Help from some of you aquacontroller users

[kwl1763]

I have had my aquacontroller 3 for about a year now (had a 2 for a few years before that)

Rarely do I need heaters in my system but this winter has several cold spells and it has caused me issues that I just can't figure out!

I have the Jager heaters pluged into B1 (see code below) but for whatever reason they seem to stay on well above the 78.5 mark. Sometimes they won't come on when it's under 78 but staying on is much more the problem.

I can look in aquanotes and it will have the status as off and I can go in there and they are still on. If I manually flip back on and then off and then to auto and all seems OK. I just have no idea what to do here. I have replaced the X-10 module twice just to make sure it wasn't that.

Any ideas? Everything else works perfectly fine. My program follows below.

LT1$-A1
LT2$-A2
LT3$-A3
LT4$-A4
LT5$-A5
HTR&-B1
CHL&-B2
TOP#-C1
OZN#-C2
CO2#-C3


If Time > 14:00 Then LT2 ON
If Time > 00:00 Then LT2 OFF
If Time > 15:00 Then LT1 ON
If Time > 23:00 Then LT1 OFF
If Time > 14:30 Then LT4 ON
If Time > 00:30 Then LT4 OFF
If Time > 15:15 Then LT3 ON
If Time > 23:15 Then LT3 OFF
If Time > 15:30 Then LT5 ON
If Time > 23:30 Then LT5 OFF
If Temp > 80.0 Then CHL ON
If Temp < 79.0 Then CHL OFF
If Temp < 78.0 Then HTR ON
If Temp > 78.5 Then HTR OFF
If Time > 00:00 Then OZN OFF
If ORP < 450 Then OZN ON
Max Change 015 M Then OZN OFF
If Time > 00:00 Then CO2 OFF
If pH > 07.80 Then CO2 ON
Max Change 015 M Then CO2 OFF
If Temp > 82.5 Then LT3 OFF
If Temp > 83.0 Then LT1 OFF
If Temp > 83.0 Then LT5 OFF
If Temp > 83.5 Then LT2 OFF
If Temp > 83.5 Then LT4 OFF
If Time > 00:00 Then TOP ON
If Power 000 Then LT1 OFF
Max Change 010 M Then LT1 ON
If Power 000 Then LT2 OFF
Max Change 012 M Then LT2 ON
If Power 000 Then LT3 OFF
Max Change 016 M Then LT3 ON
If Power 000 Then LT4 OFF
Max Change 014 M Then LT4 ON
If Power 000 Then LT5 OFF
Max Change 018 M Then LT5 ON


__________________

 

[cameron]

What is the B channel in your setup a DC4? Also check and make sure nothing else is on B1 and that channel B is actually the channel you think it is and no other DCs are set to the B channel.

Try adding these lines to keep the heater from flipping on/off rapidly:

If Temp < 78.0 Then HTR ON
If Temp > 78.5 Then HTR OFF
Max Change 010 M Then HTR OFF

Another question, is this hooked to your computer?

 

[cameron]

Just caught the X10... that is most likley the problem. X10 modules on these controllers are just too flaky to use IMO. I suggest picking up a DC4 and going straight to the controller.

 

[schwaggs]

I use X10 modules on my heaters without problems. Your program looks correct. However, there are a few simple things to do to increase the reliability of X10.
1) install a phase bridge between the phases in your house.
2) disable local control in all you modules.

In your case, I think you problem may be the overlapping module numbers. In noisy environments, a module set to B1 may respond to commands sent to A1. Try setting your heater to B6.

X10 addressing is 8 bit binary. The house code is the first 4 bits and the module number is the second 4 bits. In noisy environments, and even in some not so noisy, the module can read the wrong house code and if the module number matches, the module incorrectly turn on or off. This is why I try to not reuse module numbers. I bet your heaters seem to stick on when your lights are on and your heater sticks off when your lights are off.

 

[FutureInterest]

This doesn't really answer your question. Just a friendly warning:

I really wouldn't trust the aquacontroller for your heating and cooling. I went through 3 faulty temp probes for my ac jr unit and slayer lost a lot of his corals when the temp probe on his ac3 went haywire. We're not alone as I've read of many horror stories. They maintain though that only 1% of all probes go bad. That's a conservative estimate and even 1% is way too high when temp swings are completely unacceptable. They also maintain its primarily user error that the probe gets pinched and stop working. I can show you three perfectly unblemished probes... all of which are worthless. What's going to pinch a probe in an overflow anyways?

I switched back to my trusty ranco dual controller. So my aquacontroller is now just a fancy timer for my lights as I would never trust it as a ph controller anyways...

 

[cameron]

You can use probes from other manus I believe. I haven't had one malfunction on me (well the RK2s did, but not a Neptune) but I do run two temp probes to be safe. All probes likely fail eventually so you always have that risk. I haven't had any pH reading problems either.

 

[schwaggs]

Any time you automate something, you should build in a failsafe. Virtually everything electronic that turns on and off will will fail one day. For this reason, I don't crank my heaters all the way on and run my chiller unthrottled. I set the built thermostat on my heater to 80 so that if my controller leaves them on when they should be off, they will not cook my tank. In the same way, I set the built in thermostat in my chiller to 75.

 

[kwl1763]

So I changed the heaters to H8 and all seems well though it's only been 2 days. I think it was an issue with other Bs or other 1s.

Ya I have my heaters set only at 80 so if the aquacontroller told them to stay on the heaters themsleves would actually have to fail on (All 4 of them also)

Same kind of thing with my chiller. I's only set to itself to cool to 77 so if by whatever reason aquacontroller fails it would have to fail at the same time to cause real issues

I need to disable the local control just as a general rule. That I haven't done yet.

Ya everything needs failsafe. I added lines after reading some that say if temp <72 heater off as that is obviously a probe issue or out of water and if temp >86 chiller off for the same reason.

 

[schwaggs]

kwl1763;124958 wrote: I added lines after reading some that say if temp <72 heater off as that is obviously a probe issue or out of water and if temp >86 chiller off for the same reason.

Great idea, I will be adding this as well!

 

[cameron]

Defintely use a max change with that code or you could be flipping the heater on and off quite frequently if a probe starts randomly swinging.

 

[kwl1763]

Yes I need to add the Max change back. I had it in but when i started having issues I took it out just in case that was the problem!

 

[cameron]

I may add those lighting swings to my lights as well. I currently have it set to shut the lights down when the temp hits 83, but if I get a 90+ hit maybe I should ignore the probe. Possible use an Alarm state to prevent wierd probe failure problems as well.