THANK YOU APEX FOR LETTING ME QUIT THE HOBBY

[ca1ore]

I'm surprised nobody in their suggestions for redundancy mentioned the extra power supply that would supply the AUX port. I have that on an APC UPS and so the "half-a-brain" module never loses power and keeps the bus powered through any short flicks and not too long power outages.

Very good advice. I do this for my 2016 Apex brain as I have not found it to be all that happy when it loses power.

 

[BZOFIQ]

Something as silly as this with an AUX P/S would give you 6+ hour protection against hiccups and outages.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...37709&et_p1=&email64=eG9vbWVyQHhvb21lci5jb20=

Keeping the power supplied to the brain and bus bar greatly improves stability of the system and APEX needs every bit of helping hand you can provide

 

[User]

Is the aux input on the apex 12v?

 

[BZOFIQ]

I believe it is, I can double check when back home unless somebody beats me to it.

I just use a random good quality power supply that was a left over from some small router probably. Gave different ones away to my local friends, they have done the same; works without a hitch.

 

[User]

Can you power it from a 12v battery while the aqua is to an eb8 is also powering it?

Or do you need to have a power interrupt switch (or relay) that switches it to goes to battery if power goes out- like in a UPS?

 

[BZOFIQ]

Can you power it from a 12v battery while the aqua is to an eb8 is also powering it?

Or do you need to have a power interrupt switch (or relay) that switches it to goes to battery if power goes out- like in a UPS?

YOU can power from a battery or power supply while the unit is connected to power. It's an Aux power and it is on all the time. Even if your EB8 loses power the brain and all green lights on power strips/modules remain solid green and do not have to initialize and possibly cause headaches. The center pin is positive and the "sleeve" is negative. If you're powering it from a 12V battery i'd recommend you put a small (perhaps 1A) fuse inline. I have not measured actual power draw on the 12V side so can't tell you how long your battery would last.

 

[BZOFIQ]

Is the aux input on the apex 12v?

It is, the power supply Neptune sells is here.

https://www.neptunesystems.com/product/12v-power-supply-2/

Any modern power supply with same voltage and mA rating will do the job as long as the plug is the same and polarity is too (center of the plug is positive)

In my experience with electronics, most devices today are powered by 12V power bricks around 1A (1000mA) rated. In other words; I'm sure most of us will have one laying around in a pile of junk; just look for it.

 

[ZaneTer]

Please post it.

Sorry for the late reply. I will get it priced up and written out some time today for you. There are pros and cons but I’ll explain those as well.

 

[ZaneTer]

@Monkeytank
@xoomercom

Price:
Ok so lets begin pricing a for 32 dosing head system expansion:
32 Digital Output card: $179 (edit add ing model number: 6ES7322-1BL00-0AA0)
32 Interposing Relays 24vDC: ~$128
32 Amazon chinese dosing heads 100ml/min: ~ $256
Throw in around another $30 for cable to wire it all up
Total: $593

GHL:
8 x 4 head slave dosing units 4 x $409.90
Total: $1639.60

Apex:
16 x 2 head DOS: 16 x $299.99
Total: $4799.84 - What an astronomical con!!!

Control:
So here is why I use my own controller:
This is what I do for a living. I love my job and I have a passion for automation. Currently GHL claim to be king of dosing with a 0.1ml dosing accuracy. I don't believe them for a second having owned and thrown away their equipment. The dosing does drift and is especially noticeable when having multiple clear containers next to each other that are being drawn off. Siemens CPUs are very fast controllers and for most systems run between 3 and 20 milliseconds to process all of the code. It is designed for applications in multiple industries ranging from manufacturing to pharmaceuticals to nuclear. For a something as small as a reef tank you will be operating at 1ms or less.

Lets take another look at that cheap dosing head. It runs at 100ml/min. That equates to 100ml/60000ms or 0.00167ml/ms. Lets say that I have lag in the relay that adds on another 10ms plus another 5ms for signal processing. 10ms+5ms+1ms comes to a total of 16ms for accurate control deviation. You now have a maximum dose deviation of 0.027ml. We are now sitting at 4 times the accuracy of the leader with some pretty cheap components. The slower the dosing head you buy the more accurate you will be. I just use 100ml/min heads because it fulfills most of my uses. I could swap one out for 500mlm/min head for water changes and it will only cost me another $20.

Pros and cons:
My system:
Pros: Complete customization. I can change anything about the system and integrate any of the heads into control loops or any amount of logic I feel like. The price is way better than anything any of the leaders offer. Accuracy is also far in the lead. If a component fails it is very cheap and easy to carry out the repair at home.
Cons: Requires a good knowledge of automation hardware and software.

GHL:
Pros: Plug and play. Somewhat accurate.
Cons: Dosing does drift. Cost is quite prohibitive. Has been known to lock up and dump chemicals (my own personal experience)

APEX
Pros: Plug and play. Somewhat accurate.
Cons: Cost is extortionate, really, what were they smoking when they decided to price this? Enough complaints surrounding reliability in the forums to warrant caution.

Hope this helps.
Zane

 

[ZaneTer]

@xoomercom

Thanks for the maths correction GHL should have come out at $3279.20