What about a vortech wifi module?

[paulo.hanashiro]

I was wondering something like this



This way we can control the vortech via ReefAngel.

Set night mode, feeding mode, etc.

Does anybody knows anything about the protocol vortech uses?

[rimai]

Little blue bird flew over and told someone that told someone that swears that they use zigbee for wireless communication between wireless modules and simple UART between microcontroller and wireless module.
Maybe it seems easier than one would have thought.
It may not be possible to do ecosmart emulation, but I think it would be pretty simple to vary speed and create your own emulation.
That little blue bird is into something.

[paulo.hanashiro]

Little blue bird flew over and told someone that told someone that swears that they use zigbee for wireless communication between wireless modules and simple UART between microcontroller and wireless module.
Maybe it seems easier than one would have thought.
It may not be possible to do ecosmart emulation, but I think it would be pretty simple to vary speed and create your own emulation.
That little blue bird is into something.

Wow!!!This is sweet!!!!

I think the basics would be nice, (Like press the feeding mode option @ RA and automatically set feeding mode on Vortech. Set night mode @ RA and have it working on circulation and so on!!!

Could this blue bird send me an email?


Regards.
Paulo
paulo.hanashiro@gmail.com

[bmhair03]

Little blue bird flew over and told someone that told someone that swears that they use zigbee for wireless communication between wireless modules and simple UART between microcontroller and wireless module.
Maybe it seems easier than one would have thought.
It may not be possible to do ecosmart emulation, but I think it would be pretty simple to vary speed and create your own emulation.
That little blue bird is into something.

Wow!!!This is sweet!!!!

I think the basics would be nice, (Like press the feeding mode option @ RA and automatically set feeding mode on Vortech. Set night mode @ RA and have it working on circulation and so on!!!

Could this blue bird send me an email?


Regards.
Paulo
paulo.hanashiro@gmail.com

+1

[bmhair03]

No birds

[chrome]

I'd buy this no doubt. I want it yesterday!

[chrome]

any word on this?

[rimai]

Somehow I messed up and hit the wrong button...
I meant to reply and I think I clicked edit instead.
Anyway, no further progress has been done yet.

[bmhair03]

Thought that I wrote something different. Thanks

[rimai]

Yeah. I'm so sorry Brian.
I don't know what happened. I may have been distracted and clicked wrong button

[dmolton]

Wondering where the best place to start with this project is? I've got a new MP40 coming my way and would love to be bale to control it from the Client app somehow.

Is there a zigbee sniffer or something that can detect the channel the driver is on? Once you got that, how do we know what to send the driver to switch modes or power output%? Neptune also has a module that lets you connect to the ecosmart driver while its in slave mode and I guess their module is set to master. It supports all their "eco-modes" or "smart modes" or whatever they're called. There's some screenshots of the ecotech RF module on their site and on ReefBuilders.. Not sure how that helps or where it fits in.. hmmm....

[rimai]

I did not have much time to do any more research on this.
I do have the sniffed serial data, but I highly doubt you would be able to sniff zigbee.
Maybe, I should try creating a prototype dev board to try to communicate with the RF module. My last attempt was not sucessful, but it was a very poor attempt.

[dmolton]

Understandable, Roberto.

Probably not very high on the priority list I would imagine.

Since purchasing one, I had a whole bunch of new ideas for the Client. I wanted to display the power output of the pump realtime on the screen. So as the arc shaped led's light up on the driver, I wanted to mirror that into the app as it was happening. This probably wouldn't be doable if the information from the driver was captured like the rest of the expansion modules. In that I would only see it every 15 seconds when I make a request for it. For the realtime action to work there would probably have to be a RF Module hooked up to the computer, but then you run into range issues and a whole separate application/process running on the computer actually driving the pump

However, it would be cool to program pump profiles into the RA and let the controller drive swap out profiles to the pump throughout the day. Have the swell mode run for a few hours, nutrient export for a few, and then pulse or something. I think that's what the Apex can do with the WXM module.

[rimai]

Yeah, that's the idea.
One day....

[rimai]

Hey Dave, I went and tried to make a better attempt on this matter and here is what I came up with.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3NdnS-Ococ[/youtube]

I can't seem to be able to swap the audio, so you get my TV as a bonus track

[chrome]

Ohhhhh looks like progress to me. Now mode switching!

Awesome work!

[rimai]

No need to switch modes....
You create your own
In that video I just made a cycle from 10 to 200 every 10s.
The range is 0 to 255.
But I could've created any waveform and any pattern imaginable
I knew I was close and it was just that my slopiness was in the way on my last attempt. Then I got frustrated and put it aside until yesterday.
All I need to do now is fine tune the master/slave assignments and get prototype boards made
I'll have to buy new equipment to test sync/anti-sync stuff too, but it will get there eventually.

[dmolton]

Seriously awesome work there, Roberto.
I like where this is headed. So in the video, you're driving the pump from the controller? Or are you displaying the output % from the pump and the vortech is still driving?

I'm expecting my pump tomorrow and definitely excited to see how this progresses.

Keep it up!

[rimai]

Pump is in slave mode and RA is assigned as master.
It's the controller that is changing the speed

[chrome]

How would you emulate a mode such as Reefcrest at 100% or NTM on the es models? I'm running 2 mp40's on the same side in sync mode.

So what you're saying is we would have to figure out the times that the mp40 ramps up/down and then program those times into our sketch?

What about feed/night modes? Just some stuff to think about.

[dmolton]

Maybe there's a way to capture and record each mode. Then it would just be a matter of rewriting the mode for the RA to drive... Maybe?

[rimai]

Isn't reefcrest just a random up/down mode? A little more aggressive than lagoon?
Feeding and night mode is easy. Just drive them at 0% for feeding and 10% for night, or whatever value you choose.
The manual actually has graphs of what exactly what each mode does.
http://ecotechmarine.com/wp-content/upl ... l_Rev4.pdf
Page 8

[bmhair03]

I have a MP10 you can borrow if needed.

[rimai]

Today I was able to accomplish master/slave assignment between RA and Vortech with one pump.
Hopefully, by the end of the week, I can get ahold of another RF module and get 2 slaves going.
But I'm very confident that I have what I needed to know to get the first prototype made.
I am still unable to decipher the ecotech emulation, but I can sure emulate constant, random, short and long pulse.

[bmhair03]

NIce .I cant wait. This will be awesome. You the Man!
I think if you can create your own program that would be just as good if not better then the ecotech emulations. Can you do the variable like "ReefCrest".

[rimai]

Yes, both Random Modes (ReefCrest and Lagoon) and both Pulse Mode (Short and Long) and Constant.
I'll try to get the ecomart ones soon.

[bmhair03]

Nice !

[phorge]

This is some very interesting developments and is what pushed me over the edge to purchase the controller. As far as getting the actual Ecotech emulation... if it truly is using Zigbee, could you use a Freakduino Chibi and Wireshark to sniff what is being sent back and forth?

Check this out...
http://freaklabsDOTorg/index.php/Tutori ... shark.html

If you use one of these boards...
http://www.freaklabsstoreDOTcom/index.p ... cts_id=187

it seems as if you can encapsulate the Zigbee 802.15.4 frames inside an ethernet packet that you can sniff with Wireshark. If this would aid you in making this all happen, I'm down for donating a few bucks to buy the board.

[rimai]

Update:

I got the RA to assign new slaves and control pumps on sync, anti-sync and back of tank.
This mean we will have full control of any pump speed and intensity on any position you decide to place it.
I have created emulation modes for constant, random (similar to reef crest and lagoonal), short and long pulses, feeding and night modes.
The ecosmart modes will need some more research.
I need to know how long the cycles last.
Maybe someone could make a youtube video with time lapse markings?
I know Tidal Swell is divided into 5 phases. I need to know how long each phase is and how long the total cycle is. The same for the Nutrient Trasnport mode, but this mode only has 2 phases.
Also, if anyone has any other creative emulation they would like to see, just post it here.

[chrome]

I thought NTM only had 2 phases as well, but its more chaotic than that. I've switched to this mode recently and have been loving it. I run it at 100%

It starts off with a fast pulse, goes into a surge, comes back with a short pulse. I'm not even sure what else it has, but it -seems- it is more than 2 phases to me. It's more chaotic than Reefcrest, and is at 100% more often.