It’s too bad their customer service sucks….

Who wants to bet we will not see a final release by the end of the month? Maybe not even a beta.

DA has the worst customer service ever, has failed to meet almost every deadline, is slow at releasing updates, isn’t developing new modues as fas as I know, constantly refuses to comment on developments and the perpetual failures, and is rapidly falling further behind the competition.

Neptune is shipping their Vortech controller six months after they announced they were developing it, which was one week after Vortech announced the development kit. The APEX has had web control and programing from release.

The RKE has been waiting on myReef for almost two years now, there is no web programming upcoming in the 2.0 firmware (only on/off/auto control), and they have failed to even mention a Vortech controller.

Wake up DA, your customers are bailing out of the sinking ship, just look at the RC forums. Tons of unsatisfied customers ditching the RKE for the APEX, but I have yet to see one customer going the other way!

Digital WHO?

Well I’m glad I’m not the only one that has had a horrible experiance with a DA product. Even if their controllers were less money and did the same thing as an apex I still wouldn’t buy one!!! Customer service is a major issue here, maybe if they looked at what ecomarine or tunze does for their customers they might get some customers back, until then I wouldn’t even consider a DA product.

I saw this at MAX today. A controller chained to a Windows PC with a glorified serial connection? What an archaic design. Give us a frickin’ break! The Web is where it’s at, DA. Get into the 21st century. You just flipped the bird at smartphone and Mac owners.

@Zackster

Not sure if you talked with any of us as we talked with a lot of customers… We’re using USB not serial; USB is a common standard for connecting a device to a PC. Everyone “I” talked with was excited about what they saw and based on a number of things the overall response was great!

As far as Web, we’ve got the covered too! The NET module is getting an update in it’s first 2.# update and more is coming once we get a few things wrapped up! True, it wont all come at once, but updates are coming in stages.

As far as smart phones and iPhones, we have an iPhone app (and that’s getting an update as well). AND we’ve posted publicly that we’ll support anyone that wants to write an app for Android or any other system. The webpage on the NET also is compatible with mobile devices.

I think at the end of the day the important thing to remember is there are two product options for interfacing with your RK system, the NET module and myReef 2.0. They have different purposes and will suit customers differently, and many will use both. I’m really excited for what these products will offer our customers, both the free software (myReef) and the NET module.

Scott
DA

DA is without a doubt the most disappointing company that I’ve seen in this hobby. They used to have a great product.

I think some damage control is in order to appease the chronic whiners who continually slam DA on forums and blogs.

Scott, just a suggestion, give RB an exclusive review of the upcoming product updates with plenty of screen shots and maybe some video, and do it quickly. People are just pissed because they are being kept in the dark, let the cat out of the bag and get people excited.

DA treats its controller updates as they were state secrets afraid that the competition will one up them if they let any information out early when the truth is the competition already has…

We are not kept in the dark we are kept out of date with constant release date slips. Then given some antiquated system. The competition did one up them and then some. Screens shots are worthless to me. I need the software.

@ Steve, I don’t know about you but I’d rather wait until the software is thoroughly tested before I trust my $10,000+ hobby investment to a new controller revision regardless of who makes it.

If DA released the software before it was tested and ready would that make you happy? I think not. You’d be then moaning that DA released it too early and should have taken more time to perfect it.

Some people just can’t be pleased…

@ Steve

“DA is without a doubt the most disappointing company that I’ve seen in this hobby. ”

are you kidding me? the most disappointing company…i dont know if you remember how expensive controllers were before they starting making these units more affordable.

There was no mention about dealing with the lack of customer service which is what concerns me. My reefkeeper 2 did work as advertised (for less than 1 month) but after being fixed (which took months) and sent back the same thing happened again within 2 weeks getting it back (ph probe/contoller doesn’t work) and it was never resolved…. So I was left with a bad taste in my mouth and a very expensive timer. I had to go out and buy a seperate ph controller which defeated the purpose of buying the reefkeeper 2 in the first place. The lack of help I recieved after having numerous problems is the reason I wouldn’t consider another DA product. I was left out to dry with a controller that has never worked right…. So why would I buy something from a company that did that to me?

@ Jake

because they have myReef 2.0 coming out!!!! now you can plug their USB cable in to a computer and leave your computer connected to your reef keeper 24/7

I bailed on Digital Aquatics and my RKE last summer, and have not missed them since. I cannot stand their phony secrecy of upcoming products, especially considering Neptune and Profilux have had the features for *years*. Their customer service is extremely slow, and that is if you are even lucky enough to get a response from them. Don’t dare post on RC that you need help- they will tell you to email them, then never respond to the emails.

How about becoming more competetive DA? Tunze control was announced over 6 months ago- where does that stand??

You guys must know Vortech allows control of their pumps, right? Neptune has announced and released a control module for that already- Profilux is working on theirs. How about at least throwing your customers an acknowledgement about Vortech- or- God forbid- say you plan on Vortech control and promise a release date you actually meet.

@ TheDogFather

“I think some damage control is in order to appease the chronic whiners who continually slam DA on forums and blogs.”

The “chronic whiners” are slamming DA because they are not following through on release dates, and they are SEVERELY behind the competition in terms of controller capabilities. They have done this to themselves with their failure to release stuff quick enough and on a schedule they can follow. It also irritates these “whiners” when they see controllers for *lizards* coming out, yet their aquarium controllers still lack very basic features. People are realizing- as you may somedy- that going with DA was a poor choice. Idid last year.

DA is a great company to be with if you don’t mind waiting years for features you can have now with the 2 other competing comapnies. Digital Aquatics said it best themselves- “things take time”. They sure do, DA- you are doing a fantastic job of proving that.

@Scott

Actually you are using a serial connection. An I2C serial connection to be exact.

The SID device is made around the PSoC CY8C24794-24LFXI made by Cypress Semiconductor. (listed on mouser.com as obsolete I might add).

The USB pins on the PSoC are connected to the PC side of the SID.

The I2C serial pins are connected to the RJ-11 jack (phone jack for those who don’t know) that interfaces with the RKE/RKL system.

In effect you are using the SID device as a USB to SERIAL converter, so while the connection to the computer is USB, the communication and connection to the RKE/RKL bus is SERIAL. I think this is why Zackster is calling it a glorified serial connection, because the communication is serial based.

I think the standard opinion from anyone in IT would be that this is a serial connection facilitated by a USB converter. It is a little misleading to call the connection USB, because the SID is effectively no different than the USB to serial converters you buy to add serial ports to new PCs to interface with older devices.

Just thought I would shed some light on the situation.
Landon

“we have an iPhone app”? Are you’re referring to that 3rd party app?

My DA gear works great, quit your bitching

I do have to say that the brochures in the picture above look fancy.

There… I said something nice about DA….

Scott,
You said:

“I think at the end of the day the important thing to remember is there are two product options for interfacing with your RK system, the NET module and myReef 2.0.”

Does that mean that the NET module will be getting access to all that myReef 2.0 has? In other words, will I be able to setup alarms, timers, standby, etc., over the internet through my NET module? As of now, the NET module does not allow any of that, it’s solely for displaying info and sending alerts, but does not allow programming or turning things on/off over the internet.

Tom