Poor Man's Wavemaker (AC powerheads and Kasa)

[TCoach]

So, found out about python-kasa. It provides an awesome interface to the Kasa powerstrips. I've been able to combine that with a tiny bit of bash scripting to randomize which one of the 4 A/C powerhead I have is either on or off. Basically between 10am and 9:55pm, randomly one of the 4 powerhead will either turn on or off. I'm expecting this should create a bunch of random flow in my tank. Thoughts?

Here is my basic schedule:
9:55 am: Turn on all 4 powerheads with 1 minute between each powerhead.
10:00 am: Lights on
10:00 - 21:55/ every 5 minutes one of the 4 powerheads has it's Kasa plug state switched (I.e. if on then turns off, if off then turns on)
22:00: Lights off
22:00: Turn off all 4 powerheads with 1 minute between each powerhead (still have return pump and 2 DC Jaebo's running over night. Jaebo's go into night mode at some point.)

If there is enough interest, I can provide the steps I took to get it running and provide example scripts. All of this is running on my little reef-pi Raspberry Pi.

 

[srobertb]

There were (maybe still are?) devices and controllers that did this very thing. It looked like a 2-4 plug power strip with knobs and dials to change when what came on and for how long.

AC power heads (Koralia’s come to mind) don’t do super well randomly turning on and off. The start and stop is hard on the motor and they eventually start doing weird things like locking up, cracking the ceramic, or running in reverse randomly.

 

[TCoach]

There were (maybe still are?) devices and controllers that did this very thing. It looked like a 2-4 plug power strip with knobs and dials to change when what came on and for how long.

AC power heads (Koralia’s come to mind) don’t do super well randomly turning on and off. The start and stop is hard on the motor and they eventually start doing weird things like locking up, cracking the ceramic, or running in reverse randomly.

Yup, remember having something like that years ago. Just stuff I had laying around and cobbled it together. Eventual plan is to replace them with some more DC pumps. But, DIY till then.

 

[srobertb]

Yup, remember having something like that years ago. Just stuff I had laying around and cobbled it together. Eventual plan is to replace them with some more DC pumps. But, DIY till then.

You can buy a lot of Koralias for the price of an MP40.