Last Straw!

[SHOmuchFUN]

Did anybody get their replacement V1.4 unit in the mail yet? I got mine the other day and hooked it up and now my fans are going AWOL! I have them hooked up to the fan/chiller setting to come on at 81.5. I came home from work today and the fan was going and the fans were fighting the heater!

My heater is supposed to shut off at 79.5, fans come ON at 81.5. I had to set my fans to come on at 82.5 just so they wouldn't turn on when the lights were out! What the heck? Is there a 2-3 degree tolerance on the fans/chiller now? I remember people talking about wishing there was a degree or so worth of tolerance so the fans weren't coming on and off frequently, but this is rediculous.

:furious:

I think I'm going to plug my v1.1 back in. A power outage is much less a frequent occurence for me to justify using it against this unit I can't even figure out. Not to mention, my menu scrolling buttons are backwards. My up button cycles down my channels.


Enough said...

[digitalaquatics.com]

----Erik, I sent you the email below in response to your email, I have posted it here for others to see too----

Erik,

Let me see if we can understand what you are seeing.

First, the fan/chiller control has a 2 degree hystoresis built in now. This means that the channel will turn on at the set point but won't turn off until 2 degrees below that. We intentionally did this because it was unhealthy for chillers to by cycled too often. That is probably what you are seeing. If the fan/chiller is off it should not turn on until the set point, but only if it was off to start with. If it is on, it won't turn off until 2 degrees below the set point.

We are coming out with a new manual to describe this, and you will be able to download it from our web site soon.

Second, I see what you mean for the up/down on the channel options. The idea for all up/down navigation is that down will take you down on the list, see the example list below.

Ch 1
Ch 2
Ch 3
...
...
Ch 8
Back

So pressing down will take you down the list, and in this example will take you to the next higher channel number. We did intend it to be this way and isn't a "bug". Sorry if this is not intuitive.

Why don't you verify that the temp control acts like I describe and get back to me. I really want to be happy with the unit. BTW, I have made some progress on the other issue you had but don't have something for you to try yet, stay tuned about that, I'll be in touch.

Have I helped? Let me know.


Nick Bogner
Digital Aquatics LLC

[digitalaquatics.com]

Also, 2 degrees was selected because it is more efficient for chillers. I know that some chillers take about 15 minutes to chill 1 degree, but only 5 more minutes to go the second degree (the exact numbers vary from tank to tank). So, you save energy and chiller lifespan if you go with 2 degrees, that is why we chose 2 over 1.

Nick

[SHOmuchFUN]

Okay... Well that makes sense.

It's kind of too bad though, because there was a period when I didn't have ANYTHING on, so I was saving electricity that way. Now, when I set the heater turn-off point at 79.5 and my fans to come on at 81.5, that means at any point I have either a fan or a heater on. V1.1 served me better in this respect. I do understand where people are coming from with chillers. Maybe there should be a seperation when setting channels. Have the tolerance be set to ONLY chillers and then have a fan tolerance which is much less, say ~1 degree. I'm not positive, but I think a 2+ degree swing in water temeperature occuring intermittently is significant.

I was just really frustrated at the time, because I was unaware of that change. I was trying to figure out why my fans were ON when I had specifically set an ON point at a specific degree and they were still running well below that set point. I'm sure you could understand my frustration, not knowing of that change in the program. I didn't want my fans to stay on permanently and have my heater fighting the fans all the time.

Thank you for the clarification.
Guess I can plug my V1.4 back in tomorrow.

-Erik

[digitalaquatics.com]

No problem Erik, I just want you to be a happy Reefkeeper customer. I hope we are getting there. Sorry that I didn't do a better job of warning you of the change.

Happy ReefKeeping,

Nick