Yeah, this was a pretty disappointing launch and I really am hoping that more updates will come with legacy product support soon. I've been in product development and marketing for a long time now and overall this screams of a mess going on with the general merging/collaboration of teams at Aperture, specifically on the programming side of things.
Not having Versa support seems like the largest miss. Of all of the equipment on a tank, I feel that the most value out of the MXM would be to control dosing whether it's 3-part, ATO, or AWC. The most simple example is being able to use the Versa for auto-dosing based on Trident measurements. I am still holding out hope that Versa support will also mean I can run one as an intelligent ATO alongside the liquid level sensor (LLS).
Second to the Versa miss, the nice-to-control aspects of controlling return pumps and wavemakers are nice but not initially supporting anything but the latest devices feels short-sighted. Neptune should be fully aware of the fact that the examples of how you can use the MXM are already happening for those of us with the Apex. Feed mode to turn down your pumps? Cool. But is that really any better than just turning off the pumps like most probably are already doing via the Apex? As @BroccoliFarmer mentioned, is anyone really needing to change their lighting or flow that often other than on/off? The only thing out the gate that I can see value in is being able to trigger feed mode on the Vectra pumps to not siphon; everything else you can control I cannot even think of the last time I touched the set schedule.
While I am eager to eventually pick one of these up eventually but given the general miss on the delivery timeline and now the lack of support for anything other than the most recent products, of which I have a few, it makes the most sense to me to wait and see how this product see updates come in and performs for those that are early adopters.
Not having Versa support seems like the largest miss. Of all of the equipment on a tank, I feel that the most value out of the MXM would be to control dosing whether it's 3-part, ATO, or AWC. The most simple example is being able to use the Versa for auto-dosing based on Trident measurements. I am still holding out hope that Versa support will also mean I can run one as an intelligent ATO alongside the liquid level sensor (LLS).
Second to the Versa miss, the nice-to-control aspects of controlling return pumps and wavemakers are nice but not initially supporting anything but the latest devices feels short-sighted. Neptune should be fully aware of the fact that the examples of how you can use the MXM are already happening for those of us with the Apex. Feed mode to turn down your pumps? Cool. But is that really any better than just turning off the pumps like most probably are already doing via the Apex? As @BroccoliFarmer mentioned, is anyone really needing to change their lighting or flow that often other than on/off? The only thing out the gate that I can see value in is being able to trigger feed mode on the Vectra pumps to not siphon; everything else you can control I cannot even think of the last time I touched the set schedule.
While I am eager to eventually pick one of these up eventually but given the general miss on the delivery timeline and now the lack of support for anything other than the most recent products, of which I have a few, it makes the most sense to me to wait and see how this product see updates come in and performs for those that are early adopters.



