BIG AND LOUD CONTROLLER COMPARISON THREAD

[cmcoker]

Question for Prolifux users...
Do they have an auto top off like the ATK from APEX?
Will the ATK work with the prolifux?
What about Jebeo pumps and wavemakers?

Jebao WP and RW can be controlled, I believe the DCT and DCP pumps have the control chip in the controller box now and you can't control those, but some of the older returns can be controlled.
I just wired in a phone cord to an old Jebao twins controller, and am using it to control 2 rw8s on my profilux 3 ex. I did need to get a different power supply to control both pumps through the one controller.
It's been going a week or two now, and I am much happier with it than the stock controller, as the random mode was a bit too much for my tank and I was able to lower the max percentages.
One important note is the Jebao run off 0 to 5v. I have changed the setting through ghl control center so that 5v is the max signal sent to the pumps. There is also a Jebao to apex control box you can get that lowers the voltage in the box, so you still use the default 0 to 10v signal.

 

[coweyes298]

Some parts of the manufacture's input is useful, but some of the input is more like picking on others. For me it is bitter and sour with a pretended naive sugar coating. If you want to leave a useful input we are 100% welcome. But please don't put this thread to a manufacture battle ground.

 

[HolisticBear]

Do they have an auto top off like the ATK from APEX?

GHL has some nice level sensors, I have a low + high water sensor in my sump. I use a separate ATO (avast), but I use the low + high water sensors as both backups (disable ato) and to generate alarms. I could use the Tunze or another standalone ATO in this configuration, or use the level sensors directly to generate an ATO.

 

[reefwiser]

Question for Prolifux users...
Do they have an auto top off like the ATK from APEX?
Will the ATK work with the prolifux?
What about Jebeo pumps and wavemakers?

On the auto top off I use a level sensor the mechanical one. Which is plugged in to my master doser 2 and it controls the fourth pump to pump water from a container 10 feet away in my garage. One could use the same level probe to control any other pump plugged into a power bar to do the same thing.
https://www.aquariumcomputer.com/usa/product/level-sensor-floater/

 

[Sleepydoc]

I should have mentioned this in my earlier post, but essentially, auto top off systems are just mini controllers - they have a water level sensor, turn on the pump when the level is low and turn it off when it comes up. Many also incorporate a second sensor and some sort of time limiter for overflow protection in case the primary sensor fails.

Any aquarium controller you buy should be able to duplicate the functionality of an ATO controller like the Avast or Tunze, either with optical or float switches. If you already have an ATO, you can simply plug it in and let it continue to do its thing, independent of your controller, +/- a backup sensor to shut it off as mentioned above, or you can use optical or float switches and do your own through the controller.

Something that frequently happens with controllers is that you run out of outlets, and no one likes to spend an extra $2-300 for another outlet bar when you only need one outlet. If you have a separate ATO controller, you can potentially save an outlet by plugging the ATO into a standard, non-controlled outlet. The Apex 2016 does have controllable 24V outlets on the EB832, letting you use a 24v pump and saving a 120V outlet, but otherwise there’s not going to be a difference between controllers as far as ATO functionality goes.

 

[attiland]

GUI is QT Designer... real easy to do..
Main programming is in PyQT (Python) which I had never used before, but there is a ton of teaching materials etc on the web.
There are a lot of add-ons you can get for Python, the graphing was simple with Matplotlib.
I use SQLite3 for the database.

I have AI Prime lights, I added then in a simple way too, they already have a great interface and are wifi enabled, you can adjust them via the web or an app, so all I did was to build a web browser into my app to use the native AI web page, saved me on trying to replicate all of AI's features and took me an hour to achieve.

For the sockets I didn't want to do heavy wiring / soldering, so I searched the web and found Radio Frequency controlled sockets, they look like normal extension leads that you control via a remote, but you can also add a RF transceiver onto the Raspberry Pi and have that do it for you

I use Jebao (RW4/RW8) Wave makers, these are wifi enabled too and can talk to each other... but guess what??? yep.. Radio frequency ! .. I could't find the codes for the actions and Jebao wouldn't say, but again after much searching I found a company that sell remote controls for the pumps..

So with this I could send and capture the codes on the Pi to us in my controller.

I am currently working on trying to get my Pi controller to work with my Jebao DP4 dosing pump, but have been distracted lately with creating an automated live brine shrimp hatchery that I can control from my Pi

I know it is an old post I am just wondering if you would take your time and tell me more about it. I am about to start my Reef-PI build and all input helps a lot