Introducing the Hydros Maven

[areefer01]

I don't typically buy things without doing research. I deviated from that on the ReefBot Lab and got burned hard.

You gave that valiant effort to boot from what I remember reading.

 

[BeanAnimal]

You left off the fact that the Hydros collective idea is brilliant, but it results in something that looks like it came out of a science fiction horror show—or the early 1970s/80s—Ala TSR80 and a million cables and tubes.

The form factor is horrid... absolutely horrid. "Hey lets have wires sticking out in all directions and umm lets make each and every piece a different footprint and thickness... then we can give away prizes for anybody that can remotely fit these things into a reasonable space without creating an ugly rats nest..."

It goes to part of my issue with the big picture. From form factor to website to product feature delineation, to names of things... the whole thing feels like somebodies 10 year old kid is running development and marketing, not a focussed group of decision makers that know what they are doing.

Although their implementation and form factor aren't perfect, and the devices aren't perfect either, they are at least receptive to change and input. Oh, and they answer their emails.

receptive to change... now about just a simple product matrix


Wondering why they did not tap me to beta test

 

[BeanAnimal]

You gave that valiant effort to boot from what I remember reading.

Ohh I plugged it back in last week to give another go at it before the Maven is released.

It is no better a year later.. and in fact worse in some aspects.

 

[Fenral]

The form factor is horrid... absolutely horrid. "Hey lets have wires sticking out in all directions and umm lets make each and every piece a different footprint and thickness... then we can give away prizes for anybody that can remotely fit these things into a reasonable space without creating an ugly rats nest..."

It goes to part of my issue with the big picture. From form factor to website to product feature delineation, to names of things... the whole thing feels like somebodies 10 year old kid is running development and marketing, not a focussed group of decision makers that know what they are doing.


receptive to change... now about just a simple product matrix


Wondering why they did not tap me to beta test

Well … i’ll call that an understatement seeing as its on the list of my to do things… i may have more luck fighting off a flurken …

 

[n2585722]

Well … i’ll call that an understatement seeing as its on the list of my to do things… i may have more luck fighting off a flurken …

Here is my two controller boards. The large one is in the garage. The photo of the one in the garage is from when I still had Digital Aquatics modules out there.

 

[SpyC]

Well … i’ll call that an understatement seeing as its on the list of my to do things… i may have more luck fighting off a flurken …

This looks like a complete lack of any attempt to cable manage anything. Did you try to make it this horrible to manage?

 

[Fenral]

This looks like a complete lack of any attempt to cable manage anything. Did you try to make it this horrible to manage?

It's not really intentional—there was a flood (not from the tank) and a massive rearrangement—but believe it or not, it's on my list to do once it was all organized. It's quietly driving me insane, seeing as I used to work in a network operations center, and wires drive me insane.

Besides it's also a joke..

 

[Derrick0580]

So according to my lfs owner, the maven itself works perfectly. It’s the supplier for reagents coral vue is struggling with. Trying to get them to give them a price and get all that worked out. Not sure if I’m supposed to know this or not but seems like a legit reason for the ‘no news” situation.

 

[nickng]

The form factor is horrid... absolutely horrid. "Hey lets have wires sticking out in all directions and umm lets make each and every piece a different footprint and thickness... then we can give away prizes for anybody that can remotely fit these things into a reasonable space without creating an ugly rats nest..."

It goes to part of my issue with the big picture. From form factor to website to product feature delineation, to names of things... the whole thing feels like somebodies 10 year old kid is running development and marketing, not a focussed group of decision makers that know what they are doing.


receptive to change... now about just a simple product matrix


Wondering why they did not tap me to beta test

You nailed it!. I'm so confused with the product features and model names, a product cability and feature matrix would have helped alot.

 

[SpyC]

It's not really intentional—there was a flood (not from the tank) and a massive rearrangement—but believe it or not, it's on my list to do once it was all organized. It's quietly driving me insane, seeing as I used to work in a network operations center, and wires drive me insane.

Besides it's also a joke..

Lol. Based on my work, I think all of our network guys who deal with the racks hit a point where they don't care about looks. Throw a label at the jack and call it a day.

I always say I am going to cable manage X, but it never happens. At this point all i care about are the cables not being tied up with others and no electrical cords on the floor.

 

[Fenral]

Lol. Based on my work, I think all of our network guys who deal with the racks hit a point where they don't care about looks. Throw a label at the jack and call it a day.

I always say I am going to cable manage X, but it never happens. At this point all i care about are the cables not being tied up with others and no electrical cords on the floor.

Also, why is it on my backlog of things to do. It's not that I've been a network person for a long time. But I have to do it before an outsider comes in and deals with the system in December...

 

[Fenral]

So according to my lfs owner, the maven itself works perfectly. It’s the supplier for reagents coral vue is struggling with. Trying to get them to give them a price and get all that worked out. Not sure if I’m supposed to know this or not but seems like a legit reason for the ‘no news” situation.

That matches with what I am hearing as well. The device itself is working well, but the supply chain on consumables is an issue.

 

[n2585722]

You nailed it!. I'm so confused with the product features and model names, a product cability and feature matrix would have helped alot.

I did not have any issues with mine from the beginning. There are sense ports, probe ports, salinity ports, Battery input port and 0-10v input ports. That is it for input ports. For Output ports there are the 12v drive ports, 24v force ports, direct drive ports for pump motors, AC outlets and 0-10v output ports. The only controller with 24v force ports and the battery input port is the Kraken. The only two controllers with salinity ports is the Launch and X10. The only controllers with 0-10v outputs are the X4 and wave engine v2. The other port types are available on several of the controllers. There are 3 controllers that also have built in dosing pumps. Those are the X10, Minnow and Sole. So which ones you will need depends on what you will want to do but most start with either the Launch or the X4 Pro Pack nowadays and then add other controllers as needed. I currently have 15 controllers in my collective. Eight are in the garage with the RODI unit, ATO pump, AWC pumps and mixing station. The three reservoirs and RODI filter are controller with the Hydros. The DI reservoirs is auto refilled. The fresh saltwater reservoir is auto refilled from the mix tank if the contents of the mix tank is ready to use. The mix tank is auto refilled with DI once the transfer to the fresh saltwater tank is completed. All I need to do is add the salt mix to the mix tank and press a button when it is ready for use. The Hydros also does automated alkalinity testing and doses a KH buffer and All For Reef based on testing. I also controls the standard things like skimmer, return, heating, cooling, water flow and lighting.

 

[BeanAnimal]

You nailed it!. I'm so confused with the product features and model names, a product cability and feature matrix would have helped alot.

It is absolutely stunning how inept the marketing is. But (again) given the silly naming conventions (er lack of) and other factors, it is not surprising. I was reading the page for that discontinued tester thingy in the photo above "iV" or whatever it is. Go read it and tell me what it does? 2 pages and sections of blabbity glub platitudes and nothing that says what it does or how it does it or what is needed to make it work. I don't think I have ever seen a product ecosystem marketed so poorly.

Hrmm wonder why I am not on the Maven beta test team....

 

[SpyC]

It is absolutely stunning how inept the marketing is. But (again) given the silly naming conventions (er lack of) and other factors, it is not surprising. I was reading the page for that discontinued tester thingy in the photo above "iV" or whatever it is. Go read it and tell me what it does? 2 pages and sections of blabbity glub platitudes and nothing that says what it does or how it does it or what is needed to make it work. I don't think I have ever seen a product ecosystem marketed so poorly.

Hrmm wonder why I am not on the Maven beta test team....

IMO, your skepticism makes you a perfect beta tester. Would be nice if companies, all, got beta tester input from various viewpoints instead of the select chosen few.

 

[n2585722]

It is absolutely stunning how inept the marketing is. But (again) given the silly naming conventions (er lack of) and other factors, it is not surprising. I was reading the page for that discontinued tester thingy in the photo above "iV" or whatever it is. Go read it and tell me what it does? 2 pages and sections of blabbity glub platitudes and nothing that says what it does or how it does it or what is needed to make it work. I don't think I have ever seen a product ecosystem marketed so poorly.

Hrmm wonder why I am not on the Maven beta test team....

The iV is just a testing vessel with a stirrer and a beaker. You need three dosing pumps to get it to work. One need to be a low flow rate of 3ml a minute and they must be controllable with the Hydros. There are three places for tubing to fill and drain the beaker. There 2 places for probe ports. One needs to be a pH probe since that is needed for alkalinity testing which is the iV's main purpose. You can also add a salinity probe. Once the beaker has be drained, filled, rinsed, refilled and stirred. The stirring stops for a while and a pH reading and a salinity reading is taken. The stirrer starts again and the alkalinity test starts. It takes about 30 minutes to complete from stat of first drain to the ending drain and fill. Most will use it with the X10 since it has all the ports and pumps that is needed for it to work. I had a iV and X10 setup as stand alone for a few months. So you can do this stand alone if you want. I used a Hydros simple doser as the drain pump so that left 2 of the X10 pump for dosing my All For Reef and KH buffer using the X10. So it did the testing and dosing in stand alone mode. I now have it setup in the collective.

 

[BeanAnimal]

The iV is just a testing vessel with a stirrer and a beaker.

I don't care if it is an easter egg coloring vessel. The point is the official marketing material didn't convey what it does or how it does it or what is needed. Their current offerings and marketing are the same. Just vapid platitudes and happy feelings with no actual substance, product matrix, common specification, etc. The marketing is a complete mess and getting worse, not better.

We keep doing this dance. Yes, you know what the product does and can explain it to me, that is beside the point. I should not have to rely on you for pre-sales information or use specifics.

 

[Fenral]

Did Connor just mike drop… lol

 

[BeanAnimal]

Nope, you shouldn't. But if you want to learn you must explore our options to educate and supportusers

Hi Connor, thank you for the response.

One should not have to dig through all of those resources to understand the capabilities of a product or to understand the differences between options and requirements.

I was a prospective customer that went a different route almost solely because of the poorly conveyed pre-sales information provided on your website. The more I looked the more frustrated I became at how poorly the information was organized and what little was actually conveyed. The fact that I had to go digging through multiple resources to get simple answers is precisely why went another direction. I have invested over $5,000 in GHL products since then.

During the elapsed time I have continued to follow your product line out of curiosity. Being blunt, the website has not improved. The feature set appears to somewhat random and there is not a consistent naming convention, making things even harder to sort out. Put rather simply, with all of the pages and marketing language there is not easy way to compare products and features. The marketing is a mess. So all of those educational resources are somewhat useless if the sale is never closed or you expect prospective customers to go down a rabbit hole just to get basic information that should be clearly conveyed in the primary marketing.

I do have high hopes for the “Maven” and look forward to its release. I will not be purchasing right away, simply because there is so little actual information about the device or its accuracy or repeatability or renewables consumption and cost specifics. I look forward to actual customer reviews and am not interested in sponsored reviews.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Did Connor just mike drop… lol

Far from it