Understanding the AQ

[bbrantley]

Hi folks,

I've had my AQ since one of the group buys half a year ago, but only now am I getting around to setting up my tank and making this thing work! I have some questions for the group. In no particular order:

1. What is up with half a plug strip not working?

I have two plug strips. Both were working okay until this afternoon when an overload condition apparently shut one of the two strips down. Yesterday I had an overload at the breaker on a 15A circuit, so I moved my plug strip to a 20A circuit and everything seemed to be working again. Today I what looked like a similar failure mode except my circuit breaker did not trip.

Since then, I unplugged everything and rerouted my wiring (for reasons unrelated to the overload mentioned above). I plugged in the controller and hit Reset on it, and it will only detect plugs A through D on the one power strip. The other strip shows A through H as I would expect.

I am wondering if I have blown an internal fuse or something? What are these things fused at, and are there two separate fuses for two separate banks of plugs? It would be nice to have this info so I can correctly plug in a lot of high-load devices. Finally, how do I fix this? It looks like I'm not supposed to take apart the plug strip.

2. How in the world does the Power Cut work?

This one stymies me. All I want to do is specify that a given plug stay OFF for a certain amount of time after any power failure. It looks like I should be able to go a plug, turn Power Cut on, and set the restart interval (the second time value whose name escapes me at the moment; I am not in front of the controller) to however long I want. I tried this and it doesn't work. Furthermore, I tried setting the first time interval to ten seconds, assuming maybe that interval means "I won't engage the power cut delay functionality unless power has been off for this long" and that leaving it at 0:00 is effectively disabling it.

It's very confusing.

The one thing I have noticed is that my controller does show plugs over every outlet on the given plug strip that has the one test Power Cut function programmed in after a sufficiently long outage. I'm not sure what to make of that.

3. How do Temperature programs work?

Whoever writes these docs is really imprecise, and I'm not counting the language issue. They don't explain whether the programs are rising/falling edge or continuously sampled, for example... so I can't tell if I have to wait to see my temp cross the [set point - delta] to trigger my plug. All I want to do is have my heaters come on when the tank is cold. I tried writing some of the most obvious programs (e.g., set point = 80, deltas = 1 degree, "inferior" trigger on plug X) but the plug never engages. Why is this so hard?

4. Why are these cords so short?

I have a big tank. My fish room is big to support it. I can lengthen the regular USB cables with some readily-obtainable USB extenders. I'm not so sure about the cord coming from the temp probe, though... looks like I'd have to cut it open and re-solder or find someone to provide me that little special connector with the quick-release latch on the side. Why is this so hard? :)

5. Is the AQ resilient to reconfiguration?

From my limited futzing around with it so far, it looks like it acts kind of "fragile" if you unplug or replug in various components. Is it bus-agnostic with respect to the order things are plugged in, or do I have to be very careful to get the plug strips, probes, etc., all plugged in with exactly the same topology if I have to take the system apart? It seemed like it was pretty confused when I did my rewiring today. That may have been a misperception on my part.


Thanks for any answers you can provide, in advance. I'm sure I'll have more questions later... :)

Ben

[Untamed12]

Robby is by far the expert..but I have enough personal experience to give you my opinions...

5. My opinion is that the AQT is not very forgiving with respect to moving plugs/USB slots around. My experience is that it gets so messed up that I always end up just completely nuking all the programs and starting over once everything is re-plugged in.

1. Sounds bad. My guess is that these powerbars have 15A rating.

If there is some consolation..once you get it, it seems very reliable.

[ik2vov]

Hi bbrantley,

5. Aquatronica system don't mind if you remove and attach modules to different plugs, it's important to confirm the software you unplugged and if you connect the module into a different plug you have to disconnect the "old" connection, this is due to the fact that the controller has reserved that plug for your module, if you connect it into another plug you have to tell the system not to wait for the "old connection" to be back.

4. I have the opposite problem, cords for me are too long and I have dozen of rounded cables near the sump.... in Europe there probably are smaller tanks.

3. It's quite simple, but you have to enter the mentality of the controller.... programming temperature you have first to decide the temperature you like to have, then you can set the "delta max" and "delta min", I prefer to use just "delta max"... for example, if you like to keep temperature at 26° with a maximum delta 1°, you will have the temperature set at 26° and when the temperature reaches 25°, if you set a plug in the lower part of the plugs bar program, the controller will switch on a heater till temperature will be back at 26°.... if the temperature will reach 27° and if you have settled a plug for refrigerator or fans on the upper part old the plugs bar program, the controller will switch on the plug till temperature will be back at 26°.

2. I'll read it again before answering.

1. I don't know what to tell, please write to [email protected] for this problem.

Bye

[bbrantley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10162358#post10162358 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Untamed12
Robby is by far the expert..but I have enough personal experience to give you my opinions...

5. My opinion is that the AQT is not very forgiving with respect to moving plugs/USB slots around. My experience is that it gets so messed up that I always end up just completely nuking all the programs and starting over once everything is re-plugged in.

1. Sounds bad. My guess is that these powerbars have 15A rating.

If there is some consolation..once you get it, it seems very reliable.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm hoping it will be rock-solid after I get it set up. I'll pay the penalty of it being hard at the beginning if that is, in fact, the case!

Ben

[bbrantley]

Hi Gilberto,

Thanks for your responses. I have forwarded a copy of my post to the support address; I'll follow up here with what they share.

I do have a question about the temperature thing:

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10162747#post10162747 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ik2vov
3. It's quite simple, but you have to enter the mentality of the controller.... programming temperature you have first to decide the temperature you like to have, then you can set the "delta max" and "delta min", I prefer to use just "delta max"... for example, if you like to keep temperature at 26° with a maximum delta 1°, you will have the temperature set at 26° and when the temperature reaches 25°, if you set a plug in the lower part of the plugs bar program, the controller will switch on a heater till temperature will be back at 26°.... if the temperature will reach 27° and if you have settled a plug for refrigerator or fans on the upper part old the plugs bar program, the controller will switch on the plug till temperature will be back at 26°.


So, if I understand you correctly, all I need is a set temperature and a delta max? Should I leave delta min at 0?

Ben

[ik2vov]

Yes Ben, I don't use the delta min option, I leave it at 0.

These is the way I use the temperature programs, you can use it in another way.....

Bye