Scheduled Versa programming issue- erratic operation day to day thru Mobius

David Gaskins · Jan 4, 2023

Having an intermittent issue with new (2 month old) VERSA pump. I have this programed thru Mobius to run two daily schedules for dosing Kalkwasser. 1st dosing schedule is from 8am-5pm for 1L to be dosed automatically; with 2nd dosing schedule from 5:30 pm- 7:45 am for 4L to be dosed automatically.

Over past week, I have come home from work to find a solid (non-blinking) blue LED and Mobius not showing that any dosing had occurred over past 1/2 day.

Only way I have found to restart dosing schedule is to pause and then restart programmed dosing. Manual dosing will occur regardless of state.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Sincerely,

David

Sisterlimonpot · Jan 4, 2023

So, I've experienced something similar, I was trying to get my versa to run my CaRx at various rates throughout the day.

The problem is how versa calculates motor rotation in Continuous Mode vs Custom Mode.

The intent for Custom Mode is to do short doses at scheduled times throughout the day, but when you tell it to dose large quantities over the course of hours, the calculations that it has to do to perform that task overflows. And it can't calculate that number. basically it's too large... so the versa throws an error code...

The way that it calculates Continuous Mode is different because it just calculates the steps per minute based on the rate, and it's a low enough number that it's not going to throw an error.

Of course based on your needs Continuous Mode won't work. So what I would recommend is to break up that 1L into 18 events every half hour from 8am - 5pm. And then do the same for the remaining 4L from 5:30pm to 7:45am.

David Gaskins · Jan 6, 2023

Thanks for your feedback. I believe, at least in my case, I have tracked the issue back to clock time in App. Both times I have had issues that I can document, I looked at App settings for time and it was off, but not necessarily in hours as if off by time zone. I was able to synch with local time tab and unit went back to dosing schedule. Since this is a BT based App, and not WIFI/WEB like my previous connection with Reef Link (for QD pumps I have), I cannot perform an remote checking or diagnostics to see if/when issue might pop up. Certainly some kind of issue in Mobius with keeping a correct time clock (apple Iphone 13).

I purchased this pump in October, and has been functional up to recent issues. Funny thing is, at Thanksgiving I finally jumped into tank automation with an A3 Pro Apex, and I am wondering if it might be best to trade off for a Neptune DOS as I there appears to be little in information on upcoming Mobius-Apex interface module and whether Mobius App issues will carry over since to my understanding this is still a cloud-interfacing unit for Mobius devices, not a local control unit.

Thoughts?

Sincerely,

David

Sisterlimonpot · Jan 6, 2023

I think the correcting of time was just coincidence, anytime you go in and make changes to the versa it essentially resets and works. I'd be curious (if you haven't changed the schedule yet) if the issue persist. I'd love to know if correcting time zone fixed the issue.

The versa has its own internal clock, I can't speak to the accuracy of it and how well it keeps time. And I've always maintained the notion that a daily sync up of all devices would benefit these components. More so for the lights, but the pumps can definitely benefit from being set to the same time.

We're not going to get much more information on the mxm until it's released. But since you have the apex already, i wouldn't trade the versa in for a dos. Those things have their own set of issues.

When we get the opportunity to include the versa to sensor data from apex we are going to see some amazing things.

David Gaskins · Jan 6, 2023

I'll keep a watch over this as I have not had time as yet to take your advice about changing schedule. If I see another issue, I'll be sure to post.

BTW, what are the most important issues are the DOS? I have an older Bubble Magus 3 channel doser that I use one channel for All4Reef, but that unit is running long on age. At some point I will need one more doser for this daily regimen.

Sincerely,

David

David_CO · May 12, 2023

Sisterlimonpot said:
So, I've experienced something similar, I was trying to get my versa to run my CaRx at various rates throughout the day.

The problem is how versa calculates motor rotation in Continuous Mode vs Custom Mode.

The intent for Custom Mode is to do short doses at scheduled times throughout the day, but when you tell it to dose large quantities over the course of hours, the calculations that it has to do to perform that task overflows. And it can't calculate that number. basically it's too large... so the versa throws an error code...

The way that it calculates Continuous Mode is different because it just calculates the steps per minute based on the rate, and it's a low enough number that it's not going to throw an error.

Of course based on your needs Continuous Mode won't work. So what I would recommend is to break up that 1L into 18 events every half hour from 8am - 5pm. And then do the same for the remaining 4L from 5:30pm to 7:45am.

Interesting you say this. I recently encountered this issue when changing from continuous mode to custom mode with various rates in a continuous manner. It seems to stop dosing around noon, so far its happened 2 times in 4 days. My "fix" has been to directly connect to the versa in mobius and manually dose 20-30ml or w/e then it seems to resume the schedule. If I manually dose without directly connecting, it will dispense my manual dose then just sit there locked up again.

I rely on it to dose about 5L a day of kalk, if its going to keep giving me problems I'll go back to continuous mode or swap it to a DOS head. Very disappointing, I was liking the nightly PH bump with heavier dosing.