I'm getting back into the hobby. I'm looking at controllers and the APEX was on my list. I don't want to bring negetive stuff into this thread, but I'd really appreciate your insight. Can you PM me and tell me why you don't like the APEX?
I know NOTHING about controllers. I would be so grateful for an honest opinion of the current market offerings.
I don't think there's anything wrong with discussing the Apex in this thread, as well as hobbyists' opinions of it. Especially since it's basically the only controller in town now.
First and foremost, I don't like how much the hobby relies on controllers now. As nice as they are, they are still entirely optional, yet many people don't think a tank can be run without one. Worse yet, I think many hobbyists are skipping on critical contingency planning because they believe their Apex has them covered. Knowing, for instance, that your return pump failed is all well and good, but what does that actually do for you? What if you work more than an hour away from home and can't take 3 hours out of your day to go replace your return pump? What if you live closer to work, but you can't take off because you're working on a big project? Or are in meetings all day? What if you don't have a spare pump and can't get one until one ships out to you? What if you're on vacation and you don't have a tank-sitter? What if you're on vacation and you have a tank-sitter, but they're not very good with aquariums? What if you have a tank sitter that's good with aquariums, but you don't have a return pump for them? Will they have the time to go to a LFS for you, buy a pump that may or may not fit your existing plumbing, and install it? What if they can do all that, but they're not great at PVC plumbing and don't really know how to cut and glue the PVC for the new pump in place?
In both of the above scenarios, I argue the Apex is not going to help much. Solving your problem relies much more on your logistics and how well you plan ahead. If you haven't planned ahead and taken care of a few key variables, knowing that your return pump failed is of little value.
My next complaint is the price. The Apex is a circuit board with some basic software loaded into it. The BOM (bill of materials) for this device is likely well under $50. It might be under $20 or so if Neptune makes some or all of the device in a third-world country like China or India. The software, after initial R&D, is free to load on the device. There is no reason that $25 - $50 worth of plastic, relays and chips should cost $800.
My final complaint is from an IT security perspective. I hate having any device be Internet-connected if it doesn't need to be. Neptune's software is not open source, nor have they made any attempts to have their software audited for flaws by an outside security consultant. You might say this is an unfair standard to set as almost no company that manufacturers IoT devices does this, and I agree. However, if the device does not meet these standards, it's not going online on my home network. I have far too much valuable digital information to allow a random closed-source device sit online on my network 24/7.
