Curtis Scott August 16, 2013 Share August 16, 2013 (edited) I purchased an Apex Controller some time back. I have been holding off on installing it until my tank was fully recovered from a small crash I had last September that killed almost all of my SPS. This weekend I plan to try to install the controller and get it programmed. I am wondering if anyone with experience installing and getting them programmed could come over and help me out this weekend? Here is what I hope to set up: Neptune Systems Apex (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003X9K9TC/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) Neptune Systems Apex AquaController PM2 Conductivity, Temperature, I/O (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058V5BZA/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1) Neptune Systems Lab Grade PH Probe (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EHJPD6/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1) Some say setting these up is easy and some say it can be difficult. I figured it's worth a shot to ask someone in the club with experience for help because I really want to make sure it is done right. I can offer some food (delivery) and cold beverages (alcoholic or non) of your choice for your time and guidance. Thanks, Curtis Edited August 16, 2013 by Curtis Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pettyrd August 16, 2013 Share August 16, 2013 I too purchased a Neptune Apex a while ago and haven't gotten arround to setting it up. If possible, could I tag along? I need to set mine up as well... and I would love to see it done properly before attempting mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveS August 16, 2013 Share August 16, 2013 Sounds like programming apex controllers is a talk we should have at the next meeting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami August 16, 2013 Share August 16, 2013 The basic setup is quite easy, Curtis, if you can connect directly to it with your home network (not necessarily wirelessly) or a laptop. There's some really good documentation on this page. It's much better today than it was several years ago. It's worth having on hand in any case. Do you have a home network? Will the Apex be in a position where it can directly connect (wired connection) to your home network or to a computer, or will it have to connect wirelessly. If wirelessly, do you have some sort of wireless bridge available? It can also be set up from the keypad interface - it's just a little more tedious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curtis Scott August 16, 2013 Author Share August 16, 2013 The basic setup is quite easy, Curtis, if you can connect directly to it with your home network (not necessarily wirelessly) or a laptop. There's some really good documentation on this page. It's much better today than it was several years ago. It's worth having on hand in any case. Do you have a home network? Will the Apex be in a position where it can directly connect (wired connection) to your home network or to a computer, or will it have to connect wirelessly. If wirelessly, do you have some sort of wireless bridge available? It can also be set up from the keypad interface - it's just a little more tedious. Tom, thanks for the link to the docs. I do have a wireless network. Unfortunately, the router is located on the third floor, with my tank in the basement. I will have to connect wirelessly. I don't have a bridge, but I could look into purchasing one if it is necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curtis Scott August 16, 2013 Author Share August 16, 2013 Sounds like programming apex controllers is a talk we should have at the next meeting! I agree! Hopefully I will have mine set up by then and would be more than happy to help others set up theres. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curtis Scott August 16, 2013 Author Share August 16, 2013 I too purchased a Neptune Apex a while ago and haven't gotten arround to setting it up. If possible, could I tag along? I need to set mine up as well... and I would love to see it done properly before attempting mine. Sure thing, I'll keep you posted if someone can help me out this weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami August 16, 2013 Share August 16, 2013 I'm wired into my Apex. I know that a lot of others here use some form of wireless bridge. For those people: Can you list what make/model wireless bridge you're using, how reliable it is, approximate cost (if you remember) and whether or not you recommend it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime August 16, 2013 Share August 16, 2013 I'm wired into my Apex. I know that a lot of others here use some form of wireless bridge. For those people: Can you list what make/model wireless bridge you're using, how reliable it is, approximate cost (if you remember) and whether or not you recommend it? Interested in all this information as well. I have mine connected to the home network, which is very easy to do by following instructions, the programing is the part that confuses me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott711 August 16, 2013 Share August 16, 2013 (edited) If you look at the documentation on Neptunes website, they list recommended equipment. I never found one that was very reliable so mine is hard wired to my network. It also has a lot of sample programming for NOOB's that are looking to get their hands wet. There are quite a few people that have a lot of good experience with programming and setup on the board. Edited August 16, 2013 by scott711 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Djplus1 August 16, 2013 Share August 16, 2013 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003H98YK4/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I use two of these. Just go in and change function from router to repeater or wireless bridge. I forget which, but should be easy enough to figure out. But a reminder, you absolutely MUST hook up Apex to your main input router first as it will not hook up firmware hooked up wirelessly. You can then hook up your Apex to a wireless router or gaming adapter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curtis Scott August 16, 2013 Author Share August 16, 2013 (edited) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003H98YK4/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I use two of these. Just go in and change function from router to repeater or wireless bridge. I forget which, but should be easy enough to figure out. But a reminder, you absolutely MUST hook up Apex to your main input router first as it will not hook up firmware hooked up wirelessly. You can then hook up your Apex to a wireless router or gaming adapter. Ok I'll look at purchasing one of these! Thanks Do you know if the below would work for initial set up? I just learned from my mac/network guy at work that I can use my mac as a temporary bridge using sharing on my mac. Under system preferences > sharing > check internet sharing > (share connections from:) check connection from wifi > (to computers using:) check Ethernet. This way I can set this up from a wired connection. Hoping this works for installing it. Then I'll get my permanent bridge to place near the controller. Once programmed, will it be ok to take off line and place on the bridge later without losing the programming? I'm learning a lot from the comprehensive reference manual, like - 'Find a workspace near your PC and router where you can connect everything together – you don’t need to be near your tank.' I think I'm going to give it a shot and see if I can do it. I would still love to have someone experienced with these to help out if they can. Edited August 16, 2013 by Curtis Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Djplus1 August 16, 2013 Share August 16, 2013 Hooking it up to work is actually not THAT hard. Tapping into your network on the other hand or trying to access from internet is a different story. Be aware that you may encounter an issue where somehow your EB8 may not be recognized as default, because for some reason your Apex thinks you have 2 hooked up. I had to get on the phone with Neptune, as I was at a total loss. Easy enough for them, but for me, I couldn't figure out for the life of me why SOME of my outlets seemed to work, while others did not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami August 17, 2013 Share August 17, 2013 Hooking it up to work is actually not THAT hard. Tapping into your network on the other hand or trying to access from internet is a different story. Be aware that you may encounter an issue where somehow your EB8 may not be recognized as default, because for some reason your Apex thinks you have 2 hooked up. I had to get on the phone with Neptune, as I was at a total loss. Easy enough for them, but for me, I couldn't figure out for the life of me why SOME of my outlets seemed to work, while others did not. As I recall, the unit ships with a memory of the EB8 that it was hooked up during factory tests. That's why, I think, the phantom EB8 is present. You'd think it would not be difficult to just clear that out before shipping the units, wouldn't you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankieGee August 17, 2013 Share August 17, 2013 Has anyone heard if an Apex will work with an IT2080? I have a couple emails I into to Reefbreeders but haven't got a response yet. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Djplus1 August 17, 2013 Share August 17, 2013 Has anyone heard if an Apex will work with an IT2080? I have a couple emails I into to Reefbreeders but haven't got a response yet. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Not for controlling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curtis Scott August 18, 2013 Author Share August 18, 2013 It has been a long day, but I learned a lot and have most of the controller set up. Updated firmware, configured on the home network, configured/programmed the outlets, date/time, display, ect and even got the email alerts fixed with the latest fix from the NeptuneSystems forum. The last thing I've been stuck on for hours tonight is the port forwarding part. There has to be something simple I'm missing on this. After signing up with dyndns.org and creating the DDNS, I can't get it to forward correctly to the apex website. I just keep getting the router login page instead. The controller is plugged into my mac using an ethernet cord and the mac share internet option. Maybe this is my issue, but I don't know. I have Verizon if anyone has any advice or experience with this that would be awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM August 18, 2013 Share August 18, 2013 It has been a long day, but I learned a lot and have most of the controller set up. Updated firmware, configured on the home network, configured/programmed the outlets, date/time, display, ect and even got the email alerts fixed with the latest fix from the NeptuneSystems forum. The last thing I've been stuck on for hours tonight is the port forwarding part. There has to be something simple I'm missing on this. After signing up with dyndns.org and creating the DDNS, I can't get it to forward correctly to the apex website. I just keep getting the router login page instead. The controller is plugged into my mac using an ethernet cord and the mac share internet option. Maybe this is my issue, but I don't know. I have Verizon if anyone has any advice or experience with this that would be awesome. I could have sworn that verizon details were in the comprehensive guide. Here is a nice thread from reef central on verizon router setup. But depending on how the mac share works you may need to do routing on the mac as well. If the mac bridges the apex network onto the wireless you just need fios router setup. If the mac does NAT on its ethernet, you will need to figure out both. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1760163 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveS August 18, 2013 Share August 18, 2013 (edited) It has been a long day, but I learned a lot and have most of the controller set up. Updated firmware, configured on the home network, configured/programmed the outlets, date/time, display, ect and even got the email alerts fixed with the latest fix from the NeptuneSystems forum. The last thing I've been stuck on for hours tonight is the port forwarding part. There has to be something simple I'm missing on this. After signing up with dyndns.org and creating the DDNS, I can't get it to forward correctly to the apex website. I just keep getting the router login page instead. The controller is plugged into my mac using an ethernet cord and the mac share internet option. Maybe this is my issue, but I don't know. I have Verizon if anyone has any advice or experience with this that would be awesome. If you are getting your router login (and not the Apex) from the outside, you should first change your router security settings. This configuation makes your entire network vulnerable to people hacking into your network. The Verizon firewall/router isn't the most secure thing in the first place. Last thing you want to do is give everything access to the front door. You can PM me if you need help. Edited August 18, 2013 by DaveS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curtis Scott August 18, 2013 Author Share August 18, 2013 The comprehensive guide does link to that thread for the Verizon setup. I tried to follow this RC thread yesterday but the screen shots are so old since the firmware has been updated and I am using the latest router from Verizon. I think I'm going to try to just connect it directly to the router just to see if I can get the port forwarding working and access the website from an external network. I'm getting a wifi bridge later this week so hopefully I would just need to tweak the port forwarding settings when I get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami August 18, 2013 Share August 18, 2013 The router is likely on port 80. Move your Apex onto another port, like 8080 (then reboot) . Then forward incoming 8080 traffic to the internal Apex IP address. At that point, you reach your Apex using the DynDNS URL directly appended with ":8080" (Colon 8080). This basically tells your router to route the incoming request to your Apex. Sent from my phone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curtis Scott August 18, 2013 Author Share August 18, 2013 I was able to get it figured out!! I will have to make some sdjustments to the forwarding part one I get the wifi bridge, but other than that I am so happy I got it figured out! Thanks everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami August 18, 2013 Share August 18, 2013 Congratulations! Sent from my phone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM August 18, 2013 Share August 18, 2013 What's your external IP, hehe. Admin 1234. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curtis Scott August 18, 2013 Author Share August 18, 2013 Haha, thanks for the reminder, time to change this defaults I guess. Ha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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