Tunze controller

[unze]

This looks good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxY4Vk4Cwn4

Can it control non Tunze equipment?
send alarms for say low water level or power outage?
Water level sensor?

 

[Darryl Hey]

yes !!!!!!!
and it isn't a "new lets puke on our customers Apex"
Thank God i didn't by the Gold 3 weeks ago when they dropped the price had a suspicion the company was going to make everything obsolete
TUNZE BABY!!!!!!!

 

[rvitko]

It has 4 ports which can each control a pump, a switched socket and a LED. The pumps and LED's would have to be Tunze, it is theoretically possible to connect other 0-10V DC control items but it would be complicated DIY and their is a risk of damage as the 3 in 1 cabling system is very intricate and precise to avoid backfeeding of voltage to other units in the line. The switched sockets can switch anything up to 900W at 115V or 1800W at 230V. It has no level control system, we intend to keep level control separate. It cannot send alarms, however it can be set up as WAN and contacted remotely by web browser to check pH, temp, light and pump function, this would require a static IP and some knowledge of networking but it is a feature that is easily accessed on the web interface. At this time the accessories will be a solenoid and switched sockets and they are fairly priced, sockets will be $70 and have a US plug (no plug adapters) and the CO2 solenoid will be $70 including CO2 tubing and check valve. We do intend to allow Redox control as well. The temp control only requires a switched socket and you can use two so you can set a tight range and switch between a chiller and heater. With the switched sockets you can switch anything you want with a built in timer function or based on pH or Temp or soon Redox (you will only be able to do Redox or pH, not both).

 

[unze]

It is a pity that so many features are missing. Hobbyist buy controllers so that they can get alarms if they have issues with the tank.
Level control is one of the most important features needed as this is the main thing I get alarms for on my current controller.

 

[rvitko]

We thought about these features and to some extent we have the ability to add them with firmware. We intend to keep the Osmolator separate, almost every hobbyist needs a top off and not every hobbyist needs or wants a controller, so keeping these as separate units made the most sense to keep costs down for the parts people want, in the future an integration for monitoring may be possible.

Our thinking on notifications was that it is generally cheap to simply buy an internet viewable camera and if someone was so inclined they can look at the tank or the controllers this way. I personally struggle to understand why this is so useful, it would be better not to know, tank ruined vs tank and vacation ruined. If you can't intervene, not much you can do and not all of us have a friend we would trust with our house and keys who is also close by and knows reef tanks well enough to do something. There is always Murphy's law and the failure may well be the controller itself.

It is not a do it all ultimate controller and was never intended to be, the goal was simplicity and a fair price and the ability to manage what is really required. I won't disagree that many controllers can do more, but not for under $350 with a simple menu of settings and no programming language it is not a bad option and if you are more technically inclined the ability to log into it remotely and check temp and pH exists and this would give a very good idea of tank status.

 

[unze]

Sure i understand about keeping cost down and making it simple,
Will be interesting what others think.

Would the cost really be much more to add level control or alarm monitoring?
If you did it as add on then basic unit would still be cheap and you would also open it up to a bigger market than just tunze users so you would increase your market share.

These days people are so busy and dont have time to check video cameras or login to check parameters, so much more convienent to get a alarm notice.
Even if you dont have a friend to check tank then you could log in and turn things off that might save you tank which i have done many times.

 

[rvitko]

We will consider this input for the future, we are limited by the ports and physical design, but many things can be done by firmware updates and we have the staff now to engineer such a product and it will eventually be time for a new model with more features. For us, the ATO is one of our hallmark products, we were the first to ever market such a product and invest a lot in R&D in this area. For that reason, we want an elegant solution and not a simple float switch, something with a lot of safety. We need a new ATO and then we can consider integration of it as a module, this is our next project but we have a high bar for what we want in the next Osmolator.

 

[z34fiend]

Dang I was kind of excited at first when I heard tunze was making a controller. The lack of features diminished my enthusiasm. I have a osmolator and it works perfect so that's a non issue but the alarms are a biggie for me

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[shifty51008]

I personally struggle to understand why this is so useful, it would be better not to know, tank ruined vs tank and vacation ruined. If you can't intervene, not much you can do and not all of us have a friend we would trust with our house and keys who is also close by and knows reef tanks well enough to do something. There is always Murphy's law and the failure may well be the controller itself.

I couldn't agree more with this. while a full tank controller can be nice I would really rather have most stuff separate with their own backups. electronic's fail, and to have my tank hooked up to 1 controller that if ever failed kills the tank. with things separated at least if 1 thing fails it most likely isn't gonna wipe out my tank. yes I know I'm old school and controllers failing is prob. rare but I still wouldn't take the chance. now to use it only to monitor is a diff story.

 

[rvitko]

We will see, updates are possible and will be done, unlike our previous attempts at computer interfaces, we now have an engineer in house who can also program and he is pretty smart. The 7000 has a simple box you drag an update file into on the screen and it gets an update. From discussion with him, his primary concern is security, I was somewhat unaware that the internet of things is widely hackable, black sites publish ip addresses and the associated device type and if things are too open a malicious person could remotely destroy your tank if so inclined, apparently this vulnerability is not addressed in most present controllers. It is not a technical limit of the equipment, just something we stake our reputation on doing right the first time and for that reason he prefers it is kept as closed to the outside world as possible until he gets a real security solution from a 3rd party but he will leave it open to WLAN interface at your own risk at this time.

 

[Happyschneider]

I think it is a wise thing to keep it separate. Redundancy is king. What I would love to see is more data collection than just 24 hrs. Most likely I don't need more than that but if I change something, I usually monitor for more than just 24 hrs. More like 2 to 3 weeks.

Why not have an alarm system where you block any ingoing ports and the controller can only send but not receive data? Of course there is no absolute security but it might help. And let's face it, who would want to hack and destroy someone else's tank?

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

[rvitko]

Many of us have argued the same thing in company meetings, a tank is an unlikely target, but there will be a first someday and we don't want our name associated with it. We have some ideas and many new features are planned, the show was quite productive and I think you will be surprised as support for many other products will likely come, many other manufacturers were interested in compatibility with the controller and working together on integration, some of the top brand LED lights will be integrated but this will take time to code and produce cables and in exchange we are working on making our LED's and pumps work with these companies systems so I expect a lot of good things to come and while it will take a few years, the features of the next generation are already in discussion. Remote access and notices will come, their is no technical limit for the hardware in this respect, but we want a very secure solution.

 

[Happyschneider]

Hi Roger,

I have full trust in tunze! I really enjoyed the interview with Meerwasser Live TV. One could really feel how much importance you put on quality of the product. Looking forward on how this will evolve. For the moment, I could see me using it for my QT, especially due to the price.