Warning to Profilux Users

[STANKYfish]

[quote=sphelps;733669]Stanky, you might be looking at a bit of a different issue than I'm discussing here. I think you may experiencing a more typical issue of the float becoming temporarily stuck and your max on time is set too high.

Oopps, you are right, just talked to Shane shortly after writing and he informed me that it is not the same issue Thank you so much for taking the time to give me instructions to fix my problem. I will now leave your thread

[Snaz]

Originally Posted by sphelps

It didn't make a whole lot of sense to me either, I'm not entire sure how they can keep track of dealer inventory to prevent the sale of old sensors. Even if inventory of such products is extremely low unless everything is properly rotated there is no way one could insure such things.

The only way a magnet can lose it's force is by physical shock or interference by another magnetic field as far as I know. Certainly time does not cause a magnet to decay.

This response and that they said the warning regarding this issue is "somewhere on the RC forums" leads me to conclude I will never use this or any product by this company. Disgusting.

[StirCrazy]

that sucks, kinda like when Brad was watching my tanks while I was away and the night be for I left I started the RO to top off my frag tank and forgot about it... Brad came over the next day to a river running out the garage...


soooo... my real question is... and I am glad now I never bought the proflux, but if they don't put an expiry date on the sensor, how do you know how old it is when you buy it? I have been to a couple stores that have them on the shelves... so what if they have had it for 18 months already be for you get it...

as for posting on RC.. thats a bunch of ^$#%$# I haven't been there in over two years and don't plan on going back there ever again. no point in putting up with a slow over crowed board that 85% of the posts are flames...

Steve

[christyf5]

Aw man, that is heartbreaking to see I'm glad to hear you aren't giving up though.

Thanks for posting the info on the float sensor. Mine was about 4 years old before I even started using it. Its an Aquatronica though, no idea if that means anything, they're probably all made in the same factory.

[Zoaelite]

Originally Posted by Snaz

This response and that they said the warning regarding this issue is "somewhere on the RC forums" leads me to conclude I will never use this or any product by this company. Disgusting.

Couldn't agree more, I've been staring at that after photo and I'm starting to get sick. Steve I'm so sorry for your loss man, you had one of the nicest LPS collections out there , once your set I have a few zoa frags if your looking to get into the territory.

I will personally never purchase a Proflux after reading this, with that kind of customer service I'm surprised the brand is large as it is. I would hope a certain rep. on here could flex his muscles and get some compensation on your end, *cough*.

[Matthias Gross]

Hello,

I am the owner of GHL/ProfiLux and the main developer of the firmware, I've been working on the firmware now for about 14 years. I think I now every bit and byte of the firmware.

A few ProfiLux users pointed me to this thread, or better to this Anti-ProfiLux campaign.

Usually we don't comment every post about our products, but this case needs some clarification. The only aim of this thread is to damage the reputation of our products. We understand that someone gets angry and disappointed when he had losses and that he needs someone he can blame for it and we really feel sorry for what has happened.

BUT: I have to state clearly that GHL (or the ProfiLux-products) is not responsible for this problems!

To have dozens of power-cuts in a few days is not a normal operating condition - most electric devices would have problems with this! Had the electricity supplier also been blamed for the problems which happened? Is it wise to leave a tank without any personal supervision? Every technology can fail, failures can be caused by powercuts, surges, water in the device (which happens very often!) or just bad settings or a snake sitting in the floater.

This happened:
- the setting for the max. on-time for the ATO was not adequate for this system - 20 minutes are way too much!
- the tank has been too long without someone looking after it (when I am out of town I have always someone who is looking daily after everything in the house, I am sure most people do the same)

If power-cuts are "normal" in this area a UPS is a must-have.

Talking about the firmware
Yes, the error is reset after a power-cycle. Most users wanted exactly this behaviour for many reasonable reasons. No, I don't make here now a list of this reasons or start another discussion about this function. If interested in this topic than visit our forum http://forum.aquariumcomputer.com/forum.php
The time-out function has been working in this way for 14 years now - never ever anyone had a problem with it, and we are talking about some thousand ProfiLux users.

What will GHL learn from this?
1. we added more warnings and security hints in our manuals, like "don't leave your tank alone too long" and we mentioned it clearer in bold letters that error states are reset after a power-cut
2. I consider to make this behaviour - reset error after powercycle - adjustable



Again, we are very sorry hearing that this happened to one of our customers. But we have to refuse the responsibility for this.
However, if we can help you with some discounts or products for free then send me an email, I will see what we can do.

PS:
The warranty period starts with selling the product to the end customer and not when the customer decides to use a product. How will a manufacturer know when the customer really started to use a product? I think this common and normal for every product you can buy and nothing special for GHL products. Or does Samsung replace you a TV-set after 4 years when you state that you didn't use it the first 3 years? I don't think so.

[Matthias Gross]

I think we have to correct this also

Float sensor expires after 2 years weather in use or not. While this is not documented it's treated as something customers already should know. Keep in mind even if the sensor remains unopened in original packaging it can still expire in the same time period.

complete nonsense - why should float sensors expire? My float-sensors had been working now for 6 years without a problem.

Apparently float sensors should be replaced after two years or they can and are know to fail in the on position.

Who tells these stories? Not true at all!

And we never said that you could read these things in RC.

All we have to say about sensor in general is here:
http://www.aquariumcomputer.com/Syst...cessories.html

There is not one word about expiring level sensors!

[gregzz4]

Very nice to see you here Matthias

Originally Posted by Matthias Gross

... The only aim of this thread is to damage the reputation of our products ...

In defence of the OP, they were, in no way, trying to damage the reputation of ProfiLux
It was made very clear from the start that the OP was only wanting to warn other users of the product that a catastrophic failure could occur

If you read the end of the first post, you will find this ...

Originally Posted by sphelps

Really not looking to point blame what so ever, obviously there are some things I could have implemented or done differently to avoid this but just never saw the need to do so given these two things were not something I was aware of nor are they documented. My intentions here are only to make others ware if these issues. My initial attempt at making profilux aware of the issue didn't go overly well as I attempted to find reasoning for the automatic reset and assurance something would be done to fix it, rather I think they concluded I screwed up by replacing a worn (but working) sensor with what I believed to be new seeing how I purchased it a couple years back but never used it.

Also please, I'm not looking for advice. I know you all have it and would love to chime in but not now, maybe later. Thanks for looking!

I see nothing there that is damaging to ProfiLux
On the contrary, all I see is the OP taking full responsibility for the issue

I will leave the rest of the comments to the OP, but, again, it is really nice to have you here and hopefully your comments about the float sensors will clear up some issues

[Matthias Gross]

yes, maybe you are right about the aim of this thread

if this is the case then I apologize and take it back

I don't want to attack the OP in any way, and again I am very sorry for what has happened
but I have to defence the company and the products

you can see the result - regardless what the original aim was: the reaction of some shows that they got now the impression the ProfiLux is the worst thing in the world....

the debate about "expiring floater sensors" is also not OK, there are statements which are just not true

[lockrookie]

i dont think the OP intended for this thread to be a boycott of your products just a warning to ppl of what can happen with your product.. it is up to the veiwers of teh thread to makeup thier own decisions can computers fail yes.. from what i read the OP did hve ppl checking the tank daily and it was caught tried to save it but too late... and im sorry but ppl work are you saying that im a bad reefer because i leave my tank unattended 8 hours a day with no supervision. maybe i should quit my job..thats why we have a controller to babysit for us. it could happen to me with my apex or RKL... facts i know from this thread is this his controller screwed up.. due to a power flux or whatever and his tank is buggered. should it have screwed up... maybe as the owner i would want to replace the system and get his system in for testing to see why it did what it did rather than say not my fault.. to ensure future or existing customers never have this issue again.. but thats just my opinion... rather than trynng to make th OP look like a fool.. listen to the end users work with them and work towards a safer controller for teh long run

but thats just me rant over