acjr dosing pump programming help

[platax88]

Hello,

I have a two dual head dosing pump which i want to use for two part dosing. I have calculated that i need to run the pump 36 mins a day. How can i program this with the acjr so the dose is evenly spaced out throughout the day. I believe i need to use the OSC command but need some help. I would hate to mess up and crash my tank from an overdose of alk.

I was thinking of dosing 1 minute at a time, so this is what I came up with.

1440 mins in a day
1440 - 36 (the total minutes needed to dose/day) = 1404
1404 / 36 = 39

so, the pump would come on for 1 min then off for 39. Can someone confirm the math and provide the programming command. Also open to suggestion on how to make this easier.

Thanks,
Jack

 

[ciphros]

Looks like your calcs are correct. Easiest way to do it is with the OSC command:

If Time > 00:00 Then ALK OFF (default condition so you don't have UNK showing for status all the time)
OSC 001/039 ON/OFF Then ALK ON (for your alk doser)
If PH > 8.40 Then ALK OFF (safety so you don't raise pH too much if using recipe 1 with the soda ash)

You can use the OSC command for the other pump for the Calcium doser, don't worry about the pH command though, Ca dose won't raise pH.

 

[platax88]

Thanks so much!

The pump is actually a dual head (masterflex) pump, so its just one drive, with one plug, running two tubes and dosing at the same rate. Therefore only one set of command is needed. The pump doses at a rate of 5ml/min, so i dont think PH would be an issue at that low flow rate.

The math is what worries me LOL i suck at math.

 

[ciphros]

Probably not, but I would still put the stop command in for the pH. Better to be safe than sorry.

I actually did the calculation a different way and got the same answer as you, so you are fine on the math. I'm a master's degree engineer...so my math is reasonably good (provided I have a calculator or Excel handy).

 

[platax88]

ha ... I'm an artist so i would say that your math is probably better than mine

Mind if i asked how you did the numbers, i need to make sure i can recalculate as my consumption rate increases.

I will add the PH line to be safe. thanks again!

 

[ciphros]

I just took the 1440 minutes for a day and divided by the number of minutes you want to dose (1440/36 = 40) - this is the total cycle time (combined on and off time for the Oscilation). Take the result (40 minutes) and split that according to the number of minutes you want to run (1 min at a time in this case) and the number of minutes to rest (39 minutes).

So, say you wanted to dose 1 minute at a time but need to add 50 ml:

1440/50 = 28.8 (need to round this, take it to 29 minutes)

statement will now be OSC 29/21 ON/OFF Then DOS ON

Make sense?

 

[platax88]

I just took the 1440 minutes for a day and divided by the number of minutes you want to dose (1440/36 = 40) - this is the total cycle time (combined on and off time for the Oscilation). Take the result (40 minutes) and split that according to the number of minutes you want to run (1 min at a time in this case) and the number of minutes to rest (39 minutes).

So, say you wanted to dose 1 minute at a time but need to add 50 ml:

1440/50 = 28.8 (need to round this, take it to 29 minutes)

statement will now be OSC 29/21 ON/OFF Then DOS ON

Make sense?

lol not really. If i wanted to add 50ml then that would increase my total dosing time to 46mins/day (my doser does 5ml/min).

So following your example:

1440/46 = 31.3 (so 31)
31 - 1 (length of dose) = 30

so ...

OSC 1/30 ON/OFF Then DOS ON

My way:

1440 - 46 = 1404
1440/46 = 30

So I see that both methods yield the same number but what am i missing with your 50ml example? I dont see hoew you got: 29/21

Thanks for your time man!

 

[platax88]

Where you just using 1ml/min pump dosing rate for the example?

 

[ciphros]

Sorry. Kept getting interrupted - I meant 50 minutes. Headed out and have a few hour drive. Will look at it again when I have some time this weekend or early next week.

 

[platax88]

no worries man. now that makes sense. So if i wanted to dose 2 mins at a time i would just change the values to 2/38 instead of 1/39?

Have a save drive and thanks for your help

 

[ciphros]

OK so I figured out where things went wrong.

from above I said that you want to dose 50 minutes a day right?

so 1440/50 = 28.8 (round to 29) this is the TOTAL cycle time, so you will have the OSC set up as:

OSC 001/028 ON/OFF Then DOS ON (29 is the TOTAL cycle, you are dosing 1 minute of that cycle)

So, if you were to dose 50 minutes in 2 minute intervals, you will need to do half the number of cycles, so you will take the 29 minute TOTAL cycle time and multiply by 2, so (58 minutes), so your OSC command would be OSC 002/058 ON/OFF Then DOS ON.

Pretty sure that is right - not getting interrupted now. So - basically take the total minutes you need to dose and use that to divide into 1440 to get your total cycle time. Then, if you are dosing more than 1 minute at a time, you need to multiply that total cycle time by the number of minutes per dosing time.

We are here (and safe, thank you), and we do have wi-fi, (and I have my blackberry as well), so I should be able to still answer questions this weekend if you have them.

 

[platax88]

Cool man! It all makes sense now. I think i am going to stick to 1 min on times for now.

So I setup the pump last night and used the commands we talked about:

If Time > 00:00 Then DSR OFF
OSC 001/039 ON/OFF Then DSR ON
If PH > 8.40 Then DSR OFF

For some reason it wont work unless i take out the "If Time > 00:00 Then DSR OFF" statement. Once I do that it works flawlessly. Also, without it, i have not seen the "U" on the display. I checked all the logic and here is no other command triggering DSR.

Think I am ok without it?

 

[ciphros]

it should run no problem without it. If you aren't getting the U for status, it shouldn't be needed anyway. Watch it this weekend and if it seems to be doing what you want, you should be just fine.

 

[platax88]

Can't thank you enough for your help and time!