Tank Journal Archive

[Rob]

Thought I would detail the control aspect of my aquarium..
I use the Profilux (3.1N) for control and have a Raspberrypi (RPi) gathering profilux data over the network and providing long term trends of the data, which supplement the profilux displays. The RPi (Subject of another thread) also does another important function for the profilux and that is to provide a wifi connection to the wired Ethernet port of the profilux. Thus RPi is configured as a router to the home wifi network and just sits on top of the 3.1N

Image: Profilux 3.1N

The decision was made when I read a thread on the Reefangel (which I was seriously considering at the time) which had the active / neutral reversed so their relay was actually switching the neutral and not the active and they could not advise users how many units were wired like this. So the primary (only) reason I chose the Profilux route was the PAB digital powerbar which has the AU plugs and the overall unit CE approved. It would have been even better to have Australian ctick approval however suggest at least having AU plugs on a CE certified device is one step better than the alternatives. European or US plugs or a DIY Frankenstein or an incorrectly wired Reefangel. (http://forum.reefangel.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=678)

Model:

• GHL Profilux 3.1N Ethernet with built in web server, with 6 channel PAB digital 240VAC powerbar

Options:

• 1 x 4 analog output expansion (now a total of 8, 0-10VDC outputs)
• 1 x ORP expansion
• 1 x 12VDC relay output board connected to S1-S4 port. (Custom cable to http://www.futurlec.com.au/Opto_Relay_4.jsp ) Provides 4 x 12VDC outputs for ATO and AWC pumps, Drain and fill)

Functions:

• LEDs: Control of 7 channels of LED lights. profilux is direct connected to Inventronics LED 240VAC drivers.
• Moon: Moonlight controls one of the 0-10V channels. Can only change brightness on a set path, it does not follow the lunar cycle.
• ATO: Controlled via a single float switch, pump is using the Tunze ATO pump 12VDC direct connected via relay board (S1)
• AWC: Daily scheduled to change 8l/day using ATO float and additional low level float. Drain and fill is again via Tunze 12VDC ATO pumps (S2,S3)
• Temp: Temperature control is simply via the std temperature probe controlling a Jager 250W heater via the 240VAC powerbar. Set at 25C day and nocturnal 24.5 DegC
• Cooling: 4 fan unit controlled by analog output. (Works well however invested in house AC so little use now)
  
• Email: 12 Hour email of sensor data plus alarm email on ATO,AWC or high/low parameter reading.
• Sensor: Temperature, pH, ORP and two level switches in the sump
• Vortech -Co-ordination of two pumps MP10WES & MP40WES via wifi connection

Connectivity:

• IOS application, -Mobile phone application
• Profilux control -PC based configuration
• Web Server

- Built in web server provides interface for standard motioning and manual overrides.
- Custom user defined web page, configured to provide sensor status in a simplified string, data separated by spaces. This allows Raspberrypi to request Profilux data, return a data string to the RPi so it can log the data for long term and comparisons.
Example return string from Profilux: 8.16pH: 25.0C: 345mV:On:On:Off:Off:Off:Off:Off:Off:Off:Off:Off:Off:Offf: 0%: 0%: 0%: 0%: 0%: 0%: 97%​

The Good: :)

• Overall seems very reliable and not too many program / software bugs.
  
• Setup is quite easy once you navigate around.
• Changing pump programs during the day (or have different sequences for each day of the week) is fantastic feature, you can really mix it up and give the tank a blast occasionally. I did have the tunze USB stream controller when I first setup the tank, pretty shit features however suggest profilux with the tunze cable adapters would create another world of capabilities for multiple tunze stream pumps.
  
• Shows amps for each channel of the powerbar -nice feature.Being able to co-ordinate channels to Feed and Maint is a ice feature. i.e. when I feed now I can turn off one vortech and set the vortech pushing away from the return at 10%, reduces skimming of food into the weir.
• Alarms (Email) and disables AWC or ATO if there is an issue, until the alarm is reset. i.e. if you run out of NSW it will not continue to try AWC in the future.
• Firmware updates work OK, although have to use serial cable direct to PC.
• Illumination for DIY LED's is great although thought clouds, thunder rainy days would be cool. Clouds are not soo cool as my leathers got confused on polyp extension "out or in" so they ended up for most of the day closed up. I have since turned my clouds off.. i did spend a lot of time planning my LED fixture and drivers and hoped I could see a cloud pass over the DT, not to be the case in the end for a number of reasons.

The Bad: :(

• Vortech does not co-ordinate Ecosmart modes between multiple pumps (edit). -Although think this is a limitation imposed by Ecotech
• Cannot acknowledge ATO or AWC alarms unless using PC Profi-Control application. Really shit because unless the alarm is acknowledged the function does not execute. You can have it auto acknowledge however defeats the purpose some what.
• Would be good if custom programing was more flexible and be able to use timers in the programming environment. Custom program cannot start a timer.
• You can only set a short time shift for cloud coverage between mutliple channels. You don't really see the cloud difference between a right / left channel as can only do something like a 30sec delay between channels when clouds are active.
  
• Dosing pumps are a ridiculous price. Although I ave a cunning plan, a $19.00 opto isolated relay board connected to S4-S8. Same as my ATO/AWC pumps
  
• Would be really nice to have built in wifi.
• Trends are quite limiting, although zoom function works well.
  
• Light composer only has a limited number of LED's. Would be nice if you could add your own LED spectrum so you can create the colour temperature visualization.
• Software updated every 2 months (Good) not many features added (bad).

The Bad List seems long however, Would I buy again ?..... :D Absolutely :D

Additional features on the list to add for 2014:

• Would like another 6 way PAB powerbar, more to clean up my current power arrangement in the cabinet. Really little else I would want to be able to control through the 240VAC powerbar switching. Although maybe nice to turn off the skimmer for a while after a coral feed.
  
• I will connect another relay board to the S4-S8 port. The relays will drive my Alk,Ca,Mg ,NoPox dosing pumps which are currently controlled by a marine magic dosing computer.. Profilux software timers (which are set for dosing) don't care if they use profilux dosers or any output channel.

Final Thoughts:
Having a 3.1N and initially trying to justify $$ and what it is doing I decided I would go down the path of DIY LED's, as its great at illumination (using analog drivers). Over the last 2 years LED's and their on-board controllers may end up taking market share away from the likes of GHL as I am sure a lot of people purchased them for control of lighting. They need to be careful especially with lower cost units becoming available... I will be buying the profilux feeder when it becomes available, hopefully this year however they do have to step up and create some innovative products / solutions or their market share will decline, after all a feeder is not innovative !

 

[Synodontis]

You will now have lots of friends following you @Rob who will want to know the complete ins & outs of your impressive setup :)
If I wasn't so tired I would be asking questions lol.

 

[Sam Parker]

that is exactly what I am doing K&J, following!

Rob, can you share some pictures of your setup? I'm more of a visual type of person, so would help the details sink in a little more :)
Thanks for sharing!
Sam

 

[Ben S]

Hi Rob,
The vortech controller does support the Ecotech modes, you just can't specify the positions of the pumps, other than the Back pump. I did ask GHL to include this option, but it seems they have no plans too.

Ben

 

[macca_75]

@Rob - you forgot to include hacking your Eheim auto feeder and having it fired by the "Feed mode" ;) - C'mon - you know you want to...

 

[Sam Parker]

do share!

 

[macca_75]

do share!

Do you have the word "hack" tagged or something @Sam Parker ? ;)

 

[Sam Parker]

hahahaha, I do enjoy a good DIY hack!

 

[Rob]

Profilux Mounting
Bit the bullet and cutout the front of the tank, My power/control cabinet is full (on the LHS) so fitting the profilux in the panel should help to start clearing up the wiring in this cupboard. Too embarrassed to give you a shot inside it just ye :)

 

[macca_75]

Next thing you need to bite the bullet and do @Rob is crack out the Nikkon and put the iPhone down ;)

I know your tank is 1000 times better in person than this pic shows.

But well done on the integration of the Profilux. If I know your attention to detail it will be spot on.

 

[Rob]

My attention to detail is good but my jigsaw skills could do with some improving

May need a bezzel around it eventually, however at least its kind of in place. Longer term I need a rear support that it can soit on and some cable management.

 

[macca_75]

Sounds like a job for a 3D printer @Rob. Bezel, Cable Management, rear support... All plastic bits.

 

[Rob]

Have finally got my Raspberrypi monitor back online. Since changing over to profilux I had moved my pH,Orp and temp monitoring over to the profilux. However raspberrypi trending allows me to compare week-to-week, day-to-day etc so I think its better than the standard profilux trends.


So I need to now collect this data from the profilux instead of the direct connected probes I used to run. the first thing to do is load a user defined web page within the profilux, lucky enough that real easy as profilux provides some keywords. just embed them into a text file, save it on the profilux then you just call up the web page on the profilux and it fills the data in.

sensordata.html Loaded into the profilux 3.1N

$$SENV[0]$$ $$SENV[6]$$ $$SENV[1]$$

Raspberrypi then uses a special command called curl. this command is really cool as it retrieves a web site as plain text. You can specify part of a web site or even execute commands through forms. I ahve to authenticate the request by providing user password before profilux provides the page, curl handles all this and much more.

The is the full script which runs on the Raspberrypi to retrieve profilux data ph orp temp then store them in its database called rrdtools

#!/bin/bash
#title       :Profilux 3.1N Read Script
#description :Read sensor data from profilux 3.1N, range test then write data to file
#author      :R Conway
#date        :June 2014
#version     :1
#usage       :Start script in background [nohup /var/script/ghlscan >/dev/null &]
#=======================================================================

#<<<< Relies on Profilux 3.1N User web page >>>>#
  # The follwing single line is saved within a file called sensordata.html and stored onto the Profilux
  # $$SENV[0]$$ $$SENV[6]$$ $$SENV[1]$$


while true ;do

###  Read pH, ORP and Temp from GHL profilux 3.1N ###
data=$(echo `curl -s -d name="XXXX" -d pass="XXXXX" 192.168.1.XX:XX/sensordata.html`)

### Write data to webcam picture
/usr/bin/wget --delete-after "http://192.168.1.24:9080/0/config/set?text_left=Aquaruium Data\n$data" 2>/dev/null

### Format data -strip spaces and units
data=$(echo "$data" | sed -e 's:mV::' -e 's:pH::' -e 's:C::' -e 's:    ::g')
ReefPH=$(echo "$data" | awk '{printf "%3.2f\n",($2)}')
ReefORP=$(echo "$data" | awk '{printf "%3.2f\n",($3)}')
ReefTemp=$(echo "$data" | awk '{printf "%3.2f\n",($4)}')

### Out of Range Error trap -Do not log data (U=Undefined data) ###
orptest=`echo $ReefORP |cut -f1 -d'.'`
  if [ -z $orptest ] || [ $orptest -gt 500 ] ||[ $orptest -lt 0 ] ; then
   echo "`date` Reef Tank ORP reading error $orp" >>/var/scripts/nohup.out
   ReefORP="U"
    fi
phtest=`echo $ReefPH |cut -f1 -d'.'`
  if [ -z $phtest ] || [ $phtest -gt 10 ] ; then
   echo "`date` Reef Tank pH Reading Error $ph" >>/var/scripts/nohup.out
   ReefPH="U"
    fi
T1test=`echo $ReefTemp |cut -f1 -d'.'`
  if [ -z $T1test ] || [ $T1test -gt 50 ]; then
   echo "`date` Reef Tank Temperature reading error $ReefTemp" >>/var/scripts/nohup.out
   ReefTemp="U"
    fi

## Used for testing only  -normally comment lines out
# echo "=================="
# echo "pH  Reading :"$ReefPH
# echo "ORP Reading :"$ReefORP
# echo "Reef   Temp :"$ReefTemp

### Push data into txt file for web gauges ###
sec=$(/bin/date +%s)
echo "$sec 0 5 & \
Acidity $ReefPH 0 8.5 7.5 8.8 8.0 0 0 0 0 1 0 & \
ORP $ReefORP 0 500 200 450 10 0 0 0 0 1 0 & \
ReefTemp $ReefTemp 0 30 20 26.5 24.5 0 0 0 1 1 1 & \
Spare1 0 0 100 0 0 40 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 & \
Spare2 0 0 100 0 0 40 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 &" >/var/www/aqua_tag.txt

### Push Data into Trend File ###
rrdtool update /var/www/rrd/Marine.rrd N:$ReefPH:$ReefORP:$ReefTemp:0:0:0:0:0:0:0

sleep 90
done