Sample programming for Aqua Controllers?

[dhoch]

No I want to see the screen when you log onto the auqacontroller with telnet and issue those commands.

 

Dave

[jamesbuf]

ok. getting that now.

[jamesbuf]

Nevermind. Got it working. I had to change the port to 587 because of my ISP. http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/orig...pop/pop-29.html

 

Thanks for the help Dave.

[jamesbuf]

This thing is cool. I unplugged the unit and it sent an email and text message letting me know. Awesome.

 

I'm not using the aquanotes program. What code do I use to make it send me a message everyday to let me know how everything is doing? Do you just trigger an alarm at a certain time??

 

And Dave, I noticed you have a TIMER name "ALM". Do you have this. If not, what do you use? If you don't have an actual alarm to make a sound, the ACIII will send an email when anything goes wrong correct?

 

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you'll get a message if any of these statements become true?

If Temp > 81.0 Then ALM ON

If Temp < 78.0 Then ALM ON

If Power 000 Then ALM ON

If pH > 8.5 Then ALM ON

If pH < 7.8 Then ALM ON

[YBeNormal]

Yes to all of the above (including the part about these things being cool).

 

You can have the ACIII send a status email by setting any an alarm or any condition that you know is or will be true. To have an email sent every day at noon:

 

If Time > 12:00 Then ALM ON

If Time < 12:01 Then ALM OFF

[dhoch]

This thing is cool. I unplugged the unit and it sent an email and text message letting me know. Awesome.

 

Yes this thing is very cool!!

 

I'm not using the aquanotes program. What code do I use to make it send me a message everyday to let me know how everything is doing? Do you just trigger an alarm at a certain time??

 

As was stated above you can do it with two time statements, or with an OSC statement. I just wait till I get an alarm. All those text messages would drive me crazy.

 

And Dave, I noticed you have a TIMER name "ALM". Do you have this. If not, what do you use? If you don't have an actual alarm to make a sound, the ACIII will send an email when anything goes wrong correct?

 

I do not have an audible alarm. If there is an alarm condition the timer ALM gets set which triggers the text message to be sent.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you'll get a message if any of these statements become true?

If Temp > 81.0 Then ALM ON

If Temp < 78.0 Then ALM ON

If Power 000 Then ALM ON

If pH > 8.5 Then ALM ON

If pH < 7.8 Then ALM ON

 

Correct.

 

Dave

[jamesbuf]

 

I do not have an audible alarm. If there is an alarm condition the timer ALM gets set which triggers the text message to be sent.

 

Dave

 

Sweet, thats what I was hoping. Thanks.

 

 

 

 

So this will cut off the MHs if my water gets too hot, and leave them off for 40 minutes correct:

 

If Temp > 81.5 Then MHL OFF (turns off my single MH)

Max Change 040 M Then MHL ON (waits 40 minutes to turn the lights back on.

 

How long will it wait to turn back the lights on if I don't use the Max Change code?

[DaveS]

Hey guys, here are my set of new AC3 owners questions:

 

1) is there a comment character for the programming language? Either ; or // maybe?

 

2) I think I read this already but is there any way to program based on a power outage? I see that the thing will e-mail/page when power goes out but I'd like to have my MH lights get a delayed start when the power comes back on. I get power blinks every once in a while and my MH capacitors get fried if the ballast tries to fire the bulbs too soon after a blink. Right now I solved this by having a GFCI that trips when power goes out so I manually have to reset it to get the power on. Having that device between my DC8 and the ballast obviously won't work since it will trip every time the AC3 shuts off the lights. Even something as simple as a command that says- "when power goes out, do not start MH lights on power up" would work. Any ideas?

 

3) What devices do you guys have attached to your AC? I guess some people are plugging in EVERYTHING but I've also seen people say they leave the main pump and a few other things off since there's never a reason to turn them off. Suggestions?

 

Thanks guys. BTW, one reason I decided to blow $700 on this stuff is because I knew I could count on a group of kind, experienced owners to help me along. I LOVE THIS CLUB!!!

[jamesbuf]

Hey guys, here are my set of new AC3 owners questions:

 

1) is there a comment character for the programming language? Either ; or // maybe?

 

2) I think I read this already but is there any way to program based on a power outage? I see that the thing will e-mail/page when power goes out but I'd like to have my MH lights get a delayed start when the power comes back on. I get power blinks every once in a while and my MH capacitors get fried if the ballast tries to fire the bulbs too soon after a blink. Right now I solved this by having a GFCI that trips when power goes out so I manually have to reset it to get the power on. Having that device between my DC8 and the ballast obviously won't work since it will trip every time the AC3 shuts off the lights. Even something as simple as a command that says- "when power goes out, do not start MH lights on power up" would work. Any ideas?

 

3) What devices do you guys have attached to your AC? I guess some people are plugging in EVERYTHING but I've also seen people say they leave the main pump and a few other things off since there's never a reason to turn them off. Suggestions?

 

Thanks guys. BTW, one reason I decided to blow $700 on this stuff is because I knew I could count on a group of kind, experienced owners to help me along. I LOVE THIS CLUB!!!

 

 

I know that there is a way to stagger equipment coming back on after a power outage. The new member Kengar was telling me about his sequence to do this, but I can't recall it. This is what I'm using to cut off my single Metal Halide, then have it cut back on in 40 minutes. Hopefully Dave and Bob can confirm and give some more insight.

 

If Temp > 81.5 Then MHL OFF

Max Change 040 M Then MHL ON

Edited January 7, 2008 by jamesbuf

[dhoch]

So this will cut off the MHs if my water gets too hot, and leave them off for 40 minutes correct:

 

If Temp > 81.5 Then MHL OFF (turns off my single MH)

Max Change 040 M Then MHL ON (waits 40 minutes to turn the lights back on.

 

Actually that's backwards you want:

MAX Change 040 M THEN MHL OFF

 

THese leaves it off for a minimum of 40 mins before it turns back on (I just realized I had it wrong in my code as well... it's fixed now.

 

 

How long will it wait to turn back the lights on if I don't use the Max Change code?

 

It's instaneous (so next reading, 1 min or less)

 

 

1) is there a comment character for the programming language? Either ; or // maybe?

 

Yes // but I don't think they can be on a line all by themselves only at the end of a statement.

 

 

2) I think I read this already but is there any way to program based on a power outage? I see that the thing will e-mail/page when power goes out but I'd like to have my MH lights get a delayed start when the power comes back on. I get power blinks every once in a while and my MH capacitors get fried if the ballast tries to fire the bulbs too soon after a blink. Right now I solved this by having a GFCI that trips when power goes out so I manually have to reset it to get the power on. Having that device between my DC8 and the ballast obviously won't work since it will trip every time the AC3 shuts off the lights. Even something as simple as a command that says- "when power goes out, do not start MH lights on power up" would work. Any ideas?

 

See above, this is what the maxchange statement is for... Best to have a power supplly (battery backup for the AC Unit itself to deal with brownouts)

 

3) What devices do you guys have attached to your AC? I guess some people are plugging in EVERYTHING but I've also seen people say they leave the main pump and a few other things off since there's never a reason to turn them off. Suggestions?

 

I'm one of those everything guys... If I were to leave stuff off it would be hard... Reason is I like to have feed mode turn pumps off, or turn them off for cleaning, or picture taking... Other than that I really can't think of anything... I'm working on establishing my switches (now rewired to 6 to shut off systems if I want)

 

Thanks guys. BTW, one reason I decided to blow $700 on this stuff is because I knew I could count on a group of kind, experienced owners to help me along. I LOVE THIS CLUB!!!

 

Tell that to Curt if you ever see him

 

I know that there is a way to stagger equipment coming back on after a power outage. The new member Kengar was telling me about his sequence to do this, but I can't recall it. This is what I'm using to cut off my single Metal Halide, then have it cut off for 40 minutes. Hopefully Dave and Bob can confirm.

 

If Temp > 81.5 Then MHL OFF

Max Change 040 M Then MHL ON

 

As I said above reverse the ON to OFF in the Max change (40 mins it will be off for though).... to stagger just set different times liek:

 

Max Change 030 M Then MH1 ON

Max Change 040 M Then MH2 ON

 

 

Dave

[jamesbuf]

Thanks for explaining Dave.

 

OK, here is the situation. Its summertime and the power just went out. That's alot of power that is going to try and start up all at the same time. Doesn't sound like a good thing to me. You're saying that unless there is a battery backup for the power to the ACIII main unit, you can't have everything turn back on in a staggered pattern? What about the POWER feature?

[dhoch]

Whats the "POWER" feature?

 

I know of no way of doing this except when you program a minimum off time (as we did with your MH above), AND the controller is on a power backup....

 

Reason is when power comes back on and the AC unit reboots, the plugs on the DC8s (or 4s) see their status as how they last were (on or off) and the devices will respond as soon as power is returned... UNLESS THE Aquacontroller had done something to the status.

 

Dave

[lman]

Switched over to my verizon email account and it worked the first try. I tried about 5 different ports for Yahoo and could never get it to work.

 

Do you both have teh plus service it refers to?

 

Also James can't you run the commands and create an image for us to look at?

 

Dave

 

For DOS image... get it on the screen... CTRL-Print Screen should create a copy of the screen in memory. Paste into your favorite image editing program and crop to size.

 

Dave

[jnguyen4007]

Switched over to my verizon email account and it worked the first try. I tried about 5 different ports for Yahoo and could never get it to work.

 

I got it to not only send a message to my cell phone but to my work email address as well. If you want to send it to your yahoo mail but unable to directly from your ACIII, you might be able to work around this by sending it to your home email or work address then set your email to forward any email that has AquaController in the subject line to your Yahoo mail.

 

James

[jamesbuf]

Switched over to my verizon email account and it worked the first try. I tried about 5 different ports for Yahoo and could never get it to work.

 

Do you have the free yahoo??? You have to have the yahoo plus ($20/year) for the email notification to work.

[Rascal]

Another question for the group. I upgraded to the ACIII last week, and have managed to solve most of my problems using the help already provided in this thread, but I've run into a snag.

 

I have Netgear wireless router with Cox as my ISP. I picked up a Linksys gaming adaptor to hook up the ACIII.

 

At home everything works. I can pull up the ACIII's webserver at IP address 192.168.1.50 no problem. I also successfully configured email alarms through my yahoo account (port 587 for me too). I now get emails to my phone and email account.

 

My problem is with being able to access the web server away from home. I can access the router but not the ACIII. I have enabled remote access, port forwarding and the UPnP on my router, and added the Service name ACII with start port 80, end port 80, and the IP address 192.168.1.50. When I am at home and I type in myipaddress:80, it works just fine. I get the prompt to log in to the ACIII just as if I had gone directly to its IP address and then I can pull up the webserver. But now that I am at work and I type in the same thing, I get an "unable to connect" window. The funny thing is that I can log into my router from work, using myipaddress:8080 - the port assigned by my router as its remote management address.

 

Any of this make any sense?

 

Any thoughts?

Edited January 14, 2008 by Rascal

[Brian Ward]

Another question for the group. I upgraded to the ACIII last week, and have managed to solve most of my problems using the help already provided in this thread, but I've run into a snag.

 

I have Netgear wireless router with Cox as my ISP. I picked up a Linksys gaming adaptor to hook up the ACIII.

 

At home everything works. I can pull up the ACIII's webserver at IP address 192.168.1.50 no problem. I also successfully configured email alarms through my yahoo account (port 587 for me too). I now get emails to my phone and email account.

 

My problem is with being able to access the web server away from home. I can access the router but not the ACIII. I have enabled remote access, port forwarding and the UPnP on my router, and added the Service name ACII with start port 80, end port 80, and the IP address 192.168.1.50. When I am at home and I type in myipaddress:80, it works just fine. I get the prompt to log in to the ACIII just as if I had gone directly to its IP address and then I can pull up the webserver. But now that I am at work and I type in the same thing, I get an "unable to connect" window. The funny thing is that I can log into my router from work, using myipaddress:8080 - the port assigned by my router as its remote management address.

 

Any of this make any sense?

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

 

Cox, as with many ISPs, blocks ports 80 and 25 for "home" customers. These are the well-known ports for http and smtp traffic, respectively. Change the port for your ACIII web page to pretty much anything else and it should work. 8080 is the typical alternate port, use 88 or something you like and you should be able to access it just like the router.

[dhoch]

Ditto what Brian said

 

Dave

[Rascal]

Cox, as with many ISPs, blocks ports 80 and 25 for "home" customers. These are the well-known ports for http and smtp traffic, respectively. Change the port for your ACIII web page to pretty much anything else and it should work. 8080 is the typical alternate port, use 88 or something you like and you should be able to access it just like the router.

 

That's what I thought, but I must be doing something wrong.

 

Here are the input options on my router's "Port Forwarding / Port Triggering" page:

 

I have selected "Port Forwarding" as the option.

 

Service Name:

Service Type:

Starting Port: (1~65534)

Ending Port: (1~65534)

Server IP Address: . . .

 

For Service Name, there was a pull down menu with a lot of common services, so I clicked "Add custom service" and set up one with the following settings:

 

Service Name: ACIII

Service Type: TCP

Server IP Address: 192.168.1.50

Starting Port: 80

Ending Port: 80

 

As I said, this worked fine from home but not from the office. So since I can still log into the router and change settings I have tried various combinations in the starting port / ending port fields but nothing has worked. Neptune's FAQ talks about "internal" and "external" ports, but I don't know how these terms relate to "Starting" and "Ending" ports. All I know is that it won't let me enter a higher starting port than ending port. For example if I put starting port 4567 and ending port 80 I get an error message stating "The starting port address must be less than the ending port address." So I have tried starting ports less than 80 and the ending port 80; starting ports of all sorts of different numbers other than 80 with an ending port the same as the starting port, and starting port 80 with an ending port of all sorts of different numbers higher than 80. So for example it looks like this:

 

Service Name: ACIII

Service Type: TCP

Server IP Address: 192.168.1.50

Starting Port: 80

Ending Port: 4567

or

Starting Port: 4567

Ending Port: 456

 

Then I open up a new browser window and try my ip address with each of the ports. No luck so far.

Edited January 14, 2008 by Rascal

[YBeNormal]

Note that doing this will violate the TOS with your provider. They are not likely to target anyone operating a server on a home connection unless it is generating a lot of traffic though so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

[Brian Ward]

You need to reconfigure the aquacontroller for a different port. I don't currently know how to do this but I'm sure it's possible. Let's say you configure the ACIII to respond to port 456 (it currently responds on port 80) set your router to forward requests to port 456 to the ACIII. Request the ACIII via http://<your_ip_address>:456

 

That will get you there.

 

 

 

The reason 80 works while in your house is that you don't have a router blocking the traffic - it's an external router owned by Cox that blocks the traffic.

[Rascal]

The reason 80 works while in your house is that you don't have a router blocking the traffic - it's an external router owned by Cox that blocks the traffic.

 

O.K. that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.

 

This is the solution Neptune gives for port 80 blocking:

 

Note: Some ISPs block incoming port 80 requests, so you you will have to use a different external port number. In this case you would configure your router to route a different incoming port like 4567 (or any other 4 digit number) to port 80 of the AquaController's IP address. If this is the case in your router's port forwarding, or UPnP section configure the external port would be 4567, internal port 80, and the internal IP address of the AquaController. If your isp blocks port 80 then you would need to enter the address as

http://123.45.67.111:4567

- substitute your internet IP address for 123.45.67.111.

 

But obviously that hasn't worked for me so I will try to figure out tonight how to reconfigure the ACIII to a port other than 80. Am I correct that I would then put that number in as both the "starting port" and "ending port" on my router's port forwarding page? Do all of the other settings look O.K. to you?

 

Thanks again.

[dhoch]

For Service Name, there was a pull down menu with a lot of common services, so I clicked "Add custom service" and set up one with the following settings:

 

Service Name: ACIII

Service Type: TCP

Server IP Address: 192.168.1.50

Starting Port: 80

Ending Port: 80

 

Above, all is fine, but change 80 (starting port/ending port) to some other port #... 83 is a good one

 

You ALSO need to configure your ACIII in network setup to respond to requests from port 83 (in this example)...

 

Once you have done this test locally (on your network) if that works, do same from work.

 

Dave

[Rascal]

OK. Made all the changes and got it working here at home. Also set up a dynDNS account and got the working too.

 

Guess I'll have to wait 'till tomorrow to see if it works remotely.

 

Thanks for all the help guys.

[SteveM]

OSC Turns something on for a certain amount of minutes and then off for certain amount of minutes. For example if you have a kalk stirer that you want to come one 1 mintue an hour:

 

OSC 001/059 THEN KLK ON

 

The KLK timer is on for 1 min then off for 59.

 

 

Dave

 

 

Can you set the ACIII to turn something on at a certain time and when it is on OSC then have it go off at a certain time? In other words would this work so that when the TOP was ON it would OSC 1/59 during the time it is on?

 

If Time > 23:00 Then TOP ON

OSC 001/059 TOP ON

If Time > 23:05 Then TOP OFF

 

I think this should work but want to make sure before I do it.

Thanks