Aquacontroller External switch, anyone use it?

[Brad A.]

Does anyone use the external switch option on the aquacontroller 2? If you do, I would like to know how to wire an off or on switch application. For example, a float switch or what ever could be off or on.

Thanks
Brad

[tentacle]

Hi Brad,

I have no experience with the AC II, but I'll bump this up for you. You may also want to post this in the Lighting, Filtration & Other Equipment (http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumid=212) forum.

[JB NY]

Hey Brad did you ever work this out? I just hooked a float switch into the AQ over the weekend.

[Brad A.]

Yes, I downloaded the aquacontroller manual from neptune's website. This is a really cool feature.

Thanks
Brad

[in2deep]

I had Kurt @ Neptune send me a serial cable with the leads ready to hook-up to a float switch in the sump and will have the audible alarm and cell phone page alarm activated to warn of power out or "return pump" failure if the water level rises and trips the float switch. Does anybody know the exact language to program into the Aq2 to enable what i described? The computer lingo screws me up every time i try to program anything new even though it seems so simple in the manual i usually get tripped up with one of the characters. Thanks, Mike.

[JB NY]

Here's mine

If Switch1 OPEN Then SWA OFF
If Switch1 CLOSED Then SWA ON
If Switch1 CLOSED Then ALM ON

SWA is my switch alarm, right now it's just an red light for a visual signal.

ALM is my alarm, I use the aquanotes program to send out a page when it trips.

HTH

[in2deep]

Thanks Joe- youdaman!

[mhurley]

Originally posted by in2deep
I had Kurt @ Neptune send me a serial cable with the leads ready to hook-up to a float switch in the sump and will have the audible alarm and cell phone page alarm activated to warn of power out or "return pump" failure if the water level rises and trips the float switch.

1. How much did this cable cost you?
2. Is that all it can do is set the alarm off? Couldn't I program it to start a dosing pump or something like that? (program it in the in the reverse of the above).

Thanks,
Mike

[JB NY]

Mike, you can do whatever you want with the switch. The nice thing is that once the switch changes states you can have anything re-act that is controller by the AQ2. I played with it some more tonight and added a line of code to shut off the top-off water when the switch trips. My switch is hooked up to sense if the water level in the sump, is 1/2 too low or 1/2 inch too high. So if my top-off float switch sticks, the AQ switch will step in and shut down the pump for my makeup water. It will also trip my alarm and send out a page to me.

[Playfair]

I too hooked this switch up to a high level sump float switch, which besides setting off the alarm will turn off the top off in case the first float switch fails.

I made a "barrel" connector with a DB-9pin Female on one side, and male on the other (I have a serial extension cable after the ACII serial cable). There are 2 leads coming out ready to wire to a switch. FWIW, I got enough parts to make up a couple of these connectors, so if anyone is interested drop me a PM. Cost would be around $5 plus $3 to ship.

If you really want to bake your noodle, those of us not running an ORP probe may be able to use that input for something else... I'm working on either a water detector for the bottom of the cabinet, or a second temperature sensor to look at room temperature for early warning of heat or air cond failure.

[mhurley]

Playfair,

Just tell me where to send the money!!!

Mike

[Baalz]

Oh this is what i need!
I have a litermeter 30 feet away that i would like to have shut down if level gets to high since my evap seems to fluctuate some.
SO this is wired into the serial connector.. can you still have it connected to a PC also? What level switch are you guys using..
somebody set me up!

[Mako]

Baalz - Hook up with Playfair in PM and get one of his modified serial connectors. I got mine from him the other day and will be tinkering with it this weekend. Here is the float switch I will be using. http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/searchresults.jsp Need to go by Grainger later today and pick it up.

[Baalz]

mako, bad link whats the part number?

[JB NY]

You can do it yourself if you want. If you have their serial connector, I think most have this, the 9pin serial (the part that connects to your PC) is easy to open up. When you open it up, you have to splice into the wire connected to pin #8. So splice into it, and you have one of the wires needed. The other wire is one that is not connected to anything on the serial connector, mine was the red wire. Take that and connect those to you switch. That's it.

[JB NY]

Baalz, I used this float from grainger PN 2A554

[in2deep]

MHurley, I forgot how much Kurt charged since it was a while ago but over $35.00 if i remember right. Was worth it to me since it is all Greek for my brain to figure out and i have a hard enough time figuring out how to program it without reading the manual 20 times and washing down 2 extra strength Tylenols with a scotch to help with the ensuing headache. I do like the idea about the float switch set to trip off the top-off solenoid in case it sticks on........cool idea there.

[mhurley]

Cool.....$10 to Playfair for a serial connector, I've already got the float switch...hook it all up and I'm in biz!!!

I've got my kalk reactor on a dosing pump filling 4 gallons or so a day. I'm going to use this as a fail safe, it the water level gets too high, shut down the dosing pump.

Thanks all!
Mike

[Baalz]

JBNY,
Im confused on the pins your talking about. Im here about ready to solder on some wires etc.
Looking at the serial port interface pinout on the manual I have to flip it over to do the tone out of the connectors on the cable plug. I have toned out the wires on the serial cable. pin 8 is a ground thats connect to the yellow wire along with pin 4 which is also a ground. the red wire is actually pin 2 the external switch input.
This sounds like what i would still want but you just said you grabbed a loose wire which was the red one in your case. Here is what i toned out.

__6__ __7 __ blk __8__ YW


__3__ OR __4__ YW __5__ GR


__1__ BR __2__ RED


This is looking at the end of the serial connector that goes into the ACII.

Should I still use pin 2 and 8? the red and yellow wire?

[JB NY]

OK maybe I'm confusing you. You should be looking at the 9pin male din connector that attaches to the PC, NOT the connector that attaches to the AQ2.

This is from Neptune systems, who told me how to do it, it worked fine. If you open the case for the connector, you will find two wires that are not connected to anything (they told my one, but I found two), one wire (in my case the red one, but I found this by trial and error) is one of the wires connect to the switch. The other wire is connected to pin number 8 (if you look on the back of the connector,where the pins attach, you will see that they are numbered) this is the wire you splice into. Then you just take those two wires and hook them them to the switch.

I hope that makes sense.

[Baalz]

The two loose wires were a red and a black. the red one is pin 2 the "external switch input" The black wire is connected to pin 7 which is listed as "reserved". Pin 8 is the yellow wire which is ground.
To me it would make sense for this to be the red wire, which is the external switch input. and the yellow one which is the ground.

I guess i will have to call Neptune to clarify this.

[JB NY]

Yeah I agree with you, but that's what neptue told me to do. It worked fine.

Give em a call.

[Baalz]

Ok Neptune said its pins 1 and 2 on the din that your supposed to use.. in my case that was the brown and red wire. The red wire was loose the brown wire was attached. They also told me you cant go by the colors cause it depends when it was made.

Now on another note..
I wired it, programed AQII, tested it and it WORKS!!! just waiting on my grainger part to arrive..

[vmiller]

Ok guys, I have the grainger float valve mentioned above connected to the loose red wire and the brown wire from pin 8 of the PC end of the Aquacontroller to PC serial cable.

I also set up a test x10 module to go on and off when the switch opens and closes.

Nothing. :(

What am I missing? Does the float switch need to be wired to a plug and plugged into the wall in addition to the serial connection to the Aquacontroller? The manual says the IO connection shouldn't receive more than 5V, so I'm thinking this is not the case.

I tried the loose black wire instead of the red one and still nothing. I made the wire connections just by wrapping the ends around eachother. I didn't solder or use a wire nut. I figured this would be enough just to see if it works.

I also have the Pro model of the Aquacontroller, but I don't think that makes a difference.

Thanks,
Vin

[clp]

On the AquaControllerPro the inputs are on the I/O connector, not the unused pins of serial connector. One wire of the switch should connect to input 1 or input 2, and the other wire should be connected to the ground pin. No extra voltage source, etc. is required. You can find the pinout diagrams at the end of the AquaControllerPro manual; you can download it from the support section of www.neptunesys.com.

Curt

[vmiller]

Thanks Curt.

Ahh, I have two switches. :) I was wondering why I bought two float valves. (I bought them a long time ago and haven't had the time to set them up)

Since it is the serial connector that I'll be cutting up to wire to the float valves, what pin numbers do pins 1 and 2 on the I/O connector end up being on the serial connector?

Also, how do I program the second switch? When going through the options of adding a new statement, I only remember seeing 'switch1'.

Thanks,
Vin

[AcroSteve]

I think there is only one switch input. You can hook up two switches to it and read either one, but not differentiate which one it is without some other steps.

[clp]

On the Pro there are 2 switch inputs; there are program statements for switch1 and switch2. The serial cable can't be used on the Pro's I/O connector as some mindin 8 pins don't have any wires connected to them. You need a minidin 8 connector so that you can attach your float switch wires. We have them if you can't find them anywhere else.

Curt