What ever happened to the Vertex Cerebra?

[Tobe71]

Yeah man. One of them was pretty involved with the whole process. He let Vertex know, but otherwise kept it to himself.

Anyways. That's all behind everyone, thankfully! I'm so glad to see some real progress being made! Hopefully the long wait (which was really pretty short considering the scope of the project) will be worth it!

Thank God.
I’m getting truly excited. May even relist my eBay listing. It was getting embarrassing listing and then removing it from eBay over and over whenever it seemed we were “close”.
The cool part is that any I sell can be shipped directly from Vertex. It’s a win-win in that I’m not pushing Vertex for all 24 of mine at once so they can get more indivual Beta Testers that have stuck it out satisfied. As well as the time and dollar savings in shipping these to me and then me shipping them out individually as I sell them. Plus, who knows how long it will take me to sell the 21 I have left available?
If it really delivers all they’ve promised, I think the demand will be huge world wide. But I also understand that it’s gonna take a minute to rebuild consumer confidence and some people are so ticked that they’ll never come back and talk **** to however will listen going forward.
Lots of lessons in this for any business owner. I’ve talked to Jason (the owner of Vertex) and this is truly his passion project. I hope it pays off for him. I’ve never personally met anyone so driven to be the best no matter the cost or perceptions along the way. And Engineer through and through (for better or worse! Ha!)

 

[Tobe71]

Same - mine was running my tank, dosers, lighting, ATO and all right up until I upgraded tanks and went with an ApexEL because they told us not to use the v1 anymore. The only issue I had was if I used the power bars to run my return pump, turning larger ac pumps off/on would make the bar lose connection to the head unit.

That’s why I cut the cords on the powerbars and multibar and smashed the boards in the multibars before disposing of them (I haven’t done it to the whole pile yet, but will when my garage warms up), to make sure someone at the dump wouldn’t try to use any of it.
Still debating whether it would be worth it ethically (certainly not financially) to separate all the aluminum housings I have for recycling....

 

[FirstContact]

I was thinking about doing an “Office Space” style video destroying one of mine.
Ha!

Looks like we are finally getting closer...

Wow, every time I give up hope, Vertex comes back to life! I just still don’t understand their postings over the years that were clearly not true. Vertex is very confusing. I gave up hope, but if they come through, it’s great for everyone.

 

[rushbattle]

Wow, every time I give up hope, Vertex comes back to life! I just still don’t understand their postings over the years that were clearly not true. Vertex is very confusing. I gave up hope, but if they come through, it’s great for everyone.

This is my thing about the whole ordeal. Why lie over and over? It’s undermined all my trust in vertex completely. So much so that I won’t buy a CaRx or skimmer etc. from them either now.

 

[Sleepydoc]

This is my thing about the whole ordeal. Why lie over and over? It’s undermined all my trust in vertex completely. So much so that I won’t buy a CaRx or skimmer etc. from them either now.

That’s one of my big issues, too. Early on there were a lot of big red flags and things that they said that just didn’t make sense. I very much got the impression that they were not fully disclosing everything and/or trying to cover things up. I was considering buying one of the original units at one point but am so glad I didn’t. For the sake of the people who did, I hope V2 is a decent controller, but personally, after seeing how this whole debacle has been handled I don’t think I would ever purchase one and am frankly rather leery of other vertex products.

I will say that it’s been interesting watching the discussions. Many people are incredibly loyal to whatever controller company they have chosen, almost blindly so. It’s more akin to religion than any rational discussion. I’ve seen this for other companies, too, not just the Vertex Cerebra. I suppose it’s just human psychology - we all tend to rationalize things to varying degrees and this is often easier than admitting that we were wrong or made a mistake.

 

[FirstContact]

Oh, I know Cerebra was a mistake. I bought a Profilux 4 like several others who were in the same boat. I staunchly defended Vertex at the beginning; but, again, I and many others were wrong. I owned an Apex Classic too which I sold when I bought into Cerebra. Anyhow, I guess I will be well versed in controllers once I set up the GHL and V2.

 

[rushbattle]

Somewhat pertinent to this thread is that I was able to set up three aquariums (coral display-holding/fish qt/rock qt) with raspberry pi powered reef-pi setups and they are all at least as functional as the first cerebra at launch. In some ways it's more functional because it's more flexible for each install.

 

[Sleepydoc]

Somewhat pertinent to this thread is that I was able to set up three aquariums (coral display-holding/fish qt/rock qt) with raspberry pi powered reef-pi setups and they are all at least as functional as the first cerebra at launch. In some ways it's more functional because it's more flexible for each install.

There’s another thread on R2R from someone who made their own Raspberry PI based controller - it’s definitely plenty capable enough. (I’ve heard that Vertex is using it as a platform for the cerebra V2.)

I started using an Arduino to build my own controller a few years ago. I got fairly far along, and the flexibility is to make it exactly what you want is nice. In the end I decided I wouldn’t be able to make it stable/bug free enough to truly trust it for my tank and ditched it.

 

[rushbattle]

There’s another thread on R2R from someone who made their own Raspberry PI based controller - it’s definitely plenty capable enough. (I’ve heard that Vertex is using it as a platform for the cerebra V2.)

I started using an Arduino to build my own controller a few years ago. I got fairly far along, and the flexibility is to make it exactly what you want is nice. In the end I decided I wouldn’t be able to make it stable/bug free enough to truly trust it for my tank and ditched it.

Yes, Vertex is using RPi as well with proprietary software overlaying raspbian or some custom linux variant. Originally it was supposed to be super open and adaptable but they seem to have reversed course due to (laughable) security concerns. reef-pi is super easy to implement and because there is a large installed user base we are catching the bugs pretty quickly. The basic functionality is sufficiently stable to run a tank now I think (hope).

 

[BZOFIQ]

I'm really excited about this, hope they deliver.

 

[BZOFIQ]

This is my thing about the whole ordeal. Why lie over and over? It’s undermined all my trust in vertex completely. So much so that I won’t buy a CaRx or skimmer etc. from them either now.

I see how one could feel sour about the experience but this has been no different than the way Neptune approached the Trident - I believe, products are preannounced to introduce doubt so that customers dont invest in competing systems.

Take a look at this link:

https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/apex-trident-alk-cal-mag-monitoring-device-neptune-systems/

Trident was "announced" years ago with availability scheduled for Q1-2017, then end of year, then 2018, then RAP NY, end of the year and here we are February 2019 and there is no product on the market.

That said, I am sure that once its released and approved by the early adopters, either product will fly off the shelf.

 

[Terence]

I see how one could feel sour about the experience but this has been no different than the way Neptune approached the Trident - I believe, products are preannounced to introduce doubt so that customers dont invest in competing systems.

Take a look at this link:

https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/apex-trident-alk-cal-mag-monitoring-device-neptune-systems/

Trident was "announced" years ago with availability scheduled for Q1-2017, then end of year, then 2018, then RAP NY, end of the year and here we are February 2019 and there is no product on the market.

That said, I am sure that once its released and approved by the early adopters, either product will fly off the shelf.

While yes, there has been a delay from our original plan, your dates are way off. We did not announce it "years" ago. We announced it at MACNA 2017. Plans were to have it ready to ship mid-2018. The first weeks of this year, 2019, we started delivering to NSI members the production product for them to put through the paces. Please do not make an apples to apples comparison here. We are not even a year behind at this point.

 

[Tobe71]

While yes, there has been a delay from our original plan, your dates are way off. We did not announce it "years" ago. We announced it at MACNA 2017. Plans were to have it ready to ship mid-2018. The first weeks of this year, 2019, we started delivering to NSI members the production product for them to put through the paces. Please do not make an apples to apples comparison here. We are not even a year behind at this point.

Yikes. I guess that’s the famous Apex customer service I’ve heard about. Ha!
TBH, that was a huge reason I decided to go with Vertex.

 

[DarkSky]

Being in software development, I know how quickly dates can slip when it comes to hardware and software. I'm not surprised that the dates kept stretching as they progressed further along product development - but it seems they're a bit green at estimating dates for completion.

Step 1 - never do it.

While yes, there has been a delay from our original plan, your dates are way off. We did not announce it "years" ago. We announced it at MACNA 2017. Plans were to have it ready to ship mid-2018. The first weeks of this year, 2019, we started delivering to NSI members the production product for them to put through the paces. Please do not make an apples to apples comparison here. We are not even a year behind at this point.

Y'all got anymore of that NSI Tridents available?

 

[Foothill Corals]

While yes, there has been a delay from our original plan, your dates are way off. We did not announce it "years" ago. We announced it at MACNA 2017. Plans were to have it ready to ship mid-2018. The first weeks of this year, 2019, we started delivering to NSI members the production product for them to put through the paces. Please do not make an apples to apples comparison here. We are not even a year behind at this point.

This made me laugh.

 

[BZOFIQ]

While yes, there has been a delay from our original plan, your dates are way off. We did not announce it "years" ago. We announced it at MACNA 2017. Plans were to have it ready to ship mid-2018. The first weeks of this year, 2019, we started delivering to NSI members the production product for them to put through the paces. Please do not make an apples to apples comparison here. We are not even a year behind at this point.

I stand corrected Terence, yes original proposed availability was Q1-2018 not Q1-2017 as previously misquoted.

So yes, ONLY a year has passed since it didn't show up for sale as projected and 18 months post announcement with no product on the store's shelves.

 

[Terence]

I stand corrected Terence, yes original proposed availability was Q1-2018 not Q1-2017 as previously misquoted.

So yes, ONLY a year has passed since it didn't show up for sale as projected and 18 months post announcement with no product on the store's shelves.

Hate to correct you again. But I have to. Our original discussion at the events was that we should have them in the hands of some reefkeepers (NSI) in Q1/2018 with them up for sale mid 2018. We delivered the first NSI just after the new year. So technically we are about 9.5 months behind - but who's counting. For many reasons I think any comparison whatsoever to the Vertex dilemma is a far, far reach. I will just leave it at that.

 

[BZOFIQ]

Hate to correct you again. But I have to. Our original discussion at the events was that we should have them in the hands of some reefkeepers (NSI) in Q1/2018 with them up for sale mid 2018. We delivered the first NSI just after the new year. So technically we are about 9.5 months behind - but who's counting. For many reasons I think any comparison whatsoever to the Vertex dilemma is a far, far reach. I will just leave it at that.

Just as bad Terence - technically.

You're LATE and way past your projections!

Not as bad as Vertex perhaps, but still in the same bucket...metaphorically speaking.

 

[Cyricdark]

Just as bad Terence - technically.

You're LATE and way past your projections!

Not as bad as Vertex perhaps, but still in the same bucket...metaphorically speaking.

You are absolutely and unarguably dead wrong there is literally no comparison to waiting on the cerebra and waiting on the trident. First off the BRS video that I started this thread about came out in June of 2016 and at that time the controller was supposedly going to be released any time. When I posted this thread in May of 2017 there was still no information about its release that was valid. There still isn't 3 years later. I've got buddies in my Reef Club with the Trident right now . Neptune systems developed this completely in house and plans on releasing a finished product, vertex sold a bunch of barely functioning beta units to people that still have nothing for their money. Personally I think Terrence was being amazingly civil , they have made very good time on the Trident production in my opinion I truthfully didn't expect them to get it out until the end of this year nothing ever goes according to plan when doing development projects like this and I would much rather a company release it proper and working product then do what vertex did. All signs point that that's what Neptune is going to do they're going to release a proper finished product that 90% of people are going to be very happy with. Vertex has lied repeatedly over and over about production, release dates, supposed production problems, multiple times horrible communication, miscommunication, pretty much anything a business can do wrong in communicating the status of the development of a product they've done it. If Neptune has told any lies about the Trident release I've never seen it and I follow that news pretty closely.

 

[BZOFIQ]

You are absolutely and unarguably dead wrong there is literally no comparison to waiting on the cerebra and waiting on the trident. First off the BRS video that I started this thread about came out in June of 2016 and at that time the controller was supposedly going to be released any time. When I posted this thread in May of 2017 there was still no information about its release that was valid. There still isn't 3 years later. I've got buddies in my Reef Club with the Trident right now . Neptune systems developed this completely in house and plans on releasing a finished product, vertex sold a bunch of barely functioning beta units to people that still have nothing for their money. Personally I think Terrence was being amazingly civil , they have made very good time on the Trident production in my opinion I truthfully didn't expect them to get it out until the end of this year nothing ever goes according to plan when doing development projects like this and I would much rather a company release it proper and working product then do what vertex did. All signs point that that's what Neptune is going to do they're going to release a proper finished product that 90% of people are going to be very happy with. Vertex has lied repeatedly over and over about production, release dates, supposed production problems, multiple times horrible communication, miscommunication, pretty much anything a business can do wrong in communicating the status of the development of a product they've done it. If Neptune has told any lies about the Trident release I've never seen it and I follow that news pretty closely.

You haven't convinced me - For me and alone for me - they are in the same bucket 1 year, 3 years, whats the difference?....and yes I'm an apex user (well invested too); for now.

There are times I defend Neptune and there are times I don't. I am just a consumer - I don't subscribe to fanboyism in any form or take sides. I praise good products and/or features and I'm vocal about my disappointments.

To keep it short: The fact that "your buddies" have a working model doesn't change the fact that the product hasn't hit the shelf. Neither the one from Neptune nor the one from Vertex - PERIOD!