Beginner hooking up

[B-ridge75]

Is there anyone I. The New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or surrounding areas willing to come over and help me set up my controller? I have had this controller for months. Not trying to do anything crazy. Just looking for some stability. Monitor temperature and most complicated thing would be automatic water change. Please help/assist me. I am not computer literate or any good at programming. I am willing to pay for time, tolls,gas,eating expenses. So please anyone looking to make a couple dollars or willing to help out a fellow reefer please let me know

[dapg8gt]

Are you using the wizard to have the basics running your tank? You don't need to be any sorta genius to use the wizard.. Case in point I'm running mine and have been for a while.. With a little poached code here and there =l.

[B-ridge75]

No I haven't begun to run the wizard yet. Still trying to figure everything out. What I am gonna plug in and where. I am in New York State. Does anyone have a iPhone or iPad that could talk me through the whole process or even better we could FaceTime. I know this process may take awhile. My biggest problem will probably be the coding. Like I said before I have no experience in programming anything.

[lnevo]

Dude i keep telling you...it aint rocket science. Your scared of the code but you dont need to touch the code yet. Thats what the wizard is for. Until you install the software and run the wizard your gonna stay scared!

[binder]

you dont need any experience programming. probably 90% of the people on here are in your shoes. one of the things that we all knew was important, was to have a wizard/app/program to make things as user friendly as possible. those programs generate the basic code that you need to do what you want. if you want more, you gotta have a starting point. then we all can help you out further with he more complicated stuff.

and, welcome to the forum!


Sent from my iPad mini

[B-ridge75]

Totally understandable. I don't know what it is I am nervous of. I think it's the point of doing something wrong or maybe even failure. I don't like to lose/fail at anything.
So basically what I need to do is just get everything plugged in. This will consist of skimmer,return pump,jebao cables if they will reach to the basement, reactor, 2 heaters
Plan on adding another pump for automated water changes, also want to add the coralvue smart ato, also plan on adding a automatic feeder.
Not sure of the jebao cable. Wondering if it is better to just buy the dual controller then that's 1 less thing to have to be plugged into the reef angel
My main issue is stability. Want to keep my temperature set at a certain temp. Kind of hard since the sump,is in the basement. Does keep my tank cool though. In the winter I was running 4 heaters do to my faulty boiler in the basement. Plus was running wood stove. It kept the temps in the green but at night dropped significantly. Won't have the boiler problem this upcoming winter. Not sure how many heaters I need anyway. Was running 4 300watt. Not sure if they all were working. Plan to invest in some much better reliable heaters.
Now we all know the reef angel comes with 8'ports. Just wanna make sure I have enough room for everything.
Now after finding out what is going to be plugged up and where what's our next step? What or where is this wizard thing everyone speaks of? I am also trying to control everything through my iPad and my Mac. Yes I have the wifi connection

[ReEfnWrX]

At the top of reefangel site click download. Under software select Reef Angel Installer - Arduino (Windows) or Mac. That is the software, install it and launch it. Under the drop down menu select reef angel wizard.....

Play around with the wizard, you don't even need everything connected to get a feel for the wizard.

With everything going you have you probably want to invest into an additional relay box and/or hub expansion. The RA can support one expansion module (WiFi attachment is not an expansion). If you want more expansions than one(most likely) then you need an expansion hub.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

[B-ridge75]

I don't think I need the expansion hub/relay box just yet. With the skimmer,main pump,reactor,2 heaters that's only 5 ports. With the ato and the other pump for water changes that is only 7. The 8th one could possibly be for my jebao pumps if I don't use the dual controller or it could be used for the automatic feeder. I'm not dosing anything as of now so I have nothing else that needs to be plugged in except for possibly my fuge lights. In that case I would need another relay box and would have to figure out what to put on that one

[dapg8gt]

Just use the wizard. It's literally easier than any other controller on the market in that sense. Once you see the wizard you will know. If you can answer questions you can use the wizard.

[B-ridge75]

Sounds good. But if it was that easy everyone would own a reef angel. And out of the big 3(neptunes,reef angel,digital aquatics) everyone seems to think the reef angel is the most complicated. But in the same breath they say the programming on the reef angel is phenomenable. I am gonna see what lnevo has planned this week. Whatever day he deems good I will start setting this up with his guidance through FaceTime

[lnevo]

Tomorrow or monday are your best bets... But anyone who says that reef angel is complicated is only saying that because they haven't used the wizard, haven't tried out a reef angel, or are in bed with their APEX.

Yes, some of the documenting needs work and some specific configurations need to be coded, but just about EVERYTHING you need will be taken care of by the wizard.

So get started. Until you have the software installed and decide on a few ports to configure theres not much i can do with you...

[B-ridge75]

Lol he said in bed with there apex. Hope she is good at whatever she does in bed as much as she costs and the price of the add ons. Monday works perfect for me bro. I am off Monday and Tuesday of next week. Ok. So tell me what I should do by Monday? I figured out the ports already. Skimmer,pump,reactor,jebaos if I can get the cable to reach the basement,water change pump,ato when I buy/get one,automatic feeder when I buy/get one. I also have the wifi attachment. I have your number let me know when is a good time to text. I will just keep,reading the boards here and asking questions here also. Curious to see/know what else this reef angel can do

[rimai]

I think you should try using the wizard before you talk to him. This way, you will be a little more familiar with it.

[B-ridge75]

Ok. So I should hook things up before we speak or just go on the wizard to get familiarity?

[rimai]

You don't need to hook up anything.
Get the software installed and use the wizard.
Once you get familiar and upload something to your controller, start playing with it and testing the port to make sure they are doing what you expect them to do.
The last thing will be hooking up your equipment.

[lnevo]

Thats what i been saying for months

[B-ridge75]

Yes you have lveno. Told you I wasn't computer literate. Feel like a blond girl. Like ok. How will I know if the ports are working if I don't plug anything in yet? If that's the case I could download this wizard thing tonight.
Could I do this threw my iPad since that's what will be mainly controlling everything or should I just do it through my computer?
Is there some sort of hook up or graph that I could download that will show me the levels of my tank. So,e sort of graph that I could document things as far as water changes and my levels, etc. I've seen somewhere on someone's computer and iPad where there was a chart going. Showing temperature, oh and fluctuations in things

[rimai]

You can just use a table lamp to check for power.
Wizard will only work on your computer.
The graphs and other charts will be generated for you automatically. You will get there soon. First step is the wizard.

[B-ridge75]

Ok. Sounds like a plan. I will get started on wizard tonight sometime but I will still be asking a bunch of questions. Now in order to get the light to come in per say I won't have to give it a code or a program or anything? Once I/we find out all the ports are working do we then give everything a name and start programming it to do what we want it to do?

[lnevo]

The wizard will generate the code for you. You'll see what the options are once its generated. Naming stuff is not required but you'll do that in the portal.

[B-ridge75]

Ok. Understanding a little better now. Still lost but I'm seeing things a little clearer

[Sacohen]

It's easier than it seems.
Reading the boards here can be confusing, but most of what goes on here is advanced stuff.
I know nothing about coding and I'm still lost when it goes to somethings, but I have to say I have helped people here too.

There have been questions asked that I knew the wizard would answer so I went through it and posted the code it gave me for that persons question.

I also let them know that I got the answer buy going thru the wizard.

Go thru the wizard and set up the code.
Load it in the unit and check to see if the ports are coming on and off the way they should by plugging in a lamp like Roberto said.

I guarantee by the time you get on the phone with Lee you will have answered 95% of your initial questions by your self.

[dapg8gt]

You really should just try it before asking more questions that will continue to confuse yourself. There is a set up guide for the controller to plug what into what and the wizard is literally answering questions.

I think you need to take the initiative to get that basic part figured out before using inevo's time like plugging in the relay, head unit etc.

I totally agree with the people hating on reef angel saying it's super hard to use. They have not used the wizard or the controller in general. Almost every thing on my controller is done thru the wizard and what's not is just a copy and paste from someone else's code. Fwiw my tank is full of sps and I have total controlability without any coding knowledge whatsoever. Literally none.

[B-ridge75]

Ok everyone. 1st step is done. Just replaced old unit with the upgrade. That was simple. Hopefully everything else goes so easily. Next step. THE WIZARD

[Seedlessone]

You are making this out to be way more hard than it is. A child could figure out the wizard. Just give it a shot. Thats half of the fun buying an RA. You will be suprised on how easy everything is. Just take a deep breath and knock it out.

Man its soo easy now a days. I started with RA before the wizard.

[ReEfnWrX]

You keep going against everyone's advice. Which is making it more difficult for you. You can use the wizard without even having a reef angel... it's just an app that giv3s you options of how you setup the basic programming of the RA and 8th writes the code for you, you don't even need to touch or look at coding... and then you could upload the code if you wanted but you don't have to... just install it and tinker with it and 90%+ of your questions answered

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

[lnevo]

Ok, I worked with him this weekend. We made some great progress. The biggest problem and probably his biggest hesitation is that the only computer is his wife's Mac which he isn't an admin on. So we had to wait to even get the serial driver installed and get Arduino added to his Applications.

In any event, we went through the wizard, built a base config to get started and testing. We configured the wifi module which we had to do through CoolTerm. I even managed to get into his router. The problem though is despite the router being configured the port does not seem to be open, so we're going to have to figure that one out maybe with the provider.

[B-ridge75]

Thank you for saving me lnevo. Boy this is a tough crowd here. I never went against anyone's recommendations. I did nothing until I was told to. Once I was told exactly what to do and try I did. Ran into one problem getting a password. That was taken care of. I didn't go against anyone. I was fairly stating that I had got the nerve/courage or whatever you wanna call it to get this up and running. I had to start by taking out the old card and upgrading with the reef angel plus. Which I did. I apologize for reporting with excitement my first step of owning a reef angel. Was giving progress as far as what my next step was. Thanks for making me feel welcomed. I apologize. Didn't mean or want to offend anyone. Was just asking questions