sweeeeet!

waverz

Slave to the reef!
I finally got my ACII working wirless using a modded router. Looks like it fixed my ground loop issue, my ph probe is finally working right!
 
Yeah it really was, I did mess up a few times though. Basically I followed the wrong guide to start with, so after I figured that out it was pretty easy. If you can solder you can do it.

Now I am trying to get it working with aquanotes properly. I can get it working from my laptop but getting working from my pc hooked up so a separate router via Ethernet might be a little more tricky.
 
Do you already have the other wireless router?? If not and your laptop hooked up easily, you might consider just getting a wireless USB or PCI adapter for you PC. Then it would hook up the same way as your laptop - client to client ( I am very tired and can not come up with the correct terms tonight ;0)) This way you wouldn't have to get your PC to talk through both routers.
 
I got a used serial cable and the ground isolator to go with the used ACII I'm getting - so hopefully I don't have the ground issue.

I'm actually going to be setting up a "reefserver" cause I didn't even think about seeing if I could just hook it up to a wireless bridge (well I thought about it - but it seemed harder than putting my unused PC within 6 feet of my tank :))

I just need to get a wireless adapter for the PC to connect to the network and I'll be good to go (no router near the tank, and the GF wouldn't like Cat5 running across the living room). I even found a program that installs on my mac and allows me to remotely connect to my windows machine on the network - so I won't even have a monitor/keyboard/mouse in the living room - just a tower hidden somewhere!

How easy is setting up the aquanotes software/ACII so it will email/page you? How about setting it up as a webserver (to allow remote access)?
 
Hi Phil,

Setting up aquanotes is a little tricky because the software was not designed well. You have to go to 2 or 3 setting pages. Remember to set your serial number in Aquanotes. Getting the email to work on alarms is easy though. Setting up as a webserver for outside access will require you have a dedicated IP on the machine with Aquanotes with the ACII. The AC3 has a built in webserver so you put the dedicated IP there. If you don't have a dedicated IP you can use a dynamic IP domain service like no-ip.com.

One of these days I will actually have a website ready that will talk to the ACII. Jeremy is down on the list now though with his fancy wireless setup. That should be able to be accomplished when I get it working for the AC3.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11005368#post11005368 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Philby
I got a used serial cable and the ground isolator to go with the used ACII I'm getting - so hopefully I don't have the ground issue.

I'm actually going to be setting up a "reefserver" cause I didn't even think about seeing if I could just hook it up to a wireless bridge (well I thought about it - but it seemed harder than putting my unused PC within 6 feet of my tank :))

I just need to get a wireless adapter for the PC to connect to the network and I'll be good to go (no router near the tank, and the GF wouldn't like Cat5 running across the living room). I even found a program that installs on my mac and allows me to remotely connect to my windows machine on the network - so I won't even have a monitor/keyboard/mouse in the living room - just a tower hidden somewhere!

How easy is setting up the aquanotes software/ACII so it will email/page you? How about setting it up as a webserver (to allow remote access)?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11005922#post11005922 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jtesdall
Hi Phil,

Setting up aquanotes is a little tricky because the software was not designed well. You have to go to 2 or 3 setting pages. Remember to set your serial number in Aquanotes. Getting the email to work on alarms is easy though. Setting up as a webserver for outside access will require you have a dedicated IP on the machine with Aquanotes with the ACII. The AC3 has a built in webserver so you put the dedicated IP there. If you don't have a dedicated IP you can use a dynamic IP domain service like no-ip.com.

One of these days I will actually have a website ready that will talk to the ACII. Jeremy is down on the list now though with his fancy wireless setup. That should be able to be accomplished when I get it working for the AC3.

By dedicated IP i assume you mean "external"? I'm gonna have a static IP on my network for the reefserver because the remote desktop program works better when you enter the IP - and so I don't want my DHCP switching it up on me and having to find a monitor and keyboard to figure out what the new one is!! I guess I could also figure it out based on the connections to my access point - but my neighbors share my connection, so again more work than I'd like to do...

Maybe it's time to get myself a website for my reef and then I can host it on my reefserver, thus gaining an IP and remote access! Is it OK to host a website with just a mediacom cable connection? or would it be safer/better to pay to have it hosted elsewhere?

I never thought I'd be able to put my technical skills (and learn stuff!) to good use when I was getting into the reefing hobby, but it's pretty fun!
 
I have a hosted webserver. I would think there is a way I can feed the AC2 info to it so I don't have to host a webserver on my own machine.

I guess I'll worry about that when/if I ever get an AC.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11006274#post11006274 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Philby
Is it OK to host a website with just a mediacom cable connection? or would it be safer/better to pay to have it hosted elsewhere?

I'm pretty certain that your Mediacom cable service allows you to host a webpage, without any additional charge. I know this because my neighbor has Mediacom (MCHSI), and when her husband was deployed to Afghanistan 2 years ago she created a web page for him. That way he could log on and upload and download photos from Afghanistan - and keep a daily diary that we could all log on a view.

When I asked her what it cost, she said that Medicacom includes it in their base price (something like a 50MB web page allowance), she just had to read MCHSI's instructions on how to create it. She also said it was really quite easy... and she's not a computer genius... I think she said your MCHSI account allows you to create up to 5 different web sites... the only drawback is, your address will always end in @mchsi.com.... I think her's was something like www.scottinafghanistan@mchsi.com)

Anyhow, hope that helps, and good luck!
 
Phil, By dedicated IP I did mean static IP. If you host the website on your local PC or on Mediacom (or elsewhere) the problem is getting the data to that site. Aquanotes has a built in site that can be accessed on the machine that has aquanotes installed which has the serial connection to the ACII. Since the ACII works with serial and not tcp/ip like the AC3 (which has a built in webserver) something has to be written to get the data and send it to where you need it, like an external hosted website. I am working on this and we have a thread dedicated to this. I just have not had any time in the last month to get it to a test phase even. I have new stuff written that will talk to the ACII. Now I need to write the programming that will send it to a website to display on a customized page. The aquanotes webpage is really just for controlling the ACII or 3 with a browser. If you have a static IP on this machine you will be able to control your ACII from anywhere.

Anyway, to have a fancy website like Tinytool or Coralfreek you need a special program to get the stuff to and from the website.

This could get too lengthy if I continue so ask more questions if needed.

Jeremy, sorry for hijacking the thread. I had bought a used serial isolator and it didn't work. I sent it in to Neptune for repair. If they can't repair it I will try to setup wireless as well.
 
Joel - I'll be more than willing to help you out with testing - and programming logic (I've taken programming, and program occasionally in VBA - but no web stuff) when you get to that point.

where's the thread about it? I'm assuming in the DIY forum?
 
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