RobbyG
02/12/2009, 03:44 PM
iPhone with the Aquatronica, a mini Review (Feb 12 2009)
Since the Financial crash started I have not had a lot of time to do reviews or even post on the forum, but thankfully things have been getting better so I decided to start back slowly with a nice simple review of the Ethernet and SMS modules and how they perform with the iPhone 3G.
For starters contrary to rumors it does work, and I find the iPhone to be a pretty valuable device for monitoring my Aquarium when I'm away from home.
So here it is running the Ethernet Page on my iPhone.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/96341IOuter.JPG
(sorry for the clarity but cameras don't take good photos of screens)
A Snapshot of the Actual screen
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/96341iZoom2.jpg
Yes I know my Calc reactor pH is high. My solenoid valve has gone bad for the 3rd time and I have not replaced it yet so I just switched off the Co2 rather than melt my media :)
iPhone tapped and zoomed in on one part of the screen
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/96341iZoom1.jpg
As you can see everything is very readable and crisp.
An SMS Text sent of my Tank Stats while on a business trip
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/96341iSMS.jpg
I Love the look of the Iphone's SMS.
So overall it works pretty good, of course your mileage will vary whether your using WiFi or a 3G connection. For the Ethernet you must at least have one of those but for the SMS either a Edge or even lowly GPRS will suffice.
My only problem occurred the first time I accessed the Ethernet page. I kept getting only partial screens coming up with no real data, after a few seconds I would hit refresh and the same thing would occur. It was only after a closer examination that I realized that the page takes about 1 min to load onto the iPhone and that I needed to scroll down past the bottom of the visible screen to see the "Red Loading Status" message. The % loading will climb up as more of the Java script and data come in.
Conclusion
Works great, had no real issue's with it, I am not sure I would buy an iPhone just for this but I will say I love my iPhone for about 1 dozen other major reasons and using it with the Aquatronica is just another great reason to own an iPhone.
The New Salinity probe Review coming next, I have had one going for 3 months.
Since the Financial crash started I have not had a lot of time to do reviews or even post on the forum, but thankfully things have been getting better so I decided to start back slowly with a nice simple review of the Ethernet and SMS modules and how they perform with the iPhone 3G.
For starters contrary to rumors it does work, and I find the iPhone to be a pretty valuable device for monitoring my Aquarium when I'm away from home.
So here it is running the Ethernet Page on my iPhone.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/96341IOuter.JPG
(sorry for the clarity but cameras don't take good photos of screens)
A Snapshot of the Actual screen
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/96341iZoom2.jpg
Yes I know my Calc reactor pH is high. My solenoid valve has gone bad for the 3rd time and I have not replaced it yet so I just switched off the Co2 rather than melt my media :)
iPhone tapped and zoomed in on one part of the screen
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/96341iZoom1.jpg
As you can see everything is very readable and crisp.
An SMS Text sent of my Tank Stats while on a business trip
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/96341iSMS.jpg
I Love the look of the Iphone's SMS.
So overall it works pretty good, of course your mileage will vary whether your using WiFi or a 3G connection. For the Ethernet you must at least have one of those but for the SMS either a Edge or even lowly GPRS will suffice.
My only problem occurred the first time I accessed the Ethernet page. I kept getting only partial screens coming up with no real data, after a few seconds I would hit refresh and the same thing would occur. It was only after a closer examination that I realized that the page takes about 1 min to load onto the iPhone and that I needed to scroll down past the bottom of the visible screen to see the "Red Loading Status" message. The % loading will climb up as more of the Java script and data come in.
Conclusion
Works great, had no real issue's with it, I am not sure I would buy an iPhone just for this but I will say I love my iPhone for about 1 dozen other major reasons and using it with the Aquatronica is just another great reason to own an iPhone.
The New Salinity probe Review coming next, I have had one going for 3 months.