LazRodriguez
New member
Sounds like You have old firmware . I'd put in a request with ai.
AI Director Beta - Who got picked? Lets talk 'Director'!
- Thread starter owenspackman
- Start date
owenspackman
New member
So what have AI suggested to help? I'm getting the impression you haven't made your issues known to AI? Pretty sure they'd get it running for you or replace.....?
Hydra and Director: A Noob's Day 1 Thoughts
Hydra and Director: A Noob's Day 1 Thoughts
I've been lurking on this one and you guys all helped me out unknowingly, so thought I'd pay it forward to the next noob
. There doesn't seem to be many official instructions or detailed guidance from AI just yet, although lots of great opinions and videos on the Web, so it seems we're all figuring things out.
After waiting over a year to feel fairly comfortable that LED is more proven, I bit the bullet and went with the AI Hydra and Director setup. AI helped spec the Hydra vs going for the Hydra 52 last week, as this is my long term tank...With the in-wall cabinet I built, I have no plans to change my tank or at. least the size. Perhaps it was to get rid of old stuff, but when I talked to them about 'why should I go 52 over regular, I felt like they were honest and guided me to the regular Hydra - I appreciated that, as they could have gone for the upsell very easily. They also took the time to listen to me, and I didn't feel rushed. I was told I could go with either 2 Hydra 52's or 3 Hydras - but that the 3 Hydras is good for my setup - all based on my input and description of the tank, cabinet/canopy, inhabitants, my lighting history, and my goals.
I have an established (8 yrs) tank, 135ish gallon (72"x18" deep x 24" tall). I originally had 750 w MH fixtures (3x250), and got tired of the electric bill - went to 208 watts of T-5s 3-4 years ago, and just have not been happy compared to the MH - livestock options, color, and shimmer all being factors. Due to the way I built the cabinet and canopy, I was limited to how many T-5s I could cram in there; I think wattage was at the very bottom of what I really needed, but never could get a straight answer on that - nor did I have any more space to work with.
Today, courtesy of Amazon, I got my three Hydras and the Director installed. What a difference. I installed them in parallel with the tank, using brackets I made from Home Depot (painted, used stainless hardware). I have 10.5" from water to top of the canopy, and while the lights are much closer to the water than I'd like, they do look great on night 1. I have 7" clearance from water to Hydra, and 2.5" between Hydra and canopy top - I may get smaller brackets to move them higher up, but will run the current setup for a few weeks before I change anything. I couldn't find an official word on how high to hang, but saw some folks had info it should be 12". from water (?).
I'm happy with the appearance of three Hydras but do think four would give better coverage - I have some darker areas off to the sides, but it's most noticeable because I'm using the acclimation settings at 50% of target - I set the acclimation period to run 8 weeks, although given what I'm reading I'm not sure that's long enough - I also need to figure out how my settings compare to the t5 watts - don't want to bleach anything, but don't know if I'm under what I had with the t5s. 300watts of LED running maybe 50% - I don't know if that correlates to 150 watts, and what other factors there are (PAR?)...so playing it safer with the acclimation settings.
My only beefs, albeit minor today, are:
1) Can't seem to update firmware - no options for Hydra or Director updates have appeared on any PC screen or on the iOS app. So, like Kurfer, I don't have the ability to set local or other area weather...on firmware I have (among many other release numbers I don't know what are):
AI Director: 1.0.16-r15
AI Firmware: 0.0.1-r0
It's the weekend, so if I can't do the update by Monday I'll call AI or submit a ticket.
2) On the PC, I was getting connection process errors when I'd save specific settings after doing the easy setup then tweaking the ramp up - closing the browser to clear cache seems to fix that, but was nagging for a while today. That happened going through both my.ai, and directly to the IP on my LAN.
3) I'd like to have a better understanding of how the my.ai.com tool works - I haven't tried it on an external network, but from a security perspective, I have to wonder whether it passes through port 80. I'd also love to be able to assign a static IP to the Director. Not sure I'd ever want to muck with it while I'm away, so can't see port forwarding as a need, but I am curious on how the my.ai tool connects to my Director.
The whole cloud/lightning thing is neat - unnecessary bonus, but I did set that up for giggles. I couldn't get the lightning to work with anything other than 100% probability and 100% intensity, but the cloud effect is neat. at some point I may see how the cloud sweep works by putting the three lights into different groups, but given the random appearance of the lightning that may not be necessary. As I write, the rampdown is swinging into effect slowly, and the lightning actually started going with the setting of 50% probability, 25% intensity - I like that much better than the 100/100
Thanks to you all for your unwitting guidance to we lurkers, and I hope more of us share our experiences and settings. By no means do I know AT ALL what I'm doing with the light settings, so I'll keep tuning in and am happy to post any more details if there's something specific someone wants. I'll be looking at a darker tank than I'd like during the acclimation period, but I think it looks great at my target settings - once that's over, I'll be more comfortable mucking with the intensity a bit more.
For anyone interested, here are some shots, if I can post more than one - not sure how they'll show up, and taken from an iPhone, which never does a reef any justice. I'm maybe 6 hours post-install, so have a long way to go before I have a real opinion. I'm also not sure I have the right color settings, but took a hybrid of settings I saw others have posted...sounds like it's all trial and error and personal opinion, combined with being careful not to kill your stuff.
On: 12pm
Off: 10pm (ramp down/sunset is 8:30)
Ramp time: 1.5 hours on all but the blues, which I have set at 9% for moonlight with lunar cycle on.
Peak settings (these are the targets post acclimation, which is set at 50%):
UV: 53 (I don't know what this should be at...by itself, it's not really impressive
V: 53
DB: 72 (I like blue, but it's really too blue)
RB: 65
G: 52
DR: 51
white: 40
wow... that's a long post. :deadhorse1: If you made it this far, I'm sure there's some etiquette rule I broke here, but hope its useful to someone!
Hydra and Director: A Noob's Day 1 Thoughts
I've been lurking on this one and you guys all helped me out unknowingly, so thought I'd pay it forward to the next noob
. There doesn't seem to be many official instructions or detailed guidance from AI just yet, although lots of great opinions and videos on the Web, so it seems we're all figuring things out.After waiting over a year to feel fairly comfortable that LED is more proven, I bit the bullet and went with the AI Hydra and Director setup. AI helped spec the Hydra vs going for the Hydra 52 last week, as this is my long term tank...With the in-wall cabinet I built, I have no plans to change my tank or at. least the size. Perhaps it was to get rid of old stuff, but when I talked to them about 'why should I go 52 over regular, I felt like they were honest and guided me to the regular Hydra - I appreciated that, as they could have gone for the upsell very easily. They also took the time to listen to me, and I didn't feel rushed. I was told I could go with either 2 Hydra 52's or 3 Hydras - but that the 3 Hydras is good for my setup - all based on my input and description of the tank, cabinet/canopy, inhabitants, my lighting history, and my goals.
I have an established (8 yrs) tank, 135ish gallon (72"x18" deep x 24" tall). I originally had 750 w MH fixtures (3x250), and got tired of the electric bill - went to 208 watts of T-5s 3-4 years ago, and just have not been happy compared to the MH - livestock options, color, and shimmer all being factors. Due to the way I built the cabinet and canopy, I was limited to how many T-5s I could cram in there; I think wattage was at the very bottom of what I really needed, but never could get a straight answer on that - nor did I have any more space to work with.
Today, courtesy of Amazon, I got my three Hydras and the Director installed. What a difference. I installed them in parallel with the tank, using brackets I made from Home Depot (painted, used stainless hardware). I have 10.5" from water to top of the canopy, and while the lights are much closer to the water than I'd like, they do look great on night 1. I have 7" clearance from water to Hydra, and 2.5" between Hydra and canopy top - I may get smaller brackets to move them higher up, but will run the current setup for a few weeks before I change anything. I couldn't find an official word on how high to hang, but saw some folks had info it should be 12". from water (?).
I'm happy with the appearance of three Hydras but do think four would give better coverage - I have some darker areas off to the sides, but it's most noticeable because I'm using the acclimation settings at 50% of target - I set the acclimation period to run 8 weeks, although given what I'm reading I'm not sure that's long enough - I also need to figure out how my settings compare to the t5 watts - don't want to bleach anything, but don't know if I'm under what I had with the t5s. 300watts of LED running maybe 50% - I don't know if that correlates to 150 watts, and what other factors there are (PAR?)...so playing it safer with the acclimation settings.
My only beefs, albeit minor today, are:
1) Can't seem to update firmware - no options for Hydra or Director updates have appeared on any PC screen or on the iOS app. So, like Kurfer, I don't have the ability to set local or other area weather...on firmware I have (among many other release numbers I don't know what are):
AI Director: 1.0.16-r15
AI Firmware: 0.0.1-r0
It's the weekend, so if I can't do the update by Monday I'll call AI or submit a ticket.
2) On the PC, I was getting connection process errors when I'd save specific settings after doing the easy setup then tweaking the ramp up - closing the browser to clear cache seems to fix that, but was nagging for a while today. That happened going through both my.ai, and directly to the IP on my LAN.
3) I'd like to have a better understanding of how the my.ai.com tool works - I haven't tried it on an external network, but from a security perspective, I have to wonder whether it passes through port 80. I'd also love to be able to assign a static IP to the Director. Not sure I'd ever want to muck with it while I'm away, so can't see port forwarding as a need, but I am curious on how the my.ai tool connects to my Director.
The whole cloud/lightning thing is neat - unnecessary bonus, but I did set that up for giggles. I couldn't get the lightning to work with anything other than 100% probability and 100% intensity, but the cloud effect is neat. at some point I may see how the cloud sweep works by putting the three lights into different groups, but given the random appearance of the lightning that may not be necessary. As I write, the rampdown is swinging into effect slowly, and the lightning actually started going with the setting of 50% probability, 25% intensity - I like that much better than the 100/100
Thanks to you all for your unwitting guidance to we lurkers, and I hope more of us share our experiences and settings. By no means do I know AT ALL what I'm doing with the light settings, so I'll keep tuning in and am happy to post any more details if there's something specific someone wants. I'll be looking at a darker tank than I'd like during the acclimation period, but I think it looks great at my target settings - once that's over, I'll be more comfortable mucking with the intensity a bit more.
For anyone interested, here are some shots, if I can post more than one - not sure how they'll show up, and taken from an iPhone, which never does a reef any justice. I'm maybe 6 hours post-install, so have a long way to go before I have a real opinion. I'm also not sure I have the right color settings, but took a hybrid of settings I saw others have posted...sounds like it's all trial and error and personal opinion, combined with being careful not to kill your stuff.
On: 12pm
Off: 10pm (ramp down/sunset is 8:30)
Ramp time: 1.5 hours on all but the blues, which I have set at 9% for moonlight with lunar cycle on.
Peak settings (these are the targets post acclimation, which is set at 50%):
UV: 53 (I don't know what this should be at...by itself, it's not really impressive
V: 53
DB: 72 (I like blue, but it's really too blue)
RB: 65
G: 52
DR: 51
white: 40
wow... that's a long post. :deadhorse1: If you made it this far, I'm sure there's some etiquette rule I broke here, but hope its useful to someone!
Attachments
BJCollie
New member
Have you connected your Director to the my.ai site? You must be connected to get updates. After being connected for a time you will get a new option under settings for updates if needed. I would not use IE they are recommending chrome due to page caching at this time. Somewhere on the beta forum the port us was posted, it is not port 80, (from memory it was like 90 or 93). Also once connected to the my.ai site it will set your time for you dependent on your timezone. I have the same problem with lightning, and have been reporting the problem, but they have not responded. In my experience the default channel 1 is prone to interference. I am using channel 2 without issue. Good luck!
Thank you, BJ! I'm running Windows 8, but after reading your post, first tried Firefox - nothing, then Chrome - nothing :-(. I am connected through My.aquaillumination.com, and registered - generally, I have had better luck in making changes stick through that interface AND the iOS app vs connecting directly to the Directors IP or the .local link. It all works the way I want it, so maybe I shouldn't mess with success - but thinking the firmware may be why I've had some of the process connections break, and settings not stick - although now that I reluctantly have Chrome (corporate creature of habit , I'll do all updates through Chrome...once I get the firmware update.
On a side note, while my lights are currently still at night mode, currently 11:30am (and night schedule now reduced to 6% RB only), the random lightning started a flattering across the three Hydras....pretty cool, although I'm sure it spooks the fish a bit in an otherwise dim tank.
More to come...for others' sake, I'll share what I find on the FW update from AI. From others here it just seems to happen when you're at work, so maybe the AI servers don't push updates when their team isn't there...
Also noticed I could only post one pic last night, so above is a pic of the Home Depot mounting brackets I used....standard 2" L brackets connected to make a C- hanger of sorts - that equates to almost 2.5" when they're put together. I think I may change those out to 1.5" brackets sooner, to see if the extra 1"ish lift above the water line has much impact on the darker areas on the sides.
, I'll do all updates through Chrome...once I get the firmware update.On a side note, while my lights are currently still at night mode, currently 11:30am (and night schedule now reduced to 6% RB only), the random lightning started a flattering across the three Hydras....pretty cool, although I'm sure it spooks the fish a bit in an otherwise dim tank.
More to come...for others' sake, I'll share what I find on the FW update from AI. From others here it just seems to happen when you're at work, so maybe the AI servers don't push updates when their team isn't there...
Also noticed I could only post one pic last night, so above is a pic of the Home Depot mounting brackets I used....standard 2" L brackets connected to make a C- hanger of sorts - that equates to almost 2.5" when they're put together. I think I may change those out to 1.5" brackets sooner, to see if the extra 1"ish lift above the water line has much impact on the darker areas on the sides.
Sonicboom
Addicted to salt
Thank you, BJ! I'm running Windows 8, but after reading your post, first tried Firefox - nothing, then Chrome - nothing :-(. I am connected through My.aquaillumination.com, and registered - generally, I have had better luck in making changes stick through that interface AND the iOS app vs connecting directly to the Directors IP or the .local link. It all works the way I want it, so maybe I shouldn't mess with success - but thinking the firmware may be why I've had some of the process connections break, and settings not stick - although now that I reluctantly have Chrome (corporate creature of habit
On a side note, while my lights are currently still at night mode, currently 11:30am (and night schedule now reduced to 6% RB only), the random lightning started a flattering across the three Hydras....pretty cool, although I'm sure it spooks the fish a bit in an otherwise dim tank.
More to come...for others' sake, I'll share what I find on the FW update from AI. From others here it just seems to happen when you're at work, so maybe the AI servers don't push updates when their team isn't there...
Also noticed I could only post one pic last night, so above is a pic of the Home Depot mounting brackets I used....standard 2" L brackets connected to make a C- hanger of sorts - that equates to almost 2.5" when they're put together. I think I may change those out to 1.5" brackets sooner, to see if the extra 1"ish lift above the water line has much impact on the darker areas on the sides.
have you tried double clicking the light inside the layout blueprint? that is how each light can be updated if there is a firmware update, otherwise when you select menu, if it has gone out and checked for an update, there should be an "update light firmware" button. if not i would disconnect it from power to reboot it a few times.
sounds like your lightning kicked on as well.
tannersmith2000
New member
I am selling my Vegas (3 fixtures) and my director. If interested, go here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2357529
jcolley
Member
It occurred to me that a lot of the problems people are having are a result of the little 802 wireless adapter. I'm sure the firmware is written specifically with drivers for that particular WiFi plug alone, but maybe someone brave enough can try a different brand on their Director if they are having problems.
I didn't get in on the "official" beta, but picked up mine from someone who did a few months ago and after a couple of days trying to fiure out the wifi, I gave up and just plugged the Director into my 4 port switch in the entertainment center.
Since connecting straight to Ethernet, I have has absolutely zero problems with it. I don't think I even upgraded the firmware on my Sols or the Director itself until last week because the web interface changed drastically when I did.
For those having quirks, try it on Ethernet to see if it helps. My Director now sits happily next to the DirecTV receiver and the PS3 with the fish room 30' away and I have no connectivity issues with the AI wireless adapters on the Sols.
I will add, that I'm a little confused by the failsafe strategy. We lost power a week ago and for some reason when it returned, the cable modem did not resync by itself. So, the wifi base station started handing out DHCP addresses to all the clients in the house, but did not have a gateway address. Everything thought it was connected to the internet, but was not. The director seemed confused and come of the Sols were on and some were not. I don't know if that's more of a function of the Sol's firmware or the Director, but there needs to be some careful thought by AI about graceful error handling.
I didn't get in on the "official" beta, but picked up mine from someone who did a few months ago and after a couple of days trying to fiure out the wifi, I gave up and just plugged the Director into my 4 port switch in the entertainment center.
Since connecting straight to Ethernet, I have has absolutely zero problems with it. I don't think I even upgraded the firmware on my Sols or the Director itself until last week because the web interface changed drastically when I did.
For those having quirks, try it on Ethernet to see if it helps. My Director now sits happily next to the DirecTV receiver and the PS3 with the fish room 30' away and I have no connectivity issues with the AI wireless adapters on the Sols.
I will add, that I'm a little confused by the failsafe strategy. We lost power a week ago and for some reason when it returned, the cable modem did not resync by itself. So, the wifi base station started handing out DHCP addresses to all the clients in the house, but did not have a gateway address. Everything thought it was connected to the internet, but was not. The director seemed confused and come of the Sols were on and some were not. I don't know if that's more of a function of the Sol's firmware or the Director, but there needs to be some careful thought by AI about graceful error handling.
For anyone still on the old firmware that was updated via pushes from AI - I called AI yesterday, and learned that the tech person was out sick last week, so they shut down the server that does the pushes, just in case there were issues. At some point they switched to user-initiated firmware updates to avoid some of the issues some of you guys noted about being at work and the lights going on or off - I think my firmware version still requires AI to push to me, although I haven't gotten it yet.
owenspackman
New member
My wifi was too unstable, so was the power unit, use another USB cable from my camera and a Blackberry power unit. Now plugged directly into Ethernet connection and it runs like a champ!
Twostepper4041
New member
So I set up the director after the firmware updates yesterday... And the hydra updates.... Worked flawlessly last night
Now, my question....
Storm knocked out my internet this morning .. Since I had the director setup... Will it continue to control my light schedule even though it's not hooked to the internet?
Now, my question....
Storm knocked out my internet this morning .. Since I had the director setup... Will it continue to control my light schedule even though it's not hooked to the internet?
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