Switching Controllers from Apex to GHL

[Ditto]

@Buddah001 since I had the P4 And had Orphek slimlines the entire length I went with two lightbar 2 which are the entire length of my tank to simulate the same effect I had with the slimlines.

It the same technology used on the lightbar 2 as the Mitras LX lights and I like mine a lot. Easy to program, great spread and I plan to now use them on the new tank thread also, the coral have adapted well and you can simulate any spectrum you wish on them.

Are you looking at the lightbar 2 also or Mitras 7x’s?

 

[Buddah001]

@Buddah001 since I had the P4 And had Orphek slimlines the entire length I went with two lightbar 2 which are the entire length of my tank to simulate the same effect I had with the slimlines.

It the same technology used on the lightbar 2 as the Mitras LX lights and I like mine a lot. Easy to program, great spread and I plan to now use them on the new tank thread also, the coral have adapted well and you can simulate any spectrum you wish on them.

Are you looking at the lightbar 2 also or Mitras 7x’s?

@Ditto im looking at buying 2x Mitras 7206’s over my 135g 48x24x30

 

[Ditto]

You may want to confirm with @Vinny@GHLUSA but I think two may be ok for you but they would know for sure.

Make sure if you do get them you get the wireless board to control the lights with your P4.

https://www.aquariumcomputer.com/usa/product/plm-pwc/

Overall I believe you will be very happy with them.

 

[mrramsey]

Gotta say that this thread has really sealed my decision to purchase the P4 and kh Director. Excellent job Ditto.

 

[Ditto]

@mrramsey - thank you for the kind words!!

Welcome to the GHL family.

 

[Buddah001]

Gotta say that this thread has really sealed my decision to purchase the P4 and kh Director. Excellent job Ditto.

It did for me as well....
@Ditto has been a big help
I don’t know how I survived with out my P4 and KH director

 

[WWIII]

I would like to Apologize for not posting lately, I just had knee surgery so was not able to continue swapping out equipment, and posting the results, what I have left to do:

Equipment to place fulling online:
1- O2 Sensor
2- Doser 2.1
3- CO2 Scrubber
4- Calcium Reactor

What is still on Order:
Another Power Bar, I am one short
KHD Director For Alkalinity Monitor
Doser maxi (Going to see it to empty my 5 Gallon Skimmer Bucket)

With my knee surgery i am been relaying on the GHL App, and the desktop software to monitor the tank and can say it been working very very well. I been able to monitor and control my tank as friend and family tend to feeding the fish and coral, and the occasional filtering cleaning.

One Issue I was having was the alerts on the tank when received were like the picture below:

I no longer wanted to see the probe names but the actual Description after the change it now looks like:

Configure Alerts:
Alerts are setup via Profilux Command Center.
Open up the Command Center Softeware
Click on Email Notification
Click on the Alarm you wish to edit or create

My original Code was this and was changed to the code on the right:

All I did was change the $$SENN[x]$$ to $$SEND[x]$$

I also added another alert to now show me the alarm that is showing on the P4 and text me the alert the actual alert shown on the P4.

Final Results:

Hey @Ditto, is what you describe here all put into a single alert? Are you still using the email/text this way? I'm a little confused as what alerts you have set up. Is it just when an alarm is triggered, it sends you the alert with all probe data and highlights the alarm culprit? Or do you have it set up a little differently than that?

Thanks as always! My alerts have been working using their stock script, but thought maybe what you describe here would be a bit nicer/cleaner.

 

[Ditto]

I get two alarms. One of the Sensors and one of the Alarm itself.

The reason I had to do this is the one Alarm does not tell me what the Value is, so I get the second alert to show me the results of my sensor or probes are currently at. I hope some day they adjust the Alarm to provide what the probe is currently at then I would only need the Alarm, and not the Second Alert that shows what my probe or sensor is at.

The reason why I programmed mine to be not the stock is I wanted the name of my probes and sensors to be displayed, and i wanted one alarm to match exactly what I see on the P4 Display and or the Ptouch.

So if something Alarms, DOSI. 14 ATO tells me my dosing container needs to be refilled, I do get a second text of my tank parameters.

But If have receive the alarm Tank Temperature, and without the second alert I would not know what the temperature actually was.

All My Alerts are text message alerts, I could make them email also, but text alerts is all I really needed. I get the Text alert, I then get the tank probes, or level sensor results, and then can decided what I need to do.

I could do it in one alert as the Sensor Alert does say the alert, I did not do this because I have had instances where do alerts fired at the same time, and it begins to cut text off. So with this method even thou it is two texts I always have exactly what displayed on the P4, and the second alert what my probe or level sensors are at based on the alarm.

Pros:
I like that I can Taylor the Alerts

Con:
Just wish I could customize it to show the probe readings in the first alarm. Like Alarm: Tank Temp (Reading of the Tank Temp) (But I am still playing with them)

Overall it stills works great!!

 

[Ditto]

Sorry forgot to post a screen shot:

Ignore the First Alarm it a test one :)

One Alarm on the List is what is exactly displayed on my P4
Code:
$$REPS[10][5]$$
$$ALMS[x]$$
$$REPE$$

Second Alarm is my Tank Parameters
$$REPS[32][0]$$ $$SEND[x]$$ : $$SENV[x]$$
$$REPE$$

Third Alarm triggers if one of my Level Sensors faults (Example my ATO max timer hits and it goes to Open Status)
$$REPS[12][6]$$ $$LVCD[x]$$ : $$LEVV[x]$$ ( $$LVCO[x]$$ )
$$REPE$$

I will always get the First Alarm for anything that goes wrong and depending on what fault it is I get either the second or the third.

 

[WWIII]

I get two alarms. One of the Sensors and one of the Alarm itself.

The reason I had to do this is the one Alarm does not tell me what the Value is, so I get the second alert to show me the results of my sensor or probes are currently at. I hope some day they adjust the Alarm to provide what the probe is currently at then I would only need the Alarm, and not the Second Alert that shows what my probe or sensor is at.

The reason why I programmed mine to be not the stock is I wanted the name of my probes and sensors to be displayed, and i wanted one alarm to match exactly what I see on the P4 Display and or the Ptouch.

So if something Alarms, DOSI. 14 ATO tells me my dosing container needs to be refilled, I do get a second text of my tank parameters.

But If have receive the alarm Tank Temperature, and without the second alert I would not know what the temperature actually was.

All My Alerts are text message alerts, I could make them email also, but text alerts is all I really needed. I get the Text alert, I then get the tank probes, or level sensor results, and then can decided what I need to do.

I could do it in one alert as the Sensor Alert does say the alert, I did not do this because I have had instances where do alerts fired at the same time, and it begins to cut text off. So with this method even thou it is two texts I always have exactly what displayed on the P4, and the second alert what my probe or level sensors are at based on the alarm.

Pros:
I like that I can Taylor the Alerts

Con:
Just wish I could customize it to show the probe readings in the first alarm. Like Alarm: Tank Temp (Reading of the Tank Temp) (But I am still playing with them)

Overall it stills works great!!

Ah ha! Ok, that makes sense. Thank you for the very detailed response and the logic/reasoning behind it all! Could be tweaked a little by GHL to be a little clearer/easier, but then that also might set some limitations at the same time. At the end of the day it gets the job done!

 

[WWIII]

Sorry forgot to post a screen shot:

Ignore the First Alarm it a test one :)

One Alarm on the List is what is exactly displayed on my P4
Code:
$$REPS[10][5]$$
$$ALMS[x]$$
$$REPE$$

Second Alarm is my Tank Parameters
$$REPS[32][0]$$ $$SEND[x]$$ : $$SENV[x]$$
$$REPE$$

Third Alarm triggers if one of my Level Sensors faults (Example my ATO max timer hits and it goes to Open Status)
$$REPS[12][6]$$ $$LVCD[x]$$ : $$LEVV[x]$$ ( $$LVCO[x]$$ )
$$REPE$$

I will always get the First Alarm for anything that goes wrong and depending on what fault it is I get either the second or the third.

Thanks for that! So the mailing condition is set to "Alarm" on all of them?

 

[Ditto]

Yes all three are alarm.

One thing I forgot to mention one thing I do like about the alert message it does to keep repeating itself.

 

[Ditto]

A New Version of the GHL P4 Web Interface is out and an updated Wifi Module:
## 6619
* New webserver content based on GHL Connect
* New functions for WiFi configuration in GHL Connect
* Memory and runtime optimizations in the communication layer
* Turning off WiFi signalling completely, not only sleep mode when set to mode 'off'

Location:
https://www.aquariumcomputer.com/downloads/wifi-modul-esp-update/#description

Very easy through the web interface of the P4

First the Wireless Module:
IMPORTANT NOTE:
If you have a WiFi firmware below 6407 we highly recommend that you use the WiFi_FirmwareUpdateTool for the update, DON'T use the built-in update function of the WiFi's web interface!

Step 1: Log into your P4 Locally, and go to the Network Settings and Click File Transfer

Step 2: choose the Wifi-Module Firmware Option

Step 3:Browse to where you unzipped the file and choose the firmware.bin file

Step 4:You are given the warning that you can no longer cancel after you hit next

Step 5: I like to start a pink to my device more as to see the progress

Step 6: The Upgrade begins

Step 7: Your all set, you can see I lost a few pings to the device, expected since it was an upgrade of the wireless device

After the Wireless Upgrade, you follow the same steps above except:

Step 2: Choose the Web Interface

Step 3: Browse to the Index File

Step 7: After the upgrade the browser refreshes:

Changes I noticed:
1- You can now add the Kh Director Widget to the P4 Web Interface (Just like the GCC App)
2- Charts are available within the P4 from Myghl (Just like it is on the GCC App)

 

[kodo28]

Thinking to go with the P4 . ;)

 

[Ditto]

@kodo28 - Glad you found the thread. I have a few more modules that I am adding to the setup and wil update the thread with those modules also.

 

[Ditto]

I been taking notes in my notebook throughout the switch out and have hinted I would share some sort of table of those comparisons and observations. With my switch-out near completion, the Apex 2016 is more just in monitor mode with probes, and with a few modules left to post about and a few new ones I am adding and will be posting about, that I should maybe convert my chicken scratch notes into some tables. These are my observations, and comparisons, and know GHL or Neptune will correct me if something I observed on my switch-out was inaccurate within the tables. Since I did not want people to try to read my handwriting, I have begun converting them into documents:

Below is the first section of my observations of the base units themselves:

 

[kodo28]

Small point about the 10v ports
- Apex is using 0-10v
- Profilux is using 1-10v

 

[Ditto]

@kodo28 thank you for the correction I will fix that!!

 

[WWIII]

Small point about the 10v ports
- Apex is using 0-10v
- Profilux is using 1-10v

Is this semantics, or is there really a difference? I've heard people refer to this both ways on the same systems. Thanks for typing all this up @Ditto , nice work!

 

[cmcoker]

Regarding the differences in the 1-10v ports...On my Profiflux 3, I have changed my output on two 1-10v ports to 1-5v to control a couple pumps that use a 5v port. Dont know if Apex allows the same or not?