Detour
Community Member
So, I'll start by saying that I run a variety of equipmet on my 150 tall tank (48x24x30), but try as best I can to control it with my Apex, including slower water movement overnight and fully automated feeding cycles.
Then the ORCA came out and I knew I wanted one for the back center of my tank - which after 4 monts of waiting for my tank lid, is now in the tank.
The "eye" indicator light doesn't appear to work - so I thought I had a power issue - but ended up trying to complete the initial setup despite not having a solid red light and got passed that.
The basic setup is pretty straightforward - set you end positions, flow speed and oscilating speed - while getting used the fact that the app uses "speed" as the title for both of those options (oscilating and fan).
Now what I'm struggling with how to adjust that to coordinate with my feed cycles, etc.
First issue - I couldn't get it to recognize the timezone I'm in. I'm in Michigan. It defaulted to Chicago - and was an hour off. Changed to Toronto, and it would show Toronto for the timezone, but I was still an hour off on the time bar on the Time Control screen. Got frustrated trying to get it to work, ignored it over night, and next day I'm on Tornoto time and the Time Control page screen seems to reflect current time.
Next issue - getting Time Control settings to slow down the fan speed during feed cycles. No matter what I did, it wouldn't seem to behave like it was programmed. Then one my one millionth Google AI serach results had a nugget of information in the response - you apparently can't use the Time Control without having either a Section for Flow configured. Or rather - any settings on the Time Control aren't recognized without a Section for Flow configured. Now, I have not found actual confirmation of this in instructions or references, but after configuring a single Flow, my Time Control setting seemed to work.
Or at least I thought it was....
I have 4 time controls set - 3 of 10 minute windows that align with feed cycles with other food sources, and a 4th from 9-11:59pm to slow the fan speed down during the night. I wanted a 5th to cover from 12:01 to 7:30am - but when I add a 5th, it shows as green (versus blue) and won't save. I haven't found anything about a limit to the number of time controls - so unsure what is causing that.
But here's where I got myself stumped....
My main device screen changed to having a "Flow" indicator - and my instant flow rate is not the same as my basic programming setting (20%) - but I can't figure out why it thinks I'm in any kind of flow mode -
I have no sections set up, and only one flow -
And at the time this was captured, I'm not in any active time control settings -
I did seem to get it out of the flow mode by manuall resetting the basic flow rate on the main device page - only to not have it follow my time control flow reduction for my 6pm feeding cycle.
So - is there a guide somewhere on the more complex programming of the orca - or anything other than the basic programming of a single flow speed between two end points?
Then the ORCA came out and I knew I wanted one for the back center of my tank - which after 4 monts of waiting for my tank lid, is now in the tank.
The "eye" indicator light doesn't appear to work - so I thought I had a power issue - but ended up trying to complete the initial setup despite not having a solid red light and got passed that.
The basic setup is pretty straightforward - set you end positions, flow speed and oscilating speed - while getting used the fact that the app uses "speed" as the title for both of those options (oscilating and fan).
Now what I'm struggling with how to adjust that to coordinate with my feed cycles, etc.
First issue - I couldn't get it to recognize the timezone I'm in. I'm in Michigan. It defaulted to Chicago - and was an hour off. Changed to Toronto, and it would show Toronto for the timezone, but I was still an hour off on the time bar on the Time Control screen. Got frustrated trying to get it to work, ignored it over night, and next day I'm on Tornoto time and the Time Control page screen seems to reflect current time.
Next issue - getting Time Control settings to slow down the fan speed during feed cycles. No matter what I did, it wouldn't seem to behave like it was programmed. Then one my one millionth Google AI serach results had a nugget of information in the response - you apparently can't use the Time Control without having either a Section for Flow configured. Or rather - any settings on the Time Control aren't recognized without a Section for Flow configured. Now, I have not found actual confirmation of this in instructions or references, but after configuring a single Flow, my Time Control setting seemed to work.
Or at least I thought it was....
I have 4 time controls set - 3 of 10 minute windows that align with feed cycles with other food sources, and a 4th from 9-11:59pm to slow the fan speed down during the night. I wanted a 5th to cover from 12:01 to 7:30am - but when I add a 5th, it shows as green (versus blue) and won't save. I haven't found anything about a limit to the number of time controls - so unsure what is causing that.
But here's where I got myself stumped....
My main device screen changed to having a "Flow" indicator - and my instant flow rate is not the same as my basic programming setting (20%) - but I can't figure out why it thinks I'm in any kind of flow mode -
I have no sections set up, and only one flow -
And at the time this was captured, I'm not in any active time control settings -
I did seem to get it out of the flow mode by manuall resetting the basic flow rate on the main device page - only to not have it follow my time control flow reduction for my 6pm feeding cycle.
So - is there a guide somewhere on the more complex programming of the orca - or anything other than the basic programming of a single flow speed between two end points?
