Controlling Ecotech equipment from Arduino (or other microcontoller)

[Cakes]

I would like to take a shot at DIY'ing my aquarium controller. The only part that is in an impediment for me is having fine grained control (more than just on/off) for pumps and lights. Ideally, I want to use Ecotech gear for my pumps and probably lights as well.

There are only two threads I can find related to this topic from years ago:

1. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/hacking-an-rf-module.184924/
2. http://www.masa.asn.au/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=245565

Ecotech gear all communicates over RF. The general consensus is that its easiest just to use an Ecotech RF module, which is what the discontinued Reef Angels RF module used to use internally as well. The trouble is that I can't find much information on the Ecotech RF Modules, as far as what pin assignments are or if anyone is currently even doing this themselves.

As another reference, this (https://github.com/reefangel/Libraries/blob/master/RF/RF.cpp) is the code that the Reef Angels RF modules uses but i'm note sure how different that would be from talking directly to the Ecotech RF module.

This may be a shot in the dark, but wanted to see if anyone has been down this road and can provide insight.

 

[AllanPritchard]

I would like to take a shot at DIY'ing my aquarium controller. The only part that is in an impediment for me is having fine grained control (more than just on/off) for pumps and lights. Ideally, I want to use Ecotech gear for my pumps and probably lights as well.

There are only two threads I can find related to this topic from years ago:

1. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/hacking-an-rf-module.184924/
2. http://www.masa.asn.au/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=245565

Ecotech gear all communicates over RF. The general consensus is that its easiest just to use an Ecotech RF module, which is what the discontinued Reef Angels RF module used to use internally as well. The trouble is that I can't find much information on the Ecotech RF Modules, as far as what pin assignments are or if anyone is currently even doing this themselves.

As another reference, this (https://github.com/reefangel/Libraries/blob/master/RF/RF.cpp) is the code that the Reef Angels RF modules uses but i'm note sure how different that would be from talking directly to the Ecotech RF module.

This may be a shot in the dark, but wanted to see if anyone has been down this road and can provide insight.

I’m interested in doing a similar thing did you get any further ?
Cheers
Al

 

[Sleepydoc]

I think the reef angel lead is a your best bet. Most controllers use proprietary protocols or programming. I did see a thread on reef central where someone was back engineering an Apex controller, including some of the code. The mods shut the thread down because the code was copyrighted but I don’t know if that would give you any ideas.

 

[AllanPritchard]

Thanks Sleepydoc. I already have an Apex Controller, was just hoping to control the Ecotech pump via an arduino project rather than with the apex. I'll keep looking if there is a wireless protocol for pump speed.

Cheers
Al

 

[Sleepydoc]

Thanks Sleepydoc. I already have an Apex Controller, was just hoping to control the Ecotech pump via an arduino project rather than with the apex. I'll keep looking if there is a wireless protocol for pump speed.

Cheers
Al

I didn’t mean to actually use the apex; my thought was if you had the code for the Apex, you may be able to see how it controlled the Ecotech gear and use that for your Arduino project.

 

[Awesome Dennis]

I messaged the 2 guys in the thread in RC a few months ago and neither of them have responded.

 

[AllanPritchard]

I didn’t mean to actually use the apex; my thought was if you had the code for the Apex, you may be able to see how it controlled the Ecotech gear and use that for your Arduino project.

Thanks SleepyDoc. I have downloaded the source code and I'm trawling through it now. They use some protocols I'm not familar with so I'll have to work out those first. Cheers Al

 

[kstripp]

Following along - I'm interested in doing the same, though I probably wasn't going to get around to it for a while.

 

[Cakes]

I ended up ditching ecotech due to the closed protocol. I'm trying to go with systems which either expose an API directly or leverage standard inputs such as 0-10v.

 

[User1]

Reef Angel is your best bet as noted. The RF expansion allows the control of ecotech pumps although I thought it was end of life. I would search their forums and register to ask some questions. They have a great bunch of lads over there who are super helpful. It is a great open source platform that has some of the best custom libraries around. I wish the Apex had some of those libs such as true random clouds and geo locations not to mention tides.