Benfits of the Neptune contoller?

[five.five-six]

I am not in your club but I just caught this thread. I got my first ACII when they were first released, and was thrilled with it. I think I was running windows 3.1 at the time and I still work with command driven platforms to this day. personally I find G.U.I.s to be cumbersome. I did have a lock up problem when I was hosting a info widget. I do have com problems with my ACJr. on my SPS Pico but that is caused by my p.o.s. serial adapter. the only real issue I have with my ACIII is that the DC-8 has trouble controlling small loads like a SP-3000, it gets stuck on. two fixes for that, either get a DC-4 (I needed the ports so that was NP) or plug a small nightlight in the dc-8 port and plug your small load in to the nightlight.

if you are having lockup problems, I would try a surge suppressor and the ground isolator

on to advantages

control heater and chiller, no overlap and smaller gap
have it dose kalkwaser under 8.15
have it page you or turn on a light if you run out of Kalk
run your 2 part dosing pumps 15 minutes a night, ca/ALK low? add a minute or two, high, shorten a minute or two
tank gets too hot in the summer for the chiller to keep up, set a lights off temp
feeding? plug all your pumps in the dc8, they all shut off at the touch of a button
out of town a lot? I was in Hawaii when I checked in on my tank, temp was 84, figured out the sump had gone dry, it was 2:00am at home, raised my ph to 8.35, got enough Kalk to prime the pump, next morning called to remind my house sitter to add top off water.

the graphs are super cool
ORP monitoring and or control
seasonal lighting/moon/temperature tables
ant to do something innovative? post up your slate in Neptune's forum and CLP will fix it for ya (sorry curt)

here is mine, feel free to use it and modify it

Timer Names
FUG$-A03
LT1$-A01
LT2$-A05
OZ3#-B04
DOS#-B01
ALK#-A04
COL%-A07
HET%-A02
FAN%-B03
WT1&-B02
WT2&-A06
WT3&-A08
LUN$-C01


Program Statements
If Sun 000/120 Then LT2 ON
If Sun 120/000 Then LT1 ON
If Timer LT1 = ON Then LT2 OFF
If ORP < 300 Then OZ3 ON
If ORP > 301 Then OZ3 OFF
If Temp > 79.9 Then COL ON
If Temp < 79.8 Then COL OFF
If Temp > 79.6 Then FAN ON
If Temp < 79.5 Then FAN OFF
If Temp < 76.9 Then HET ON
If Temp > 77.0 Then HET OFF
If Temp > 80.2 Then LT2 OFF
Max Change 015 M Then LT2 OFF
If pH < 08.05 Then DOS ON
If pH > 08.06 Then DOS OFF
If Timer LT1 = ON Then FUG OFF
If Timer LT1 = OFF Then FUG ON
RND 030/005 ON/OFF Then WT1 ON
RND 030/015 ON/OFF Then WT2 ON
RND 030/015 ON/OFF Then WT3 ON
If FeedA 000 Then WT1 OFF
If FeedA 000 Then WT2 OFF
If FeedA 000 Then WT3 OFF
If Time > 00:01 Then ALK ON
If Time > 00:16 Then ALK OFF
If Moon -001/-001 Then LUN ON


and just for fun here is a graph

[abark]

I have an AC jr. and love it. When I upgrade my tank I will go to the AC III. I have only had one issue with it and that was when I had the DC 8 sitting on the floor and I spilled water on it and fried the DC 8. I posted in the neptune forum about getting a new unit as everyone was sold out and was told to call to get a quick response. If you have a pressing issue I would suggest calling and Curt will be happy to help.

[ieatchinese]

Anybody controlling X10 lamp mondules etc with their ACIII? If anyone know of some good sources for directions on how to connect X10 products and then how to control them programatically, it would be great. As my previous post stated, the user manual is severely lacking...especially in the area of programming examples. I could not find anything about X10 except the statement that it can control X10 modules.

[jglackin]

I use X10s and I have a DC8. The best way to learn how to use the X10 module is download the ACII manual and use that as your guide.

[glh156]

I couldn't find a better thread to jump into and ask this question, but does anyone know where to purchase the battery back-up for the ACIII? I've tried the general sources Ebay, the vendor and so on... but I'm not having much luck.... any ideas?

[aiko670]

Originally posted by glh156
I couldn't find a better thread to jump into and ask this question, but does anyone know where to purchase the battery back-up for the ACIII? I've tried the general sources Ebay, the vendor and so on... but I'm not having much luck.... any ideas?

I don't believe anyone makes one. I've seen threads on how to make your own out of a 9v battery though. I've also heard that the 9v batteries don't last long so I got another AC adapter and plugged it in to a very small APC UPS.