangement of the head unit and the consolidation of the head base into the energy bar was stupid IMO. I even built the electrical portion of my cabinet specifically to keep 120v wiring separate from the low voltage.

KingJason · Jun 17, 2017

This should be great

sromero287 · Jun 17, 2017

Congratulations on your electronics savvy, can wait to see this Apex finished!!! [emoji106][emoji225][emoji886]

reeksreef · Jun 17, 2017

This really take guts, but if you have an understanding of the technology then its a piece of cake. Following along.

DJ Monty · Jun 17, 2017

Following

Txdragonslayer · Jun 17, 2017

Wow you have got a lot done!

revhtree · Jun 17, 2017

Dude can't wait to see this!!

drukyulgoods · Jun 17, 2017

Elder 1925,
Great project and good luck. Great respect to your education to the community. Manufacturers need disruption. As a circuit designer and a long term owner of a 180gal reef tank in one's home, I must caution you to please be very careful with your shared photographs. Essentially, you just gave a roadmap to Chinese organizations to produce cheap and faulty copies of Apex's fine work. It is understood that this not your intention and one applauds your efforts to make things better.

The aquarist industry is increasing becoming fragmented with respect to a controlled look at one's reef passion. It reminds this old author of the quad audio standards fight in the early 80's. Everyone lost.

GHL, Apex, Reeflink, and quite a few others either pioneered or entered the market to help us out and are doing fantastic things competing with one another. Whom one chooses remains a personal choice. With respect to fragmentation, please look at what has occurred over the past few years with respect to lighting control. Geismann, AI/Ecotech, GHL, Maxspect, you name it, no longer talks on a common interface. It is frustrating that after years of confidence that one no longer has a common interface to access to ensure that one's passion tank is doing okay when one travels Internationally. It is very painful now.

Keep doing what you are doing Elder 1925 Sir. This is how the industry grows.

Terrance, you should follow and learn from Elder 1925's efforts. Further, please continue to push a standards efforts with your competitors.

Respectfully Submitted,
Drukyulgoods

Txdragonslayer · Jun 17, 2017

drukyulgoods said:
Elder 1925,
Great project and good luck. Great respect to your education to the community. Manufacturers need disruption. As a circuit designer and a long term owner of a 180gal reef tank in one's home, I must caution you to please be very careful with your shared photographs. Essentially, you just gave a roadmap to Chinese organizations to produce cheap and faulty copies of Apex's fine work. It is understood that this not your intention and one applauds your efforts to make things better.

The aquarist industry is increasing becoming fragmented with respect to a controlled look at one's reef passion. It reminds this old author of the quad audio standards fight in the early 80's. Everyone lost.

GHL, Apex, Reeflink, and quite a few others either pioneered or entered the market to help us out and are doing fantastic things competing with one another. Whom one chooses remains a personal choice. With respect to fragmentation, please look at what has occurred over the past few years with respect to lighting control. Geismann, AI/Ecotech, GHL, Maxspect, you name it, no longer talks on a common interface. It is frustrating that after years of confidence that one no longer has a common interface to access to ensure that one's passion tank is doing okay when one travels Internationally. It is very painful now.

Keep doing what you are doing Elder 1925 Sir. This is how the industry grows.

Terrance, you should follow and learn from Elder 1925's efforts. Further, please continue to push a standards efforts with your competitors.

Respectfully Submitted,
Drukyulgoods

I just have to say that it's Elder45, not 25. But in respect to any other organization stealing Apex or any other controllers ideas would be a matter of Simply purchasing it themselves and taking it apart themselves which if it was their intention of Stealing then I'm sure it has already been done. I understand your concern as some countries do not respect foreign copyright laws. But, Elder45 is simply adding his twist to a fabulous product and I can't wait to see the finished product.

Who knows maybe he will open his own store of moded high end gear! Hint hint.

drukyulgoods · Jun 17, 2017

Sheldon Jessup said:
I just have to say that it's Elder45, not 25. But in respect to any other organization stealing Apex or any other controllers ideas would be a matter of Simply purchasing it themselves and taking it apart themselves which if it was their intention of Stealing then I'm sure it has already been done. I understand your concern as some countries do not respect foreign copyright laws. But, Elder45 is simply adding his twist to a fabulous product and I can't wait to see the finished product.

Who knows maybe he will open his own store of moded high end gear! Hint hint.

Thanks for the comments and agreed. Apologies to all for the typos. I was typing that on a mobile device in an airport. One fully supports building and improving which in essence are the seeds of innovation. One 'buried the lead' with the statements of increased frustration due to the fragmentation of the marketplace for a consumer to have a unified view into their passion.

Elder1945 · Jun 17, 2017

drukyulgoods said:
Elder 1925,
Great project and good luck. Great respect to your education to the community. Manufacturers need disruption. As a circuit designer and a long term owner of a 180gal reef tank in one's home, I must caution you to please be very careful with your shared photographs. Essentially, you just gave a roadmap to Chinese organizations to produce cheap and faulty copies of Apex's fine work. It is understood that this not your intention and one applauds your efforts to make things better.

The aquarist industry is increasing becoming fragmented with respect to a controlled look at one's reef passion. It reminds this old author of the quad audio standards fight in the early 80's. Everyone lost.

GHL, Apex, Reeflink, and quite a few others either pioneered or entered the market to help us out and are doing fantastic things competing with one another. Whom one chooses remains a personal choice. With respect to fragmentation, please look at what has occurred over the past few years with respect to lighting control. Geismann, AI/Ecotech, GHL, Maxspect, you name it, no longer talks on a common interface. It is frustrating that after years of confidence that one no longer has a common interface to access to ensure that one's passion tank is doing okay when one travels Internationally. It is very painful now.

Keep doing what you are doing Elder 1925 Sir. This is how the industry grows.

Terrance, you should follow and learn from Elder 1925's efforts. Further, please continue to push a standards efforts with your competitors.

Respectfully Submitted,
Drukyulgoods

Overall I did think about how sharing pictures of the breakdown of the apex might be detrimental to some party's and how it may be used. This was quickly dismissed as you can buy them off the shelf and copy away... There are a few places out there that will even copy and produce the PCB in north America no just china. I have yet to scan the PCB and list the components.... If someone out there wants to revers engineer the apex PCB's and the EB832 without the corresponding software side (The software is where the money is...) go crazy. My intentions as you stated are not malicious in any sort of way nor do I even know if this is going to work...

As for the Industry not working together I think this has to do with more company's wanting a bigger slice of the pie... Why just sell a controller when we can sell the return pump... Why help company A sell wave makers when we can just make them. I think this has more to do with it then anything China is making...

As for the whole China thing.... Most of everything in this hobby is from China and is made from a handful of factory's... You start just paying for how many QC checks the factory is doing. Pump A is made from the same factory as pump B just pump B costs more as it has 2 stage QC control.

I Agree that patent protection should be enforced around the world... Why this is not done is beyond me at this date and age.

"produce cheap and faulty copies of Apex's fine work"
I agree it is fine work and China does and can produce "cheap and faulty" work but on the other hand they can produce amazing work....... This is a blanket statement on all "Chinese" company's and just do not agree sorry.

"Terrance, you should follow and learn from Elder 1925's efforts. Further, please continue to push a standards efforts with your competitors."
I don't think Terreance has anything to learn from me and or Neptune. I still have a mixed bag of feelings on Neptune as a company but am willing to give there controller another go. This is 1 of 3 of the new apex units I am working on now. I also plan on running them on many projects in the future.

I do thank you for your post just see the concern a little unfounded.

Lets build some cool stuff!!

drawman · Jun 17, 2017

Following!

Mal11224 · Jun 17, 2017

Reminds me of when I used to take apart my hand held donkey kong game to fix it when I was much younger. Lol. This will be interesting to follow. You look well prepared for the task. Good luck. Can't wait to see the finished product.