AC Jr timer and alarm questions

[armygreen11]

I have an actuated 3-way ball valve that I'm going to control using a SPDT relay. I'm going to run the coil to one of the AC Jr's outputs and the switch input to AC, so when the relay is on, the valve turns one way, when it switches off, it will rotate the other way. I'd like to be able to control the ON and OFF times independantly of each other (OSC xxx/xxx) but in seconds, not whole minutes. Can I do this with the AC Jr.?

Has anyone put together a decent FAQ for programming the AC's with some tips and stuff?

Lastly, when the AC Jr enters an alarm state, does it automatically output anything special on the serial output, or does aquanotes just send down a status request every so often to see if there's something that's in the alarm state of the current program for it's emailing capabilities?

 

[clp]

The minimum time resolution on the Jr is 1 minute. Current owners have posted lots of program examples to this forum. Here is one of the latest: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=836305 . Also the manual lists examples of all the major functions of the controller.
AquaNotes polls the controller to get the alarm status.

Curt

 

[armygreen11]

Thanks Curt. I figured there would be lots of programs in this forum, but the search never works for me. i guess I need to suck it up and pay for a premium membership one of these days. I was thinking that it would be really nice if someone were to kinda go through other people's programs and just pick out some not so intuitive statements and put them all together in one place for everyone. Like in that link you posted, in cathy8424's program, there's a statement "If Temp < 50.0 Then LT2 OFF" Which she says is in case the temp probe gets disconnected. Stuff like that. I'm sure there are probably more.

Could there ever possibly be a firmware update for the AC Jr that would allow for a better time resolution?

Speaking of firmware updates, can they be done through the serial port, or do I still need the special cable that plugs into the temp sensor input?

 

[clp]

Shortening the minimum time could be added to the controller, however, it is not currently very high on the list of enhancements. I personally don't think short intervals are a particularly good idea for a couple of reasons.
- frequent cycling is hard on pumps
- very inefficient. When the flow in the tank changes direction, it takes some time for the water in the whole tank to reverse. If you osciallate too fast much of the water column is static.

If you have a Jr's w/ a serial port, then just use the standard serial cable (part #SERPC9) for firmware updates.

Curt

 

[armygreen11]

The reason I wanted to be able to have the 1 second resolution was so that I could really fine tune the switching of my three way valve and maybe induce some sort of natural oscillation in the tank. I wouldn't switch it every 30 seconds, but something like 1 minute and 26 seconds one way and 1 minute and 48 seconds the other way wouldn't be out of the question.

Since I'm going to have a dedicated PC, would it be unreasonable to put that output in manual mode and control it through the serial port with some simple software that I would write? If the power goes out or I want to use aquanotes (I only have the lite version, so I can't do any email alerts anyway), that output would default to it's program until the software came back up. This all may be unnecessary as I don't even have the tank plumbed yet, but just in case I wanted to.

 

[clp]

I see what you are trying to do. Since the AquaController's sends out commands serially to the controlled outlets having 1 second accuracy in their timing is not possible, so even if we had second resolution the accuracy limitation would make it impossible generate any kind resonnance and constructive wave interference generation.
To generate any type of constructive interference and large wave generation, I suspect that the on/off periods must by very small (several seconds), and would need some type of active feed back system to that the period self adjust the period.
You can manually turn on/off the outlets through the web interface or telnet on the AC3. If the outlet is in the manual on or off state it will stay that way until a power cycle or it is put back in auto mode.

Curt