Which one to buy for our lab?

[Whitten]

Hey everyone, I am needing some help deciding on which one to buy for our Lab Study here at Auburn University.

So now I am looking for some help from you experts.

We are wanting to control ORP, PH and Temp, as well as a number of pumps and Lights. The AC will be running only one big system.

We are also wanting it to e-mail some of the Lab attendants as well as the Head Professor if something should go wrong.

As of right now I know we are going to want the DC8's for plug control since we are in a large building and X10's might not be a good choice with lots of electronic equipment around.

What I want to know is what else I will need including which Aqua Controller unit and whether or not Aquanotes will be necessary.


Thanks for the help in advance.

Michael Whitten

 

[kbecker]

From your description it sounds like you would want the regular AC3. If you want salinity measurement and DO, and all that stuff then you should get the AC3pro.

For the AC3 / AC3pro, Aquanotes is not really necessary as you can access the controller though a web browser and do graphing though excel. Now if you want to keep the data records (the ac3 holds the data in memory, 1023 records, which will get overwritten), then I highly suggest getting Aquanotes.

Oh one more thing to consider is the amount of independant devices you want to control. The ac3pro can control 30, but I do not recall how much a regular ac3 can off hand.

I own an AC3pro and do not utilize Aquanotes.

 

[Whitten]

Ok so Aqua Notes may not be a necesity and that is a good thing. Still one question though, is will we need it to do e-mail notification?

Also what do you like better about the pro?

 

[kbecker]

You do not need aquanotes for email notification.

What I like about the pro was that it was the only controller available at the time that had email notification and web interface The AC3 was not available until a long time after I purchased the Pro.

 

[cmhollis]

I have the ACIII, and from what I have been told the only difference between it and the ACIIIPro is that the Pro will control 30 devices, and the III will control 20, besides the salinity/DO difference.

If it fits your needs, then go with the ACIII, I am very happy with mine.

 

[Whitten]

Thanks guys I think we will go with the ACIII. It seems to be the most reasonable purchase. Thank you so very much for all of your helpful input.