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I think ecotech is doing it right. Design a line of products. Make them all talk to each other, then build a controller to run your entire system. Going the other way and having generic outputs makes it allot harder to get everything to talk to each other. It worked for Apple for years.
I think ecotech is doing it right. Design a line of products. Make them all talk to each other, then build a controller to run your entire system. Going the other way and having generic outputs makes it allot harder to get everything to talk to each other. It worked for Apple for years.
Neptune is doing the same thing but from the opposite direction. Build a controller that measures ph, temp, orp, conductivity, and can control anything that can be plugged into an outlet and/or has 0-10v interface. Then build things that will natively interface with it like the doser, a wave maker and who know what will come next? Camera? (Please!!! This one is impossible on Apex) Lights? They all want as big a piece of the aquarium market as possible and do their best to put out quality products. They have varying levels of success on the quality of their products as the threads in the forums show. But they don't have the resources of an Apple or a Microsoft and never will because the market they are in is too small.
True resources are important but it's more about what a company stands for. Yes they all have to make a profit but that can not be the only goal. One of the other comments that Tim Marks made during his talk at MACNA was that ecotech's goal was not to just make money. That's why we don't see ecotech reactors or return pumps as there are already many good choices out there. Their goal is to make a better product that improves the quality of reef keeping. There were power heads and now we have vortechs, there were LEDs now we have radions. The Apex works for many, myself included, but there's room for improvement and after sitting through 2 hours of Neptunes Apex workshop at MACNA it was clear they have no intension of improving their controller, unless you count putting a new sticker on the same old plastic box.
There is certainly room for improvement in Neptunes products, but the same can be said for every product out there. To say Neptune has no intention of improving their product is just wrong. It updates its software constantly, and, like I mentioned is developing new components designed specifically to interact seamlessly with its controller. The DOS doser is a good example, coupled with the DDR reservoir, the level of control you can have over dosing is amazing, I'm not sure what additional functionality you want in the controller itself, but it's silly to say that Neptune is going to flat out ignore market pressures and leave well enough alone. If it does, it will die as a company. That is not what I'm seeing.
Oh, and you can bet that Ecotech's goal is to make money. Their market is high end equipment, so they pick their product mix carefully. But these guys want to sell as many units as they can at as high a profit margin as possible. That goal leads to innovation and quality.
Just trying to see better product and hoping the designers read these posts.
The wireless skimmer idea wouldn't even need o be that complicated for integration of a switch. Think of it this way... Most newer, top f the line skimmers use DC, variable speed pumps. All you'd have to do is to make the skimmers motor controller house an EcoTech RF module (like all other EcoTech products) and then it could have a wire going to the skimmer cup. This would allow for remote control of the DC motor through EcoSmartLive and also for transmission of the float switch signal through the module, to EcoSmartLive.That would be ideal. The more products they can make to communicate easily with a controller the more overall products they would sell. I'll bet the ReefLink already has most of the software needed for the project. For instance.. say I need to buy a new skimmer. And I have a Ecotech controller that wirelessly controls their branded product. I have a choice of brand x or an Ecotech skimmer that has a built in wireless float switch that tells me when the cup is full and shuts the skimmer off if it is? Hmm I'm buying the Ecotech skimmer. Some will say, "wireless float switch that is witchcraft". Actually I worked on a home lighting project that used remote switches that were wireless and didn't need a battery. The physical motion of the switch activating created enough energy to send a signal to the controller. And these switches are cheap because they are simple.
I can see Ecotech adding functions to their cloud. Would love to see them buy the mindstream system to monitor parameters. It would be a good fit. I use their lights and powerheads so I am using their system and really smart pumps and lights are the future as computers on a chip are so cheap their really is not a need for a computer in a box anymore. Just a hub that allows the various parts of your system coordinate