How are you guys doing it ???????

W

wxman

I've brought this question up before and NO ONE has given me a response yet. I asked it on another thread, which didn't pertain to this, which was wrong on my part...............but.........

How are you guys 'posting' YOUR aquarium results at the bottom of your 'chat' on every thread you talk about? Some of them are pretty neat, but I do not know how you're doing it. I can't believe YOU'RE 'cutting and pasting' it on every response.

I've been in this hobby for over 8 years and have a beautiful 250 gallon reef tank and would love to do this.........but, again, I have NO idea how you're doing it.

Thanks for any responses............
 
Some have controllers hooked up to their tanks, and the results are being reported live to their computers. That information is transmitted to reefchat.org, which then is linked in their signature lines here.

It is complex enough that I'm not doing it.

However, I did learn today that I might be able to get it to work one day.

Scott, I've got that mini tower I bought for Reefcast, that is hardly used at all. It has WiFi built in. I'm thinking I can run the serial cable from the Aqua Controller II to it, and then use my Laptop as a temporary screen / monitor when needed (never knew I could do that until Brian from Tranquil Scape told me).

If I can do that, the tower can WiFi it to my router, right?
 
There is also a status widget that Steve Allen created to put the stats on your computer screen. I use an AC3, but there are other controllers that can be used also.
 
I go to Tranquil Scape quite a bit and will talk to Brian about this. Sounds interesting but a little complicated and I'm NOT 100% sure I want to 'tackle' this. I wish I had the smarts of a lot of the people out there. Thanks for the information. I still think it looks 'cooler than he_ _' that you can do it...... :shock:
 
I'm a geek, what can I say!

(Admittedly, Ashlar and SLallen did MOST of the magic, I just put the ingredients together)

Many years ago, I was going on a week long motorcycle trip to a bike rally at a friend's ranch in Tennessee... Before leaving, I set up a notebook with a webcam, including sound, so I could remotely monitor the tank and call in the calvary if anything was amiss.

Beyond everything being controlled by a Linux server at my house, I can manually turn things on and off at will too through a protected web interface (Or through PuTTY if I'm so inclined)

While at the biker rally, I asked to go inside and use the internet to check my aquarium. They couldn't believe I was serious, so they followed me in to watch. I brought up the webcam, but only my actinics were on. They were impressed already, but then in another window I brought up the control panel, and started brining up the other lights. The other people were completely flabbergasted, but I had a great time!

IF you have a supported controller, and IF you have a always-on internet connection, it's not terribly difficult to get the signatures set up...
 
Can you tell me what 'controller' you're using and where you got it? Just curious and impressed about what you're doing. I was able to hook up a 'Slingbox' at home and monitor my tank, with a camera pointing at it, using my Laptop and ALSO my phone.

I actually have 3 cameras hooked up here in the house and am able to monitor 3 views around the house. Getting the results at the bottom is neat and impressive, especially when you can go outside of town to receive that.

Thanks for the insight.
 
Yeah, just FYI, the data on the signatures is live for when you read the post, not necessarily when one of us makes our post. In other words, if you look at the signature now on my post, and then look at the same post tomorrow, the data will have changed, it's always live...

I personally am using a Lighthouse... I like it because I don't need much controlling, most of my controlling is done via X10 and custom scripts I wrote on my Linux server. The main job of the Lighthouse is to get the data and send it back to the Linux server (It's also used as a safety measure, in that if the pH gets too high, it cuts power to my Kalkreactor/ATO sub-system, and if the temp gets too high, it cuts the power to one of my heaters).

If you're going to get a controller to be a controller, I'd probably look at the Aquacontroller line. I believe there's a group buy going on them right now actually... The Lighthouse is nice, but it's rather limited in so far as stand alone complex functionality...
 
@Serk wrote:
Yeah said:
Brian the Lighthouse Controller is what I am looking at getting this one as a matter of fact. http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PA-LHC&Category_Code=othercontrol I wanted some feedback from someone that has one. What do you think and how long have you had your?
Click to expand...
 
The signature generator that is hosted via ReefChat was created by Scott (Ashlar). If you have a controller that can access the web, no matter how. Then you can put the info in your sig.

Currently both it and the widget supports Lighthouse and Aquacontrollers. The signature generator can pull from a web enabled aqaucontroller so it will work with the Aquacontroller and Aquanotes (correct me if I am wrong Scott). The widget can not login in to Aqaunotes so it will currently only work with and AC3 or above.

Here is the link to the How to setup a cool signature ...

and here is the link for the Status Widget
The latest version of the code produces and XML output file. We have some creative users from Reef Central that now use that file to build webpages. Here are a few examples.

http://www.shallowreef.com/parameters.php

This one, CarlosReef (from ReefCentral) takes the data and now plots the cost of running his setup.

http://www.carlosreef.com/default.php and his status page http://www.carlosreef.com/TankStatus.php

Note the tank status on this site.
http://prodibio.climatestudios.com/

Just a few examples of what can be done with controller stats. FYI, we are always on the look out for other controllers to add to the mix. We just need to have access to your controllers data output in order to create the extract information.

Marc - I am fairly certian that what you are planning will work.
 
@Marc wrote:
Some have controllers hooked up to their tanks said:
If your controller has it's own web interface (AC3/Pro or Lighthouse) it's much simpler. No need for a dedicated computer hooked up in your fish room.

@Marc wrote:
Scott said:
Yup, if you have AquaNotes installed on that tower, and it's connected to your controller 24/7, you sure can.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I was really thinking about buying the Lighthouse, but it was over $300 at MACNA.
 
David - I've had mine since January '07... For my purposes it's great, but if it's gonna be used as a full controller, it has some severe limitations...

It can control based on ORP OR pH OR an extra timed light. But not any combination of those, you have to choose ONE.

For timed outlets, it has 1 daylight, 1 actinic, and if you're not using the pH or ORP outlet, 1 refuguim.

It has ONE temperature outlet, you can set it for high or low (Heater or chiller)...

So, in some respects it's highly limited. But, for the price, if your main purpose is to get the data out of your system, as mine was, then it works great, but that's mainly because I already have all the timed outlets running with my custom stuff.

Oh, and it's not expandable either...

But, as I said, for the price, it's hard to beat. (Especially with a built in ethernet port and built in web server, makes hooking it up to the internet a LOT simpler than having to deal with a serial connection to a PC near the tank and Aquanotes!)
 
You're looking at $200 more to get the Aquacontroller, but as Serk says, it's expandable..

AquaController III w/ Temp Probes & DC8 - $539.00 (from the current group buy thread)
 
@Serk wrote:
David - I've had mine since January '07... For my purposes it's great said:
Brain thanks for the information and I plan on using it for minimal control as I really don’t like the idea of one device controlling everything on my tank. From an engineering standpoint that is a single point of failure. In other words I will still be using individual timers for the lights for example, ATO and the rest of the tank is already setup to run 10 days without intervention. I may use the controller for the heater/chiller as another layer of safety. I really like the idea of monitoring status over the internet since I travel so much and that is my main reason for looking into in the first place.
Click to expand...
 
You can do the sig with an AC Jr, but it's a bit more involved. You have to have a pc hooked up to your controller at all times, and you want to have a ground loop isolator, to keep from having strange readings on the controller. Then you have to have AquaNotes on the pc that it's connected to, and set up a dynamic hostname on a port that points to this pc. (e.g., http://myreeftank.dyndns.com:8080)
 
ok so I got my signature how do I add it to where it shows under my username in the forum



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