what would your dream controller do??

[tzenda]

thats it, tell me what you want to measure, turn off/on, log, alarm, ect.

dont get your hopes up i just want to see what people are tryin to do.

[elephen]

It would run everything so all I have to worry about is where to find more money for corals.

Well if it could print money to and do online orders and have the stuff juts show up, yeah that would be great to.

[Falko]

I would like it to control light intensity of my actinics. But I think that is not possible.

[perpetual98]

Min would control all the lights, be easily programmable, monitor temp/Ph/Ca/etc, be wireless, hook up to my WAN and allow me to check anything I need from a web browser anywhere I am. Oh yeah, it would also allow me to stream a webcam to a browser too.

[Travis L. Stevens]

Whether or not ANY of this is possible, this is what I would like to see.

--Measures
Temp
SG
pH
Alk
Ca
Ammonia
Nitrates

--Controls
On/Off lights (Auto)
On/Off pumps (manual) - for feeding and maintenance
Auto-Dose Ca/alk
Control pumps/powerheads (like a tunze controller does)
Allows a "wavemaker" option
Ability to dim lights instead of On/Off

--Misc
ONE PLUG! I would have a huge box to plug the lights, pumps, etc into that way only one plug goes into the wall. Basically make it a built in GFCI

[MiddletonMark]

Add to that control of heater/chiller/fans. [temp control, allowing lights/equip to turn off in case of high heat]

I'd like it to email/notify me [or be able to] when parameters get past a certain range [like temp >81.5 or <75].

[perpetual98]

Oh yeah, it would also have adjustable settings for automatically acclimating new livestock.

[MiddletonMark]

It would be made by someone in my reef club, so they could give it to me to test

j/k

[orion76]

My dream controller would scrape algae and siphon detritus

[chlupl]

I'm with orion on the algea bit... maybe stir the gravel bed once a week... I find that is a great feeding source for some of the filter feeders...

Steven

[gillies]

Wher can I get one that will turkey baste my rocks?

[garbled]

Essentially, my dream "controller" is the lighthouse controller, with additional probes. I don't really want one that really controls things directly, I want one that monitors everything and just tells me about them.

I want to monitor PH, O2, NH3, Nitrates, Ca, ORP, Spec Grav., Alk, Temp. I know some of these cannot be monitored continually yet. But my key features are really the ability to store and graph all the values over the past day, week, month and year. Ideally it would just have lots of BNC ports where I could program in the value settings to convert from the raw probe data into whatever I needed, so when a new probe comes out, I could attach it, set the numbers, and then label it as a "Alk" probe.

Most importantly, it needs to be ethernet connected, and have a little webpage on it. I also want it to store all the values in a file that is accessible via httpd, like a CSV file I can download into a spreadsheet or database of my own and work with.

[T Man]

This is my wildest dream.......a remotely controlled submarine with a camera that can transmit realtime water and temp. data to and from any telephone or computer. And when you get done playing around with it, it continuosly scrapes the algae off your glass like that fancy vacuum! I think I'd sell some organs to have something like that...........would'nt it be someting though? Tinman

[easttn]

Mine would control time and space. I'd like to put on a mask, tank, reg, and flips hit the controller, and be here:


Anybody been to the desert planet Arrakis? Me and Muad’Dib did some Spice together. Man we were trippin!

[miwoodar]

I want one that does something worthwhile for less than $400.

[Criminal#58369]

I wold like all those features, and such as an auto fagging system, coral growth monitoring, fish monitoring (such as stress levels and automatically adjusts the tank to help reduce it) feed the tank and corals. Maybe some other things too... like do water changes (automatically mix salt to desired salinity mix for a few days than do water change.)

Oh and its affordable.

[rkcca]

A dream controller would monitor all the vital parameters and include a "happy ending".

[rustybucket145]

I'm stealing some ideas from Travis.... sorry buddy.

-Measures, charts and uploads data to a nice web statistics program that's modifiable and scalable, kinda like iGoogle homepage. So basically, no matter where I am I could log in and get tank stat updates... kinda like a stock ticker... updated every 10min or so.

Temp
SG
pH
Alk
Ca
Ammonia
Nitrates
Room Temp
Outside Temp

--Controls
On/Off lights (Auto)
On/Off pumps (manual) - for feeding and maintenance
Auto-Dose Ca/alk
Control pumps/powerheads (like a tunze controller does)
Allows a "wavemaker" option
Ability to dim lights instead of On/Off

--Water Alarm... When water hits the floor everything shuts down. I get an alert email, cell phone call & work call.

--Misc
ONE PLUG! I would have a huge box to plug the lights, pumps, etc into that way only one plug goes into the wall. Basically make it a built in GFCI

Video Monitor!! Video monitor and stream from 5 or 6 cameras to show livestock. Ability to pan/zoom at least one camera.

This is the BIG one for me!! I want it to be fully controllable via web interface. For example if I'm out of town I want to be able to shut down pumps, skimmer, lights...etc. System override if you will. So if for some reason I'm seeing a temp spike for some reason I can kill the halides to keep things from getting out of hand.