Verify my parts list before buying?

[howaboutme]

Alan. Are you building new lights or is the one you're selling on wamas not over your DT anyways?

[AlanM]

Alan. Are you building new lights or is the one you're selling on wamas not over your DT anyways?

I would be controlling my current lights, that I'd keep instead of selling, with ReefAngel. I don't know how much competitor talk is allowed on these forums, but I put them up for sale for control issues with the Apex, not because they don't work well to light up my corals.

If my lights sold, which they don't show signs of doing, I'd possibly buy a couple Radions because of the good user interface. I tried out a Storm X lighting controller, which I like a lot, which includes things like 16 channels of 12-bit PWM for dimming, Lat/Long defined sunrise/sunset, clouds, lightning, etc.

The disadvantage of Storm X is that it isn't connected to anything so I have to be standing there turning the knob.

The disadvantage of keeping them on the Apex, frankly, is the terrible Outlet-Profile programming regime where you have to change the same thing in 4 different places in order to make a change in lighting schedule. Another disadvantage is the 10V analog to 5V PWM conversion that I do. I use a custom Arduino board to do it, but sampling the 100 channel analog signal and mapping into 8-bit PWM is jittery at low dimming levels so they flicker. I could a whole bunch of random addition and averaging to try to smooth it, but haven't gotten around to figuring out the math.

With Reef Angel I'd get a few big wins for not much cost because I'd probably pass my current controller over to someone else for nearly what I spend at Reef Angel. I'd be able to do more than Ramp profiles with my powerheads. Functions are built in to make them do everything a Vortech can do.

I'd also get PWM control over the lights using functions that I can program to do whatever I want. If I wanted the lights to dim via Bessel fuctions or Airy functions, I could do that. So I'd get nice steady control over my LDDs all the way down to 0 which would only be limited by what I could whip up in Arduino.

I'd also be able to integrate a bunch of standalone things I have now, like my ATO pressure switch, into the controller and with the combo of the 120V relay box and the 12V relay module maybe even control RO/DI refills, new salt water fills, and water changes.

[howaboutme]

Very exciting plans! Looking forward to your updates in the future as I know you will.

[AlanM]

Very exciting plans! Looking forward to your updates in the future as I know you will.

Haha, I know I will too. If I start growing way more cyano I'm going to blame it on the ReefAngel!

[lnevo]

We need you on this forum Alan!!! If only to explain what Bessel and Airy dimming functions are!!!

[lnevo]

Ah. Got it! thank you!

I was under the assumption that you had the full ATO model with the switched outlet. That one was a bit more involved vs the apex integrated model that just has the switch piece.

[heatdissipation]

Alan. I was in the same boat as you, except for owning an apex. I looked into the but knew from the beginning it wasn't for me. I used the stormx controller also, I filled all sixteen channels on it with my lights. But I didn't like the fact that it was a standalone unit. I ordered the RA plus. I have it running everything but my lights right now, Roberto made me a sixteen channel custom board for my lights. It should be delivered tomorrow along with a few other things. I also have the standard six channel dimming expansion module that I am using to control two wp60 and two wp 40. I plan to use integrate pwm fan control soon as I have 22 total pwm controllable outlets. The possibilities are endless but my knowledge is limited. All I do is study code and anything RA related. My wife thinks I am crazy

[howaboutme]

We need you on this forum Alan!!! If only to explain what Bessel and Airy dimming functions are!!!

Yes! It was meant to be. Who else can be famous because of his D120 hack even before he had the RA!

I was under the assumption that you had the full ATO model with the switched outlet. That one was a bit more involved vs the apex integrated model that just has the switch piece.

I have the full ATO model. The differences are on how the pressure sensor box terminates. It's a bit confusing unless you have it. We're all talking the same, just semantics specific to Avast. I will eventually get it hooked up to the RA but I have other more pressing stuff to play w/ first...

[AlanM]

Ah. Got it! thank you!

I was under the assumption that you had the full ATO model with the switched outlet. That one was a bit more involved vs the apex integrated model that just has the switch piece.

I have the Deluxe ATO which apparently is no longer offered. It has a 12V power supply wall wart, a pressure tube and a black box that houses the pressure switch and a peristaltic pump. So it's totally self contained. Just plug it in, plumb it, and drop the pressure tube sensor into the sump at the right height.

One criticism of it was that it was super loud, which is probably why they switched it up and now have a 120V one that you have to switch on and off yourself and buy the sensor separately.

[AlanM]

Alan. I was in the same boat as you, except for owning an apex. I looked into the but knew from the beginning it wasn't for me. I used the stormx controller also, I filled all sixteen channels on it with my lights. But I didn't like the fact that it was a standalone unit. I ordered the RA plus. I have it running everything but my lights right now, Roberto made me a sixteen channel custom board for my lights. It should be delivered tomorrow along with a few other things. I also have the standard six channel dimming expansion module that I am using to control two wp60 and two wp 40. I plan to use integrate pwm fan control soon as I have 22 total pwm controllable outlets. The possibilities are endless but my knowledge is limited. All I do is study code and anything RA related. My wife thinks I am crazy

Sounds great. I'm also ordering the 16 channel one from Roberto. Very reasonable price for it. I have only 6 channels of lights, but with those, 2 tunzes, 2 jebaos, and a fan I'd be just over what I could do for the 6 channel dimmer, plus two on a relay box, plus two on the ATO ports. With the 16 channel PWM module I will have piles of PWM to talk to and will get an analog relay box for the Tunzes and use the Jebao cables from the PWM module to run those (which apparently integrate a low pass filter to convert the 5V pwm into 5V analog that Jebao wants).

[AlanM]

We need you on this forum Alan!!! If only to explain what Bessel and Airy dimming functions are!!!

Yes! It was meant to be. Who else can be famous because of his D120 hack even before he had the RA!

Did people here actually start using their RA to control the d120s? You know I never really used mine to control it aside from posting those videos on youtube showing that it worked.

For a quick math lesson: Bessel functions are related to flow in cylindrical geometry (at least that's how I used them in the past) and Airy functions have to do with those interference patterns you might have seen in physics class which is supposed to prove to you that light is both a particle and a wave.

I said it wrong, actually, meant to say I could run the pumps, not lights, as Bessel or Airy functions, because they are functions that are kind of like waves that damp down and back up if you reverse them. So I'd have a wave with opposing powerheads that decreases in magnitude over some period of time until it's still and then starts getting stronger again. Like an oscillation inside an envelope that grows and shrinks.

[lnevo]

Ooh sounds like it would integrate well with my tidal simulation code. Right now I just incorporate the effect on the tidal strength based on moonphase but would like some cool oscillation pattern to manage tide in/out

[AlanM]

Ooh sounds like it would integrate well with my tidal simulation code. Right now I just incorporate the effect on the tidal strength based on moonphase but would like some cool oscillation pattern to manage tide in/out

Maybe, I could be remembering them wrong though. Heh. Probably easier ways of doing it.

[howaboutme]

We need you on this forum Alan!!! If only to explain what Bessel and Airy dimming functions are!!!

Yes! It was meant to be. Who else can be famous because of his D120 hack even before he had the RA!

Did people here actually start using their RA to control the d120s? You know I never really used mine to control it aside from posting those videos on youtube showing that it worked.

For a quick math lesson: Bessel functions are related to flow in cylindrical geometry (at least that's how I used them in the past) and Airy functions have to do with those interference patterns you might have seen in physics class which is supposed to prove to you that light is both a particle and a wave.

I said it wrong, actually, meant to say I could run the pumps, not lights, as Bessel or Airy functions, because they are functions that are kind of like waves that damp down and back up if you reverse them. So I'd have a wave with opposing powerheads that decreases in magnitude over some period of time until it's still and then starts getting stronger again. Like an oscillation inside an envelope that grows and shrinks.

Here:

http://forum.reefangel.com/viewtopic.php?t=3541

And your wamas thread was the first link...