Chiller support

[TilmanBaumann]

I noticed something that would be quite useful. With summer temperatures creeping way over the 30s, I'm faced with the need to cool my aquarium. (Ideally it should stay around 26 degrees)

I found a really cheap peltier element based in-line chiller which was originally designed for jellyfish aquariums. Unfortunately this chiller is un-regulated or not regulated very well. And I don't want it to get in a thermal tug of war with my heater.

It would be quite nice if chiller type outlets cold be temperature regulated like heaters in robo-tank.
Also with that requirement, I noticed that it could be quite useful to be able to slave outlets to others. I could do it differently, but it could be quite convenient to have a separate pump for the chiller. Which would only need to run when the chiller is active. Obviously a y lead would do the job. But just slaving the state of one outlet to another one would too. :)

[Rob F]

Hi Tilman, this is something I will be adding, you can get it working today using one of the heaters if you make a change to the display sketch.

Using v2.2 package open the display sketch and find line 34246 and you'll see the function, heat2PinOn().

Then scroll down to line 34284 and you'll see a function, heat2PinOff().

Change the names around on these two functions.

Change heat2PinOn() to heat2PinOff()
and change heat2PinOff() to heat2PinOn()

Then upload and use the 2nd heater settings for the chiller. On in the settings will be off and vice versa.

Sorry I'm not sure what you mean when you say slave outlets to others?

[TilmanBaumann]

Ah, nice hack. I will do that.

With slaving I mean, this chiller support will change the state on one outlet.
If I wanted another outlet to follow this function I would have no way of setting this up.
I can do it electrically, but logically would be quite useful too.

[Rob F]

Ah yes, I do plan to allow more outlets for heaters and chillers. Still a lot to do. :)

[Steve S]

Ah, nice hack. I will do that.

With slaving I mean, this chiller support will change the state on one outlet.
If I wanted another outlet to follow this function I would have no way of setting this up.
I can do it electrically, but logically would be quite useful too.

I am currently contemplating hard wiring two outlets as slaves on my controller.  Since I chose a large enough cabinet  to accommodate the power supply for my LED lights, I had room for ten local AC outlets. I am still debating whether to make them constant power or internally tie them to another outlet and share a relay. The net effect would be the same as using a "Y" cord post outlet.  As long as I am not using them together for high draw heaters that will exceed the 10 amp relay rating limit, I'm OK. I thought that I would use them for tidal flow control of my Koralia circulating pumps, two on one side ON, then two on the other side ON while the other side turns OFF. All timer controlled. That is until I can switch to some nice DC circulators with pwm control! Why spend all that money on Vortech when you've got all that control with Robo-Tank.  
On that note, does anyone know where you can find reliable DC circulating pumps. I've tried to see if I can purchase just the Jebao fan motor, but I can only find them with the controllers.

Also, great idea to tie the circulating pump together with the chiller via R-T. My one chiller that's on a separate pump from the main runs constantly.

It will be nice to tie the outlets together via software. Great enhancement for a future update, Rob!

[Rob F]

I've never thought of slaving outlets, I'm gonna have to give that more thought. As you know the relay board has a maximum of 10amps, if you need more you can use those single relay boards to avoid that 10amp max and use different circuits in the house.

I have a couple Jabao pumps but they did come with the controller. Still a good price though compared to others.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-Jebao-Wavemak...1324934641

[Guest]

I guess some simple boolean logic for outlets could be even more generally useful. ;)
Like, outlet C == Outlets A AND B

[Rob F]

Yeah I'll have to give it some thought, the GUI is the tough thing so it makes sense.