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New Head Unit....

Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 3:03 am
by jt41time
I think a nice display would be nice. An output display. just visual. No controll. A scrolling display of your numbers. One wire, nice lookng box. Backlit. One thing that is making not want to buy this controller is the display.(the only thing)
I plan on ditching my RKL, or saving it for a dif project for this thing. I like the abiblty to do almost anything.

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 9:26 pm
by a.ash
I have been thinking about this as well. How much would you be willing to pay for a 3 or 4 in display? Would you pay more for touchscreen?

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2011 2:48 am
by jt41time
I think a touch screen is a lil much. I just want a nice lil display without alot of wires sticking out of it.

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2011 5:50 pm
by alexwbush
I think just an auxilary display would be great. One that's simple and clean. I could then hide the main controller.

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2011 7:43 pm
by wolfador
you could setup an iPod touch as an external display and just leave the app running. You can find used ones pretty cheap.

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2011 9:08 pm
by a.ash
I'll the question again. How much would you be willing to pay for a 3 or 4 inch display? I have been thinking about developing one and wonder if it would sell. This also assumes I would not be taking away from anything Roberto has planned.

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2011 9:31 pm
by rimai
Well, I do have something in the works but nothing even close to production yet.
I'd love to see what you come up with, if you do decide to move forward with your plans.
I've made a 1st rev. prototype and started working on creating the libraries, but I halted the project because I've been devoted to creating a new portal interface that I'm sure everyone is going to like :)
There are some minor revisions I need to do, but this is my very first prototype:

Image
Image

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 3:10 pm
by Sebyte
wolfador wrote:you could setup an iPod touch as an external display and just leave the app running. You can find used ones pretty cheap.
How would you start to make an iPAD interface. Where can I find info on how to retrieve data from the RA via wifly?

Could Keynote for iPad be used to build an interface?

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 3:14 pm
by wolfador
keynote could be used, the RA just outputs an xml page. go to the /r99 page of your controller and you will see it there. All you need is something to parse the XML.

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 5:22 am
by Deckoz2302
Wow. I was just about to pm you rimai about putting an order together for me and seeing if you still had salinity modules...after seeing this prototype I think I may wait....lol when can I buy your prototype :P and I see by your pic you have orp now to....when you gonna make a calcium & alk/kh module :P

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 7:51 am
by dhave
I would like a secondary display just for stauts-check (no touchscreen or control). The standard one is too small and has to many wire...

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:00 am
by rimai
Even if you want to wait, you would still need to purchase the base RA. It will not work without the base unit.
It is going to be offered as an expansion module, but I have no dates to be released yet.

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:07 am
by rimai
dhave wrote:I would like a secondary display just for stauts-check (no touchscreen or control). The standard one is too small and has to many wire...
You could use the iPhone or Android app :)
They are awesome for that purpose. I rarely look at my head unit screen anymore. Thanks Curt (binder), John (wolfador) and Dave (dmolton)!!!

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:23 am
by Deckoz2302
Didn't realize it was gnna be an expansion

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 8:23 am
by gs33
any news on this ??

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 9:21 am
by rimai
This will most likely be something to be beta tested mid next year if everything goes well with prototyping.

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Thu May 24, 2012 1:00 pm
by Spotted
So, just a question. It's mid next year already!! Um... Do ya need beta testers?
:roll:

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Thu May 24, 2012 2:25 pm
by rimai
Sorry man.
I didn't have time to progress with this project.

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 10:29 am
by DrewPalmer04
Do you have anything saved from when you were in prototype testing? Parts list? Anything? I would love to mess with this idea.

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 6:22 pm
by eds
I thought Id ask in this thread rather than start another. Is this going to become a reality or has it been shelved in the too hard basket? Id love a 5" Touchscreen display on the front of my tank and I notice people are starting to get it going on home made solutions here

http://www.masa.asn.au/phpBB3/viewtopic ... 9&t=244697

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 6:45 pm
by rimai
I stopped the development of this unit :(
You can most certainly use any Arduino shield and connect to RA to use it as a remote display though.

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 9:55 pm
by eds
Thats a bummer, it would have been really good to have touch buttons to control the expansion relays.

Sadly, I dont really have the knowledge to set forth on my own to make this myself, otherwise I would be there.
Any hints or howtos would be awesome :D

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2012 8:32 pm
by jsclownfish
Has anyone looked at these?

http://www.gizmag.com/arduinolcd-arduin ... een/24381/

I'm thinking of getting one to try with the RA. It would be nice to have a quick touchscreen for toggling the relays manually amongst other things.

Jon

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 10:42 am
by rimai
Very cool.
Thanks for sharing :)
I did test one of the EarthLCD in the past and they performed ok.
I'm sure this one is much easier to integrate as it has the Arduino board form factor.

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 4:17 pm
by jsclownfish
I ordered one today. I'll post updates when it arrives.  :ugeek:

Jon

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2012 5:01 pm
by DrewPalmer04
Please do!

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 10:16 am
by neuro
How difficult would it be for someone with no arduino experience to get this unit working?
I'm planning to eventually (not sure when) pick up an arduino starter kit to see how it all works.

I do have some college level education in computer science/programming.

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 5:53 pm
by jsclownfish
Hi all,

Just a quick note to give you an update on this LCD touchscreen unit. I received it about a week ago and I am still trying to make some progress on the basics of the system. :( It is a little clunky in using the predesigned macros for things like buttons and slide bars. I wanted to test it out by simply making an on/off set of buttons for the relays. I'm still trying to get that to work. :geek: I tested about 6 sample programs and I can no longer get a program to upload. The tech service folks have been responsive, but not able to solve this issue. I was told they are taking a lot of calls on this unit, so it may still need some fine tuning before it is really more robust. I'll follow-up again one I have some thing to show you.

-Jon

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 11:31 pm
by neuro
Jon,

There was a thread on reef central where they programmed their own UI. Though different LCD touchscreen with different libraries I think.

How easy was it to get it hooked up to the RA board?

Thanks for the update.

Re: New Head Unit....

Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 3:00 pm
by jsclownfish
The communication should be straight forward over I2C. I already have my old RA set up as a secondary monitor,
http://forum.reefangel.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=923, I just thought this would be more fun an interactive. In theory the attached arduino board and macros associated with this LCD should work nicely. The system just isn't very robust how they have them working together (Arduino code and EarthSEMPL macros). It's a new product though so I kind of expected a few issues.

-Jon