If we use that angle, then Hydros doesn’t use Hydros branded probes, does that mean it doesn’t count either? In the end, Hydros has solutions that directly integrate into their environment as inputs which then can be used by Hydros for further automation such as dosing based on certain input results…it shouldn’t matter much if the unit is third party or not as they ultimately all work with Hydros…it’s about choice and Hydros offers that flexibility which is great
Who’s the Toyota that’s what I want reliable!
I agree but it is a good idea to let them know that you will need a third party device so for one they will know what to get and where to look if they want to go that route.
I have had my X4 for over 2 years and I have acquired the other 8 controllers between then and now and so far I have not had a hardware failures on any Hydros device. Five of them are in my garage which is not heated or cooled. The temp gets down to near 32 degrees up to 110 degrees during the summer. The X4 is one of the controllers in my garage. It has alway been out there once put in service. It is also the wifi master of my collective. Below is a photo of my controller board in my garage. Left of the media center is the controllers and right of it is the pumps for ATO, AWC and dosing and also the solenoids for control of my RODI system. The three storage tanks are under the work bench. The RODI is on the wall to the right of the controller board. This is an older photo and does not show the fifth controller. Here I still have some of the Digital Aquatics modules on the controller board. Those have been removed now.
While I’m excited to see what RF comes out with for testing machines, I do feel that as a whole automation system they fall short for me. I would consider their offering a solid monitoring system but not full automation. Currently they don’t have any US based outlet/plug controls. Plus their entire backbone between sensors is based on wireless. So automation between sensors and control is fully reliant on wireless, with no option of hard wiring your alkalinity monitor to your dosing pumps. All other major systems have hard wire options between critical devices. Yes hydros uses Wi-Fi strips but you still have the option to hardwire your controllers and xp8 power strips together. So if Wi-Fi goes down, everything physically connected still can operate.
When I started with Hydros I was already using the Archon. To begin with I was passing signals between the two controllers. I still had the Archon at the tank and the original Hydros in the garage. One of the first things I switched was ATO. The ATO pump was in the garage along with the AWC pump and dosing pump I was using. So you can slowly get into Hydros and use it for specific task to begin with if you want. Click on my build thread contributor banner in one of my post and go to page 7. I start on that page with switching over the ATO to the Hydros. The Archon still had the level sensor and leak detectors attached to it at the time.
In a dark data Microshaft somewhere a alarm is ringing indicating "There is a turd-like substance floating in a punch bowl." That alarm was set off by your comment, and I approve of it's message and am confident the alarm is ringing here too!
Hydros has the X10 coming out that will test alk. Their software I believe already allows it, I could be wrong on that thought. You can also push any data from the Kamoer KH Carer to Hydros charts and cloud as well.
Here is the data from my KH Carer in my Hydros app. You can control things with the Hydros using the data but the KH Carer has a dosing pump that will dispense KH buffer built into it and you can set limits on the total amount dispensed from each test plus you can spread it out over multiple doses. You can input both pH and KH values. The pH is calibrated for values between 7 and 4 though so it does not match the pH within the Hydros but it seem to track up and down about the same amount as the Hydros pH. That makes it a good secondary reading if one were to change quite a bit without the other deviating from the normal tracking. I was testing 3x a day but dropped it back to twice a day now.
I’d have to read more on it, as the details have always been fuzzy to me, but I don’t think you necessarily have to have the x10 for the hydros to test alk… just some kind of dosers that you can control through one of the other hydros products, that will then send it to the hydros iV which then gets you your Alk reading. But yes the x10 would be essentially an all in one package to do it all, but would still need the hydros iV paired with it or any other hydros device to test Alk. And for testing salinity though you would need the x10 for. If I understood them correctly on it. Sometimes they throw wording around in ways that gets me extremely confused.
You don't actually need a IV but for the price I would not try to come up with something on my own since it has a stirrer and probe holders for the two probes. You would need two precision dosing pumps and a third that can be the hydros dosing pump. You would need at least a controller with a unused pH port for the pH probe for Alkalinity. If you want salinity you will have to have a X10 for that port.
Very true. I already planned on buying the x10 personally just because I do want salinity. So for me personally yes, the x10 + iV combo is the route I’ll be taking. But I know some people may have an extra probe port available and may also have dosers already they can use to where they don’t need to buy the x10 and could still test alk without needing to buy the x10 and just use an x3 or x4 and their own dosers if that suits them. But yeah, I’ll be on the x10+iV combo for my setup
I’m going Kamoer KH Carer in the not too distant future for alk monitoring. Not terribly impressed with the form factor of the X10, it looks like they just jammed the pumps on it, I’m under the impression that it’s to keep cost down since it utilizes the chip on the X10, but I think it looks jenky, let alone trying to run wires AND dosing tubes I think aesthetically missed the mark. Just my $.02.
I will agree with you on that, I’m not too fond of how it looks either, it does somewhat look slapped together, especially compared with how clean looking all of their other stuff has been so far. But I also like the idea of having salinity monitoring too, not that I’m ever too concerned about my salinity, but a nice feature to have. I’m going to wait and see how it looks once I see them start getting out to the consumers and see how they really look as the finished finalized product. Had kH carer been released last year, I would already have it because I am very impressed with how that looks and coming from an overall pretty reputable company, and nice that it can be connected to hydros to log the data
