Want to switch to a reef angel

[Dave A]

Mainly I think people don't like it because of the programing.

Most of the people who don't like it because of the programming, have never used one, You don't have to do any programming unless you want to. The Reef Angel comes with a pre-installed program that includes all the common functions and you can use the wizard to create custom software that will do almost anything you can dream up. You have to be pretty creative to come up with something that would require you to do much coding yourself and once you get to that point, you are probably beyond the abilities of any other controller.

 

[bluwinghawk]

bump still working on the layout for tank have some expansions now were to put it all but will be following and
HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

[NanoNathan]

i use reef angel and pwm dimming to with the leds i built my self. great controler, some stuff is tricky if you are a newb like getting the wif mod to work right.. i still cant get it to connect and gave up lol

 

[Squishie89]

My dad and I had one heck of time getting the wifi to work. What ended up working for us was to downgrade the firmware on the wifi unit. I like the RA controller. I think it can be improved, quite a bit, which I plan on telling Roberto about, but I like it.

 

[Rayzback]

I can't believe the reef angel hasn't kicked off a whole build your own controller craze in the hobby. If your a geek exposed to arduino, what's not to love. Building your own LED fixture, meh. Building a controller sounds fun!

 

[Rayzback]

First mod I'd like to see on the reef angel, shouldn't be real hard... is to measure flow. You could get a continuous reading of GPH through the sump...not only would you know your pumps were on, but that you had flow. No clogs.


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[Rayzback]

You could restart a siphon.


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[Dave A]

I can't believe the reef angel hasn't kicked off a whole build your own controller craze in the hobby.

I'm probably not the only person who had considered building my own but realized that it would cost the same to build my own as it would to buy a RA and not have to do the work. OTOH, I'm starting a nano build and for this one I'm more concerned with LED control and not planning to add WiFi or pH so I may build a Jarduino this time.

 

[vbsaltydog]

I'm starting a nano build and for this one I'm more concerned with LED control and not planning to add WiFi or pH so I may build a Jarduino this time.

It is easy to program a stock Arduino to control lights that use PWM drivers. If your lights use analog dimming circuits, you need to create a low pass filter on the PWM output(s) plus amplify the +5vDV to +10vDC and thats where things get more difficult for the layman (non EE).

 

[vbsaltydog]

+5vDC to +10vDC

 

[Dave A]

No analog dimmers for me, I have a spare Mean Well ELN60-48P and a ''Steve's triple'' but I suspect that I'll end up picking up a few more Mean Well LDDs for the nano.
Keep in mind that the Reef Angel uses an amplified (10v) PWM signal. I ordered my dimming module for my 90 gal without the amplifier so it would be compatible with the LDDs. If you are not familiar with the LDD series, I suggest taking a look. The dim down to 1% and shut off at zero, they can control anything from a single emitter to a 52v string and they come in a number of different versions from 300 mA to 1000 mA.