ATO timer

[reefsal]

Hello
I set up my ATO with a float in my sump to open a 12volt valve in my equipment.  I would like the ATO to work on a timer. I want the ATO to run twice a day for 10 minutes and not continuously.  i tried setting up macros to be triggered by timers but it did not work.  How can i do this?

[Rob F]

Hi, so you want to run ATO based on time instead of sensors? That should be possible using the "timers" tab. Add your ATO pump to the "equipment" tab so you can turn it on/off manually. Once that works go to "timers" tab, create a timer and for control select the ATO pump from the equipment dropdown box. This page explains how to use timers.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uFP4...=h.2p2csry

[Rob F]

One thing I should add, you'll notice in the timers you can select an option to have the timer turn something on and off after a set delay, don't use that feature. Instead create 2 separate timers, one to turn on the pump at say 9:00 am and then another to turn it off at say 9:10am.

If you use the same timer for both and the Pi restarts between the two times the port may be stuck on until the next schedule comes around to turn it off. With a separate off timer if Pi restarts at 9:05am it'll still know at 9:10 to turn off the pump.

[reefsal]

One thing I should add, you'll notice in the timers you can select an option to have the timer turn something on and off after a set delay, don't use that feature. Instead create 2 separate timers, one to turn on the pump at say 9:00 am and then another to turn it off at say 9:10am.

If you use the same timer for both and the Pi restarts between the two times the port may be stuck on until the next schedule comes around to turn it off. With a separate off timer if Pi restarts at 9:05am it'll still know at 9:10 to turn off the pump.

Thanks, but what I want to do is turn on the ato twice a day, not just the fill valve.  I don’t want the float to be constantly checking a replacing a little bit of water throughout the day.  I want to turn on the ato twice a day so the float can check the level and fill if it’s low.  This prevents salt creep in my ro filter and makes the solenoid cycle a lot less.

[Rob F]

Instead of one sensor for ATO how about two, one for low level and one for high level? Like that the pump would only run when level gets low. Here's a page showing how to set that up.

https://www.robo-tank.ca/forum/Thread-Se...73#pid5673

[reefsal]

I will probably do that , but I would still like to use the timer to run the ato.