Apex Confusion

[TrueTricia]

I just set mine up last night, and I was having issues with the Return Pump and the Skimmer randomly turning off, even though I had them set to generally be ON all the time (I needed to read more before I started getting too into it).  But I hadn't added the SET value.  The pumps just kept turning on and off at what seemed like randon intervals.  Once I added the SET value, they stayed on and it worked perfect.  I like Fusion's web functionality.  I was laying in bed and turned the tank lights on just to test it. 

 

I'll be playing around more later tonight.  I am very happy with the system so far, and I can see this having enormous potential.  Here's a good website with some of the programming code.  http://www.kenargo.com/apexProgram/index.php  My boyfriend is also a programmer/IT guy, so I'm emailing him the manual and hoping that he can explain some of the more difficult sections to me and write some code!

 

I thought the Fusion was very easy to set up. The hardest part for me was figuring out how to log into the site (it didn't recognize the first account I created).  Well, and flipping between Fusion's limited instructions and the Comprehensive manual which doesn't include Fusion information.

[mling]

I just set mine up last night, and I was having issues with the Return Pump and the Skimmer randomly turning off, even though I had them set to generally be ON all the time (I needed to read more before I started getting too into it).  But I hadn't added the SET value.  The pumps just kept turning on and off at what seemed like randon intervals.  Once I added the SET value, they stayed on and it worked perfect.  I like Fusion's web functionality.  I was laying in bed and turned the tank lights on just to test it. 

 

I'll be playing around more later tonight.  I am very happy with the system so far, and I can see this having enormous potential.  Here's a good website with some of the programming code.  http://www.kenargo.com/apexProgram/index.php  My boyfriend is also a programmer/IT guy, so I'm emailing him the manual and hoping that he can explain some of the more difficult sections to me and write some code!

 

I thought the Fusion was very easy to set up. The hardest part for me was figuring out how to log into the site (it didn't recognize the first account I created).  Well, and flipping between Fusion's limited instructions and the Comprehensive manual which doesn't include Fusion information.

 

Did you have to update the firmware of your Apex to use Fusion ?  Mine is asking me to do so.

[dante411x]

Did you have to update the firmware of your Apex to use Fusion ? Mine is asking me to do so.

Yep. It has to be updated to latest firmware.

[TrueTricia]

Did you have to update the firmware of your Apex to use Fusion ? Mine is asking me to do so.

Yes I did and to be honest, that was the most complicated part mostly as I'm trying to figure out how to turn firewalls off etc. But I'm literally looking at the screen on my phone and loving how easy it is to manage.

[mling]

Yes I did and to be honest, that was the most complicated part mostly as I'm trying to figure out how to turn firewalls off etc. But I'm literally looking at the screen on my phone and loving how easy it is to manage.

 

So I too now have fusion set up, in my home network that is.  What firewalls did you have to turn off ? My ISP is Verizon FIOS.

Any one has tips of accessing the Apex on the internet ?

[mling]

Looks like digging into the Neptune web site does pay dividends.

 

Found this for internet connections for Verizon FIOS -> http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1760163

[TrueTricia]

So I too now have fusion set up, in my home network that is.  What firewalls did you have to turn off ? My ISP is Verizon FIOS.

Any one has tips of accessing the Apex on the internet ?

 

Uhhh.... I turned them off in my Windows control panel and my virus program. 

[mling]

Uhhh.... I turned them off in my Windows control panel and my virus program. 

 

Not quite sure what you did, but it would not be a good idea if you have a totally open network -> any one can hack your internal network.

 

Also do you have access to your Apex away from home ?  When you use your phone at home, it is probably using your home Wifi => you are still in your internal network. 

 

Have you tried accessing your Apex from work ?  That is the what I am currently trying to do.

[TrueTricia]

Yep.  I just go on the Apexfusion website and I can turn things off and on (or at least in theory I can because I'm not home to see if it works).  I suppose I should give someone my login information and test it!  I don't think it uses the wifi.  First, I have it hardwired in.  Secondly, I'm using the website and not an app, so the signal has to get bounced out of my network first to Fusion's servers and then back to the Apex (I think). 

 

As to the network, I don't think Comcast comes with a firewall.  We have passwords and all of that, but it's my laptop's personal firewalls that I disabled in order to install the firmware.  My boyfriend is an IT guru, and I'm sure when he moves up next month that we'll have all kinds of firewalls and such. 

Edited August 19, 2014 by truetricia2

[dante411x]

Right. Firewall and updating stuff and fusion. So. There's a couple different things that come into play here:

to update apex firmware. This is easy to do, and yes, while updating it you will need to turn off the firewall.

Here's the deal. And neptune website will go into this as well. You MUST have the computer and the apex plugged in via Ethernet cable to the router. With the apex, it's easy. It's plugged in already. Since it doesn't have built in wifi, you must have plugged the apex into one of two things. 1- your main router. 2- a wifi adapter (thingie that connects to your home wifi and has Ethernet plugs in it. Originally mainly used for gaming purposes before consoles had wifi built in). Main thing here is that you have to plug the computer into the same thing the apex is plugged into. So if it's connected to the router, you plug in your computer into the router (make sure you turn off wifi on the laptop so it's connected with a wire only) and update. If your apex is connected into a wifi adapter, plug the computer into the adapter and you're set.

What can(will) cause huge problems is if you connect to the apex via home wifi (during update connection is lost and your firmware is gone) or if you have apex plugged into wifi adapter and you plug computer into the main router (same problem as above). Don't connect your laptop directly to the apex by the way. Aka plug one end of an Ethernet cable into your laptop and the other end into the controller with nothing in between. It's possible to do it, but you'll have to make a lot of changes for the two to recognize each other.

Anyhow. Once you're done with the update and it's all good to go, you can turn firewall back on and you're set.

 

Now, before fusion, you'd have to set a static IP address for your apex and then if you connected to that address (from anywhere), you'd have access to the apex. Problem with that is, home routers usually change their IP addresses a lot. You don't really care about it normally, since it doesn't make any difference to regular online stuff. However, to connect to the apex from outside your home network, you'd need to connect to your router and then connect to the specific port that your apex is set to. And you have to have that permanent. Because if it changes, you won't have access to the controller anymore.

For those not technically inclined, think of it this way: your router (the thingie that plugs into your modem and makes wifi happen in your house) has an IP address. (So does everything on the internet for that matter). It periodically changes it just because it can. Think of connecting to apex from outside home like sending a letter. You put the address on the letter and it goes to the right house. Same as typing an IP address in the web browser. Then the "port" the apex is assigned to is like an apartment in an apartment building. The router is the building and the port is the specific apartment. Now, if you don't have the static IP set up, and you try to "send a letter" to that "apartment" you will be able to for the first (this depends on how often your router changes the address up). A day, a week, an hour, a minute etc. but then after it changes it, your address is useless.

There are plenty of guides on how to set up a static IP address. Use google.

 

Hopefully that wasn't a jumble, I'm typing on the phone and can only see the sentence above what I've written.

 

Anyhow. With fusion, you don't need to worry about programming your router to have a static IP address anymore. What it does is connect your apex to the fusion server. So that whenever you go to the fusion server and log in, you're automatically connected to the right apex. Whether or not you change addresses doesn't matter. It's all done automatically and if for some reason your router resets itself (power failure for example) you will still be able to monitor your controller.

So even though it's in beta, it's still very much worth it to have fusion set up.

For fusion to work you don't have to turn off the firewall. Only time you'll turn it off is to update the main controller.

[Djplus1]

I'm going to have to try Dante's method as it seems to be the clearest method I have heard to date. One add on question for Fusion users.

 

Does it recognize multiple Apex's on the same network? I have 1 Apex Lite and 2 Apex Jr.s controlling 3 separate tanks on separate floors and sides of my house (otherwise I would have used the Lite to control all).

 

Currently I have the three tanks named Bowfront, Dominick and Frag Tank. Can I basically do the same thing for Fusion?

[mling]

Does it recognize multiple Apex's on the same network? I have 1 Apex Lite and 2 Apex Jr.s controlling 3 separate tanks on separate floors and sides of my house (otherwise I would have used the Lite to control all).

Yes, you can add multiple Apexs to Fusion.  Based on what I have seen, it would appear that you can even add different Apex from different locations so long as they have internet access - that is the whole idea of the cloud.

Edited August 20, 2014 by mling

[AlanM]

Firmware should have been good to go for fusion since I updated it Friday night when I disconnected everything before doing an initialize all to erase my settings.

 

After the first firmware update the updater remembers all of the settings including the password, so it gets to be really easy.

[dante411x]

I'm using the website and not an app, so the signal has to get bounced out of my network first to Fusion's servers and then back to the Apex (I think).

There is no difference between website and phone app. Your apex is connected to the fusion cloud always. That's how it graphs etc. You connect to that same fusion cloud from whatever device using whatever network. Then when you log in, it matches you to your appropriate apex. Which way you connect to the fusion cloud to look/change settings doesn't matter.

[dante411x]

I'm going to have to try Dante's method as it seems to be the clearest method I have heard to date. One add on question for Fusion users.

 

Does it recognize multiple Apex's on the same network? I have 1 Apex Lite and 2 Apex Jr.s controlling 3 separate tanks on separate floors and sides of my house (otherwise I would have used the Lite to control all).

 

Currently I have the three tanks named Bowfront, Dominick and Frag Tank. Can I basically do the same thing for Fusion?

Yep you sure can have multiple. You can either have different accounts for all of them or have multiple ones on the same account. When you log into fusion, first screen is where you select the apex you'd like to manage.

It's that IP address thing from my novel above. Each apex will have a different one. And you can have unlimited IP's (not quite unlimited, but for all intents and purposes it is. Unless you have millions of devices on your home network) all connected to your home router.

[Djplus1]

Yep you sure can have multiple. You can either have different accounts for all of them or have multiple ones on the same account. When you log into fusion, first screen is where you select the apex you'd like to manage.

It's that IP address thing from my novel above. Each apex will have a different one. And you can have unlimited IP's (not quite unlimited, but for all intents and purposes it is. Unless you have millions of devices on your home network) all connected to your home router.

Unfortunately, that's where it gets dicey. I swear I do have millions of devices. Currently I have the Fios router, hardwired to an Asus Dark Knight (which is hard wired to the Apex Lite), hard wired to a cheapie Asus router (which is hard wired to my sons room tank) and another cheapie Asus router, wirelessly connected as an access point or bridge(which is hard wired to my frag tank) but is currently disconnected as for some reason it messes up my internets if I leave it plugged in.

 

On top of that mess, wireless devices abound, too many computers to count and internet enabled tv's, game systems, etc, not including when friends with tech come over to sign in and steal my bandwidth etc.

[TrueTricia]

There is no difference between website and phone app. Your apex is connected to the fusion cloud always. That's how it graphs etc. You connect to that same fusion cloud from whatever device using whatever network. Then when you log in, it matches you to your appropriate apex. Which way you connect to the fusion cloud to look/change settings doesn't matter.

 

Well, I couldn't even get the app to log me in, so I decided to just skip it all together.  Website works just fine.

[AlanM]

App logins are weird in undocumented ways. I discovered that the special characters I had in my password were not allowing the app to connect.

 

Also for the app you need to do the port forwarding on your firewall and ideally have a dynamic dns name, neither of which is easy for most aquarium owners.

[dante411x]

Well, I couldn't even get the app to log me in, so I decided to just skip it all together. Website works just fine.

The apex app you download from the App Store inst what you'd use to get on fusion.

That's the old app that requires static ip and port forwarding. For fusion, just type in:

apexfusion.com

In your mobile browser. Then (at least for iphone) save the window to home screen. If you access it from that bookmark on home screen instead of typing in website into browser, it'll function like an app.