So who else is excited about the new HYDROS Control 4?
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Meldrath
Active Member
Can I make a small suggestion that will bring in another segment of the hobby. Have an open RESTful API and allow us to communicate to/from the device for things like home automation, so we can make the integrations ourselves with external API's, voice control, and event chains.
/rant
This incessant need to make things proprietary and closed in this hobby is absolutely driving me nuts. Many of the major corporate automation frameworks I deal with on a day to day basis are open source by their very nature and are HIGHLY successful because of it. Allowing potentially thousands or more developers the ability to enhance your product for free should not be discarded for your vanity. Monetize your code through support and sell your hardware solutions - not the combination of the two in a locked ecosystem.
This goes for all hardware|software solutions. Be Google, not a ****** Apple.
Open source makes your product better for it.
/endrant
mike550
Valuable Member
Thanks for the reply. In scanning the materials I would appreciate your thoughts.You can see glimpses of the HYDROS app in this playlist on our YouTube channel. The controllers use the same app as the WaveEngine (in fact, all HYDROS devices use the same app) and we've been creating a bunch of educational material to help users get started. It's pretty simple and straightforward. Unfortunately, you won't find much in the way of the controller portions of the app, but I think you'll get a general idea of how to navigate around and adjust settings. We are working very hard to create a robust help section (example) for every HYDROS product so you won't have to go digging into forums to find answers. Unless, of course, you want to... then we are here to help!
It looks like you can slave the Vortech MP powerheads via wireless but no connecticity to the Vectra pumps even if they have the same wireless capabilities. Right now for example, my powerhead and pump are in sync so when I switch one to feed mode the other follows. Also, the example says “During feeding mode, the WaveEngine will automatically stop all pumps (Direct Connect and 0-10v), allowing tank inhabitants to eat.” But it doesn’t say that a mode can be supported with Vortech powerheads in wireless mode.
Since I’m using a Vortech Powerhead and Vectra M2 pump does this mean that while I could probably use the Hydros system for other things, I’m going to be limited in what it can do with my powerhead and pump? Would appreciate any thoughts you may have.
CoralVue_Marketing
One minute of patience, ten years of peace.
We have been looking at that from the beginning but feared not many people would be interested. Obviously supporting and providing a public API is additional time and expense. It would be interesting to hear how many R2R members would be interested in a REST API that would be able to control the hardware and allow you to integrate it with your systems.
I'd use it for sure! it would be a selling point for me over a competing product
CoralVue_Marketing
One minute of patience, ten years of peace.
Well, we certainly like the sound of that! ;Woot
Carlos@CoralVue
Active Member
At this time, the only ETM pumps that work with the WaveEngine are the Vortech pumps. So the WaveEngine will only control VorTech pumps, not Vectra.
With that said, if you put the VorTech pumps in the same group as your other pumps and enable "Feeding Mode" on the WaveEngine, the WaveEngine will slow down the ETM pumps do a minimum speed.
The Feeding Mode only applies to a group so, if in the future, "IF" Vectra pumps become compatible and you add them in the same group as the other pumps, then they will also slow down during Feeding. If you put them on a different group, then during Feeding, they will continue to run their regular schedule and will "Ignore" feeding mode.
Modes are applied to a group, so only the pumps within the same group will be affected by the feeding mode trigger.
Hope this helps clear things up!
Meldrath
Active Member
I have thousands invested in another ecosystem but would drop it in a heartbeat for a truly open source controller with excellent hardware. Other controllers 'do the job' but they can't be fully customized like open source. Take for instance the trident, which uses a simple revert to mean algorithm to adjust parameters, but what if you wanted something more? Or what if I wanted to use an entirely different product for testing but integrate it with other data.
The day and age of locking people behind your ecosystem and software is over, the fact that it exists in this hobby is a failure on the part of the manufacturers and we as a community.
We should demand better, and if you can provide that I think you'll find a large following.
I'm not in the market for a controller as I already have one on each of my two tanks, but if I was looking the Hydros would certainly be up there for consideration given. With that said, I have no idea what REST API is. I also have no interest with integrating my controllers with Google, Alexa or whoever.
Meldrath
Active Member
A REST API allows for easy programmatic access over the web for input and output of data to a given piece of software. This allows you to easily customize the application for your own needs. It plays a large part in a modular software design where the application can be extended any number of ways and they all use the same basic I/O structure. If other components use a standard output of data, you can quickly and easily integrate it into the controller.
A good example of something like this would be integrating a Trident, Kessil, or Orphek into your system and having them all speak the same language to the controller and create meaningful chains of actions based on output from those devices.
Unfortunately we have vendor's using non open standards for their hardware and then gating it behind their own customized software. At least with an RESTful API into the controller, we could reverse engineer the hardware and input the data to the controller.
southerntnreefer
Valuable Member
Id love no more than to be able to go hey google from my phone, such as " hey google, i forgot to turn off feed mode, turn off feed mode, and not leave my bed... or hey alexa what are my parameters? Whats my flow rate currently? As a lover of google, and linux and open source, id love to tinker with that. I know of another controller on the market, that i was considering that claims to be open source, and give you lots of control of the code etc, but i havent heard of any API support, and the hardware from my understanding isnt as robust as what the control series looks to be. Im going to spend over 400 on a controller either way, support like this would sway me even further to the control.
The wave engine, unless i replace my current pump that isnt supported, wouldnt make sense for me, as ill be controlling 1 gyre, and short of 1 app controlling everything short of my light would be nice, i cant justify 300 bucks for the same control the built in flow pump controller will have. That might change in time, if i could find a really long data cord, and i could tie in my 3 pumps downstairs on the 220, then that would be amazing, but not sure what data/signal loss would be over 50 feet etc.
The wave engine, unless i replace my current pump that isnt supported, wouldnt make sense for me, as ill be controlling 1 gyre, and short of 1 app controlling everything short of my light would be nice, i cant justify 300 bucks for the same control the built in flow pump controller will have. That might change in time, if i could find a really long data cord, and i could tie in my 3 pumps downstairs on the 220, then that would be amazing, but not sure what data/signal loss would be over 50 feet etc.
southerntnreefer
Valuable Member
Thanks man! I really appreciate that. I mean if i could find a way to run really long cables down through my floor, to tie in my 220 id jump on a wave engine. I may just go the control 4 and do the 0-10 volt connectivity that way then. The plan for this tank, is to make it as clean as i can. I need it to be manageable, and i have the time to do this one right. Space is a premium once i add a ato container, still got to find room for a doser, and the controller stuff. the Control 4 having the 0-10 v port pushes me to look at that one over control 2 at that point. Im mostly looking for the tank to tell me things on vacation, and or at home, maybe shut skimmer off when float switch goes up from a full cup, control ATO, heat ETC.
Anybody want to buy my Hydros and the three extra cords I bought with it. Just set it up over the weekend and it isn’t worth it for me. It didn’t get rid of all these power blocks as I thought and the gyres don’t operate at high enough speed. (And yes I programmed it correctly) Doesn’t pay to have if you already have an apex. It only communicates with the vortechs wirelesssly so those power blocks stay. The only block I got rid of was the gyre and the various 8 but the device has its own block plus the large mother device so it takes up more room. I was expecting to get rid of the blocks for all the eco tech stuff (three radions, mp40’s, gyres, various 8). Anyway I’m sure it would be good for other type setups but not mine. Best offer gets all.
Jack Mammon Bifrons
Community Member
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So hydros will tear down the total output performance of a pump? Thats a game changer.... i wanted something that could run and control multiple high powered pumps. Like 4 gyre 350 pumps.
CoralVue_Marketing
One minute of patience, ten years of peace.
The WaveEngine can power and control 4 x Gyre XF350 pumps simultaneously. You would just need 4 x Direct Drive Adapters (plus the pumps, of course!). Then you could lose the power bricks and external controllers for those Gyres.
Kyl
And how does it feel like, to wake up in the sun
I think he was questioning weather the WE is neutering the performance of the gyres, alluded to by the post above that. What is the amperage of the brick being included with the WE?
Carlos@CoralVue
Active Member
The controller itself won't use much power. If you have a WaveEngine, you can use the WaveEngine to power the controller box. It will control WiFi power strips that will give you the power you need.
U
User1
Guest
And therein lies the crux of the problem. How does a business go about determining the return on investment or use. Any company for that matter. To be fair there are already two controllers on the market that offer API call's and are open source. Reef Angel and any of the Reef Pi's. The RA unit alone probably has the best custom libraries out today and a couple that even GHL or Neptune can't match. Having said that - open source, API's, and coding obviously isn't for the masses which brings us back to R&D budget for exposed API's.
My personal opinion is that it would be a small group of people using it. I'll even go a step further and say that very few, if any, other manufactures would use it. Not because it is bad but because everyone wants their own controller, interconnect, dongle, Et al. Which leads us to the larger problem. There are no standards for the hobby and none of the manufactures are using any computer perphriel standards. So here we are with this problem.
Which brings us to why CoralVue actually found a niche that no one else did and hit a home run with the wave engine. It is a pretty big deal cleaning up power supplies off the floor not only from a aesthetics point of view but also home safety around our aquariums. Really - the person who came up with this and you guys/gals taking it up is huge and I don't even own one. I just know this was a brill idea.
So back to exposing API's. Not sure I'd personally go down that road but if I did I'd start with security first. Then read operations and data logs. Anything else after could be done with little to no effort should you see a uptick in demand. But all this really depends on your product road map, your own interconnect plans, what can work together, what can't, and what you want to share. You really have to start with your map before you expose anything. Because, well, that can be a security nightmare.
Best of luck to you and yours.
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