Apex question

Do you have it plugged into outlet #4 or #8? If it's s small pump that doesn't draw much current the EB8 will not correctly turn it on/off reliably because they use Triac relays, therefore you must use #4 or #8 which are mechanical relays.

 

Hmm...I've run BRS doser pumps without any issues. Do you know what your daily requirements are for calcium and alk in milliliters? I would use the OSC command so that you're dosing a little every hour while your lights are off.

--AJ

 

Switch the outlet to advanced mode, and copy your code here. Make sure and replace the greater than and less than signs as they will mess up your post.

--AJ

 

I see exactly what's happening. When you put that configuration in, your code looks like this:
Fallback off
OSC 000:00/003:00/003:15 Then ON
If FeedD 000 Then OFF
It's telling your outlet to turn on for 3 minutes, wait 3 minutes and 15 seconds, then turn on again for 3 minutes. This is going to dose A LOT of fluid into your tank..something like 33 ml per hour, nearly 800 ml a day!!! If you have huge demands for calcium and alk, then this is fine, but seeing your parameters, I know this is wrong. And it's probably your alk that's using this programming looking at your parameters in your other thread. Here's how the OSC command works. At the beginning of the day, it resets back to zero. OSC doesn't run like a normal clock in the sense that 003:00 would mean 3 AM and 003:15 would mean 3:15 AM, you're programming the frequency for an oscillation so your telling it how long to turn on for, then how long to turn off and when to start. This took me a while to understand and what helped me, was to see each of the three values as minutes and seconds, and that the sum total of the three should equal one hour. What this tells the OSC command is that it will repeat the cycle we are telling it to do each hour. Now, let's split up the command into parts. It works like this:
OSC {Delay MMM:SS}/{ON MMM:SS}/{Wait MMM:SS} Then ON
Delay represents the amount of time that you want to delay before turning ON the outlet.
ON represents the amount og time that you want to have the outlet on for
Wait represents the number of minutes and seconds before your next OSC cycle begins again
Then ON represents the action that you want to take place. It could also be Then OFF or Then {Profile Name}, etc, but we'll use ON for this programming.
Going back to the practice of programming the OSC command in one hour intervals, you would program your outlet like this:
OSC 000:00/003:00/057:00 Then ON
That's telling the OSC command to not delay...start the OSC cycle at the top of the hour. The turn on the outlet for 3 minutes, then turn it off and wait 57 minutes before the cycle starts again. In this scenario, you're dosing 24 hours a day, 3 minutes per hour, 1.1 ml per minute (rate of the BRS doser pumps) for a total output of 79.2 ml per day. Now, let's say that you're dosing calcium and magnesium too. You want to run your calcium for 15 minutes and your magnesium for 30 seconds ever hour. To make this more interesting, you don't want any of them to dose at the same time. It would look something like this:
[Alk]
OSC 000:00/003:00/057:00 Then ON (Doses at the top of the hour, runs for 3 minutes, then waits 57 minutes to reset the cycle - 79.2 ml per day)
[Calcium]
OSC 020:00/015:00/25:00 Then ON (Start at 20 minutes after the top of the hour, run for 15 minutes, then wait 25 minutes to reset the cycle - 396 ml per day)
[Mag]
OSC 040:00/000:30/19:30 Then ON (Start at 40 minutes into the hour, run for 30 seconds, then wait 19 mins and 30 seconds to reset the cycle - 13.2 ml per day)
You don't have to run your cycle in 60 minute intervals, but I found this to make most sense for me. Also, everyday at midnight, it resets itself...even if it's right in the middle of a dosing cycle.
Also, don't tie this into your feed cycle at all...so just take that part out. In my opinion, this is a case where using the wizard makes things more complex.
Does this make sense?
Let me know if I can help.
--AJ

 

AJ, Thanks for that explanation! I don't have dosers, but it really made things clear on programming something like that. It makes sense. Thanks again!