Neptune AC Jr Questions

GeoB · Jan 12, 2008

I'm using one of these now for controlling my lighting on the main tank. Now I'm not good with programming (or computers in general) so trying to figure out how to operate this controller has been a slow process. I have so many things I'd like to do with this but I can't figure it out. It has AquaNotes, a program which allows you to connect to a computer, I can't get it to open up to begin with. The instructions are made for professional programmers, and customer svc talks to me like they're sending rockets to the moon and I'm too ingnorant to waste their time on. Does anyone here understand this controller?

surfn · Jan 12, 2008

first of all, how are you connecting your devices?

i ONLY recomend the DC8 and DC4 power strips. i don't like that X10 stuff at all.

i have a decent history in computer programing, and i was pretty intimidated by the ACJr at first. but now its a piece of cake now that i've gotten used to it.

my best recomendation is to just program 1 device at a time. go with that a while, then when you feel like that device is working correctly, add another device to the programing, and so on.

study page 6 in the manual to get oriented with where all the different menus are, this page is important to remember!

if everything is plugged in and ready to go to start programing your first device, study chapter 5 in the manual for that, look under "timed events setup", and then "timed lighting". copy the example code to get your lights started up.

that should be a good start.

next device i recomend setting up is yoru heater.

twon8 · Jan 12, 2008

also, one mistake i made upon setup, make sure your return pump is set for on if time>0; first night mine was hooked up it turned off when the clock started again.

GeoB · Jan 12, 2008

I already have the lights up and running and understand this part somewhat. I have the DC-8. I would really like to hook this to my PC. I have a cable run and hooked up to a com port, but when I try to open AquaNotes, it opens very breifly (half second) and then closes. I have never been able to run this program. Neptune says something is occupying com port 1 and I have to disable one thing at a time to determine what is on com port 1. If I attempted that, I would probably dump my entire cumputer!! My 'puter guy says they're crazy. Please understand, my knowledge of computers is very limited. Although, I did very well in Data Processing in HS, 1973, when Key punch cards were the not-so-new technology! I got the lights running by using the 3 buttons on the face of the unit. I was able to modify the preset schedule for lights. I have the temp & pH probe calibrated and working, but that's as far as I have gotten. I'd also like to get my QT lighting connected to this. But I'd have to change a lot of stuff in the programming to do this, I'm guessing. I do not use a cal reactor so I figured I could use that space for the QT lighting (3-4 plugs).

GeoB · Jan 12, 2008

My train of thought on using controllers is that I don't want to many critical devices on one controller in case something goes wrong with the controller and the outcome would be disasterous. My pumps are on a seperate circut than my lighting. My heaters are on another circut. If one fails, no major problems (hopefully). BTW, great cube thread, Surfn!!

revhtree · Jan 12, 2008

This has no bearing on this thread, but that's why I sold my acjr and got a reefkeeper2. No programming language, just straight up real terms and EASY to configure.

Hope you get your issues resolved.