09-08-2020, 11:24 PM
Hi Randy, welcome! I bet things have changed some, one things for sure, a lot more toys to spend your money on.
I do need to clean up the forum and should have done it long ago. Robo-Tank is still here but has undergone a change this year.
All the posts except for the ones found in the reef-pi forum are all in reference to the original controller, anything showing the graphical interface is no longer available. That was an Arduino based controller and had very limited web access, the display was the only way to navigate it. It was cool but having a slow loading display made it feel outdated and everyone wants full web access. It was more hardware involved so also cost more and there was very little interest mainly due to the cost but these other reasons definitely didn't help.
So I made the decision to park it and after some discussion with the developer of reef-pi I started selling hardware for it. reef-pi is an open source program that's been in development for the last few years. I'm also currently developing my own open source web app so hope to have an alternative at some point in the future, still too early for a possible release date but coming along. That's what's been going on around here.
I personally haven't used an Apex so not sure how easy it is but I would guess this could be a little more involved. The hardware isn't usually too difficult to connect, you can plug in all your AC devices and use sensors or timers to control and if you have any DC equipment they can be connected fairly easy. Sensors are fairly easy to add although there's a good chance at some point your need to cut and extend wires and add the screw terminal connectors. Using crimp connectors or the like you can avoid soldering. You can setup one or multiple ATOs. Currently you can only monitor pH, no salinity at this time.
The software does have a bit of a learning curve but isn't too difficult either. I do have some manuals explaining things and when you install reef-pi on your Raspberry Pi I have a script you can run that will setup a lot of reef-pi for the controller so you won't need to.
https://www.robo-tank.ca/reef-pi_Related_User_Manuals
reef-pi is a web app that runs in most browsers so you can access with most devices, using a compatible Pi touch screen won't work so well. Most people usually dedicate a cheap laptop or tablet and access it that way over wifi connection.
Hope this helps some, when you have more questions don't hesitate to ask.
Thanks
Rob
I do need to clean up the forum and should have done it long ago. Robo-Tank is still here but has undergone a change this year.
All the posts except for the ones found in the reef-pi forum are all in reference to the original controller, anything showing the graphical interface is no longer available. That was an Arduino based controller and had very limited web access, the display was the only way to navigate it. It was cool but having a slow loading display made it feel outdated and everyone wants full web access. It was more hardware involved so also cost more and there was very little interest mainly due to the cost but these other reasons definitely didn't help.
So I made the decision to park it and after some discussion with the developer of reef-pi I started selling hardware for it. reef-pi is an open source program that's been in development for the last few years. I'm also currently developing my own open source web app so hope to have an alternative at some point in the future, still too early for a possible release date but coming along. That's what's been going on around here.
I personally haven't used an Apex so not sure how easy it is but I would guess this could be a little more involved. The hardware isn't usually too difficult to connect, you can plug in all your AC devices and use sensors or timers to control and if you have any DC equipment they can be connected fairly easy. Sensors are fairly easy to add although there's a good chance at some point your need to cut and extend wires and add the screw terminal connectors. Using crimp connectors or the like you can avoid soldering. You can setup one or multiple ATOs. Currently you can only monitor pH, no salinity at this time.
The software does have a bit of a learning curve but isn't too difficult either. I do have some manuals explaining things and when you install reef-pi on your Raspberry Pi I have a script you can run that will setup a lot of reef-pi for the controller so you won't need to.
https://www.robo-tank.ca/reef-pi_Related_User_Manuals
reef-pi is a web app that runs in most browsers so you can access with most devices, using a compatible Pi touch screen won't work so well. Most people usually dedicate a cheap laptop or tablet and access it that way over wifi connection.
Hope this helps some, when you have more questions don't hesitate to ask.
Thanks
Rob
