Seems like the Reef Angel community just fell off the face of the planet.
What happened to Roberto, Lee, Colin and Curt? I wish I could thank those guys for helping me out as a newby to Arduino coding and answering all my stupid questions. They didn't have the best business sense, but sure made a great product. Certainly the most adaptable.
I'm an old school reefer who comes from a time when we had to drill our own tanks and make our own skimmers, sumps, lighting, stands...in order to excel in this hobby. For many years, I had a rats nest of wires with timers controlling my tanks. Moved on to stand alone pinpoint monitors, then to Reef Keeper and Finally to RA+ in 2014.
I knew at the time it wasn't a plug and play option, but there was a big enough community willing to help me in that regard. I would have to learn to code, but I was willing and eager to learn for what I believed would be, the last controller for me! The problem was, the documentation was lacking big time, the wifi attachment was crap (I'm sure most everyone would agree), and Roberto and the boys just ran out of steam. So in the later years when something went wrong, there was nobody to help out. When someone finally did, it sometimes could be days or weeks to get anything resolved. So I set up my RA+ as basic as possible. I was too afraid to change/add anything. When I built my diy calcium reactor (DaStaCo based with saturated Co2 injection), I used a smart bar to control it. I did the same with Ozone. For years, the RA+ ran flawlessly without a hitch steady as can be...how could I complain about that?!
When the RA* came out, I wanted to upgraded but thought I'd wait for detailed and clear documentation and better support. When I didn't see that, I just lost interest. Like Steve Jobs said "the best product is useless if you don't enhance and foster user experience".
A while back, I started to look into the Apex and Hydras as I wanted to consolidated everything into one controller but just wasn't ready. I happened to check the RA Uapp about a couple weeks ago to discover very little activity. I opened a thread in the Uapp section and got a response from brennyn21 who was extremely helpful. Before taking the time to get me back up and running, he told me that Roberto retired form RA and was going to walk away, so brennyn21 took over the business. As an RA* user himself, he was aware of all the shortcomings and was working on proper documentation and new and exciting developments such as DC expansion module 12vdc/24vdc with battery backup, Co2 module, Ozone module... He spent what seemed like hours and even remotely accessed my computer to make sure all the libraries and tools were up to date. Once done, I was able to control my relays via the Uapp again.
So, what else could I do to show my appreciation...I upgraded to the RA*
What happened to Roberto, Lee, Colin and Curt? I wish I could thank those guys for helping me out as a newby to Arduino coding and answering all my stupid questions. They didn't have the best business sense, but sure made a great product. Certainly the most adaptable.
I'm an old school reefer who comes from a time when we had to drill our own tanks and make our own skimmers, sumps, lighting, stands...in order to excel in this hobby. For many years, I had a rats nest of wires with timers controlling my tanks. Moved on to stand alone pinpoint monitors, then to Reef Keeper and Finally to RA+ in 2014.
I knew at the time it wasn't a plug and play option, but there was a big enough community willing to help me in that regard. I would have to learn to code, but I was willing and eager to learn for what I believed would be, the last controller for me! The problem was, the documentation was lacking big time, the wifi attachment was crap (I'm sure most everyone would agree), and Roberto and the boys just ran out of steam. So in the later years when something went wrong, there was nobody to help out. When someone finally did, it sometimes could be days or weeks to get anything resolved. So I set up my RA+ as basic as possible. I was too afraid to change/add anything. When I built my diy calcium reactor (DaStaCo based with saturated Co2 injection), I used a smart bar to control it. I did the same with Ozone. For years, the RA+ ran flawlessly without a hitch steady as can be...how could I complain about that?!
When the RA* came out, I wanted to upgraded but thought I'd wait for detailed and clear documentation and better support. When I didn't see that, I just lost interest. Like Steve Jobs said "the best product is useless if you don't enhance and foster user experience".
A while back, I started to look into the Apex and Hydras as I wanted to consolidated everything into one controller but just wasn't ready. I happened to check the RA Uapp about a couple weeks ago to discover very little activity. I opened a thread in the Uapp section and got a response from brennyn21 who was extremely helpful. Before taking the time to get me back up and running, he told me that Roberto retired form RA and was going to walk away, so brennyn21 took over the business. As an RA* user himself, he was aware of all the shortcomings and was working on proper documentation and new and exciting developments such as DC expansion module 12vdc/24vdc with battery backup, Co2 module, Ozone module... He spent what seemed like hours and even remotely accessed my computer to make sure all the libraries and tools were up to date. Once done, I was able to control my relays via the Uapp again.
So, what else could I do to show my appreciation...I upgraded to the RA*
. That's what I love about these open source Arduino or pi based controllers, there communities are massive with resources everywhere. They are as stable a platform as can be expected, and if you can dream it, you can most likely implement it.
