Looking to get a controller or something that can automate some tasks. Want something to monitor parameters. Working on a budget. I don’t mind a lot of DIY
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The Hydros supports pH and ORP along with temp currently on the Control 4. The Control 2 has Temp. They can be combined into collectives and act as a single controller when you want to expand. They are working on a salinity solution. The continuity probes in use now are not reliable enough to use constantly. I had two salinity probes on my DA controller. Air bubbles and tank inhabitants kept causing false readings. I had to clean it every three weeks because of growth of a film on the probe that caused the reading to drop. So I could never use them for control of anything anyway.I haven’t been able to find many probes for the hydros. I want PH and salinity mainly. Want it to run an ATO. As well. I suppose if I really wanted to automate everything I’d have to spend 2k and just get apex and trident. But I’m not rolling in the cash so. Budget/diy options
No coding required? I’m not the smartest guy. I can solder and build wiring harnesses and such for Harleys and race cars but no codingIf you don't mind a lot of DIY, check out reef-pi. You literally build the whole controller base off raspberry pi. The software is open source.
I got them spread out since November so was not a huge amount initially. The Control 4 starter kit is $449. That comes with a Control 4, power supply, WiFi power strip, pH probe and a temp sensor. The Control 4 has to probe ports, 4 sense ports, 4 0-10v input ports, 4 0-10v output ports and 2 Drive ports. I use drive ports for my ATO, AWC and solenoids. That is one reason for more Control units for me. I have 1 Control 4, 2 Control 2 and a Control XS in the garage along with 2 Wifi strips. The rest of the control units are at the tank. There are a few third party items which can be connected to the 0-10v input ports. These inclued a breakout box where you can connect float switches, humidity sensors or temp sensors. There s also a 5 pushbutton box available that uses these ports. The Control 2 has 2 drive ports and 2 sense ports. The XS has 4 sense ports. They are around 160 if you get them alone. The starter kit with a wifi strip, temp sensor and temp probe is only 199. The tamp probe uses a sense port. Other items for sense port include water level sensors, flow sensors, leak detectors and TDS meters.That’s crazy. I have two tanks I’m trying to control. Those control units are spendy ain’t they? To do
Everything I want of need quite a few of them. How’s the software?
The Hydros has no coding, but can still do the higher level things. Below is the setup for one of my temp probes. when you setup an input you select the type in this case it is a sense port type. Then you select the mode. In this case it is a temprature probe. Then you select the actual port where the device s connected. Since this is a temp probe it lets you set the safe range. There s an offset setting if you want to cal the temp to another temp source. You set the notification level. That s it for setting up a input. It will send a notification if the temp were to get out of the range set here. Basically you tell the controller what is connected to the different inputs. if you decide to switch which input has the temp sensor all you would have to do is change the sense port setting below.No coding required? I’m not the smartest guy. I can solder and build wiring harnesses and such for Harleys and race cars but no coding
No coding required? I’m not the smartest guy. I can solder and build wiring harnesses and such for Harleys and race cars but no coding
I had to learn to soldier for the sake of my Harley lolIIUC, you don't need to write codes. But you do need to install the software onto a raspberry pi. You can ask on the reef-pi forum for more details. I never tried it because I can't solder lol.