Ease for tank sitting

[Michael Gray]

So I'm looking at making my tank fairy easy to hour sit and tank sit for my vacations like 2 weeks at a time. Which isn't often but I want to make it fool proof lol. Other than adding rodi water for my ato. Feeding fish. Instead of logging them in Everytime and pressing feed pause to stop my tunze powerheads for 5 min two times a day. I leave return pump and skimmer and all that running. I just shut down all 4 powerheads.

How can I get a analog or a switch box to have them press and it will trigger a 5 mini feed pause. Also maybe I might make it easy for myself for maintenance. I'm interesting in adding a button for maybe skimmer cleaning. And maybe one to shut down all pumps for doing my water change. Is this possible and how do I do it.

 

[josvanmeer]

you can purchase a wifi plug, those are programmable with timers on it.

 

[kapnkush608]

I think you want an adin(sp?) Card. It's like an apex breakout box if I recall.

 

[ingchr1]

Pressing the "X" on the controller takes you directly to the feed modes and is pretty straight forward.

 

[kapnkush608]

Digital Input - PL-ADIN card Usage Example

Let's talk about Analog & Digital Inputs. What are they, and what can you do with them? First things first - the name of the card. Analog Digital INput This topic comes up from time to time, looking to implement an extra Float switch, a relay, a manual switch or button to trigger actions etc...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Michael Gray]

i have the GHL breakoutbox that i never used yet.. is that what i need??? let me look at this ADIN..

there is a guy that makes switch boxes for apex.. but i need to know what kind of wiring i need so he can do it for me and prep it for me as he doesnt have a p4 to test... going in blind

 

[Michael Gray]

i wish ican hunt down someone using toggle or switches for feed mode and like maintenance mode so i can just copy lolol

 

[Michael Gray]

i think i get it now.. i get the ADIN.. then it comes with the ethernet which plugs into the ADIN and that end adapter it comes with.... and my made switch box to run feed pause and such needs to have the DB9 installed on the switches box with switches hooked up to it?? is their only certain switches that work with the ADIN????

also only 4 switches can be run with ADIN? like feed pause, skimmer off ( for cleaning) SUMP off for water changes and one extra one??

 

[kapnkush608]

Sounds right from what I read. I think you buy the db9 Separately. I was gonna go ghl but but ended up with an apex for free so that's what I ended up putting on my tank for now.

 

[Vinny@GHLUSA]

i think i get it now.. i get the ADIN.. then it comes with the ethernet which plugs into the ADIN and that end adapter it comes with.... and my made switch box to run feed pause and such needs to have the DB9 installed on the switches box with switches hooked up to it?? is their only certain switches that work with the ADIN????

also only 4 switches can be run with ADIN? like feed pause, skimmer off ( for cleaning) SUMP off for water changes and one extra one??

Yes, you need the PLM-ADIN card to do what you're asking about. To make the setup more straightforward, you can pickup a breakout board like this and connect it to the ADIN card. The switch itself will then connect to this board and you program the Digital input function to a feed pause. Once you hit the button, it will trigger the feed pause.

 

[Michael Gray]

Yes, you need the PLM-ADIN card to do what you're asking about. To make the setup more straightforward, you can pickup a breakout board like this and connect it to the ADIN card. The switch itself will then connect to this board and you program the Digital input function to a feed pause. Once you hit the button, it will trigger the feed pause.

So I just ordered the adin card. Can't I just do what you posted in the forum. The guy is making me a 4 switch setup with a cable coming out I ordered the bd9 female connector so I'll wire the 4 switches to the female bd9. Then just plug it into your adin which has the male end and the Ethernet to adin. Should work right

 

[Vinny@GHLUSA]

Yes that should be fine.

 

[TheHarold]

Yes that should be fine.

Quick question on your PLC-Adin card, @Vinny@GHLUSA

Can one just tie the 0-10v input to ground in order to use additional float switches? For a total of 6 switches on the PLC-Adin card. I assume that input is normally floating, but wanted to confirm there is programming logic available so that when tied to ground 0v is recognized and can trigger a feed pause etc.

 

[Michael Gray]

Purchasing a Harry's aquatics switch box. He hasn't made one for ghl so it should be cool

 

[Vinny@GHLUSA]

Quick question on your PLC-Adin card, @Vinny@GHLUSA

Can one just tie the 0-10v input to ground in order to use additional float switches? For a total of 6 switches on the PLC-Adin card. I assume that input is normally floating, but wanted to confirm there is programming logic available so that when tied to ground 0v is recognized and can trigger a feed pause etc.

You can connect a float switch like this to a breakout board. When the float switch is triggered, the digital input can activate a feed pause.

 

[TheHarold]

You can connect a float switch like this to a breakout board. When the float switch is triggered, the digital input can activate a feed pause.

I am asking if you can connect a float switch between the 0-10v input and and ground on the PLC_Adin. When the switch is closed, I thought it pulls down to 0v- so can that be used as well to trigger a feed pause?

 

[Michael Gray]

My new control switches for the P4. It's a beaut!
Needs a tiny tiny diy. But thanks to Harry's aquatics

 

[hellsangelbx]

@Michael Gray how does the switch from Harrys Aquatics work with GHL?

 

[Michael Gray]

Like a charm. I just hold a button down for 3 to 5 seconds until my powerheads turn off and good to go. Just know with any switches it's not instant. Sometimes I gotta hold it for 6 seconds. Or so not bc harrys switch but ghl. But still nice instead of logging in phone every time.