Reef Angel Forum

It would be nice to have a relay expansion that can be controlled via Bluetooth or thorough the internet. Kind of like X10 but I think with Bluetooth or through the internet is going to work better.

You could have one "brain" and maybe control 2-3 tanks with it . This would even be

that will be a great idea! it will be great to have a module that works like the x10

We have this already, no? You can control all the relays from the internet already.

I think they mean independent from the RA head unit? The x10 transmits through the home's wiring.

Expansion: dinning room plugged in and awaiting signal


RA in living room with webserver transmitting data via AC plug adaptor.


Only issue I see...troubleshooting users. Every home as "some" interference in their AC lines. Some users will have more than others...thus, how do you help these people when they say, "it's not working" or "it only works sometimes."

Notice that the link says aquariums add to home wiring interference

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/home ... erence.htm

I discovered early on before moving to the RA that X10 and aquariums do not mix...

The reasons:

UPS blocks X-10 signal.
GFI circuit... blocks X-10 signal.

So the only way to do X-10 was to have the X-10 signal receiver on the same side of the UPS as the equipment which means I would have had to find a way to connect my X-10 signal from my computer controller to the same power bar which was not going to work.

You could get cat-5 to SVGA adapaters from amazon and run the relay expansion module pretty far away from the head unit..

My recommnedation would be to get a ReefAngel for each tank!

I mentioned X10 just as an example of what I'm looking for, eliminating cables...I don't want to do X10; it has proven to present many issues controlling aquariums.

I was thinking since there is a Bluetooth attachment we could use that, but I guess the range could be the issue. Maybe over the internet or home network; I think this would required a wifi attachment for the relay box, or LAN port, I dont know if the relay box would need their own built-in websever


I just want a way to control expansion relay boxes with one main unit in different parts of the house since you can add a bunch of them

Xbees work easily...as well as little RF receivers.

ganjero wrote:I mentioned X10 just as an example of what I'm looking for, eliminating cables...I don't want to do X10; it has proven to present many issues controlling aquariums.

I was thinking since there is a Bluetooth attachment we could use that, but I guess the range could be the issue. Maybe over the internet or home network; I think this would required a wifi attachment for the relay box, or LAN port, I dont know if the relay box would need their own built-in websever


I just want a way to control expansion relay boxes with one main unit in different parts of the house since you can add a bunch of them

If you had a wifi attachment and a relay box you would still have no way to communicate with the relay box and you'd still need a processor to run the wifi and relay box. What you are describing unfortunately is another head unit and a arelay bar. I know you're looking for less hardware, but that is in fact what the whole package delivers.

There are IP based surge protectors you can get out there, but from what I've seen they can be quite expensive, and then you'd still need a gaming adapter or something to make them wireless....

I think Drew has the idea.
XBees is the way to go for this.
But you would still need a mcu connected to xbee on the receiver side too.

So it is possible to do something with the XBees...
instead of having the relay expansion and a USB cable, you would have maybe the RF Expansion and a "relay XBee expansion"?

could the XBee be integrated directly in the relay box or do you still need the expansion box with a serial port connected to the relay box?

Yes, possible.
Not very easily though.
You would need a specially modded head unit to accommodate the XBee radio.
Then you would need a custom XBee board or an Arduino Uno with XBee shield and I/O expander shield to be able to control the relay box.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't there other research with uploading via xbees that supported a head unit mod? Maybe this can turn into mass production? Headunit with xbee

Well, there is a big difference in carrying UART over Xbee vs I2C over XBee
UART is very easy and plug and play, but I don't know any UART I/O expander.
It would be possible to do SPI over Xbee, but the current RA doesn't offer SPI very easily.
So, if I were to add XBee capability on future product, what would you do with it?

I'm thinking more like RA as a receiver and arduinos as master but that wouldn't be something for the masses.

Ok, update to this...
I've made a prototype with Xbee radios and was able to get very good communication with another xbee
The prototype needs several revisions to be final yet, but I liked what I got out of this one.
With communication established, I can move on to creating a protocol to exchange data and we could have remote relay boxes controlled wirelessly

Any idea on the range? Would love to control my mixing station in the basement

They say Xbee can go to 300ft and Xbee Pro can go up to 1 mile, but that is without obstructions.
Indoors is stated to go up to 100ft.
Check it out here:
http://www.digi.com/products/wireless-w ... dule#specs

Cant wait for this to be on the shelves !

rimai wrote:Ok, update to this...
I've made a prototype with Xbee radios and was able to get very good communication with another xbee
The prototype needs several revisions to be final yet, but I liked what I got out of this one.
With communication established, I can move on to creating a protocol to exchange data and we could have remote relay boxes controlled wirelessly

Another candidate would be an xbee connected water level expansion... I guess thats the one most often placed a bit further away from the head unit...

Hey, this sounds great - with aquariums, there's a lot of chances for water to get everywhere so having a remote head unit may make some things a bit safer (could control the lights and mount the head unit in the canopy, then SAFELY control the pumps, etc.

I'm very interested anyway.

BTW, slight change of subject, if I used the DB9 cables, how far can you mount the current expansion relay box? I have only a 2" tube to fit all the wires into the aquarium from above (it's an island).

== John ==

You can go pretty far on the svga cable.
It's high density db15 and not db9 though.
You could also wire them up with two CAT5 cables and use these in each end:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EE ... UTF8&psc=1