DA ReefKeeper Elite V2 & Lite Issues

Hopefully someone has seen this before and I'm just choosing poor search terms on Google.

A few months ago I decided to jump into the world of reef automation. The road has been somewhat of a buggy path and I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong, or if these things are just unreliable.

OK down to it... Both the RKL and the RKE crash when left connected (through the SID) to my computer. The RKE has the NET module, and I'm waiting for the Ethernet to wireless adapter to arrive, so this will be a moot point in a few days, but I'd really like to know what's up with this issue.

Technical Stuff:
Workstation (WKS) - Reef01:
Dell Opti 745
Intel core2 duo proc @ 2.1GHz
4GB RAM
Win7 Pro x64 image from a MS iso downloaded from the VLSC

Secondary Test WKS - LT0002:
Dell Inspiron 640M
Intel Core Duo Mobile T2050 @ 1.6GHz
4GB RAM
Win7 Pro x86 This image was also from a VLSC iso but I use this machine for surfing, email, games, etc... In essence it's not as clean as Reef01 but it's not trashed either.

WKS Reef01 is dedicated to:
USB Cameras
myReef monitoring
UPS Monitoring via USB & web interface

Installed software conflicts and interoperability issues have been ruled out because the RKL was crashing when the OS and myReef were the only two programs running on the Reef01 system.

The SID has been plugged into several ports on the computers and I even blew out the USB hardware chain to ensure the SID drivers were not corrupted.

The RKE & RKL have exhibited the same crashes on both Reef01 & LT0002

The RKE & RKL both have individual SID V2s and the failed result is the same on both workstations.

The RKE, and all of its modules are up to date (See Pics).

If more technical info is needed, please let me know. I can only assume that I'm doing something wrong because I can't believe DA would produce an unusable product. Also if it wasn't my issue I'd think there would be more search hits about this problem. All I found were a couple of passing remarks about the crashing issue.

Where I run into two issues:
I thought that maybe since I bought the RKL used that something might be wrong with it and that's why it crashed. Uggg to my surprise when I dropped almost 5 bills on the RKE to have it respond the same way!

Since the RKL was unreliable I never completely put it into service. I mostly tested it but never let it have complete control of the tank. Unfortunately I put far more trust in the RKE and yesterday I dropped all the eggs into one automation basket.

Last night I remoted (RDP & Logmein) into Reef01 several times to verify the controller was ok, and it was. Side note: I noticed while programming both the RKL and the RKE that the connection to the system intermittently fails when myReef is left running... The modules gray out and flash. Once myReef is relaunched the communication is ok. For this reason I always make sure to shut down the myReef software before logging off the machine. Seems counterproductive to gathering historical data if the app needs to be closed.

Moving on... I woke up this morning thinking about the tank, like I'm sure most of you do when a major change is made, so I ran down to the fish room to check everything out. AHHH the RKModules were flashing like an ugly blue Christmas tree, the RKE head was displaying "ERROR", and ALL of the PC4 modules were off! The whole tank was down an the temperature dropped to 74 degrees! OMG! I immediately unplugged the SID and recycled power on the PC4 modules.

The system is back up and has been functioning within normal parameters. I plugged the SID back into my computer to take screenshots then unplugged it. From now on the SID will only be used as a programming tool, not as a monitoring interface. Side note: I RDP'd to Reef01 and the computer was chugging along with no issues. All other apps work properly and there are no errors in the Windows logs - Except for the Overload messages being reported by the UPS because the tank is drawing crazy current to right itself.

One last thing... While testing the RKL I contacted DA twice regarding issues and both times the response was that it must be something with the computer, either machine issue or myReef install/version issue. I pulled myReef from DA's site, and the tech at DA emailed me software. Since I've had the same results with 2 computers, and I've continually troubleshot the issue I can only conclude that this is a SID issue.

I have worked in IT a log time and have had more than my share of vendors who put buggy software/hardware/firmware issues back into the hands of the end user as a computer issue, but I really don't think the computer is the problem here. If anyone has any insight on this problem, please let me know because if this is what I should expect from the RK series then I might as well go back to digital timers.

Thanks!

 

Update: the SID has been disconnected from the RKE for almost 8 hours and the controller has not crashed.

 

Bump for you Yose.

 

Update: The RKE & RKL only crash when the SID is connected to the controller. I connected both SIDs to both systems and, over time, they both hung. The SIDs do not have to be plugged into a computer (only the RK's) to make them crash.

Does anyone else have any info or a resolution to this problem?

By the way, the NET module is pretty nice and the Netgear WNCE2001 Ethernet to wireless converter works really well. I'm not sure how it does it, but the Netgear device grabs a DHCP address and then passes DHCP through to the RKM-NET. The Netgear wireless device ended up at .133 and the NET module grabbed .134. Cool technology.