Pacific Sun Kore 5th dosing Fan Club

[Przemek_PacSun]

Originally Posted by nova65ss

Man this is a huge thread trying to fish through everything and see if it is the right doser for me. A few questions maybe you can answer....

I am a basic reefer 2 part alk and calcium and ato. Had an apex but they are overkill for what I am doing.

1. Is the dosing system bugs worked out and reliable for simple 2 part dosing?
There is no any bugs with dosing. There is no any bugs overall, as I read some Customer noticed issues with communications/software connect with dozer but it's not hardware/firmware related.

2. Is the ato and float switch reliable?
Yes, of course. Actually(and since Spring last year) we offer dosers only with optical sensors with quad photoleds. There are very precise and work perfectly.

3. The temp sensor is this something that can be monitored via an app or what exactly does this do?
It measure your water temperature and show it on app/screen LCD. Kore 5th can control external fans using that informations (fans can be connected thru multi port on dozer output). If measured temperature will be higher/lower than set in software dozer can start audible alarm.

4. I see it has bluetooth can you plug it into the internet via cat5?
No, Bluetooth is device2deive communication protocol and can't be encapsulated into TCP/IP protocols.

Sorry for the simple noob questions I appreciate your help!

Originally Posted by andrek787

Tech question. What's the longest pumps 4 and 5 run continuously? I got my AWC setup with remote drain disposal through 40ft of 1/4" to line, getting 80ml/min flow rate. My plan is to do only use it for a week once a month, but want to change out 40-50 gallons during that time, that roughly equals 10min run per hour? Can the pump handle that?
Peristaltic pumps are not designed for pumping our/in so much of water in single works. For that kind of activity we suggest using DC AWC set which is designed for that. If you will use it by your channel #4/#5 your pump heads will have to be replaced very quickly(average work time for similar heads/rolers is about 200-300 hours depending from working parameters - like pressure, used tubing etc).

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Originally Posted by Voodoojar

I 'm really not trying to sound like a jerk with this post, it's just my honest feel after experiencing the Kore 5th. The Kore 5th to me is supposed to represent an ultra premium doser. Something that's a clear step up from the Jebaos and Bubble Magnus dosers out there. It should be inline with GHL and Neptune DOS in terms of quality, usability and reliability.

After using the Kore 5th for the past several months I feel like PacSun hit it out of the park with the hardware. The Kore 5th and all of accessories are top-notch. The problem is the software side, and it is a complete failure. It lacks refinement, and suffers from poor design and usability. While it technically gets the job done, most of the time. It's very unpleasant to use and lacks so very obvious features.

Thank you for your feedback - I appreciate that and I promise to forward it to our IT/R&D team.
About other brands dosers.
It's hard for me to talk/discuss about other companies products, however I think that if we will compare technical parameters/precision and all advantages included in dosers our product dont look much ore expensive in compare to BM, Kamoer or Jebao.
For example:
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/bm-t11-dosing-pump.html
That dozer cost 289,00 USD.
It's three head dosing station which can dose only liquids - thats all.
Oiur Kore 5th Starter Edition("naked" version of Kore 5th - without any additional modules/parts) cost 299,00 USD.
For that price you are getting 5 channel dosing station(BM - 3 heads), with very precise minimal amount of dose(0.01ml - one drop is 0.04ml), wireless(it cons as I see ;-) ) apps, liquid virtual bottles with lowe level alarms, possibility to upgrade dozer to ATO/AWC, and full two years warranty(dose is made in Poland, completely by our company).
About Jebao:
It's hard to "compete" with them - and we even don't want to do that.
Price factor is very easy to explain - they are selling their goods almost directly to Customers - without Distribution chain.
I don't know how much this pump cost in USA, in EU they are about 60% of our Kore 5th price.
But if you will compare to other "brand products" made by Jebao -like ATI doser or AquaMedic - you will see that price difference is much smaller in compare to Kore 5th.
But - finally I clearly know what about you are talking guys - please let me share that informations with our programmers, Im sure that they will try to find best possible solution(maybe changed transmission protocols) to improve that "software" issues and make that product even more better than actually is.
Again - thank you for your objective opinions - we really appreciate it!



One obvious feature is scheduling. You cannot schedule when the dose take place other than assigning the start and number of doses per day. So if you only want to dose when the lights are out you have to get creative or only do one big dose. This is just an example of functionality that is missing or poorly thought out, and there are many more. The save/read buttons are also terrible UX.
It's not like you said.
You don't have to do any "special tricks". There are special dosing programs like C5/C11 which do 5/11 corresponding hour after hour dosing.
So if you need to dose alkalinity solution in the night (and calcium during the day) you can set this programs for proper channels.
For example: If you will set C11 start on 9:00pm - it will dose requested amount every hour and last dose will be at 7:00am.
The same is with C5 program.
Additionally, there are included special programs like Smooth Dose - it's 144 doses per day (every 10 minutes) and it's perfect for alkalinity liquid dosing because it guarantee very stable parameters..

Pacfic Sun, please before it's too late, and it actually might be. You're ruining your brand by creating cheap software. The time to act is now, hire a new dev team, pay a third party do whatever you have to do to fix this. Start over, create an app that actually compliments your hardware rather than hurts it.

Hire a usability/UX expert and listen to them. This is not something that can be fixed with a patch and it's destroying your brand.

Originally Posted by Griff500

You're wasting your breath guys.

I don't think so - until we talk about facts and there is real feedback all shared thoughts can only improve our products quality.

Regards

Przemek

[Griff500]

Originally Posted by Przemek_PacSun

I don't think so - until we talk about facts and there is real feedback all shared thoughts can only improve our products quality.

Regards

Przemek

There's been plenty of feedback over the years about the software but it doesn't sound like all that much has changed.

[andrek787]

Przemek, I meant to ask how long the pump motors can run without overheating?

[Przemek_PacSun]

Griff
Many of minor issues reported by Customers were fixed - both on Windows and Mac so it's not like we not doing anything.
Many of Customers reported them here but also in mails - and if we were able include them(like some ideas) in software it was done.

Andrek
In single dose about 10-15 minutes maximum (it's about one liter of liquid )- however as I told - long cycles decrease their lifetime

[PacSun Service]

Originally Posted by truepercs

"Similar like in Ed(truepercs) case - our service try to figure it out - a specially that dozer was bought few years ago, from previous reseller and after checking it in our company everything was working ok - we have detailed reports confirmed by three persons(one service chief finally).
We paid also for shipping it back to USA on our own cost.
We just want to be fairly judged in this thread."
Thank you for understanding.



Przemek,

Your right... It's not going in the right direction, now the doser is too old.
I have been trying to work with you guys for a long time. This is my last post I am just giving up on the doser. 3 months of this time it was in the mail. I sure wish this had an hours meter, to track use. My mistake upon receiving it I should have initially set it up and seen if it would work fine.

You would expect us to pay round trip shipping? 200? Take a leap. As far as "complex" give it break...you take temp and turn on and off a series of motors for a set time. I was an application support person working directly with development for 10 years for one of the biggest automotive software companies in the world. Your software is not "complex" NX is complex...

Thanks,

-Ed

All, I hope your doser works just fine, apparently mine was an unfortunate rare occurrence.

Hello.

Ed please don't get us wrong - we repaired Your doser in our service as fast as possible. There was only deleted firmware. After firmware upgrade and test we have send Your doser back to You next day. We can't take responsibility for long shipping by post office. We allways try to solve any problem as fast as possible.
You get doser and it worked as You say properly after repair. As I know from service You had now problem with damaged power supply. This could be source of previous problems also.
I hope that service will solve all current problems soon and You will be happy user of Kore 5th doser again.

We are very sorry for all inconvinience.

Best regards.

Pacific Sun Service.

[doktorfisch]

Hi,

Below some more details about the problem I am having. It looks a software issue. For some reason channel 2 stops before dosing the requested 62ml.

The problem can be reproduced just by scheduling 250ml per day in 4 intervals. I tried to reset everything and afterwards the problem persists. When I ask the doser to pour 62 ml in manual mode it works fine (not really because for some reason after setting 62 ml it reverts to 45 ml that seems to be the maximum). When it is scheduled to dose the 62 ml it works for channel 1 and 3 but for channel 2 it doses a small amount and stops. I suspect that the continuous beep that I found after my Xmas holidays was related to the open dosing intervals that are not closed and produce at the end a bigger issue in the software.

After many trials it seems that the way to make it work is to schedule more intervals of a shorter time. With 12 intervals instead of 4 it seems to work. But I am not really confident of what it can do.

Probably it is not necessary to send you a binary, just try to dose 250 ml in 4 intervals in the first 3 channels and check what channel 2 does. Just reproduce the setup of the screen of the video below. It was OK with 200 ml but when I increased to 250ml because my corals were consuming more I had the issue.

In these videos I reset the time for the first dosing of channel 2 that should dose 62 ml. It should dose for 6,2 * 13seconds that is the default calibration, more than 60 seconds, but after a few seconds it stops for channel 2. Then I go to manual and it works fine for 45 ml that seems to be the maximum in channel 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tThm1nWTIhI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAdtVtMPtdU

Apart of the problem that caused my stony corals tank drop the KH to 3 during last Xmas, as I said I find quite cumbersome the programming with the bt, you need a desk close to the aquarium that I do not have, and even a desk is not enough because you have to locate the computer very close to the lamp or doser.

Anyway I appreciate all the effort you put in the improvements of this product but for a dosing pump first is reliability and afterwards functionality.

BTW a video of the corals in the tank. They have by luck survived the KH 3. I had one lost but not sure if related to the low KH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjyqgxQKDMA&t=25s

[PacSun Service]

Hello.

@doktorfisch:
As we can see on Your video You use older version of firmware and application - 1,6b. You can find on our web site 1,6c version please make upgrade both PC application and Doser firmware. After upgrade please upload default settings and recalibrate all pumps.

Best regards

Pacific Sun Service.

[doktorfisch]

I tested it quickly and now the problem was not reproduced. The binary I was using was dated September 2016 and the latest one is from October 2016. There are no software release notes indicating what are the changes between both versions. I have noticed that the maximum dosing amount was 45ml in the previous version and now it is 30ml.

Take the following one in a positive way, but now I will be away for a week and I am not confident to trust that I will not have a similar problem to what I found after Xmas. In the last couple of days I have seen a couple of corals bleaching that could be due to the KH variations.

When I bought the Kore I checked that it was for a reasonable time in the market and I do not understand why I should be using a firmware only 2 moths old, specially after the problems of the previous release. If you include software release notes with the changes of every release and warn the users when there is a significant bug it will improve confidence.

Another issue I am having is that there is a motor that is getting significantly slower. The noise is different to the rest and after interchanging the pump heads it continues to be slow. It can be fixed with the calibration that is 19 seconds for 10ml instead of 13, but I do not see normal for a 3 months old device this change. When I made the initial calibration 3 months ago it was as fast as the other motors. Is this normal or should I send it for service?

Regards

[PacSun Service]

Hello.

@doktorfisch:
Motor and pumps have their livespan which is declared by producer - for motors it's about 1000h. It depends how much fluid this pump must dose during day.
Please contact with us directly at service@pacific-sun.eu - we will try to find solution.

Best regards
Pacific Sun Service.

[doktorfisch]

OK, I sent you the email. It has been dosing less than 250 ml per day. In 3 months at the default calibration rate of 13sec/10ml it has been active less than 10 hours.

[serenity]

Went to upgrade via mac. they sent me the firmware and firmware PSunFlash App. I connect via bluetooth via Kore 5th 1.6b software, then go back to their firmware app, connect via bluetooth, click apply, go into the Firmware/open file choose the version they sent me click update, NOTHING.. crazy how hard it is to update this thing.. time to upgrade to wifi PS, making something this hard to do is not necessary or needed. Still running VERY old versions I will not put them online until I have them upgraded.

WHY IS THIS SO HARD?

[CFC_Surge]

Today I wanted to connect to check the settings. I had trouble connecting, even after cycling the switch on the back (gen 1). Finally I unplugged the power to it and reconnected it. It connected on the first attempt after doing this.

I'm on Firmware 1.6C.

What causes this?

[andrek787]

Originally Posted by CFC_Surge

Today I wanted to connect to check the settings. I had trouble connecting, even after cycling the switch on the back (gen 1). Finally I unplugged the power to it and reconnected it. It connected on the first attempt after doing this.

I'm on Firmware 1.6C.

What causes this?

I have seen this as well, same firmware version. I have gen 2, so I had to unplug the power cord. I think that if the connection from the previous session gets interrupted or is not terminated properly, the pump thinks it is still connected from previous time, so it refuses the new connection, until you fully powercycle.

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[serenity]

I have to give Pacific Sun support an A+. They remoted into my machine, upgraded both units, confirmed everything was good. Took them about 20 minutes total.

A big thank you!

[Przemek_PacSun]

Thank you, we really appreciate that kind of feedback! :-)

[Przemek_PacSun]

Originally Posted by andrek787

I have seen this as well, same firmware version. I have gen 2, so I had to unplug the power cord. I think that if the connection from the previous session gets interrupted or is not terminated properly, the pump thinks it is still connected from previous time, so it refuses the new connection, until you fully powercycle.

Sent from my STV100-1 using Tapatalk

Hi
Please drop mail to service@pacific-sun.eu - I'm sure that Tomasz will handle your issue best as it's possible.
Regards

Przemek

[erik2302]

I noticed that the MAC software is version 1.6b and the firmware is 1.6c.

What are the changes in 1.6b to 1.6c and should I update if I'm on a mac? Or leave it on 1.6b.


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[homer1475]

Originally Posted by andrek787

I have seen this as well, same firmware version. I have gen 2, so I had to unplug the power cord. I think that if the connection from the previous session gets interrupted or is not terminated properly, the pump thinks it is still connected from previous time, so it refuses the new connection, until you fully powercycle.

Sent from my STV100-1 using Tapatalk

Just had this happen to me as well last night. Went to change the amount of a dosing pump, clicked save, then disconnect. The display on the kore 5th still acted as though it was in a remote session, and I could not connect to it. Power cycled the entire unit, and all is good now.

I would agree its almost like the unit doesn't know you disconnected from it.

[andrek787]

In my case, I believe this occurred after the software crashed, so the pump never got a disconnect command. Thankfully it doesnt happen very often. I connected the Kore 5th to my Cerebra controller, so I can powercycle it with a touch of a screen.

[Syntax1325]

Will any silicone airline tubing serve as a suitable replacement for the stuff included with the doser?

I assume yes but you never knOw with this European stuff

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[serenity]

Originally Posted by Syntax1325

Will any silicone airline tubing serve as a suitable replacement for the stuff included with the doser?

I assume yes but you never knOw with this European stuff

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I bought this. I would suggest the same for you.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Syntax1325]

Originally Posted by serenity

I bought this. I would suggest the same for you.



https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That stuff is 2mm thick? How pliable is it?


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[serenity]

Originally Posted by Syntax1325

That stuff is 2mm thick? How pliable is it?


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Imagine gum after chewing it for about 5 minutes. Incredibly pliable.


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[nore]

This week i have been monitoring my Kore5TH doser and using a meassuringcylinder just for fun.
I´m using only pump 1,2+4 , since i ruled out pump 3 as unreliable (motor going slow)
Pump 1,2 set to 38ml and pump 4 to 35ml.

Here`s the funny thing , one day pump 2 only dosed about 3ml , and the next comming days pump 3 dosed about 3ml , and after that all three pumps dosed right again.

There is no slipping rollers , the motor goes for a second or two and then stops.

Think it is finaly time to put this in the bin now =)

[Griff500]

That's not good.

I noticed yesterday that mine wasn't showing the correct time and date. I guess there had been a power cut or surge and it doesn't seem to have retained the time and date or booted up properly.

It's almost certainly my fault...