AC II Telnet interface..

A

Ashlar

Since I'm getting an ACII from Jacob once he finishes selling his equipment and livestock here, I plan on connecting the mini-itx computer that came out of my Truck Area Network to it.

In reading the neptune systems page on it, I noticed this.. "The serial interface allows you to download the datalog log as well as retrieve the current status of the monitored parameters and controlled devices in the aquarium. ...... Standard terminal emulator programs interface quite easily to the AquaController II."

Unfortunately, I can't find any specifications for this interface. Anybody have an idea? I plan in parsing the status and posting it to the large sign in my office, among other things.

I could parse the web page that aquanotes provides, but I'd like a more direct method.
 
There is a guy on Reefcentral that goes by JBNY. His name is Joe, and his tank parameters are piped to the front page of his website all the time. I think he'd have your answer.
 
I am officially ignoring this thread. I do NOT need another project right now, and this just sounds too cool...

:)

The scrolling LED with tank parameters would be nice, but getting one of those globes which rotate and fire the LED's at the right time to write in the air with your tank's current parameters being displayed would be just too cool...
 
Don't want to hijack, but where do you get the serial cable from 9-pin to that mac connector? do I need to build it with radio shack parts?

Thanks.
Larry
 
You can purchase it from marinedepot, among other sources..

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=YNS7113
 
Well, got a response from Joe..

@Joe wrote:
I don't use the telnet interface. The AC doesn't really let you issue specific commands to find out the status of an individual device. What I do is pull down the web page and parse that out. -Joe said:
Looks like I might have to do some experimenting to see what kind of data I might be able to pull.

If that doesn't work, I might actually have to install windows onto this box and parse the aquanotes page for the data.
Click to expand...
 
Ashlar,

I've got a PDF version of my AC manual. It's for version 1.5 (I guess prior to II).

Anyway chapter six (2 pages), outlines a few commands the ac will accept via the serial port. If you want I can email the whole pdf to you. These would be easy to program

Larry
 
Scott - If it comes to Windows, VMWare is giving away what used to be VMWare GSX server, so ya' could virtualize Windows inside of the Linux instance pretty easily...

Just a thought...
 
Thanks, Larry, please do! scott at webvoodoo dot com.

It's all good.. I've used mono.. but the aquanotes package isn't just a .net app.. apparently it's a windows service / IIS plug-in (at least I think so).

Thanks for the vmware tip Serk, it's been a while since I looked at them. If I have to install windows, I usually just install ActiveTCL and perl to write my scripts.
 
Once you smart guys figure all this out let me know in a "for Dummies" post what to do with my ACII to be able to hook it up to the web at least for monitoring.
 
@kwl1763 wrote:
Once you smart guys figure all this out let me know in a "for Dummies" post what to do with my ACII to be able to hook it up to the web at least for monitoring. said:
yea no kinding...Try to type it in english too. :)
Click to expand...
 
I definitely plan on at least documenting it..

My plan right now is to have the linux box connected to the AC II via serial port. I'll run a script every 5 minutes to get the current status and write it to a file, as well as putting those parameters into a mysql database. I'll format that file as an HTML include, and upload it to my website.

At the same time, I have another script that parses the status from my homebrew PVR and displays it on a LED sign in my office. I'll include the tank status in that scrolling message.

As far as making this portable to other folks' machines, it'll be easily portable to linux boxes. Maybe with some help from a .net guru, we could come up with a C# or VB.NET page that does something similar.
 
:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

http://www.kluge.net/ungeek.html
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top