Fixing a hobbyist problem.

reefwiser · Mar 21, 2020

So I read this forum all the time trying to help users. I was a PLC tech for 30 years before retiring. I having been using tech aquarium equipment for years. I know it can be hard for people who don’t do this kind of work for a living. My boss hated to see me retire as I was one of two guys who could do this type of work at my plant.
So last week a forum member was having problems with his GHL doser. He purchased it used. An could get it working so I had him ship it to me to fix.

Power on and plugged into my MacBook running windows 10. Red flashing light bad.
Once online with the doser I see the problem the last owner had not removed the myGHL account from the doser. The flashing red was because it was trying connect to the former owners network and account. I see this all the time with reef equipment that has a cloud account for remote use.
So I reset the doser to the default settings to fix that problem.

So now let’s go to the next problem. The firmware is out of date. This doser has not been up dated in 4 years.

GHL regularly puts out firmware updates so keep it up to date.
In this case the firmware is so old it will not work with GHL Connect the current GHL phone app.
So I updated it to 1.34 the latest firmware below the beta version.

So now we have success. Unit connects to the GHL App and it’s ready to ship back to a happy forum user.

Many time when you buy a used piece of reef tech gear the problem is the former owner. Not the equipment.

AJsReef · Mar 21, 2020

Good reminder to clear your settings when you sell gear as well. Admittedly, I sold a GHL doser recently and didn’t even think to do that!

DarthSimon · Mar 21, 2020

Great Job and admirable fixing it!

Weevo · Mar 22, 2020

This guy is amazing!! I am the owner of this ghl doser and I bought it used. I have been trying to get it to work for weeks and was going to just trash it as I thought it was broke and did not want to resale. Well reefwiser sent me a pm when I posted a comment about this junk. He tried helping me fix this problem through pm's, as I am not a real tec savvy guy he said just send it to me. With nothing to lose but shipping costs i did not hesitate and send this to a complete stranger . He was running through his process and keep me updated throughout the process with pictures. Great guy and this reefing community is the best .
Thank you for all you have done. Truly appreciated

Flippers4pups · Mar 22, 2020

Nice fix!

esther · Mar 22, 2020

That’s awesome!

dbl · Mar 22, 2020

Great reminder Ed. Thanks for sharing the story.

jordan10 · Mar 22, 2020

AJsReef said:
Good reminder to clear your settings when you sell gear as well. Admittedly, I sold a GHL doser recently and didn’t even think to do that!

Probably that one lol

Mastiffsrule · Mar 22, 2020

Hello all,

Thats what a great squad member and all around person does. Nice. Kinda lost me after the words I plugged it in and turned it on...but I got the gist ;Woot

AJsReef · Mar 22, 2020

jordan10 said:
Probably that one lol

Sold a 2.1, was panicked at first but saw the white pumps. Hopefully, buyer got mine squared away

AZMSGT · Mar 23, 2020

While I admire what you did for this user I can honestly say I would never do that for anyone. Why you ask? I would rather teach them to do it themselves. It’s that old saying “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for life.” .

I have experienced many people who just don’t want to learn things. From setting a clock on a VCR, Stereo instructions, to setting up internet on a computer. I’ve never been that type person. However GHL programing does drive me to the point where I get frustrated and wish the company would just fix it. I’m pretty tech savvy so if it drives a person like me up the wall, I can only imagine what it’s like for folks that don’t want to learn this stuff.

redfishbluefish · Mar 23, 2020

This is why I love this hobby and a number of R2R members I'd call friends....they step up and offer help without question. Folks like Ed just put a big smile on my face. Thanks Ed for what you've done for our family. Truly a giving person.

Weevo · Mar 23, 2020

redfishbluefish said:
This is why I love this hobby and a number of R2R members I'd call friends....they step up and offer help without question. Folks like Ed just put a big smile on my face. Thanks Ed for what you've done for our family. Truly a giving person.

He said just ship it to me and honestly I did not even hesitate.