Apex lost connection.... Kessil out?

[mermaid_life]

Well I learned something new today. My apex lost wifi connection last night and I woke up to the kessil lights not on. I am using the integration of Kessil in Apex app feature. Nothing lost power. Is this normal?

This surprised me because my apex has lost connection in the past and the DOS continued to work no problem. Any insight would be appreciated! TY

 

[homer1475]

Just read up on this, didn't know it existed. Interesting....

Apparently the apex still uses the kessil app, just the apex controls it. Without wifi, the apex cannot connect to the kessil app. Without your apex and kessils on the same wifi network, the apex cannot control the kessils.

Unlike 99% of the other apex stuff, you do not need an internet connection. All your programming logic is saved on the head unit. That is why the DOS continues to work if you loose wifi.

 

[Sean Clark]

Interesting. I have not played with the IOTA stuff yet. Is there a fallback statement for the coding?

 

[homer1475]

No fallback because if it looses connection, it looses the ability to control the lights.

Actually reading through, just fallback on. Or just set the outlet to "always" and ON.

I guess on 100% is better then not on at all?

 

[Sean Clark]

No fallback because if it looses connection, it looses the ability to control the lights.

That makes perfect sense in hindsight. I would think that the lights should take over if they lost connection. I wonder how this would affect other things like Sicce pumps.

 

[homer1475]

That makes perfect sense in hindsight. I would think that the lights should take over if they lost connection. I wonder how this would affect other things like Sicce pumps.

Not sure, still reading.

 

[The Farmer]

I believe the iota option is only good for a return pump going out or any pump and heater to turn the lights off to keep the tank from getting hot

 

[homer1475]

Ok so it seems the apex controls the lights exclusivly. They do not "fallback" to the kessil programming if the apex looses connection.

I would assume since this is the case, even if you loose wifi connection, the apex should still be able to control the lights?


Ahh just got to the end of the page.....

Fallback is not supported in IoTa devices.

Even though the apex controls the lights, it still needs wifi connection to connect to the lights.

Basically the apex sends it's programming to the kessil app. If they cannot talk to each other(wifi is out), the apex cannot do squat.

 

[Sean Clark]

Got it. So Neptune needs to fix this by having the Apex generate its own network for remote devices to connect to so it is not dependent on its connection to the home network to work properly.

 

[mermaid_life]

Thanks everyone for looking into this! It's actually quite bothersome since if WiFi goes out, my tank would have been ok with dosing. Now, I have to contemplate if I would be better off on the kessil app long run for longer vacations.

 

[blaxsun]

Interesting. I have not played with the IOTA stuff yet. Is there a fallback statement for the coding?

It doesn't quite work that way with IOTA. The fallback state on the IOTA device is whatever you had it last set to -or- what the Apex passed along to it. With my Sicce pumps this is always 45-60% (never off), but Kessil lights may default to off after disconnection.

My setup may also work a bit differently as I also run my IOTA devices through the EB832 energy bar, ie: I have both an IOTA and port configuration for each IOTA device.

 

[mermaid_life]

It doesn't quite work that way with IOTA. The fallback state on the IOTA device is whatever you had it last set to -or- what the Apex passed along to it. With my Sicce pumps this is always 45-60% (never off), but Kessil lights may default to off after disconnection.

My setup may also work a bit differently as I also run my IOTA devices through the EB832 energy bar, ie: I have both an IOTA and port configuration for each IOTA device.

Oh this makes sense. I also have mine plugged into the energy bar. I wonder if I program it and lost wifi connection that the kessil lights would default to the manual knob settings on each unit then?

 

[The Farmer]

I’m not sure that would work because the wifi dongle would still be connected

 

[blaxsun]

Oh this makes sense. I also have mine plugged into the energy bar. I wonder if I program it and lost wifi connection that the kessil lights would default to the manual knob settings on each unit then?

It's probably worth a try. Again, pumps may work a bit differently due to the fact that they're expected to be on nearly 24/7. I've had two different scenarios occur:

• The Apex loses WiFi connectivity (for a myriad of reasons, including sporadic outages).
• The Apex loses connectivity to the Sicce WiFi controller (this has only happened once), where it showed as a missing module/device. This resolved itself after about 15-20 minutes where the device was automatically re-added and the alarm turned itself off (I never was able to figure out the root cause or resolution for this).

In both scenarios the Sicce SDC 9.0 kept ticking along at it's usual 45% speed. This was actually slightly more than I originally set the controller for (43%, as I'm limited to the preset adjustments on the controller or through the app), so I'm inclined to think (at least for the Sicce) it retains the last value passed by the IOTA schedule in the Apex.