AquaController 3 + iPhone Aquanotes App

melev

melev

Club President
Staff member
Board of Directors
Sponsor
On Sunday, a friend of mine offered to help me from his home in Missouri to get my Aqua Controller 3 working with the U-verse Gateway (router), and get the Aquanotes App on my iPhone communicating with it once again. Knowing it would take some time, we tackled it Sunday afternoon after I had my first cup of coffee.

(It was a long night. My main PC pretty much crashed to the blue screen of death, and my new iPhone joined in the demise. It was bad, but I worked on that all night until 8:30am to get them back up and running. Things are much better, but I really can't wait for Windows 7 to finally hit the market. I'm going to be ready to buy the day it comes out...)

I really hoped to document the solutions we employed, but this networking stuff is really tricky. Even with Eric's experience, it was a very tedious process that ended up taking about five hours to get everything to cooperate. Being so many states apart didn't help matters, but I gave him Remote Desktop Access so he could see and click on the stuff he needed to do. I was on the phone with him the entire time, making changes in the AC3, running back and forth to the computer, changing settings, changing wires, plugged in my laptop for a bit to the AC3; you name it, we tried it. IT (no pun intended) was a beast.

The good news is, he did it. He brought it to life. See?
melev.asp
alt="">

Once we had my controller available locally to my browser, I went to Neptune System's website to download the newest firmware. The update wasn't that bad once I had the settings correct. I was able to run it from my desktop computer, and it found the AC3 via the Gateway. From there, it updated the firmware from 3.3 to3.4. Next, I needed to update the webpages as well, which was a little trickier and took a while to figure out why. It ended up being a Port number change, and with that correction, those pages were updated / uploaded.

I downloaded the latest version of the App for my phone, and with the new settings, I'm able to "see" my tank wherever I am yet again. From what I can tell, if you have multiple controllers with their own individual log ins, you could see them all from this one page.

aqua_controller_page.jpg
alt="">


Now I can see not only what I used to check in the past, but some newer options thanks to the latest App version.

aqua_probes_page.jpg
alt="">


Outlets is one of the new ones, and my guess is that with the new Apex controller, it was named that way because these are the things you plug in and would be able to measure wattage used. Since I'm using the AC3, it shows what is on, what is off, and what settings they are set to. In this screen shot, the only item on are the Refugium bulbs. From this screen, I can turn any of these items on or off just like you might with a tv remote.

aqua_outlets.jpg
alt="">


Here are three graphs from today. pH: 8:08 to 8:31

aqua_ph.jpg
alt="">


Temp: 79.4F to 81F

aqua_temperature.jpg
alt="">


ORP: 309 to 322

aqua_orp.jpg
alt="">


Another new feature I came across is on the graphs page. You can put your finger on the graph and work your way across the line, and it will provide hour by hour information based upon location. It is more interactive than before. Like this:

aqua_graph_enhanced.jpg
alt="">


I can now view the AC3's program right on my phone, in case I needed help or wanted to share some code with someone else that needed it. When I say share, I mean read it off to them, not give them a file. Still, at MACNA Curt may tell me that I need to make a correction simply by looking at the line by line code, since it would be simple to show him in person.

aqua_program_displayed.jpg
alt="">


Another new option is the Backup option. All you do is press Backup and the program is backed up immediately to the phone's log.

aqua_backup_page.jpg
alt="">


This is what the back up looks like, which scrolls up and down with a fingertip swipe.

aqua_prg_backed_up.jpg
alt="">


If I need to restore the program for some reason, that option is in the App. I've not tried it, but theoretically I'm out of town, and my son says a brown out occurred that messed up the tank's settings. I could check with the App to see if the program looks right or if it has gibberish in it. Let's say it does, then I could click Restore and get that into the AC3. At that point, I don't know if I have to do a restart or not (perhaps the App offers a "restart" option after you've done a restore - I don't know yet), but if it doesn't, my son could unplug it and plug it back in and we'd be back in business. Theoretically, right? ;)

aqua_restore_from_backup.jpg
alt="">


I wish I could help others that are struggling to make theirs work with similar gear, but #1) I barely understand it and I think I know something about computers, and #2) Everyone's system varies enough that what worked for my system probably won't for yours. (Hopefully you know a guy named Eric too. :p )

Just like everything else in this hobby, right? :lol:
 
Great write up Marc! Thanks for sharing your experience!

I use the Aquanotes application on my iPod Touch and am very fond of it myself. I'm not able to initiate a feed mode or actually edit the programming from the iPod, but everything else works great. This may be due to my use of an Aquacontroller Jr. with ACSerial2Web instead of the Aquacontroller 3. Either way, it's a great addition.
 
The new options available from the AquaNotes BROWSER feature (logging in from my PC with Firefox) is really nice. I didn't realize we had so many options for the Network settings from a single screen now. I was able to get my email notifications set up during the past 30 minutes, ran a test email, and it's working.

Here's my program as of now:
If Time > 01:00 Then ALM OFF
If Time > 11:00 Then VHO ON
If Time > 22:00 Then VHO OFF
If Time > 13:00 Then MH1 ON
If Time > 19:00 Then MH1 OFF
If Time > 14:15 Then MH2 ON
If Time > 20:15 Then MH2 OFF
If Time > 15:30 Then MH3 ON
If Time > 21:30 Then MH3 OFF
If Time > 14:00 Then 20G ON
If Time > 20:00 Then 20G OFF
If Time > 22:00 Then REF ON
If Time > 06:00 Then REF OFF
If Temp < 78.7 Then HTR ON
If Temp > 79.2 Then HTR OFF
If Temp > 82.3 Then 20G OFF
If Temp > 82.0 Then MH2 OFF
If Temp > 82.1 Then MH1 OFF
If Temp > 82.1 Then MH3 OFF
If Temp > 82.2 Then VHO OFF
If pH > 08.50 Then ALM ON
If pH < 07.80 Then ALM ON
If ORP < 200 Then ALM ON
If ORP > 415 Then ALM ON
If Power 000 Then ALM ON

This is what the email looked like from the test:
 
Here is a screen shot from the browser-version of Aqua Notes, the one that is built in to the Aqua Controller (not the software you purchase).

The Net Setup page, redacted for my peace of mind:
ac3_net_setup_page.jpg
alt="">

One of the newer looking graphs. The chart is very limited because I had to reboot the controller to update the new settings, and whenever I do that, data is lost. I still need to plug it into a battery back up to so it doesn't lose data during a power outage.

Click to see image: http://melevsreef.com/pics/09/09/aqua_graph_browser_ver.jpg

It's nice that this was fixed prior to my trip to MACNA this weekend.
 
Marc, you should have pre-ordered Windows 7 a couple of months ago. $50 for the home version. I have 3 copies ordered from Amazon. Releases on October 22. Actually, it is available already for some college students from what I've read. I sure hope it lives up to all the hype, I don't think I've read one bad review on it.
 
I take it it is too late to get that preorder price, right? I need to make sure I get the right version. The Home version should be fine, but I'm upgrading from XP, not Vista.
 
I found a few more options recently, now that I'm reconnected via my phone. If you want, you can sync your iPhone's clock (and date presumably) to the AC3 with the App. Since our phones tend to always have the right time, this is quicker than having to enter it any other way. Press Sync and it does it; now my iPhone's time and the AC3's time match to the second.

In the web-based version of Aquanotes, when you look at a graph for the day, you can highlight just a few hours and it will zoom in to that period. Above that zoomed image, it will state "100%". Click that 100% and you can return to the full graph.

I currently have my AC3's power supply plugged into a APC UPS-200, so when a power outage occurs, the AC3 doesn't know it. However, I wanted it to have power to be able to send email notifications, which it did. I talked to Curt at MACNA about making a wire that fits his controller and plugs into the IceCap Battery Backup so I can use that instead.
 
Not to hijack the thread but is there a good website that takes you through the steps of getting a ACjr connected to a computer and then connected to the internet like an iphone app. I have done some searching and have come up with the following but I want to make sure it will work before I spend the money.

I have an ACjr, the computer I would connect it to is upstairs. My PC runs XP but I use Safari as my browser.

Serial Interface Cable for PC ($17.99)
IOGear GBS301 Serial Bluetooth adapter ($59.24) , How is this powered?
IOGear GBU321 Bluetooth Dongle ($24.99)

My computer is upstairs so from what I have read the bluetooth adaptors should reach.

Once I get everything connected do I install aquanotes. Then when my computer can talk with the ACjr would I install the ACSeiral2Web program.

My computer is on all the time and it is plugged into an AT&T 2wire modem/router. Would I have firewall issues, etc.

I have also done a search on our message board and did not find anything that gave a good how to.

Any information would be helpful.

Thanks,
Steven
 
ACSerial2Web takes the place of aquanotes, so no need for aquanotes unless you want the graphs.

If you're wanting graphs, the sig generator logs temp/ph/orp and can graph them without aquanotes (it works with ACSerial2Web)-

rc_d0ughb0y_sig.png
alt="">
(the author of ACSerial2Web specifically coded it so that it would work with the sig gen.)

re the bluetooth serial dongle- never used it, but sounds like an interesting solution if it works.
 
You will have to open up the firewall port in the U-verse gateway, and that's not exactly an easy project. I kind of understood what I was doing, but can't exactly just have you copy what I did necessarily.
 
If done correctly, no.

You do not want to disable the firewall, or disable port blocking.

Rather, you want to set up a port forwarding from the router to the specific internal ip address of your controller (or the computer running ACSerial2Web) on the specific port (typically 80, but to be safe, configure your controller or ACSerial2Web to use a nonstandard port like 8080).

Make sure that you set up a robust username / password for ACSerial2Web, don't leave the default admin / 1234.

I have five different services punched through my firewall (two controllers, one camera, one web server) and I've never had any problems with security.
 
Scott you are correct in not needing to disable the firewall for access on a U-verse account.
With U-verse all that is needed is to open a pin-hole on the telnet port and face it to the ACxx and you can do the same on the web server port if you want access to the web version of aquanotes. Fairly straight forward and easy to do when logged into the 2wire RG. That is accomplished via a web browser. The access IP and needed password are right on the side of the RG itself next to the bar codes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top