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Thread: Afs causes APEX reset when plugged in.

  1. #1
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    Afs causes APEX reset when plugged in.

    Hello.

    I have a classic system with an apex auto feeder that I have been using successfully for years. When reloading fish food last week and placing the unit back on the tank, my apex controller reset after about a few minutes delay. It then will cycle on and off with a duration of about five minutes continually.

    I narrowed down the problem to the afs. When the USB is unplugged then the apex controller works perfectly. When I plug in the USB cable the system seems very o be fine but after a minute or so the lcd on the controller starts to flicker and then the whole thing power cycles.

    Broken afs unit? Maybe it is staring to draw too much power? Any ideas?

    Tia,

  2. #2
    Frequent Contributor zombie's Avatar
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    Have you tried a different aquabus cable to make sure it's not the cable itself?

    Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

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    Quote Originally Posted by zombie View Post
    Have you tried a different aquabus cable to make sure it's not the cable itself?
    I have not. I will try it and report back. Thanks.

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    Quote Originally Posted by zombie View Post
    Have you tried a different aquabus cable to make sure it's not the cable itself?
    Before I have had a chance to test the cable to the AFS, the system went into an on-off repeating power cycle again. This time instead of removing the AFS (which I already removed), I unplugged the WMX module and the on-off power cycle stopped. I ended up replacing two USB cables and it still power cycles, but now weirdly, the LED module doesn't turn off and on. I can hear the relays clicking in the outlet box.

    Not sure what is going on, but I just plugged and unplugged the WMX module and the system is working again. It's not the cable I don't think because I changed all the USB cables earlier. Somehow the problem is intermittent.

  5. #5
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    What firmware are you running?
    Did you just update?

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Garron View Post
    What firmware are you running?
    Did you just update?
    When my AFS caused my system to power cycle, it was running an out of date firmware. Currently I'm running the up to date firmware. The WXM (I think) module issue was after the firmware update including a firmware update to the WXM module itself.

    One of these days I will have time to carefully troubleshoot everything, but currently this is the story. I have an Apex classic with EB8, WXM, AFS and it had been running perfectly for about 2 years. I have occasionally updated firmware on the Apex controller and other modules. And then:

    1) Early November, I was one firmware update behind for the Apex controller (indicated when using ApexFusion). I added food to the AFS unit and then my Apex controller power cycled. The LED display would turn off every 20 seconds or so and power cycle, resetting the EB8, and so power cycling everything plugged into the EB8. I don't unplug the usb cable to the AFS unit when I add food, but I do move the unit around. So since that was the only thing I touched that moment, I removed the AFS unit and the system went back to normal. You then asked if it was the USB cable. I didn't have time to follow up on it, so I just have been manually feeding, and so don't know if it really was the cable of the AFS unit still.

    2) Yesterday, I updated the Apex Controller firmware. Went perfectly. Everything was working. I noticed that the WXM module was "old" firmware and so I updated the WXM. Firmware installation went perfectly. The Apex Controller web page says all firmware is up to date. Things looked like they were working OK at least remotely from looking at Apex Fusion.

    3) I went into the room a few hours later and I noticed my lights were off (Radion, WXM connected) and the EB8 was resetting and power cycling my pumps, etc. At this time I did not notice if the LED part of the Aqua Controller was also turning off like in situation 1). I just assumed it was the same problem as before. But in this case, I did not touch the system at all. It just happened presumably due to the firmware update?

    4) Even though I didn't think it could be a bad USB cable, I tried swapping out cables anyway. This seemed to fix the problem. The unit was not power cycling. But after connecting to the system with Apex Fusion, it eventually gave me an connection error after about 1/2 hour. I went back to the room and noticed the same power cycling issue had started up again. However it wasn't exactly the same as in situation 1) where the LED also was turning off and on. This time it seemed like only the EB8 and the AquaBus to Display module was cycling on and off. The LED never turned off or glitched at all.

    5) I removed the WXM module and it fixed the power cycling. However, since my Radion light and Vortech pumps were being controlled by the WXM module, in desperation I tried to do a "cold start." I turned everything off, including the ethernet switch that the AquaBus module is connected to. I reconnected everything using the same USB cables, but potentially I might have connected things to different USB ports on the AquaBus and/or modules. Now the system is working OK. However, I'm scared to touch anything until I have lots of time to troubleshoot a potential problem.

    I realize that things like this are hard to figure out via a forum post, but psychologically it is helping me that at least one person is reading this.

  7. #7
    Regular Vistor
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    It seems like I have a similar intermittent problem. I went to bed last night and heard the base unit reboot. (pumps cycle off, base alarm triggered by APEX power off. It happened twice more at about 8 minute interval. I went out to check it out, and sat there for twenty minutes and nothing happened.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by LakeHouseTank View Post
    It seems like I have a similar intermittent problem. I went to bed last night and heard the base unit reboot. (pumps cycle off, base alarm triggered by APEX power off. It happened twice more at about 8 minute interval. I went out to check it out, and sat there for twenty minutes and nothing happened.
    Talk to support. After working with me over email for a few back and forth messages, they then set up a phone session and fixed the problem. My issue was with my port forwarding settings to the APEX unit. Removing port forwarding fixed my problem 100%.

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