Ecotech releasing a powerbar?

[GK3]

Wanted to see what people were saying about ecotech and their next product and I found this:

Now if you try to navigate back to products, it returns a 404 so looks like a placeholder. Anyone heard anything about this?

 

[BlennyTime]

I hadn’t heard of it, but makes sense that they are looking to get more in on the tank automation game. I would guess that it would be individual outlets that could be controlled through Mobius.

Probably $6000ish dollars, and some suckers (like me) will buy it anyway

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Well that's exciting! ...and now the suspense is on... ;Woot

 

[GK3]

Well that's exciting! ...and now the suspense is on... ;Woot

Where are the ecotech people to clear this up? lol

 

[Tommy's Reef]

Whattt that be cool

 

[robbyg]

It is cool but I hope it's not another WiFi or BT connected Power Bar.
I am really hoping they come out with a real controller or central Hub for the whole system.

 

[ReefRondo]

I know this is slightly off topic but...How about Mobius becomes at least as functional as Ecotech live was? Weird backward step. I love their products but this was a very odd decision. If anybody can make a really good Apex competitor it should be Ecotech however so quite exciting.

 

[adrianr514]

That place holder has been there since the G5 leaks.

 

[ReefRondo]

That place holder has been there since the G5 leaks.

No way do the G5’s leak???

 

[oneilwiz]

At this point makes sense for them to enter that market, hopefully, a win win for reefers, more competition should hopefully drive the price down and increase technological advancements.

 

[malfist]

Given how bad their reeflink and mobius stuff is, I don't think I'd trust them with an energy bar.

So far apex is the exception to the rule of never trusting hardware companies to make software. Ecotech is not.

 

[GK3]

Given how bad their reeflink and mobius stuff is, I don't think I'd trust them with an energy bar.

So far apex is the exception to the rule of never trusting hardware companies to make software. Ecotech is not.

What is so bad about mobius? FYI I’ve never used it.

 

[vangvace]

So far apex is the exception to the rule of never trusting hardware companies to make software. Ecotech is not.

;Hilarious;Hilarious;Hilarious;Hilarious;Hilarious

 

[malfist]

What is so bad about mobius? FYI I’ve never used it.

So there's two reasons for the mobius, one is that ecotech could never figure out how to properly program the radio in their hardware, including the reeflink, and that using wifi natively eliminates the need for a dedicated hardware device for internet connection.

But the root of the problem, that they couldn't get their radios to work reliably isn't fixed by changing out the radio (RF for Wifi). RF radios are a solved technology, hell I have some 433mhz radios in my electronics lab that I use for a mesh network of temp and humidity probes. If you don't have the software engineering or electrical engineering skill to write software using RF radios, switching to a different radio isn't going to fix the issue. And indeed it didn't. The mobius is just as horribly unreliable as the reeflink. Things lose connection all the time, things don't stay connected, programming a schedule fails for unknown reasons. All of these are software issues (probably, could be hardware but unlikely), and changing out the underlying software but maintaining the same abstraction doesn't fix anything.

Ecotech needs to bring more software engineering talent in house before they'll see much adoption.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Adrian514 got it right, that web page has been up since December, and it's no secret ETM plans to have controlled outlets. The details are tight lipped, so not much to report in the way of their Powerbar.

When it comes to Mobius, we have to change the way we're thinking in terms of how a controller works. Ecotechs approach is quite unique because each pump and light has its own little computer already on board. They're capable of storing everything they need in order to work as a stand alone component, they don't require constant connectivity to a centralized fail point to receive its next command. Mobius is just a connection point for us (the user) to program and execute scene commands, and of course as time goes on Mobius platform will be capable of much more.

Along with its own little computer each ETM piece of equipment has a bluetooth chip enabling communication with Mobius. That chip also allows a mesh network connection to all other Ecotech pumps and lights. That's where the true wireless connectivity comes from. Mobius only needs to connect to one ETM device and from there the information gets pushed off to all the others (mesh networking). In other words, each Ecotech light and pump is in a way its own controller and all it needs is a simple command to start a sequence of events. When you program a pump, light or create a scene in Mobius that information uploaded and stored on the individual piece of equipment, and in terms of scenes ETM equipment only needs a single signal from Mobius to execute the command. Other controllers have to tell each piece of equipment exactly what to do and when to do it, if connection is severed then that piece of equipment won't finish the task or carry out its daily functions. With ETM devices they only need to receive that signal and the rest is done internally with it's little onboard computer.

As far as control from more that 10 feet from your tank, the next big step for ETM is WIFI capabilities, as of right now the only ETM devices that have WIFI capability are G5 Radions but we can expect more equipment with Wifi capabilities. Before you rush to figure out how to get WIFI working, keep in mind that WIFI is disabled at the moment and will become available soon.

 

[malfist]

When it comes to Mobius, we have to change the way we're thinking in terms of how a controller works. Ecotechs approach is quite unique because each pump and light has its own little computer already on board. They're capable of storing everything they need in order to work as a stand alone component, they don't require constant connectivity to a centralized fail point to receive its next command. Mobius is just a connection point for us (the user) to program and execute scene commands, and of course as time goes on Mobius platform will be capable of much more.

Why do we need to rethink it? That's exactly how any device that doesn't require an always on connection to a hub works. My house is filled with devices like that, from light bulbs to security equipment. This isn't a difficult problem. Some flash memory and a clock is all you really need to do something like that.

This is pretty much a requirement for any semi-resilient smart device.

Along with its own little computer each ETM piece of equipment has a bluetooth chip enabling communication with Mobius. That chip also allows a mesh network connection to all other Ecotech pumps and lights. That's where the true wireless connectivity comes from. Mobius only needs to connect to one ETM device and from there the information gets pushed off to all the others (mesh networking).

Mesh networks have been around a long long time. Even wireless ones date back to the 90s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesh_networking

As far as control from more that 10 feet from your tank, the next big step for ETM is WIFI capabilities, as of right now the only ETM devices that have WIFI capability are G5 Radions but we can expect more equipment with Wifi capabilities. Before you rush to figure out how to get WIFI working, keep in mind that WIFI is disabled at the moment and will become available soon.

Might be a big step for ETM, but a lot of other players have already figured it out. Apex has built their entire system off of it. AquaIllumination has had it for eons. It's disabled because ETM can't get their crap together when it comes to software.

 

[adrianr514]

AquaIllumination has had it for eons. It's disabled because ETM can't get their crap together when it comes to software.

Ecotech Owns and Produces Aquaillumination and their products. You can’t in the same sentence say they can’t get WiFi right then also say AI has had it for years...

As far as the software/app side of things both the myAI app and Mobius are designed and programmed by C2 Development.

Something tells me you have no real experience with mobius and just have an axe to grind with Ecotech.

 

[GK3]

Adrian514 got it right, that web page has been up since December, and it's no secret ETM plans to have controlled outlets. The details are tight lipped, so not much to report in the way of their Powerbar.

When it comes to Mobius, we have to change the way we're thinking in terms of how a controller works. Ecotechs approach is quite unique because each pump and light has its own little computer already on board. They're capable of storing everything they need in order to work as a stand alone component, they don't require constant connectivity to a centralized fail point to receive its next command. Mobius is just a connection point for us (the user) to program and execute scene commands, and of course as time goes on Mobius platform will be capable of much more.

Along with its own little computer each ETM piece of equipment has a bluetooth chip enabling communication with Mobius. That chip also allows a mesh network connection to all other Ecotech pumps and lights. That's where the true wireless connectivity comes from. Mobius only needs to connect to one ETM device and from there the information gets pushed off to all the others (mesh networking). In other words, each Ecotech light and pump is in a way its own controller and all it needs is a simple command to start a sequence of events. When you program a pump, light or create a scene in Mobius that information uploaded and stored on the individual piece of equipment, and in terms of scenes ETM equipment only needs a single signal from Mobius to execute the command. Other controllers have to tell each piece of equipment exactly what to do and when to do it, if connection is severed then that piece of equipment won't finish the task or carry out its daily functions. With ETM devices they only need to receive that signal and the rest is done internally with it's little onboard computer.

As far as control from more that 10 feet from your tank, the next big step for ETM is WIFI capabilities, as of right now the only ETM devices that have WIFI capability are G5 Radions but we can expect more equipment with Wifi capabilities. Before you rush to figure out how to get WIFI working, keep in mind that WIFI is disabled at the moment and will become available soon.

Well this feedback stinks (good feedback, but not what I wanted to hear). I was really hoping to go ecotech control for my next build instead of apex. Guess that’s not happening

One thing about this that is super interesting is that I use wxm with radion g4 and vortech powerheads, never have a problem...ever.

 

[ingchr1]

...Ecotechs approach is quite unique...

Coralvue is using the same approach for thier controller.

 

[malfist]

Coralvue is using the same approach for thier controller.

CoralVue owns both ecotech and AI