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Favorite Controller...

B

bconn

Hello,

I am still in the planning phase for the basement setup we have been working on for a while. I wanted to ask the club if there were any preferences or things to look out for when selecting a controller. We have been looking into units by Aquadyne (Octopus & Aquanode) featues seem robust as well as do prices. :)

Anyone have an STRONG preferences as I would like to understand what people thoughts are considering I am not very knowledgable in this area.

Thanks in advance.

Bill
 
MikeNapoli

MikeNapoli

I've never used anything except an ACjr. I also know there are alot of us that you AquaControllers either the jr., the III, or IIIPro.

I love my ACjr and wouldn't change it unless it was for a III or IIIpro.
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
As Mike said, we've collectively purchased about 20 AC JRs, 4-6 ACIIIs and 3 ACPros in the last 9mo. I don't know anyone from the club who has another brand of controller. We have 2 ACJrs and an ACII on our various tanks. The club does a PA group buy in January that gives us a 15% discount, so most folks use that opportunity to pick one up.
 
B

Brian

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I also use and ACjr on my setup. I love it, not having timers all over the place is a huge plus. My system is a decent size and it's able to handle everything I need it to (for now!)
 
1

120gallons

I have a MCU research lighthouse controller, but if I did it again I'd get an acjr. The mcu can only control ph or orp, not both...didn't realize that when I bought it. Big shortcoming.
 
B

bconn

Hope everyone have a nice and safe Thanksgiving.

I wanted to post a followup question about the Neptune controllers. When daisy chaining DC power supply what is the greatest distance you have gone? I noticed in the online .pdf user manual that Neptune states that RJ11 cables should be used but not to exceed a distance of ten feet. Does anyone have multiple lighting being controlled by the same controller, but on different direct DC's, over a distance of ten feet?

I would think that this would be common but wanted to at least ask the question to see if I was missing anything.

Thanks in advance.

Bill
 
C

Carlo

Using a high quality cable I've went I think 64 feet without any problems. I'm sure I could have went longer but that was all I needed. Lots of people go further then 10 feet but I think Neptune wants to cover themselves as not everyone will use a quality cable or may run the line next to power line or other things that can cause problems at greater distances.

Carlo
 
P

pgordemer

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
If you make a cable from Cat5 cable, you can get some distance. Before I got the basement project finished, I have a cable over 50' running down the stairs temporarily and it had no poblems.
 
kevin

kevin

NJRC Member
I didn't know if I should make a new thread or just post in this one.

I'm still curious as to what people are using these days. I'm doing my research now, but it's nice to see what everyone else has!
 
trivan

trivan

Neptune - Apex. Tons of help on RC and I love having the built in web server and iphone app.
I'm able to control ever part of my system, from temp, Water top off, water levels (high and low), AI Sol lighting.
I am able to do all the maintenance and monitoring any time. Except when the house had no electric b/c of Irene.
 
kevin

kevin

NJRC Member
MadReefer said:
My favorite is the TV controller........:emmersed:
Click to expand...

Only one I currently own. Actually, I'm using it right now.

I've heard great things about Apex. It seems to be the likely winner.
I've also been hearing about "reef angel".
also reef keeper, but Apex seems to be winning the battle against it
 
trivan

trivan

After market help is important with controllers. It takes a while to get the hang of the programming so before I went with the apex. I search forums for the things I wanted to do. Apex forums beat everyone hands down. Honestly, the RC forum is manned by someone who probably wrote the code and the guy who owns the company is on there but not that active. I couldnt find that kind of depth for any other controller.
 
spotter

spotter

Yeah the Neptune forum on RC is amazing. I cant tell you how many times the forum experts have helped me out. I was having a problem upgrading the firmware for my controller and one of the guys spent an hour on the phone with me until we got it to work. You can check out his site...reeftronics.net.
 
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