Apex A2 power cycling all the time.

Ziggy17 · May 19, 2024

After only a year and a half of use, my Apex controller broke and Apex said they can’t fix it, I’d have to buy a new one. The issue is the Apex continues to power cycle every couple minutes. Has anyone else had this issue? I’m thinking the issue is with the aqua bus as if I wiggle the usb it triggers the cycle as well. I’d be willing to buy a used A2 for parts to try and replace the bus if the price was right. Apex will not send me the part. They are forcing me to buy a new one. After 1.5 years of use, that’s how they treat their customers….

Anyhow, let me know if you have had this issue and how you fixed it.

theatrus · May 19, 2024

Ziggy17 said:
After only a year and a half of use, my Apex controller broke and Apex said they can’t fix it, I’d have to buy a new one. The issue is the Apex continues to power cycle every couple minutes. Has anyone else had this issue? I’m thinking the issue is with the aqua bus as if I wiggle the usb it triggers the cycle as well. I’d be willing to buy a used A2 for parts to try and replace the bus if the price was right. Apex will not send me the part. They are forcing me to buy a new one. After 1.5 years of use, that’s how they treat their customers….

Anyhow, let me know if you have had this issue and how you fixed it.

While I haven’t had this issue, there are Apex EB units with a bad 12V supply, which could be the culprit here. IIRC that power supply runs the relays and the 12V to the aquabus. Powering up the head unit with an external 12V may at least tell you where the failure is.

Harry’s Aquatics sells a repair kit for this purpose if it’s the problem and you’re willing to do a little surgery.

Ziggy17 · May 19, 2024

I ruled that out by plugging in a power supply directly into the apex from an outlet. Unfortunately the problem still existed. And when I ran a diagnostic on the power bar in was giving consistent 12-12.8v of power out of all ports.

theatrus · May 19, 2024

Ziggy17 said:
I ruled that out by plugging in a power supply directly into the apex from an outlet. Unfortunately the problem still existed. And when I ran a diagnostic on the power bar in was giving consistent 12-12.8v of power out of all ports.

Bummer.

Can you rule out using WiFi vs Wired? WiFi is an external module on at least the A2 series.

Without board level debugging there isn’t a lot to go on.