Multiple Displays & Rearrange Outlets?

[cm11599ps]

So I have the base unit under my tank with temp, pH and ORP probes and two energy bars. I just installed a third energy bar in my garage along with a PM2 and another display. The PM2 is only reading temp right now since I don't have the other probe. I have a PM1 with another temp probe and one more pH probe coming this week.

I wanted to have the display by my tank show the readings for that tank and the display in the other room to show stats for the probes out there. I setup 2 pages on the display config page to reflect this. The problem is that both screens show the same info. If I change the display page on one unit then the other changes too. They always show the same page. That doesnt' sound right and I hope it's something that I can change.

My next question is that I had 2 EB8's setup and working for the past 2 weeks with all the outlets named. I just installed that 3rd EB8 and it added all the new outlets after the 2nd EB8 with the exception of one. It put outlet #1 for the 3rd EB8 in with my 2nd EB8.

MY reeftronics page shows this better.

http://www.reeftronics.net/chris-m/apex-status

ReturnPump-FugeLight are on EB1

All the powerheads and cooling fan are on EB2

The TOPump - NSWPowerhead are on EB3, but for some reason TOHeat is grouped into the 2nd EB area. Why would it do that and is there a way to correct this?

 

[aquamanic]

I wanted to have the display by my tank show the readings for that tank and the display in the other room to show stats for the probes out there. I setup 2 pages on the display config page to reflect this. The problem is that both screens show the same info. If I change the display page on one unit then the other changes too. They always show the same page. That doesnt' sound right and I hope it's something that I can change.

Look at the top right of the display. See those 4 little boxes? Those represent your status pages, 1 - 4. Using your right or left arrows, select the appropriate status page for that display. It will keep it until it reboots.

 

[cm11599ps]

Look at the top right of the display. See those 4 little boxes? Those represent your status pages, 1 - 4. Using your right or left arrows, select the appropriate status page for that display. It will keep it until it reboots.

There's only one page on my display that has those boxes.

If I change the display by my tank then the display in my garage changes too and vice versa.

 

[aquamanic]

Hmmm. And you do have multiple display pages defined?

 

[swearint]

I wanted to have the display by my tank show the readings for that tank and the display in the other room to show stats for the probes out there. I setup 2 pages on the display config page to reflect this. The problem is that both screens show the same info. If I change the display page on one unit then the other changes too. They always show the same page. That doesnt' sound right and I hope it's something that I can change.

No, to the best of my knowledge that is how it works.

My next question is that I had 2 EB8's setup and working for the past 2 weeks with all the outlets named. I just installed that 3rd EB8 and it added all the new outlets after the 2nd EB8 with the exception of one. It put outlet #1 for the 3rd EB8 in with my 2nd EB8.

You must have had a legacy/virtual outlet that was deleted that created a 'hole' in the outlet ID#s. The Apex 'fills' in available slots when it adds new outlets. I have the same issue. There is no easy fix. If you go to the XML Program report, you will see that each outlet has an ID#. You might be able to delete the last EB8, then create some temporary legacy/virtual outlets to fill in the holes, add the EB8 back, then delete the temporary outlets. That would of course leave new 'holes'.
A more thorough approach would be to remove all but the first EB8, delete all legacy/virtual outlets, and perform an Initialize Outlets. You will lose all the programming and reset the outlets to factory defaults. Then add the other EB8s one at a time. This should create all the EB8 outlets without any 'holes'. Also, you can't use the Save Config feature either, that will just return it to the way it is currently. So you would have to cut and paste your programming into a text file and reverse the process once all the outlets have been re-created.

I have not yet attempted this due to the complexity, but that is the basic approach as explained by Curt. I am holding out that maybe either Curt or one of the code jockies here will come up with a utility to alter the ID#s.

Todd

 

[cm11599ps]

So you're saying that both displays will have the same info and there's no way to have each display different things? That seems really silly and I hope it's something that can addressed if so.

I really haven't programmed anything yet so redoing things isn't a problem. I'll have to take a look into that tonight.

 

[swearint]

So you're saying that both displays will have the same info and there's no way to have each display different things? That seems really silly and I hope it's something that can addressed if so.

I would assume so, it's just software right?

Todd

 

[cm11599ps]

Hmmm. And you do have multiple display pages defined?

Yep. Disp_1 & Disp_2

 

[cm11599ps]

No, to the best of my knowledge that is how it works.


You must have had a legacy/virtual outlet that was deleted that created a 'hole' in the outlet ID#s. The Apex 'fills' in available slots when it adds new outlets. I have the same issue. There is no easy fix. If you go to the XML Program report, you will see that each outlet has an ID#. You might be able to delete the last EB8, then create some temporary legacy/virtual outlets to fill in the holes, add the EB8 back, then delete the temporary outlets. That would of course leave new 'holes'.
A more thorough approach would be to remove all but the first EB8, delete all legacy/virtual outlets, and perform an Initialize Outlets. You will lose all the programming and reset the outlets to factory defaults. Then add the other EB8s one at a time. This should create all the EB8 outlets without any 'holes'. Also, you can't use the Save Config feature either, that will just return it to the way it is currently. So you would have to cut and paste your programming into a text file and reverse the process once all the outlets have been re-created.

I have not yet attempted this due to the complexity, but that is the basic approach as explained by Curt. I am holding out that maybe either Curt or one of the code jockies here will come up with a utility to alter the ID#s.

Todd

What might happen if I just delete the 2nd and 3rd EB and then reinstall them?

 

[swearint]

I can't say for sure, since I have not attempted it yet myself. Theoretically, if the first EB8 is the only one and all other outlets have been deleted it should work. Had you ever created any legacy/virtual outlets? I counted 18 outlets on your Reeftronics page, shouldn't there be 24? Does it allow you to choose which outlets are displayed?

Todd

 

[cm11599ps]

I can't say for sure, since I have not attempted it yet myself. Theoretically, if the first EB8 is the only one and all other outlets have been deleted it should work. Had you ever created any legacy/virtual outlets? I counted 18 outlets on your Reeftronics page, shouldn't there be 24? Does it allow you to choose which outlets are displayed?

Todd

Being new to this, I'd have to say I haven't created any of those outlets. Maybe I did something while playing around. Who knows.

I do have 24 outlets but a few are not used. If you names those outlets "unused*" then they will not appear on reef tronics.

I'll see if anyone else can confirm things but if not then I'll look into deleting the modules and adding them back. There's really no complex programming on any outlets so I have no problem starting over.

 

[RussM]

Todd, I've built a mechanism into Reeftronics to hide empty outlets from the real-time status pages for Neptune controllers. If an outlet is named as anything starting with "Unused" (i.e. "Unused_3_6"), that outlet will be hidden. cm11599ps has leveraged that feature, which is why the outlet count seems off.

 

[cm11599ps]

I emailed Curt over the weekend and got all my questions answered.

"Yes, all displays connected to the system respond together in the current
firmware. Updating the firmware to display different information on each of
the displays is on the wish list, however, there is only 1 other request for
the feature so it is currently very low priority.
When an EB8 is added to the system Outlets are inserted into free/open
holes in the outlet configuration file. If the file has been fragmented
previously by manually adding and deleting outlets and then you add an EB8
you would get the outlet list as you describe. You can do an init outlets
and then when they added back to the system they will all be grouped
together."


So if you guys can all email Curt and tell him to add multiple display support it would be wonderful. lol It just makes sense to do so, especially if you have multiple tanks. If you have multiple tanks then you should be able to place a display unit at each tank (which you can do now) but each display should show the stats for the tank it's on. It just makes sense.

 

[cm11599ps]

So I unplugged my 2nd and 3rd EB's and did the "init outlet" option this evening. Once I was powered up again I plugged in the EB's in the order that I wanted and they all came online and the outlets were in the correct order.

The only downside is that I had to rename each outlet again but it wasn't too bad since I put a piece of tape on each plug labeling what it was for when I set the APEX up a few weeks back. I also lost my programming but I really didn't have much anyway so no big deal there.

I'm glad to see everything back where it belongs! lol Now I just have to get Neptune to allow a different status screen on each display if you have more than one display!