I just had this issue with my apex classic version, the Eb8 transceiver was clearly bad as half the part was blown out and missing, so I replaced it and its still not working, (Flashing amber light and not detectable by head unit) my repair job looks pretty good to me, I inspected it several times as well as other parts in the area and it seems ok. is it possible the transceiver on my head unit is also bad, I examined it physically and it seems fine, I have no other way to test it unfortunately. is it worth ordering another transceiver and attempting a replacement on the head unit, looks a bit tighter of an area.... or is it possible It has other issues also.
the head unit seems to function perfectly fine on its own green light, network communication all works. it just won't control the only other item I have which is the EB8...
on a more unusual note, if I have no intention of using the EB8 and head unit with any other Neptune product in the future, is it possible to completely bypass the transceiver? wire the head unit directly to the EB8 with some cat5 or something? as in wire TXD and RXD from the head unit to the corresponding RXD and TXD on the EB8?