What are you automating with your controller?

[robsworld78]

What complex systems do you run on your controller? Auto water change, mixing station, maintenance, etc...

What steps/conditions in detail are required to make it happen?

The more complex the better. If you post Apex programming could you please add a comment next to the line so I know what type of sensor/parameter it is and equipment.

 

[Reefing102]

So I automate way to much (in my opinion) but mine is very basic compared to many I’m sure. Almost Everything is connected to my apex energy bar. My heaters, return pump, lighting, skimmer. The only things not connected are 2 koralia power heads and a jaebo wavemaker

 

[n2585722]

I have too much for a single post. I control ATO and auto refill of the DI storage tank. I also do AWC and control the auto refill of the fresh salt water storage from the mix tank if it is ready to use. I also have it auto refill the mix tank with DI once it is empty. I can start with the auto refill of the fresh salt water storage since that is the most complex. This is all done on the Hydros now. I have a collective of 8 control units currently.

Starting with the fresh salt water storage tank. It has a full sensor and a low level sensor. When the low level sensor is triggered it shuts off the AWC output. It will also trigger a transfer from the mix tank to the fresh saltwater tank if the mix ready latch is on. I will go into that when talking about the mix tank. Below is the screenshot for the full output that follows the full sensor. It uses the Generic Type With a Input Count of 1. Input 1 is the FSW Full sensor input. It is set to Active when wet. This output will be on if water goes above the sensor.

Below is the FSW Low output. The low sensor is also used to turn off the auto water change as long as it is active. This is also a Generic Type with Input Count set to 1. Input 1 is the FSW Low sensor input. It is set to active when dry. So this output will be on if the water level goes below the sensor. Minimum on and minimum off times are set to 1 minute. The Depends On for this output is set to the MIX Ready output. The Dependency Mode is set to Off if Off. So if the Mix Ready output is off the this output will remain off.I will get into the Mix Ready output when I post about the mix tank, but basically it is set when the mix tank contents is ready to use.

Below is a hold output. It is used to hold the latch on in the case the full sensor is triggered. We want to wait and drain the mix tank to the low sensor If for some reason the full sensor is triggered. The transfer pump will turn off but the fill sequence will remain in hold until the water level drops below full. Since both tanks are the same size and the full sensor is set to a lower level in the mix tank this should not happen but this output is in place just in case it ever does. It uses the combiner type. Input 1 is the FSW Fill Latch. It is not inverted. Input 2 is the Mix Low output. This input is inverted so it is active as long as the mix is not low. The Combiner Mode is AND. The output will be on as long as both the FSW Fill Latch is on and the Mix low outputs is off. This is also a latch type output.

Below is the FSW Fill latch. It is triggered by the FSW Low output when it comes on. Once it is on it triggers the previous output the FSW Hold to on if the mix tank is not low. So they work together to keep the sequence running if the FSW tank were to fill before the mix tank goes low. It also uses the Combiner Type. Input 1 is the FSW Low output which starts the FSW fill sequence. Input 2 is the FSW Hold output. Neither are inverted. The Combiner Mode is OR. So if either input is active then the output is on. The minimum off time is set to 1 hour. It actually should be several days between each fill sequence so this will prevent a fill for a power interruption.

Below is the output that actually powers the transfer pump. It is also a Combiner Type. Input 1 is the FSW Hold output. Input 2 is the FSW Full output. Input 2 is the only input that is inverted. The Combiner Type is AND. The Output Device is GR 1-2 which is outlet 2 on a WiFi power strip in the garage. The Depends On is set to Leak Garage. Dependency is Off if On.

The Leak Garage output is the generic type and has an input count of 2. I have 2 leak detectors on the floor near the storage tanks and RODI. One is under the RODI and one is under the air conditioning unit. If either senses a leak it will Turn this output on and stop the transfer each input is set to ve active when there is a leak. Also the combiner mode is OR so if either input is active this output will be active.

Now for the mix tank ok to use setup. First off is the switch input setup. I named it Mix Ok To Use. I am using one of the 0-10v inputs for the user switches. This one is setup as a pushbutton. The input is the 4th 0-10v input on the Control 4 in the garage. The trigger voltage is set to 0 volts. When the 0-10v input goes to that voltage this input will be active. It is set to stay active. Another press will end the active event.

The input above is used on the output below. This one is named Mix Ready Start. It is used to initially start the mix ready sequence. The Generic Type output is used With 1 input. The input is Mix Ok To Use. There is no output device selected for this output. The rest are at their default settings.

The output below is the latch to keep the mix ready output on after the Mix Ready Start goes inactive. It uses the Combiner Type output. Input 1 is the Mix Ready Start output. Input 2 is the Mix Ready output. This output uses the OR Combiner Mode. If either input is active the output will be on. Output Device is set to none. The rest of the settings are the default settings.

The screeshot below is the mix ready output. This output uses the Combiner Type. Input 1 is the Mix Ready Latch. Input 2 is the Mix Low output. It is also inverted so it is active when mix low is not active. The output will turn off once the mix low output is on. This output uses the AND Combiner Mode. This output does not have a Output Device selected. This output is only for the logic in the controller.

The reason for these outputs is to have a way to allow use of the contents of the mix tank after it has had the salt mix added and is ready to use. Once the salt mix has been added and sufficient time has passed all I need to do is press the push button switch and the Mix Ready output will turn on and stay on until the Mix Low output turns on. That output is turned on by the mix tank low sensor. So it will stay on until the contents of the mix tank is transferred to the FSW tank. That is it for the mix tank ready output.

Now to the mix tank. It has three sensors. A low sensor, a full sensor and a pressure sensor. Below is the setup for the Mix Low sensor. It is connected to a sense port. It is a float switch. The Sense Mode is Water Level. The sense port is on a Control 2 in the garage. When this input was setup there were no notification settings so this output does not send a notification. If I change one of the settings it will start sending the notifications.

Below is the Mix Full sensor setup. It also uses a sense port and is also a float switch. It is on the same Control unit as the Mix Low sensor above. As with the Mix Full sensor I did not set any alarm settings.

Below is the water level input which uses a pressure sensor. It is only for a general idea of the water level in the tank. The input type is 0-10v. The 0-10v input mode is Analog. The 0-10v input used is on a Control 4 in the garage. It is input 3. Scale factor is 10 and offset is 0. The Data Type is Generic.

Below it the mix fill output. It uses the RODI Filter Type. With this tyoe it has three output devices to set. I only use the Feed Output Device. This is a solenoid to trun on the DI from the RODI to the mix tank. the high level input is the mix full input. This turns off the output. The low level input is the mix low input. I dont have the leak detector input set but use the depends on setting to do the same thing since I want it to stop if either leak detector senses a leak. A maximum on time is set for 3 hours and 15 minutes. Run past max on time is set to off. If the fill output stays on for 3 hours 15 minutes it will turn off and send a notification. If it takes that long something is wrong. There is also a float valve to manually stop the flow if the tank overfills for any reason.

The other output used to turn on the RODi is below. It is a Combiner type output and has 3 inputs. Ine is a timer timer output which is setup to turn on the RODI unit for 10 minutes every hour. This is mainly to refill the RO bladder since the RO is used for the ice maker on the fridge. The next one is the DI refill output used to refill the DI storage tank. The last one is the mix refill output which s the same output used to turn on the solenoid to refill the mix tank. Although it is not show in the screen shot the depends on is set to the leak garage output on this output also.

That about does it for the auto fill for the fresh salt water tank and the mix tank. The DI storage refill very similar to the mix tank.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Using Apex:

Lights
DOS
Auto fedder
sterilizer
CA reactor

 

[Biglew11]

I automate quite a bit. But my most complex programming by a long shot is for my 2 maxspect gyres on the icecap gyre interface. Required several virtual outlets and profiles to run. And creative naming to understand wich profile to use on each gyre and its purpose.

The up and lo profiles are all ramp profiles. Up starts lo and rsmps up, And lo starts high and ramps down.

Left gyre
If Output Day_opp = ON Then Day_Leftup (output = virtual outlet, day leftup is a profile that ramps up)
If Output Gyre_day = ON Then Day_LeftLo (output = virtual outlet, day leftlo is a profile that ramps down)
If Output Night_opp = ON Then Night_Lup (night time flow night opp = virtual outlet, night lup is profile ramps up longer time than day and not as high)
If Output Gyre_night = ON Then Night_Ldown (night time flow night opp = virtual outlet, night lup is profile ramps down longer time than day and not as high)
If Output pulse = ON Then Day_pulse (output pulse = virtual outlet day plus = profile instant on)
If Output Gyre_Storm = ON Then Storm_Up (output = virtual gyre storm = profile ramps ups fairly high to kick up detritus)
If Output Storm_opp = ON Then Storm_Down (output = virtual gyre storm = profile ramps down fairly high to kick up detritus)
If FeedA 000 Then 55 (feed a is main feed mode also turns return pump to about 1-5 percent overflow is on left so this pushes any food away from overflow. The fish also seem to love chasing after the food.
If FeedB 000 Then OFF (my cleaning mode
If Output Gyre_ups = ON Then Gyre_Ups ( I have mine on a ups and power monitoring. If I loos power it shuts almost everything off. Gyre ups runs one at 20 percent to keep some flow in the tank.

Gyre right has essentially the same codes but opposite. When left side is going down right side is going up. Gyre pulse they are both on or off at same time. By changing the time on the virtual outlets I can get some very random flow patterns.

 

[blaxsun]

Apex. AFS, PMK, DOS/DDR, Trident. Sicce SDC 6/9 (UV/return) through IOTA. Radions with Mobius, ReefWaves with ReefBeat, Maxspect Gyres with Icecap battery backup. Titanium heaters with Inkbird.

All controlled through the Apex for feeding, maintenance, etc. The only thing I still do manually are water changes and ATO.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Nothing as fancy as water changes but I use my Apex to turn my ATO off when the return is off so that I don't get a high water alarm, and then delay powering it up by half an hour after turning the return pump back on since the ATO dumps about a cup of water in the tank every time it power cycles. I also use the Apex to turn the UV on at night and off during the day since it's mostly there to target dinos.

 

[robsworld78]

Thanks guys.

@n2585722 holly molly, that's some automation. Thanks for the details, I went over all, most I can make sense of but will need to go over a few more times. Later I'll post a summary to see if I understand. How hard was it to set those up?

@Biglew11 that's a nice program, I like how it flows, just like the fishes during feed.

@blaxsun why haven't you moved ATO and AWC to Apex?

@Calm Blue Ocean nice example of why you would want to take action based on an outputs state.

 

[blaxsun]

Thanks guys.
@blaxsun why haven't you moved ATO and AWC to Apex?

The Red Sea has a ~7 gallon ATO integrated along with the sump, so we just use that. At some point we do plan to look at automating ATO and AWC to some extent, but the tank is still relatively new.

 

[n2585722]

Thanks guys.

@n2585722 holly molly, that's some automation. Thanks for the details, I went over all, most I can make sense of but will need to go over a few more times. Later I'll post a summary to see if I understand. How hard was it to set those up?

I already had this setup on a Archon and it was just a matter of figuring out how to do the same thing on the Hydros. The combiner output type is basically a gate. You can either set it us as an AND or an OR gate and you can invert the input if needed. You can have up to 9 inputs if needed. The Combiner will only accept another output as an input. So any actual input you need to use you will have setup an output to follow that input. Then you can use that output with the combiner. The generic output is about the same except it uses only inputs. The active on it depends on the type of input it is. So between the generic and combiner output types you can do quite a bit with the Hydros.

 

[robsworld78]

I already had this setup on a Archon and it was just a matter of figuring out how to do the same thing on the Hydros. The combiner output type is basically a gate. You can either set it us as an AND or an OR gate and you can invert the input if needed. You can have up to 9 inputs if needed. The Combiner will only accept another output as an input. So any actual input you need to use you will have setup an output to follow that input. Then you can use that output with the combiner. The generic output is about the same except it uses only inputs. The active on it depends on the type of input it is. So between the generic and combiner output types you can do quite a bit with the Hydros.

It sounds and looks impressive, gives me some ideas.