ACjr. Questions

[DMBillies]

Posted in the neptune forum, but I thought you guys might have some input. Thanks.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1463258

 

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<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13273745#post13273745 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DMBillies
1. I wanted to set up my ACjr to control my kalk reactor set-up (a tunze osmolator ATO controlling a kalk reactor). I got everything put together and wrote up the code to control my osmolator with my ACjr. When I hooked up the osmolator to the ACjr outlet, I got nothing. I have the outlet split to also control my stir pump (I don't have space to control them separately, but I'm fairly certain the kalk reactor will get turned on often enough to stir up the kalk reactor just fine - this is a pretty heavily stocked 300 gallon). Well, the stir pump was humming away, so I immediately thought I bricked the tunze in the process of moving everything around and setting it up. But, when I hooked it into a non-ACjr outlet, the osmolator fired right up. So, my first question is, is an osmolator not controllable with an ACjr? Some kind of interference? The outlet is obviously switching because the stir pump is running, so it isn't that the osmolator doesn't draw enough...

I tried searching but I didn't see anything saying you couldn't use them... I hope this isn't a repeated question.

I'm using a second ATO to ensure that my water level does not get too low (since I think my kalk reactor will pump plenty of kalk to keep the pH up). That ATO is from autotopoff.com, so I could use that, but I'd have to buy a lower flow pump for it since the smallest I have is a MJ600 and I'm afraid even a small dose with that will raise the pH more at one time than I would like. Also, the osmolator will only run for a certain amount of time before it shuts itself off, which is a nice safeguard against a kalk overdose if the something goes wrong with the measurement on the ACjr pH probe.

2. I have been using the seasonal lighting table for a while now to control my lights. I am a night owl and therefore most of my tank viewing is in the afternoon/evening. Because there is a limit to what you can do for delaying the seasonal tables (I can't remember what it is, but it is either 120 or 180), I had to go in and edit the seasonal tables to increase the times by 2 hours. This keeps my lights on much later in the night and works well. However, I noticed that the lights would start turning on/off much earlier and continue on that pattern.

I didn't understand why the change was occurring, except that I noticed the seasonal lighting table was returning to the default settings. This was never a huge deal (it doesn't cause harm to my tank, just an inconvenience) and I would just change it back, but it puzzled me. I think I have solved the mystery and figured out that the ACjr flips back to default settings any time the power goes out to the AC. Is this normal? Is there a way to prevent it? Is there anything I can do with my program below that would get around it?

If I can't stop it from happening, I'll probably just go to a normal timed lighting cycle... but I'm not to thrilled about that because the seasonal lighting tables are easy to use and are a really good feature for a controller that I wanted to take advantage of. If indeed I can't get around this, I'd hope that future versions would allow for people like me who want the seasonal lighting pattern but would like to be able to view their tank when they are home.



3. Here is my ACjr code. I am 99% sure it has nothing to do with either of the issues above, but I just added the parts for the pH control and I tried to simplify parts of the code that I thought were unnecessary or overcomplicated parts of the control scheme. If there is anything I haven't included that would be considered "highly recommended" in terms of failsafes, pointing out those would be particularly appreciated. It's nice to have a few sets of eyes on these. Anything that looks out of whack, please let me know. Please note that my pH falls to about 7.7 during the night right now, so I am starting with that pH on the controller and will be slowly raising it over the course of a couple of weeks until I get it to where I want it. At that point I will also be narrowing and increasing the acceptable pH range before it trips an alarm (I get dirty looks from my other house inhabitants if that sucker goes off... especially at night).

ACT*-A1 - Actinics
DAY*-A2 - Daylights
RET%-A3 - Return
HOT^-A4 - Heater
CLP%-A5 - Closed Loop
ALM^-A6 - Alarm
FAN^-A7 - Fan
PHP%-A8 - pH Pump (Kalk Reactor on Osmolator)

If Sun 060/060 Then ACT ON
If Sun 120/000 Then DAY ON
If Sun 060/070 Then FAN ON
If Temp < RT+-0.3 Then HOT ON
If Temp > RT+0.0 Then HOT OFF
If Temp > RT+0.5 Then FAN ON
If Temp < RT+0.2 Then FAN OFF
Max Change 010 M Then FAN OFF
If Temp > RT+0.8 Then CLP OFF
If Temp < RT+0.5 Then CLP ON
Max Change 010 M Then CLP ON
If Temp > RT+1.0 Then DAY OFF
Max Change 010 M Then DAY OFF
If Temp > RT+1.2 Then ACT OFF
Max Change 010 M Then ACT OFF
If Time > 00:00 Then RET ON
If Feed cycle Then RET OFF
If Feed cycle Then RET ON
If pH < 7.70 Then PHP ON
If pH > 7.72 Then PHP OFF
If Timer RET = OFF Then PHP OFF
If Time > 00:00 Then ALM OFF
If Temp > RT+1.2 Then ALM ON
If Temp < RT+-0.5 Then ALM ON
If pH < 7.50 Then ALM ON
If pH > 8.00 Then ALM ON


Thanks in advance!

OK, Brian. Yet ANOTHER tome. How about explaining your problem in 6 words or less

I have a thought on #2. I think you bought your AC Jr. Used? If you did maybe it doesn't have the latest firmware. At one point a couple of years ago the firmware was updated to put all of the programming into flash, rather than volatile memory. Maybe that is the problem with your seasonal stuff reverting.

I don't use seasonal as I don't think it makes a hill of beans worth of difference to the corals. But I'm really saying that because I don't have any experience with whether or not the AC Jr. remembers seasonal table changes when the power is cut. I have my lights set up to stagger on and off and leave it running the same way year round.

That code looks okeydokey to me. I've got a power off set of stuff in mine so that when it detects power off (e.g. there is a power outage), it staggers the lights back on after about 15 minutes of cool down, I think with about 15 minutes in between each bank turning on. I haven't looked at my code in a long while, but I think that is about the only difference in my code (except I use absolute values, rather than the seasonal temp and lighting program, and I use it also to auto dose 2-part).

 

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<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13273745#post13273745 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DMBillies
1. I wanted to set up my ACjr to control my kalk reactor set-up (a tunze osmolator ATO controlling a kalk reactor). I got everything put together and wrote up the code to control my osmolator with my ACjr. When I hooked up the osmolator to the ACjr outlet, I got nothing. I have the outlet split to also control my stir pump (I don't have space to control them separately, but I'm fairly certain the kalk reactor will get turned on often enough to stir up the kalk reactor just fine - this is a pretty heavily stocked 300 gallon). Well, the stir pump was humming away, so I immediately thought I bricked the tunze in the process of moving everything around and setting it up. But, when I hooked it into a non-ACjr outlet, the osmolator fired right up. So, my first question is, is an osmolator not controllable with an ACjr? Some kind of interference? The outlet is obviously switching because the stir pump is running, so it isn't that the osmolator doesn't draw enough...

I tried searching but I didn't see anything saying you couldn't use them... I hope this isn't a repeated question.

I'm using a second ATO to ensure that my water level does not get too low (since I think my kalk reactor will pump plenty of kalk to keep the pH up). That ATO is from autotopoff.com, so I could use that, but I'd have to buy a lower flow pump for it since the smallest I have is a MJ600 and I'm afraid even a small dose with that will raise the pH more at one time than I would like. Also, the osmolator will only run for a certain amount of time before it shuts itself off, which is a nice safeguard against a kalk overdose if the something goes wrong with the measurement on the ACjr pH probe.

2. I have been using the seasonal lighting table for a while now to control my lights. I am a night owl and therefore most of my tank viewing is in the afternoon/evening. Because there is a limit to what you can do for delaying the seasonal tables (I can't remember what it is, but it is either 120 or 180), I had to go in and edit the seasonal tables to increase the times by 2 hours. This keeps my lights on much later in the night and works well. However, I noticed that the lights would start turning on/off much earlier and continue on that pattern.

I didn't understand why the change was occurring, except that I noticed the seasonal lighting table was returning to the default settings. This was never a huge deal (it doesn't cause harm to my tank, just an inconvenience) and I would just change it back, but it puzzled me. I think I have solved the mystery and figured out that the ACjr flips back to default settings any time the power goes out to the AC. Is this normal? Is there a way to prevent it? Is there anything I can do with my program below that would get around it?

If I can't stop it from happening, I'll probably just go to a normal timed lighting cycle... but I'm not to thrilled about that because the seasonal lighting tables are easy to use and are a really good feature for a controller that I wanted to take advantage of. If indeed I can't get around this, I'd hope that future versions would allow for people like me who want the seasonal lighting pattern but would like to be able to view their tank when they are home.



3. Here is my ACjr code. I am 99% sure it has nothing to do with either of the issues above, but I just added the parts for the pH control and I tried to simplify parts of the code that I thought were unnecessary or overcomplicated parts of the control scheme. If there is anything I haven't included that would be considered "highly recommended" in terms of failsafes, pointing out those would be particularly appreciated. It's nice to have a few sets of eyes on these. Anything that looks out of whack, please let me know. Please note that my pH falls to about 7.7 during the night right now, so I am starting with that pH on the controller and will be slowly raising it over the course of a couple of weeks until I get it to where I want it. At that point I will also be narrowing and increasing the acceptable pH range before it trips an alarm (I get dirty looks from my other house inhabitants if that sucker goes off... especially at night).

ACT*-A1 - Actinics
DAY*-A2 - Daylights
RET%-A3 - Return
HOT^-A4 - Heater
CLP%-A5 - Closed Loop
ALM^-A6 - Alarm
FAN^-A7 - Fan
PHP%-A8 - pH Pump (Kalk Reactor on Osmolator)

If Sun 060/060 Then ACT ON
If Sun 120/000 Then DAY ON
If Sun 060/070 Then FAN ON
If Temp < RT+-0.3 Then HOT ON
If Temp > RT+0.0 Then HOT OFF
If Temp > RT+0.5 Then FAN ON
If Temp < RT+0.2 Then FAN OFF
Max Change 010 M Then FAN OFF
If Temp > RT+0.8 Then CLP OFF
If Temp < RT+0.5 Then CLP ON
Max Change 010 M Then CLP ON
If Temp > RT+1.0 Then DAY OFF
Max Change 010 M Then DAY OFF
If Temp > RT+1.2 Then ACT OFF
Max Change 010 M Then ACT OFF
If Time > 00:00 Then RET ON
If Feed cycle Then RET OFF
If Feed cycle Then RET ON
If pH < 7.70 Then PHP ON
If pH > 7.72 Then PHP OFF
If Timer RET = OFF Then PHP OFF
If Time > 00:00 Then ALM OFF
If Temp > RT+1.2 Then ALM ON
If Temp < RT+-0.5 Then ALM ON
If pH < 7.50 Then ALM ON
If pH > 8.00 Then ALM ON


Thanks in advance!

OK, Brian. Yet ANOTHER tome. How about explaining your problem in 6 words or less

I have a thought on #2. I think you bought your AC Jr. Used? If you maybe it doesn't have the latest firmware. At one point a couple of years ago the firmware was updated to put all of the programming into flash, rather than volatile memory. Maybe that is the problem with your seasonal stuff reverting.

I don't use seasonal as I don't think it makes a hill of beans worth of difference to the corals. But I'm really saying that because I don't have any experience with whether or not the AC Jr. remembers seasonal table changes when the power is cut. I have my lights set up to stagger on and off and leave it running the same way year round.

That code looks okeydokey to me. I've got a power off set of stuff in mine so that when it detects power off (e.g. there is a power outage), it staggers the lights back on after about 15 minutes of cool down, I think with about 15 minutes in between each bank turning on. I haven't looked at my code in a long while, but I think that is about the only difference in my code (except I use absolute values, rather than the seasonal temp and lighting program, and I use it also to auto dose 2-part).

 

[DMBillies]

Ok Jack, yet another double post

6 words or less (in typical internet board fashion):

Plz help ACjr is pwning me


Seriously though, I'll check the firmware, but I think I updated that when I hooked it all up. I could be wrong.

The biggest practical reason I want to set-up the seasonal stuff is just that it saves some lines in my program since each on/off cycle only takes 1 line instead of 2. This may seem trivial, but I think you can only have 40 lines of programming on the Jr., and I'm almost to 30 with a couple more tweaks I added since last night. I'm planning on adding a DC8 possibly, in which case my lines of code will be really close to 40.

Other than that, it's just cool to tell people that my reef follows the seasonal sunrise/sunset and temps of a real reef (gives me nerd street cred).

Good idea on the light shut down after power off. You can see with the max change statments that they do that if they go off because my tank gets warm (which has been happening more than I would like lately... turns out adding a 1000gph pump and bubbling hot air from outside into your skimmer will try to add a degree or two).

I did add a couple of statements in there in case the temp probe or pH probe start reading really out of whack numbers (e.g., with a tank temp below 75 I cut the heaters and have an alarm... under normal circumstances my tank should never be running that low). I also killed the kalk reactor with a pH below 7.5 because, again, it shouldn't get that low unless there is a problem.

 

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Sounds good, Brian. I really like the added safety that the controller provides and think you are using it well for that purpose. My controller has saved my tank several times.