7020 controller question

[rvitko]

One question, can you check both controllers for what firmware they are on? Its a long shot, but we did have an older glitchy firmware. This could be solved by updating to 1.4.2, you do this under system for each pump

 

[RobertK]

OK Roger so I did a hard reset on both controllers, reconnected them to the hub, and everything seems to be working now. I guess they just needed a hard reset! In cloud mode both pumps now turn off when the food timer button on either controller is pushed. In leader/follower mode I do have to push the food timer button on both controllers but that is no big deal. I think I'll keep it in cloud mode anyway now that it is working properly.

But Roger I have another question - is there an instruction manual for all the settings in the Tunze Hub? If not there should be! The instruction manual that came with the 6105 Eco has detailed instructions on how to configure the 7020 controller, and how to connect the controller to the hub, but nothing about how to use the hub once you're connected to it. I did watch your YouTube video and that was helpful, but there are still some things I don't understand and a user guide for the Tunze Hub would be super helpful.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[rvitko]

The problem for a guide is two fold.

1) The HUB is about to be abandoned, it has some months left before it ceases to exist, a future update will move all HUB products to working on the Tunze app. We actually have this done but there is considerable debugging as one wrong move could brick hundreds of HUB controllers and so we are being very cautious on testing it.

2) Since it was software and was always changing, it gets difficult to make a guide that could no longer be accurate, this same issue applies to the app, we take feedback as well as things we learn from other products and implement it as quickly as possible.

You have to keep in mind the US is me and one employee, the entire factory is 38 people almost all of them are working production, machining, engineering, we don't really have a PR department or marketing department and so someone whose time is already stretched to the limit has to make the video and if it will be obsolete soon or would have a very lengthy set up and editing, it gets complicated to do this. I will say that once the dust settles a bit on the app integration we will make a much better instruction system, it is in the works now, much more modern instructions in 3 formats, print, video and a trained AI assistant.

 

[RobertK]

Thanks for that info Roger, understood.

Unfortunately I spoke too soon yesterday when I said that everything is now working properly after doing a hard reset on the controllers and reconnecting them to the hub. I forgot to time how long the food timers turned the pumps off for, which I did today. I have them both set to 5 min global in the hub. They do both turn off when I press the food timer button, but now neither one turns back on after 5 minutes (or even after 10 minutes; I stopped timing and turned them back on manually after that). I tried resetting the timer in the hub but that did not help. And when I switched the controllers back to leader/follower mode they have now reverted to shutting the pumps off for only 1 minute when I press the food timer button (same on both controllers). Very strange behavior, and very frustrating. I've spent hours messing around with these things. Unless you have any further suggestions I'm going to leave them in cloud mode and just turn the pumps back on manually when I'm done feeding. Am I the only one having this problem? I sure hope the new app works better than the hub!

 

[rvitko]

Give me a few days, I am going to run some more tests and see if I can figure this out. The main thing is, not everybody uses every feature, I never use foodtimer, I want the food to blow around so everything gets fed. Because of that not everyone will have this issue, I have no other reports of foodtimer problems. I would be curious as to what you found on the firmware that each is running and if this is solved by switching what pump is leader and follower, from the initial issue, I think at most one controller has a problem, only the pump that is leader can actuate the foodtimer correctly.

 

[RobertK]

Firmware is 1.4.3 on both. I will try switching leader and follower later today.
It says the latest version is 1.4.2

I clicked the check for update button and it downloaded 1.4.2 but I did not install it. Should I?

 

[rvitko]

I am asking about this, I also am on 1.4.3 and I am assuming there may be a bug that was a reason to remove it and downgrade, let me wait to hear back.

 

[RobertK]

Roger, I tried reversing the controllers in leader/follower mode as you suggested. Up until now I've been using the left controller as leader and the right one as follower, alternating between 20 and 60% power with inverse operation activated. I think the short aux cable is working fine for this as they are alternating in inverse mode correctly, but I do have to press both food timer buttons to get both controllers to pause, and they are both pausing for only 1 minute currently.

When I reversed them so that the right controller is leader and the left is follower I got even more strange behavior. I did reset 20 and 60% as min and max on the right controller (leader), and set the left controller (follower) for inverse operation, as per the instructions on page 38 of the user's manual. In this mode the right pump alternated between 20 and 60% as expected but the left pump alternated between 0 and 100%. I did not try pushing the food timer button on the left controller as it was already shutting itself off every few seconds. When I pushed the food timer button on the right controller the right pump paused for 1 minute, and the left pump stayed on at 100% for 1 minute, then resumed alternating between 0 and 100%.

Not sure what to make of this. I have them back in cloud mode again now, but as mentioned the food timer is still not working properly in this mode either, the pumps shut off but do not come back on after 5 minutes as set in the hub. Weird huh?

I noticed in the screenshot above that there is a factory reset button in the hub. Does clicking that do the same thing as pushing the food timer and mode buttons on the controller for 3 seconds?

 

[rvitko]

Can you message me your address? I would first like to rule out the cable, I will send a proper factory cable. The factory reset in the hub resets the controller without erasing the WIFI settings, it just takes it back to stock settings. The reason I suspect the cable is it takes next to no power to run a cheap set of head phones, the wiring in a lot of these cables is really low grade, very small and poor quality wires, and the fit can be fidgity so it has only partial or intermittent contact, the foodtimer resets as soon as that contact is lost.

 

[RobertK]

Thanks, will do.

The latest glitch with the food timer is that I am back to having to press both food timer buttons in cloud mode since I did hard resets on the controllers and reconnected to the hub. Before the reset I only had to push one of the buttons to shut both pumps off. As mentioned previously I also have to push both buttons again when I'm done feeding as the pumps don't automatically come back on after 5 minutes. I am using the pumps in cloud mode and have the food timer set to 5 minutes Global in the hub. I do have the aux cable connected. I have had nothing but trouble with the food timer on these pumps, in whatever mode the controllers are set to.

Did you find out about firmware version 1.4.2 vs 1.4.3?

 

[rvitko]

I have not heard back yet. I know it is frustrating but the same guys that can answer me also develop the products and fix the app and site so they have their hands full and are not always fast. We are a very small company.

What does it show when you click the red fishfood can top next to All Gateways? It should show a countdown and start the foodtimer.

If you click on the clock below that you get a different view and it will show what pumps are in foodtimer.

If you click on the foodtimer bar for the pump you get a seperate option to individually set one pump, my hunch is this is set very short and likely is the issue if it is not the cable, the main fishfood can activates all pumps in the hub, the individual settings are likely what it saves to use offline.

 

[RobertK]

I have not heard back yet. I know it is frustrating but the same guys that can answer me also develop the products and fix the app and site so they have their hands full and are not always fast. We are a very small company.

What does it show when you click the red fishfood can top next to All Gateways? It should show a countdown and start the foodtimer.

If you click on the clock below that you get a different view and it will show what pumps are in foodtimer.

If you click on the foodtimer bar for the pump you get a seperate option to individually set one pump, my hunch is this is set very short and likely is the issue if it is not the cable, the main fishfood can activates all pumps in the hub, the individual settings are likely what it saves to use offline.

When I click on the red fishfood can next to All Gateways it starts a 15 minute timer, even though I have the food timer set to 5 minutes as shown in my last message.

When I click on the clock below that it shows that both pumps are in the food timer.

When I click on the foodtimer bar for each pump I'm not sure how to interpret those screens.

 

[RobertK]

Can you message me your address? I would first like to rule out the cable, I will send a proper factory cable. The factory reset in the hub resets the controller without erasing the WIFI settings, it just takes it back to stock settings. The reason I suspect the cable is it takes next to no power to run a cheap set of head phones, the wiring in a lot of these cables is really low grade, very small and poor quality wires, and the fit can be fidgity so it has only partial or intermittent contact, the foodtimer resets as soon as that contact is lost.

Also Roger FYI, not sure if this is a factor but I am leaving the cable attached when in cloud mode. I installed the cable so I could use them in leader/follower mode, but left it installed in cloud mode because of this line in the leader/follower section of the instruction manual:

"This cable can also be used for more precise synchronization when controlling in the cloud."

 

[rvitko]

This I don't know, I generally would not use the cable in cloud mode but I have not tried it. I am puzzled as generally this cable data to my knowledge is only received by a unit in analog mode and transmitted by a unit in manual mode, I suspect that this could be mentioned because in a total failure of the internet or any settings the device automatically reverts to manual mode, possibly as a back up?