aquacontroller 3 programming help

[slayer]

need some help... need to program my new ac3 to work with my halides, about to upgrade to 400 watts and i need to kick this into the program... what statement would i use to turn off the metal halides in the system if the temp rose above 86?? i tried this, but it cuts the lights on whenever the tank got below 84 degrees,,


if time > 2pm then mh1 on
if time > 10pm then mh1 off
if temp > 86 then mh1 off
if temp < 84 then mh1 on

could i use the new "timer" statement to correct this ?? or would i just list the temp statements above the time statements ??

 

[xyzpdq0121]

slayer77;62522 wrote: i tried this, but it cuts the lights on whenever the tank got below 84 degrees,,

Yep that is what your programming says to do... if temp < 84 then mh1 on
What temp do you want your halides to turn back on at?

Maybe I am missing something here but I bet Cameron will chime in soon or just send him a PM.

 

[roundman]

Not knowing the system but understanding this type of programming I think that you would want the temp commands between the time commands. This way the temp will only come into play when the lights are on.

 

[slayer]

hmm,, never thought of that,, thankx... halides need to come back on when the temp drops below 84 degrees.. my tank runs b/t 84 and 86...

 

[schwaggs]

Every few seconds, the Aquacontroller executes the entire list of programming commands in the order they appear on the screen.

if time > 2pm then mh1 on
if time > 10pm then mh1 off
if temp > 86 then mh1 off
if temp < 84 then mh1 on

Each time these commands get executed, the two temp commands will over-ride the time commands. The way these 4 commands are arranged, the lights will be on between 2 and 10 and whenever the temp is less than 84. The lights will be off after 10 and before 2 and when the temp is over 86.

Since all you want to do is turn off the lights when the temp gets too high, delete the "if temp < 84 then mh1 on" and it will work perfectly.

if time > 2pm then mh1 on
if time > 10pm then mh1 off
if temp > 86 then mh1 off

With these 3 commands, that get executed over and over every few seconds, when the time is between 2 and 10, the lights will be on except when the temp is over 86.

Make sense?

 

[xyzpdq0121]

Ahhhh I see what Jamie is talking about now... the tank lights turn on at 2:00am if the tank temp gets below 84 degrees... D'oh I should have thought about his question more.

 

[cameron]

As posted above, it is basically top down. It performs the commands from the top to the bottom and the last On/Off setting that is performed is the one it uses. Here is my MH part of my program:

If Sun 099/-060 Then LT3 ON
If Temp > 82.5 Then LT3 OFF
If Power 005 Then LT3 OFF

The first command says turn the lights on 99 minutes after sunrise and the turn them off 60 minutes before sunset. The second command shuts down the lights if the temp is over 82.5 and the final command says don't turn the lights on until after 5 minutes have passed in the event of a power failure. That last command is useful to keep lights from cycling on too quickly in the event of a quick powerloss and to stagger the starting of the electronics so the total draw on a circuit doesn't overload the system if everything turns on at once.

 

[showtime305]

Question. What stops the light from turning on and off if the temp only drops .1 under the temp that triggers the MH off.

 

[cameron]

I have a MAX CHANGE command down further in my script.

 

[showtime305]

Ok. I guess that rule covers several devices that are triggered off by the temp.

 

[justonemoretank]

Showtime305;62602 wrote: Question. What stops the light from turning on and off if the temp only drops .1 under the temp that triggers the MH off.

Cameron is correct... the Max Change command prevents the AC from turning devices on and off if the temp or pH is hovering right around a set point. Cam is the AC god! LOL. :thumbs:

 

[slayer]

whats your max statement say cameron?

mines says...is this right??

max mh1 030 then mh1 on

or should it be

max mh1 030 then mh1 off

??????

 

[cameron]

Max Change 030 M Then MH1 OFF

This simply means that once turned off, it will be 30 minutes before anything can change the MH1 setting. This is the setting you should use in the temp shut off case above.

If you did this: Max Change 030 M Then MH1 ON

Then it would be 30 minutes before they could be turned off. Not sure why someone would want to do that, but I am sure it is useful somewhere.