Moon syncronized tides & auto feed

[mahogue]

Two questions:

Q1: Can I use the Moon timer to simulate a simple tide current with powerheads? Say I have two DC8 controlled powerheads on A01 and A02. Even though the manual says "The control module used to control the light source for the Moon cycle must be a lamp module so that the light intensity can be varied.", I read a thread that implied that Moon controlling a DC8 port would just make it turn on/off.

TP1-A01 ;Tide pump on left side of tank
TP2-A02 ;Tide pump on right side of tank

If Moon 180/-180 Then TP1 ON ;Tide current to right side of tank
If Moon 900/540 Then TP2 ON ;Tide current to left side of tank

The current flows to the right between 3 hrs after moonrise to 3 hrs before moonset, and to the left 15 hours after moonrise to 9 hours after moonset. Both TP1 and TP2 would be on for 6 hrs, then off for 18 but opposite of each other by about 12 hours. It would change by 50 min each day.

Is that correct?


Q2: Can I command a feed cycle at a specific time each day? Like with the tide current pumps above, I might not know when each pump is on or off during the day. So I can not just do programmed feed cycles by individually turning each pump off then back on five minutes later. Doing this may turn a pump on that was off and should not be on at that time. It would be easiest to initiate a feed cycle with the Time timer. If I understand it correctly the feed cycle knows the state of the devices and forces them into a state you program, and returns them to the "normal" state they were in before they were forced.

If Time > 06:00 Then FeedA

If that does not work, can I send a telnet command to initiate a feed cycle?

 

[Deleted member 143833]

Q1: I belive that you are correct; a 'MOON' statement would turn on/off a DC8 port at the correct time and you could use offsets as you show below. The issue I think you will have is with the range of the offset values; you are limited to -128 to 127. You could still do this using 'If Time' statements, but the tide wouldn't follow the moon cycle and would be the same time and duration every day

Q2: There is currently no way to trigger a feed cycle using program statements. You can do it using telnet (assuming that AquaNotes is not running) or you could send HTTP-Post commands to turn things on/off as appropriate.

 

[mahogue]

OK how about this: The manual says in regards to the OSC command “The only tricky part about the above code is that the ON or OFF value following the timer name (PM1% or PM2%) determines what the initial condition of the pumps will be at power on.“ This implies that timers controlled by the OSC command use the power “clock” for initializing the timer. Can I use the Moon clock as the initial condition instead of the Power clock?


If Moon 120/000 Then TP1 ON ;Initialize the TP1 timer on state to start counting from 2 hrs after moonrise. The next moon cycle will reset the counter to start about 50 min later.

OSC 120/600 ON/OFF Then TP1 ON ;Oscillate incoming tide current on for 2 hrs starting when the TP1 timer was initialized, then off for 10 hrs.

If Moon 120/000 Then TP2 OFF ;Initialize the TP2 off timer state to start counting from 2 hrs after moonrise.

OSC 600/120 OFF/ON Then TP2 OFF ;Oscillate outgoing tide current off for 10 hrs starting when the TP2 timer was initialized, then on for 2 hrs.


I also read the sun contributes 46% of the tidal current. So a better tidal current system would also include Sun driven tide pumps, but weaker than the Moon driven pumps. For example the Moon pumps could be MaxiJet 900s and the Sun pumps could be MaxiJet 400s (TP3 and TP4).

If Sun 120/000 Then TP3 ON ;Initialize the TP3 timer on state to start counting from 2 hrs after sunrise. The next sun cycle will reset the counter to start a few seconds earlier or later depending on the season.

OSC 120/600 ON/OFF Then TP3 ON ;Oscillate incoming tide current on for 2 hrs starting when the TP3 timer was initialized, then off for 10 hrs.

If Sun 120/000 Then TP4 OFF ;Initialize the TP4 off timer state to start counting from 2 hrs after sunrise.

OSC 600/120 OFF/ON Then TP4 OFF ;Oscillate outgoing tide current off for 10 hrs starting when the TP4 timer was initialized, then on for 2 hrs.

 

[Deleted member 143833]

There would still be an issue with the OSC; it is limited to a max value of 255.

The OSC commands initialize at program 'run' (when the 'run' or 'reset' menu of when you change the program using AquaNotes or the web interface).