Hex Tank Build

[n2585722]

I don't think I got around to the Sicce pump I got and setting it up on the Hydros yet. I am also powering it with a force port on my Kraken instead of using the Sicce Power supply. So I had to setup a power output for it also. I will go over that first. I have a coupe of screenshots of the settings. The app and firmware was updated recently and now there is the added category called family so the like outputs can be grouped together. This uses the generic output type and that is in the advanced family so you would select advanced for the family and then select generic for the output type. It has 2 inputs for control. One is a leak detector and the active when is set to dry. So since I used the AND combiner mode both inputs have to be in active mode for the output to turn on. The other input is the sump low sensor. This ones active mode is set to wet since when it is dry the water level is too low and we want the pump off. The internal schedule is not used on this output, The output device is force port 1 on the Kraken controller. The power safe range is set from 7.1 to 30 watts. I used to use schedules and had one for dropping the speed when it went into feed mode but I now do it differently and do not change the return for feed mode but the power range is still set so I could still do that without an alert. The pump runs normally at around 24 watts. If the wattage gets out of the set range an orange alert is sent. I either input is not available the output is setup to turn off. I have the output set to be active in all modes except low power. The Sicce pumps will not run on 12v and the force ports will output 12v insead of 24v when in low power mode so I just make it inactice. The Sicce replaced a AC pump and it was not powered when there was no power anyway so it is no different now that it has been for years. There is no depends on setting on this output. I will continue with the setup of a Sicce pump in Hydros after the screenshots for the Sicce power output.

Now for setting up a Sicce SDC pump in Hydros It is considered a third party device in Hydros and that part needs to be setup first before the output for the pump is setup. Below is a screenshot showing the 3rd Party Devs category on the status screen. Click on the three dots on the right side of the screen across from the heading and then select add third party device. A popup will come up like the one in the second screenshot below. Since I already had mine setup I used a different name to get the screenshot. You would enter the name and then click create. That would bring up the next screenshots below. You would choose the family variable pumps and the the type of Sicce pump. That will bring up the last screenshot for this section below. The last entry is the Sicce key which you have to get from the Sicce app for the particular pump so the Hydros can communicate with the Sicce cloud and command that pump. The next section the output settings will be after the screenshots for this section.

Now to the return output setup. The first screenshot below are the settings for the Sicce output. The family s variable pumps and the type is Sicce pump. The output device is the one created earlier in the above section. Since I am using this for a return pump I set it to runs constantly and set the speed to 95%. I did not change the active in modes settings here. To control the output on and off in the runs constantly mode you use the depends on settings which here are set to the original return output that was originally used by the AC return pump since I had already setup everything on it. I will also post it but all I did was set the output device to none on it. The dependency mode is set to off if off. That is it for this outputs settings. Now to the original return output settings. This one uses return pump for family setting. The leak input is set to the leak detector at the tank. The output device is set to none. In active in mode the only mode not selected is low power and is uncheck since the power will be removed from the pump if in low power mode so it does not need to be on here either although either one would stop the pump. Depends on is unused on this output. That is about it for my setup using a Sicce SDC pump for a return pump.

 

[n2585722]

A new app and firmware was released recently for the Hydros controllers. A way to access the controllers without having any internet access was added by adding an emergency login that is local only and does not require internet access. It has to be enabled in the options though. Below is screenshot of the emergency mode turned on and another to setup a password for this.

Below are some screenshot using the app to access the controllers in emergency mode. In this mode there are no pages so all inputs and outputs are on the same page. You cannot make changes to the settings, but you can select a different mode or override outputs from between off, auto or on. It uses bluetooth to communicate this way. The screenshots were from my iPad which has no way of communicating with the Hydros cloud if there is no internet. Also notice the Sicce pump Icon is red since it also requires the internet to communicate with the Sicce cloud. The output tiles that are gray are off and the ones with blue or green highlight are on. The ones that are orange are either in override or there is some other setup that has it forced on or off. The inputs that show unconfigured or none also require internet since those values are from the cloud. The ones that show none or manually added values. The ones that are unconfigured are from the automatic testing i the iV or KH Carer. All the normal probes and sensors will show their current values. I thought this was a neat new addition. Before I had to use my phone with wifi turned off so it would access the internet using the mobile service then enter bluetooth mode to access the controllers so I could login to the cloud. The new way requires no cloud login but you still have to enter the emergency mode password to gain access.

 

[n2585722]

I got a Hydros controller as a gift so I had to start checking it out. It is thr Launch. So far it is just sitting on my workbench in the garage but I did hook some things up to it to check it out. I have a pH probe, salinity probe and temp probe hooked to it. I have those in my mix tank in the garage. I am thinking up putting it out there so I will have a way of checking the salinity in that tank. I am using an old salinity probe I had for my Digital Aquatics controller so I am not sure how good it will be but ai can use it to check things out until I can get a new one to replace it with unless it appears to workout. I also setup a input for a water level sensor but that is just relay contacts with the relay driven off of one of the drive ports on a controller that is in the collective where the actual water level sensor is connected. It is the full sensor on the mix tank where all the inputs are that are on the Launch. I created 2 outputs also on it one for powering a heater from one of thr AC outlet and the other is a virtual output that is use to turn off the heater output if the full sensor goes dry. The heater is only a 25 watt heater I had so it would not do a lot in the mix tank sine it is a 20 gallon Brute can in the garage which can get get quite low in temp at night. It is 86 out there this afternoon but was down to 63.3 last night so even with the heater on all night the temp did drop in the mix tank last night. I don't normally have a heater in the tank but this give the controller something to control. Below is a screenshot of the main and the graphs pages I have setup on the controller.I am not going to do a lot on it until I decide where to mount in on the controller board. Once I add it to the collective all the inputs and outputs I have setup will be erased anyway.

Now to the input screenshots. The first one is for the temp sensor on a sense port. So it is the sense port type and the port is sense port 1. The sense mode is temperature probe. I set the save temp range quite wide since this is out in the garage and it can get quite cold in the winter and quite hot in the summer out there. The notification level is set to yellow so if it get out of the range set ai will get an alert for it. The second input is the salinity input, The type is probe port and I have the salinity port selected. That means the probe mode is salinity. The K factor of the probe I have hooked to the port is 1. The one from CoralVue for the Hydros is K factor 10 probes. On this one I set the safe range from 34-36. I don't have a notification level set for this input since it would be out of that range unless I have added enough salt mix to get it in range. The salinity port has 2 calibration points at 28 ppt and 35 ppt. I have calibrated it a couple of times so far. The next screenshot s the pH input. The type is probe port and probe port one is selected and mode is pH. The safe range is set wide since it will be off when it is drained and refilled with DI water. I also used one of my older pH probes for this. I set temp compensation to the temp input. I didn't do that on the salinity since it does not seem to work with the probe I have hooked up. It throws the reading way off. It could be something about that particular probe.I do use it on the inputs for salinity in the tank and iV and it seems to work with those probes. The last input is the mix full water level input. It is type sense port and is sense port 2. The sense mode is float water level which is normally a float switch but this is connected to the switch points of a realy. The relay is energized by a drive port from one of the controllers in the collective where the actual water level float switch is connected but there is no difference in the settings other than the port used. I have no notification level set on this input.

Now the two outputs I have setup. The first two screenshot are of the heater output I setup. So it is family type temperature controls. The type is heater. I have the turn on set point set to 77.5. Once the temp gets below this point the output will turn on. It will stay until it gets above the next setting the turn off set point. So between the two it can be either on or off depending on which set point was crossed last or if the power were to be removed from the controller it would be off. Temperature input one is set to the temp input I created earlier. I do not have a temperature 2 input selected since I only have the one temp input setup. I could use another temp sensor and setup another temp input and use both here. I do have my heaters in the tank setup with two temperature inputs since I have two temp sensors setup in the sump. That gives some redundancy in case there is an issue with one. I also have them on different controllers also. The output device is set to AC outlet 1. The input dependency is set to off. If for some reason the temp input becomes un available the output will go into that state which is set to off. The depends on is set to the other output which I will get to next. The dependency mode is set to off if on. So if the other output is on the heater will go off if on or will not come on if off. The second output is the mix not full. It uses family advanced. The type is generic. This is the output type you use if there is no output type already setup in the system such as the one already used which was heater. The other one would be combiner type but the difference is the combiner uses other outputs as inputs instead of inputs. You can have up to 9 inputs setup to control the generic output but this one only has one the water level input. It is set to active when dry. That would mean when the water level is below the float switch. Active in this case means the output will be on if there are no other inputs or depends on or a schedule stopping it from coming on. You can setup a schedule in the generic output also if you need it. For this it does not need a schedule. The output device is set to none since we are not directly controlling an output device with this. It is just for the logic and used to control another output that is setup. i did not setup the if input unavailable since I was just setting it up temporarily but in this case you would probably set it up to turn on if the input became unavailable so that the actual output the heater would default to off. The depends on was not used here. That is about it for my checking out the new controller for now. I am thinking about removing my X4 from the control board and adding the Launch in it's place in the garage. I would then mount the the X4 to the control board next to the tank. The major issue there is the X4 controls the light intensity at the tank from the garage. So I will have to figure out a way to switch it with the least down time for the lights and the collective as well.