I finally had a chance to pick-up my AI Director for beta testing on Friday. Reefbuilders has an article with pictures here: http://reefbuilders.com/2013/03/02/ai-director/
The article mentions the Director does not come with the wireless thingie but mine had it so that may be standard when the official release happens. Otherwise, it looks just like what is shown. The top of the Director is one big button with a LED in the middle that changes intensity, flashes, or changes color depending on what it is doing.
Setup was AMAZINGLY easy!!! This is coming from a non-techie guy that can barely find his way around a computer. All I had to do was press the the big button, go press the WPS button on my router and it was connected to where I could access the Director over my home network. I then registered for an account at my.aquaillumination.com and then had internet access to control and program my Director. That's it! All of that literally took less than 5 minutes on the first try! I also reset the Director to try connecting via other methods which worked just fine and took very little time.
The interface is a GUI where you can drag and drop things like the placement of your lights, group them to do different things, and change your ramps and other settings. Manual mode gives you a spectrograph to see how changes would affect spectral output and the Director automatically recognizes the configuration of your lights (i.e. what color LEDs are installed where) and you can click on a fixture icon to pull up status like temperature, whether the fan is running, and it even gives you the serial number of the fixture. If you had a chance to try out their software at MACNA last year it is pretty much the same interface.
They are still working on bugs and suggestions that folks like me are reporting but they are addressing things VERY quickly as the firmware was updated even just this evening. Speaking of firmware updates, the firmware automatically updates as long as it is connected to the internet and checks for updates every hour or so from what I understand. That takes away the hassle of having to download and install the latest firmware version and try to keep up with that. Simple!
If you guys are running AI lights that connect wirelessly (Vega, Hydra, Sol to Vega/Hydra Upgrade, or Sol with wireless module) I would seriously consider getting one of these puppies when they come out.
The article mentions the Director does not come with the wireless thingie but mine had it so that may be standard when the official release happens. Otherwise, it looks just like what is shown. The top of the Director is one big button with a LED in the middle that changes intensity, flashes, or changes color depending on what it is doing.
Setup was AMAZINGLY easy!!! This is coming from a non-techie guy that can barely find his way around a computer. All I had to do was press the the big button, go press the WPS button on my router and it was connected to where I could access the Director over my home network. I then registered for an account at my.aquaillumination.com and then had internet access to control and program my Director. That's it! All of that literally took less than 5 minutes on the first try! I also reset the Director to try connecting via other methods which worked just fine and took very little time.
The interface is a GUI where you can drag and drop things like the placement of your lights, group them to do different things, and change your ramps and other settings. Manual mode gives you a spectrograph to see how changes would affect spectral output and the Director automatically recognizes the configuration of your lights (i.e. what color LEDs are installed where) and you can click on a fixture icon to pull up status like temperature, whether the fan is running, and it even gives you the serial number of the fixture. If you had a chance to try out their software at MACNA last year it is pretty much the same interface.
They are still working on bugs and suggestions that folks like me are reporting but they are addressing things VERY quickly as the firmware was updated even just this evening. Speaking of firmware updates, the firmware automatically updates as long as it is connected to the internet and checks for updates every hour or so from what I understand. That takes away the hassle of having to download and install the latest firmware version and try to keep up with that. Simple!
If you guys are running AI lights that connect wirelessly (Vega, Hydra, Sol to Vega/Hydra Upgrade, or Sol with wireless module) I would seriously consider getting one of these puppies when they come out.