Anyone datalogging or controller their controller online?

[Len]

I have a Netpune Aquacontroller III and I'm thinking about buying a netbook or some small, energy efficient computer (e.g. Asus eeebox) to monitor and control the aquacontroller online. This would give me a lot of peace of mind when I'm away from the tank.

Anyone doing this? I'm curious how easy it is to set up, etc. I've never used the AquaNotes software or anything like it.

 

[fcmatt]

One bit of advice is to make sure your ISP does not block you in various
ways from reaching a "server" at home.

For example, if your ISP hands you a 192.168.X.X IP address or any other
in a private IP range... you are screwed.

If you get a public IP and they block port 80 you are only slightly screwed.

You will need to port forward from your router hooked into your modem
to the controller. Like Port 80 to 80. Or port 1234 to 80.

Check that before you buy the laptop....

 

[Anonymous]

Why do you need to buy a netbook? The AC3 already does it all, simply plug in an ethernet to any router in the house and you can access it anywhere.

And you don't even need aquanotes.

 

[fcmatt]

Why do you need to buy a netbook? The AC3 already does it all, simply plug in an ethernet to any router in the house and you can access it anywhere.

And you don't even need aquanotes.

that is not exactly true.

if you have a router in your house and its WAN interface gets a public IP...
yes, you can now reach your router from anywhere assuming no blocked ports
by your ISP.

Behind your router you more then likely use private IPs. Thus you have to
setup some type of port forwarding or one to one NAT from your public IP
to your private IP.

Next, the controller does have a web interface where you can view some information... but it must be impossible for the device to constantly log all
that data for years. It does not have a hard drive.

More then likely a remote PC/program will use SNMP or some other data
gathering method to get that information and log it long term. With that program
you can see graphs and long term trends.

Of course if one is savvy with network monitoring you can graph and maintain
the data yourself without their program. I do it all the time since I work for an ISP.

By buying a low power computer that you can leave on 24 hours a day
you can have it grab the data. Maybe the controller can store a week's
worth of data.. i am not sure. I would have to read the specs more closely
but I know it cannot keeps months and years! Thus a PC to grab the data
at regular intervals depending on the design of the device.

If i wish to chart the network bandwidth usage of a router port.. i poll the
device every 5 minutes for years and years. I can go back and see trends.

Thus i imagine it is the same for a controller.

 

[Anonymous]

My point is the router you hook to basically is the computer as far as "remotely monitoring". if you have a dynamic address you can go through something else (many do). No you can't monitor years of data internally, but if you don't turn your computer on in that time frame... ehh maybe you do need something else

All I know is the specs are that you can record 1024 data points of each parameter and set the monitoring time in increments of 1 minute, now at 5 minute intervals you basically can log 3.5 days worth of data, and that's a LOT of data to be taking. You can always change this remotely.

Basically what I'm saying is if you're going away on vacation, you don't need a secondary computer to keep an eye on your tank and change anything, simply a router to plug into. Now how simple it is depends upon if you need to do port forwarding, or if you have a dynamic vs static IP, but it's all you really need and easily doable.... and you don't need to buy another computer either