New Vertex Cerebra $699.99 - Intro Price $374.99

[jwilliams860]

Got mine today also, I think it looks great and has great build quality. I know there has been some questions about plastic being used on the body of the controller, the only plastic on mine are the side panels, the entire rest of the controller body is aluminum and appears to be one piece. The multi bar is also all aluminum and only the end caps are plastic.
The temp probe looks slick and also appears to be a quality piece of equipment.
I look forward to getting this thing installed.

[scuzy]

Originally Posted by kouma

AS told me that Multi-bars were not included in the first shipment they received from Vertex. They will ship it once they become stocked - no ETA on that. So dont expect to get a Multi-bar with your shipment (except of course the one already with the controller).

Wow you need 3x Power-bars and 2x Multi-bars, are you connecting your whole house to the Cerebra?

Its controlling two systems. Replacement for my apex that's running both systems.


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[reefingnoob]

Originally Posted by kouma

Finally got mine today. First impressions: packaging looks great and well protected. All probes, power bar, cerebra, etc. come with sealed, temper proof boxes.

Bro, do you know the feeling when vertex temp probe doesn't fit on vertex probe holder?

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[Kyl]

Originally Posted by reefingnoob

Bro, do you know the feeling when vertex temp probe doesn't fit on vertex probe holder?

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Did they really make the temp probe larger than the single expanded hole on the Sensormag XD's?

[reefingnoob]

Yes unfortunately! Adam from V-Tech said snug fit, I almost broke mine to barely get the head in and it's never coming out, I can assure you!

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[ArmanS]

Originally Posted by mikeatjac

This a 16 amp power bar. If the wire is 18 gauge it is not good. Would like someone to verify. Just 4 screws to open.

FGauge 110V 12V
22 5A 5A
20 7.5A 8A
18 10A 10A
16 13A 20A
14 17A 40A
12 23A 60A
10 33A 100A
8 46A 150A
6 60A ??A
4 80A ??A
2 100A ??A
1 125A ??A
0 150A

Read this article on another web forum but it was taken down / removed. I think it is a good read for anyone interested in this controller and anyone who currently owns one.


Disclaimer: I am just posting this so everyone who owns this can read it. I hope the Cerebra Police doesn't bash me

[scuzy]

The is no way each socket can handle 16a as most house socket is either 15a to 20a for the whole circuit.

Plus I don't know if any equipment we have that draws 10a besides a vacuum.

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[acesq]

ArmanS, do you know who wrote that article? Those are some pretty damning statements. I'd love to hear from an electrical engineer whether the article is correct about the risk of fire using these power bars. Since it is unattributed, it's hard to know whether to believe it.




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[gcarroll]

ArmanS, this is getting ridiculous, why don't you share who fed you that article? If you won't we know why.

From post #609
Vertex has admitted that the 16A rating was a mistake and should have been 10A. They are creating a video currently to state that. They were alerted about it a few days ago and addressed it on the Cerebra owners forum.

They admitted this mistake 3 days ago. I'd love for him to review competing products and allow us to see what the competition does. Other than that mistake, where is the hazard. That same guy joined a forum recently and wrote a gleaming review of the Apex and a scathing review of the Vertex. He was called out repeatedly for his bias.

[acesq]

Originally Posted by gcarroll

ArmanS, why don't you share who fed you that article?

From post #609
Vertex has admitted that the 16A rating was a mistake and should have been 10A. They are creating a video currently to state that. They were alerted about it a few days ago and addressed it on the Cerebra owners forum.

They admitted this mistake 3 days ago. I'd love for him to review competing products and allow us to see what the competition does. Other than that mistake, where is the hazard. That same guy joined a forum recently and wrote a gleaming review of the Apex and a scathing review of the Vertex. He was called out repeatedly for his bias.

Is this that same guy? If so, that's terrible.


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[gcarroll]

Originally Posted by acesq

Is this that same guy? If so, that's terrible.


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Yes the same guy. Personally, I would use the word despicable to describe him!

[gcarroll]

It is truly sad to see how afraid people are of this controller succeeding.

[unze]

How does the Apex powerbar compare? i have seen the EUR power of apex and it is much better than the US version.

[kouma]

Originally Posted by reefingnoob

Bro, do you know the feeling when vertex temp probe doesn't fit on vertex probe holder?

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What are you talking about bro (make sure to get the XD probe holder).

[jason2459]

10amp per outlet is still pretty good. And way more then enough.

But that article did point out something more concerning to me. Does that strip not have a breaker or fuse?

[kouma]

mikeatjac is now asking questions and ArmanS is conveniently answering them nice alliance

I have a Compaq server rack at home, it houses 2x Dell R710, 1x Dell T710 rack servers, 2x Cisco 3750X switches, a QNAP NAS devices, and a Cisco ASA firewall. Total wattage of all equipment is approx. 5000W (3,300 Watts for the servers, 1200W for the switches, and 500W for the NAS and firewall devices) all are running 24/7 out of one APC PDU that is rated for total 15A.

You want us to believe that Vertex's Power-bars are rated for 16A? And that there is a risk to consumers if they exceed or get close to 16A. What do you think we are going to plug into our controllers?

IF TEMP < 77F, START OVEN AT 500F

[jason2459]

Originally Posted by unze

How does the Apex powerbar compare? i have seen the EUR power of apex and it is much better than the US version.

I'm not impressed with the new 2016 apex plastic version. The classic EB8 is solid. All aluminum housing, 6x5amp triac outlets, 2x10amp relay outlets, 15amp rated breaker, and memory to know either its last state or fallback state.

[jason2459]

Originally Posted by kouma

...

IF TEMP < 77F, START OVEN AT 500F


..]

No that was funny.

[ReefCowboy]

The float switch and optical sensor come without brackets or holders?

[kouma]

Originally Posted by ReefCowboy

The float switch and optical sensor come without brackets or holders?

Yep not sure how to mount them

[sleepydoc]

Arman-
I have to agree with what other's have said - if you are going to post an article with such information, you need to give its source.

Kuoma -
Are you claiming to run 5000 watts of equipment on a 120V 15A outlet? If you are, please explain how this is possible.

[sleepydoc]

Now to respond to Arman’s post. Note to all - I have not seen the Cerebra power bar or the internal design in person. My statements are assuming that the pictures in the post are accurate pictures of the Cerebra power bar and that the statement that it lacks a fuse/breaker is accurate. If that information is not accurate then my statements don’t apply.

First off, I don’t think the snap in outlets shown are necessarily of inferior quality; they strike me as being of similar quality and construction technique as many other devices we use.

Looking at the wiring, there are some significant issues. As the article stated, the wires are clearly too small for the rated current capacity. This is a very basic issue and it’s surprising that they missed it and that it passed approval.

Second, looking at the wiring, the outlets are essentially in parallel along the supply wires. This means that the current for all of the outlets is passing through the same wire, so you could easily exceed 16A (or 10A) of total current even if each individual device is well below that.0

The omission of a fuse/breaker, if true, is a significant miss, as well. This is a basic safety device that even cheap power bars have.

GCarrol said the rating should have been 10A instead of 16A. If that is the case, then design and safety standards would dictate that a 10A fuse be incorporated in the design.

It is very true that none of the equipment we use normally draws 15A, but safety means designing equipment to handle and protect agains what could happen, not what we expect to happen. This is why we have GFI outlets and why we have circuit breakers and arc fault interrupt breakers. If this power bar is plugged into an outlet on a 20A circuit and a short occurs in a piece of equipment, it could easily draw close to double the safe capacity of its wiring without tripping the circuit breaker.

These issues are more perplexing given Vertex’s previous statements about 'designing equipment for the environment in which it will be used' and protecting against splashes. Splashes, condensation and salt bridges can and do occur could be a very dangerous development. I am far more concerned with the splash resistance of the power bar than I am of the controller head. They also stated that the hardware design was final, so this can't be explained by it being a 'beta.'

None of these problems are difficult to solve. Appropriately sized wire and circuit breakers are very easy to find, so it’s puzzling why they didn’t’ include them in their design.

Given the passionate opinions on this thread, I know I will probably take heat for this, but if the above information is true, I would consider the power bar to be potentially unsafe and even go as far as suggesting that it be recalled to correct the deficiencies. I make this statement not to flame Vertex or try to sabotage the controller, but simply based on what I see. I also make no claim that the Apex, Reef Angel, Profilux or any other controller is necessarily better or worse. Hopefully this information is incorrect but based on GCarrol's report of their response not the owner's forum, it would appear that at least some of it is accurate.

Edit: As I posted below, I posted this after being as sure as possible that the pictures were authentic. If you disagree with my conclusions, please state why. If you have evidence that the information on which I have based my conclusions is false, please post that. If the pictures are accurate, this is not conjecture. If the pictures are inaccurate, then this is irrelevant. Either way, please do not simply argue one way or the other without saying why; doing so doesn't help to further the discussion.

[acesq]

SleepyDoc: Its all the conjecture in the posts that is so concerning. If pigs could fly there would be flying pigs. Yep.

Your post is a classic example. All the proper disclaimer, followed by paragraphs of "but if it is true, the power bar should be recalled."

Facts. That's what matters. Lets get them before piling on.

[sleepydoc]

Originally Posted by acesq

SleepyDoc: Its all the conjecture in the posts that is so concerning. If pigs could fly there would be flying pigs. Yep.

Your post is a classic example. All the proper disclaimer, followed by paragraphs of "but if it is true, the power bar should be recalled."

Facts. That's what matters. Lets get them before piling on.

Totally agree. I thought long and hard before making that post, but like I said, I made my analysis based on what appear to be accurate pictures of the power bar, and GCarrol's post about Vertex saying the max current should be 10A corroborates the information in the pictures, so at this point, I felt sufficiently sure that they were authentic to write my post. If you have facts/evidence to contradict the information, please post them. If I find out that the pictures have been falsified, I will gladly retract my statements and/or ask a mod to delete them. Otherwise, I find it hard to argue that my post is conjecture.

[kouma]

Originally Posted by sleepydoc

Arman-
I have to agree with what other's have said - if you are going to post an article with such information, you need to give its source.

Kuoma -
Are you claiming to run 5000 watts of equipment on a 120V 15A outlet? If you are, please explain how this is possible.

If you do the math, 120v x 15a = 1800W maximum. I see your point. But its true lol, I am running these equipment out of one outlet. The ratings I gave you are the device maximums - you can google them. My conclusion: since this is my home lab, the devices are not consuming much power because they are not doing much.