The official WP40 running on controller thread.

[octopus737]

Gotta love that thread. Gonna search it again. Finally got an arduino in hand now. Im a total noob at this thing

 

[octopus737]

I dont wanna give up but i cant make sense of any of it.

 

[frogg21]

duino

duino

pay attn to the ground wire if your trying to dim from arduino.. How come you don't want to dim from the Apex?

 

[Noslen34]

Yes, check out the big Wp40 thread. I know at least one guy posted pics, code, the parts, and a video using Arduino.

I too have an apex, I think the cable that the guys at Reef Angel cam up with is the best bet for us apex owners.

I know this schematic looks simple for a lot of you guys, but it is way over my head. haha

I need a plug and play cable. Would that cable help us use our apex to control what WP40 has to offer? Is it even a plug and play thing?

 

[barry_keith]

I know this schematic looks simple for a lot of you guys, but it is way over my head. haha

I need a plug and play cable. Would that cable help us use our apex to control what WP40 has to offer? Is it even a plug and play thing?

The cable is plug play. Some people have modded the reef angel cable so that they can still use the stock wp40 controller as well as their apex.

Check out reef angles site for more info.

 

[Dapg8gt]

Picking up my reef angel tomorrow with the cables. If anybody needs some close up pics of the cables without me slicing into them let me know. Doubt that will help but thought I would offer.

 

[Noslen34]

Picking up my reef angel tomorrow with the cables. If anybody needs some close up pics of the cables without me slicing into them let me know. Doubt that will help but thought I would offer.

Yes please do.

If you can, can you please list the things you can do with the RA cable. I'm a total noob. I still have my Apex sitting in it's box at the moment. haha

 

[octopus737]

Ok from what i understand apex min and max are for on and off modes. Thats what it does for me. Not a ramping type. Would you share your profile so i can see how you have it set?

pay attn to the ground wire if your trying to dim from arduino.. How come you don't want to dim from the Apex?

 

[artkwan]

Nice. Tagging along here.

 

[frogg21]

Apex Jebao control

Apex Jebao control

Ok from what i understand apex min and max are for on and off modes. Thats what it does for me. Not a ramping type. Would you share your profile so i can see how you have it set?

I wish I had some wp60's to experiment with, I do control my pwm diy LEDS (acronym overload) from Apex so i do know they have ramping ability, their software just doesn't facilitate it for non vortech pumps. (correct me if I'm wrong!) octopus737, now that I look at the Apex software you may very well be right, the 'pump' profile only controls duration of 100% pulses, it does not give us ramp/wave options we need. Can we use the Vortech profiles? Guys already doing this, please chime in about what is possible for functions of these pumps through the Apex. We need 0 through 100% control for this 10v analog signal, not 0 or 100. We also need to be able to time the pulses if the pumps with a finer tuning than 'divide by 10' to get the best wave going.

If we really don't have any options to do this, score a big one for ReefAngel.

 

[octopus737]

Well put. Thats why i want to set up an arduino controller. Thinking about selling my apex and getting a reef angel.

I wish I had some wp60's to experiment with, I do control my pwm diy LEDS (acronym overload) from Apex so i do know they have ramping ability, their software just doesn't facilitate it for non vortech pumps. (correct me if I'm wrong!) octopus737, now that I look at the Apex software you may very well be right, the 'pump' profile only controls duration of 100% pulses, it does not give us ramp/wave options we need. Can we use the Vortech profiles? Guys already doing this, please chime in about what is possible for functions of these pumps through the Apex. We need 0 through 100% control for this 10v analog signal, not 0 or 100. We also need to be able to time the pulses if the pumps with a finer tuning than 'divide by 10' to get the best wave going.

If we really don't have any options to do this, score a big one for ReefAngel.

 

[fairladyZ]

google search "jebao wp40 apex controller" and you should get a thread on manhattanreefs from a former member from here that has instructions on how to hook it up and also control it. believe he ended up running his at 70%. I would link the thread but i dunno if it's a nono since the member is no longer here and from another forum. But the whole thread on that site is useful and has alot of knowledge

 

[octopus737]

Been there read that. Apex will only allow switching between 2 which are your min and max. Max=on time and Min=off time. Divide by 10 is not very useful. Maybe for wave timing it is. What apex needs to have is similar to vortech controlling. Such as multiple modes that are not crude switching of rpm speeds. Use this as a true variable speed pump.

 

[fairladyZ]

i'm not 100% sure i follow. So you want the pump to change speeds at random so like 50%-100%-75%-90%? or switch from like a wave mode to a reef mode?
I'm still new to all this and i'm currently debating on which pump to get to run with my apex, Jebao, Tunze 6095, or mp40

 

[Dapg8gt]

I think It's the ramping that is desired. And the way the profiles are written to maximize the potential for randomness and smooth flow.

Could be wrong though.

 

[slief]

Been there read that. Apex will only allow switching between 2 which are your min and max. Max=on time and Min=off time. Divide by 10 is not very useful. Maybe for wave timing it is. What apex needs to have is similar to vortech controlling. Such as multiple modes that are not crude switching of rpm speeds. Use this as a true variable speed pump.

I 'think' you are mistaken. While I could be wrong, from what I have read, the Apex VDM module allows ramping of LED's as well as pumps from 0-10V. I assume that you could ramp from 0-5 on the WP-40's or use the resistors as noted earlier in this thread to give 10 points of control with a 5V output. I am assuming the VDM module functions a bit different in that regards than the variable speed ports on the Apex brain.

See VDM manual below which includes programming examples for ramping pumps up and down. You would use the same kind of programming that you would for dimming LED's. See page 4 in the link below.

http://www.neptunesystems.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/VDM_manual.pdf

Not sure how this will work with these WP-40's but if nothing else, I would be curious to know even though I have Tunze's controlled by my Apex which I love. From what I gather after reading this thread and the VDM module manual, I see no reason why you couldn't use the Apex to ramp these pumps up or down.

I get some great waves in my 480G display using two 6205's and one 6105 and have programmed in several profiles for different times of day/night as well as profiles to stir the tank up in order to kick up detritus. My Tunze's are currently running off the Apex brain's VS ports without ramping of my pumps at this point since I don't have the VDM module. This thread has me thinking a VDM module could be in my future though.

 

[frogg21]

control

control

Yes, I think that manhattanreefs link shows the hardware side, but we're trying to get the software side figured out.

I haven't yet seen anything that the VDM will do that the variable speed ports on the brain won't do.
I'm sure we can do different kinds of ramps, no different than LEDs, but we don't have the ability to select or create any kinds of pump profiles..

Has anyone got a decent wave going using 'divide by 10'? I've heard that its too rough of a timing measurement to get the pulses in the sweet spot for a wave.

Has anyone tried making a profile of type vortech, then assigning it to a variable speed outlet with a wp pump on it? I did it in software but don't have a wp yet.

 

[jdezek]

Does anyone have 2 on a tank working opposite of each other? I just ordered one for my 210 gal tank if I like it I might get another to put on the other end of my tank as long as the work with each other and not against.

 

[slief]

Yes, I think that manhattanreefs link shows the hardware side, but we're trying to get the software side figured out.

I haven't yet seen anything that the VDM will do that the variable speed ports on the brain won't do.
I'm sure we can do different kinds of ramps, no different than LEDs, but we don't have the ability to select or create any kinds of pump profiles..

Has anyone got a decent wave going using 'divide by 10'? I've heard that its too rough of a timing measurement to get the pulses in the sweet spot for a wave.

Has anyone tried making a profile of type vortech, then assigning it to a variable speed outlet with a wp pump on it? I did it in software but don't have a wp yet.

I use divide for 10 or my Tunze generated waves which I am sure would provide similar results with the WP-40's. I needed the really short on/off intervals to get a good measurable wave going in my tank which is 8' long x 4' wide and 2' tall. The pumps all face one direction as opposed to facing eachother. To get a decent wave going I run the pumps in a pulse on/off. That gets me a 2" wave at the end of my tank and results in a great current everywhere in the water column.

I shared this over a year ago in the RC Neptune section here but I figured this programming would be well suited here as it might give you guys some programming ideas. This is a cut and paste of several posts from my programming which I consolidated for simplicity. It’s fairly complex and most of my thinking is explained below.

My original RC thread can be seen here where there is plenty of Q&A..
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1994312

I have a pair of 6205's and one 6105. Initially I fired them up with the Tunze 7096 controller to get a feel for what pattern worked best for my tank in order to get a wave motion. Once I figured that out and found the 7096 to not be flexible enough, I ditched it.

My tank is 4' wide x 8' long and 2’ tall for a total of 480G plus the sump. Currently I have 2 6205's at one end of the tank and a 6105 in the center left side on the central overflow.

My idea was to have a decent wave current during the light on period. Lights start to come on at 11AM and turn off at 7:30PM I was able to get a pretty decent pulse that reaches the far end of the tank and makes all my corals dance so I created a profile of Wave1.

Prior to light and light off on I wanted to slow things down in prep for night mode so I created a profile called DuskDawn. Its similar to Wave1 but lesspower at a max of 70%.

I wanted to create an intermittent current that changed things up over the course of the day. I created a flush cycle on a timer since which was the easiest way to do it. I created Lt_Flush and Rt_Flush. Lt_Flush1 is for 1 of the 6205's and the 6105 pumps and RT_Flush is used by the other 6205. This allows for the pumps flow to alternate back and forth during the flush cycle. I probably could have used Synchronize enable to do the same thing using one profile instead of 2 but this gives me a bit more control should I need it or want to manually kick things up on one side of the tank or the other. The flush cycle turns on via a timer which is covered below.

On to my programming

Pump Profiles:

Wave1 (This is my main daylight wave pattern)

Synchronize Enabled
Divide by 10 Enabled
Initial off time (Seconds) 0
On time (Seconds) 7
Off time (Seconds) 4
Minimum intensity 0
Maximum intensity 100

Wave2 (Similar pattern to the above but Sync is disabled which creates abit more chaos)

Synchronize Disabled
Divide by 10 Enabled
Initial off time (Seconds) 0
On time (Seconds) 7
Off time (Seconds) 4
Minimum intensity 0
Maximum intensity 100

Lt_Flush (This is for the left side 6205 and 6105 flush)

Synchronize Disabled
Divide by 10 Disabled
Initial off time (Seconds) 0
On time (Seconds) 30
Off time (Seconds) 30
Minimum intensity 0
Maximum intensity 90


Rt_Flush (Rt 6205 alternate interval of LT_Flush alternates one on while the other is off)

Synchronize Disabled
Divide by 10 Disabled
Initial off time (Seconds) 30
On time (Seconds) 30
Off time (Seconds) 30
Minimum intensity 0
Maximum intensity 90

DuskDawn (This is a lower flow wave pattern used intermittently during the light hours as well as before and after lights go out)

Synchronize Enabled
Divide by 10 Enabled
Initial off time (Seconds) 0
On time (Seconds) 7
Off time (Seconds) 4
Minimum intensity 0
Maximum intensity 30

Night (Sets a constant 30% flow during light off hours)

Synchronize Disabled
Divide by 10 Disabled
Initial off time (Seconds) 0
On time (Seconds) 10
Off time (Seconds) 15
Minimum intensity 30
Maximum intensity 30


Virtual Outlets:

I am up to 3 timers. My use for the timers is to create short random periods of different flow during daylight hours.

Timer1 (turns on every 120 minutes for 10 minutes. If timer 2 is on at that time, it should remain off)

OSC 120:00/010:00/000:00 Then ON
If Outlet Timer2 = ON Then OFF
If Time 19:30 to 11:30 Then OFF
If FeedA 000 Then OFF

Timer2 (turns on every 45 minutes for 15 minutes except if timer 3 is on)

OSC 045:00/015:00/000:00 Then ON
If Outlet Timer3 = ON Then OFF
If Time 19:30 to 11:30 Then OFF
If FeedA 000 Then OFF

Timer3 (turn on every 15 minutes for 5 minutes except if timer 1 is on)

OSC 015:00/005:00/000:00 Then ON
If Outlet Timer1 = ON Then OFF
If Time 19:30 to 11:30 Then OFF
If FeedA 000 Then OFF

My Variable speed pumps and their programming:

StreamLt
Set Wave1
If Time 10:30 to 11:59 Then duskdawn
If Time 12:00 to 19:00 Then Wave1
If Time 19:01 to 20:00 Then duskdawn
If Time 20:01 to 10:29 Then Night
If Outlet Timer1 = ON Then Lt_Flush
If Outlet Timer2 = ON Then duskdawn
If Outlet Timer3 = ON Then Wave2
If FeedA 000 Then OFF


StreamRt

Set Wave1
If Time 10:30 to 11:59 Then duskdawn
If Time 12:00 to 19:00 Then Wave1
If Time 19:01 to 20:00 Then duskdawn
If Time 20:01 to 10:29 Then Night
If Outlet Timer1 = ON Then Rt_Flush
If Outlet Timer2 = ON Then duskdawn
If Outlet Timer3 = ON Then Wave2
If FeedA 000 Then OFF

Stream_Over
Set Wave1
If Time 10:30 to 11:59 Then duskdawn
If Time 12:00 to 19:00 Then Wave1
If Time 19:01 to 20:00 Then duskdawn
If Time 20:01 to 10:29 Then Night
If Outlet Timer1 = ON Then Lt_Flush
If Outlet Timer2 = ON Then duskdawn
If Outlet Timer3 = ON Then Wave2
If FeedA 000 Then OFF

With it programmed the way it currently is, from 10:30 to 11:59AM, it has duskdawn flow.
From 12:00PM to 7PM, it should has Wave1 flow but every 45 minutes it will run in duskdawn flow mode for 15 minutes and every 120 minutes it should go into flush mode for 10 minutes.
From 7PM to 8PM its back to dawndusk flow mode and from 8PM to 10:30AM its in night flow mode.

The timers kick off at various points during the hours the lights are on to create short time periods of different flow/current.

 

[slief]

Here are a couple clips of the wave motion generated by my programming above. Don't discount the usefulness of divide by 10. Without it, I would have had decent flow but not the wave motion I have now given the layout of my pumps.

<object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7h3hEqeT-Z8?hl=en_US&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7h3hEqeT-Z8?hl=en_US&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>


In this clip you can see the height of the wave generated in the center and at the end of an 8' tank.

<object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_quwCeEWW_Q?hl=en_US&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_quwCeEWW_Q?hl=en_US&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>