Help! Programming digital power bar and dosing pump

[instantsquid]

I have one digital power bar connected to S1-S4
I have one triple dosing pump connected to S5-S8

The Profiux II has basically overlapped dosing pumps 1 and 2 with plug sockets 5 and 6. Whenever socket 5 comes on, dosing pump 1 comes on. Whenever socket 6 comes on, dosing pump 2 comes on. :(

I've ticked the "Digital power bar on S1-S4" box.
I've programmed the power bar (with the pumps disconnected)
I've programmed the pumps (with the power bar disconnected)

What am I doing wrong? This is unbelievably frustrating - I'm a computer programmer for a living but this thing is so illogical! :mad:

Help!

[stevew@reefdreams]

Hi Ian,

It's really down to legacy support. On the original Profilux there were no digital power bars and there were two socket ports S1/S4 and S5/S8, these were analogue ports and you could connect an analodue plugbar to each and they would be numbered according to the socket they were plugged into.

Then came along digital powerbars and dosing pumps, these could be programmed with the socket numbers directly onto them and it was decided that S1/S4 would be used for all digital components. Simply plug them into the S1/S4 port and program the numbers onto the plugbar and daisy chain them. S5/S8 was still available for any analogue equipment to use and will adopt the socket numbers 5 - 8 from the port as before.

So if you plug your 3 pump doser into S5/S8 it will automatically be assigned sockets 5-7 regardless of any digital programing.

What you need to do, is program your doser whilst only it is connected to the S1/S4 port to socket numbers 1-4 (only 3 will be used but will leave space for a future pump) then your first plugbar to sockets 5-10 and the second when you receive it to 11-16 etc. then daisy chain them, in any order, using the 2 ports on the doser and plugbar. Once programmed they can be connected in any order as the programming is stored on the plugbar.

Hope that helps and explains why it works the way it does. It will all be irrelevant soon with the Profilux III upgrade.

Steve

[Dami]

How long to the upgrade?

I presume all periperals will still be able to be used on the plus3 (as the plus2 can be up-graded to a plus3) but will there be developments to super seed this generation of add-on's comming out with the plus3?

:wave:

[stevew@reefdreams]

All current peripherals will be compatible with the plus III, but a new comunication protocol will be introduced to allow far greater expansion with additional sensors (these will be the same cards and sensors etc just connected differently).

[instantsquid]

Hi Steve,

Okay thanks for that. Given that I will be adding a second power bar this week, and a second dosing pump unit (another three pumps) at some point in the near future, would you still propose I do the above?

Thanks for the response - it does make sense now, however the instructions supplied with the kit along with the software itself don't make any of this obvious. Software needs to be fool-proof! (Because fools like me want to use it!)

[instantsquid]

Sorted it. I assume it's okay to program a dosing pump as if it's a power bar!
Kept S1-S12 for sockets, then told the dosing pump to start at S13. Seems to be working fine.

Thanks for the help, Steve :)

[stevew@reefdreams]

Great stuff.

Yep, you can program the dosing pumps, they are analogue and digital and can operate in either socket.
When I get chance I'll get back to the wiki and write some guides.

The wiki is open to anyone to post guides, just sign up for an account and pass on your tips.

Steve