Digital Aquatics Archon Owners Thread

[MJNTWise]

When I get time Im going to mess with the feed button....I have 2 of them so if I screwed one up its not the end of the world....Wish Eric will put this on his much to long to do list....lololol

[Pickupman66]

I'll keep an eye on it. I may be interested as well. I thought I had an auto feeder in a tote from when I moved but idk where it is now days

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[n2585722]

I didn't take mine apart but it does already have a manual button on the top back that will start it if pushed. It should be easy enough to solder a couple of wires to the switch that you can close momentarily with a relay to activate it also. If you use a 12volt relay you can activate the relay with a 12volt wall wart. I am mot sure there is room in their for a small relay but if so you could just add a jack to the case for the 12v. to the relay coil. I may have some time to check into this in 2 or 3 weeks.

[n2585722]

OK, curiosity got the best me so I disassembled my feeder. The photo of the PCB below has arrows pointing to where you would need to attach wires from the contact points of a relay. The one wire at one of the pads with the yellow arrows and the other wire to one of the pads with the red arrows. If it is a SPST relay the no issue. If it is a SPDT use the common and normally open contacts.

[illjoshlli]

I was able to get my Ehm Feeder 3581090 hooked up and working on a 5v relay tonight. I should be able to get it'll all closed up and hooked up to the Archon by the end of the week. Well, that's if I can find a few more hours to finish it.... The nice thing is, the relay will fit perfectly within the container so it should have a very clean finish.

One thing to note is that I am FAR from being knowledgeable in electronics. If any one sees an issue with what I did let me know .

Relay:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1







Video of me testing against a 5v adapter:

[jason2459]

that's awesome. Great job there. The eheim feeder is a great feeder too.

[MJNTWise]

Nice just ordered 2 of the relays......THANKS

[Pickupman66]

Very cool. Please detail a bit more of what you are doing in the video and how the relay works in the system.

[illjoshlli]

Absolutely, as soon as I can find some time I'll post details.

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[fishguy306]

So I just read through everything over the last few hours, glad to see the Archon has become so much more stable and working well now.

I'm trying to decide if it is worth it for me to upgrade to one. Full disclosure this will be for a freshwater system. I had a RKL controlling a planted tank. It has since come down and I'm now in the process of building a roughly 1000 gal main display tank and another 1100 or so in tanks and sumps all connected in a fish room. I purchased a RKE with some extra PC4s to run the system, then also picked up a net module.

Being FW I wont have much of the equipment that you reef guys do, so while the Archon looks great and I'm tempted to upgrade before I even set up the RKE, I'm just not sure if it'll be worth it for me. I will need it for monitoring two pH probes, temp in two locations (main and quarantine), controlling heat based off of both, one of which being a hot water heater system, pumps, an ATS, UV and lights, with ramping if I can figure out how. A webcam would be a nice plus but not necessary. I've already run an Ethernet cable through the floor to where the net module will be, so wifi is nice but not needed.

So I guess I'm just wondering if you guys see it being worth the upgrade for me? Will I benefit from anything besides a more user friendly web experience?

[Pickupman66]

So the web interface that the archon has is extremely more robust and more efficient than your current system. Since you have the Elite system already you don't have to worry about a number of modules. The archon will also work on your wired network if you don't want to deal with Wi-Fi. I think you might find some benefits from some of the more advanced functions on the archon since you are working two separate systems with it. the system is very stable at this time.

I think the ramp and functions will be really easy for you to program as well as the multi-controller function will be great for two different systems to activate or deactivate multiple devices from one input setting
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[fishguy306]

You do make it sound worth the upgrade. At this point I don't even have the RKE up and running, I actually don't have water in any of the tanks yet, but I'm buying my parts as I build and find deals, I'm kind of thinking I'll have an easier time upgrading and programming everything into an Archon now than I would doing it all with the RKE and down the road deciding to upgrade and having to do it again.

I am also concerned that DA will eventually stop support for the RKE and I'll have wished that I had upgraded.

The ramping function doesn't seem too complicated, but it depends on the LEDs I end up going with. I had been thinking some LED floodlights since I'm not nearly as worried about intensity or spectrum however I suspect I wont really be able to make those work.

[Pickupman66]

The rke should continue I reckon, just not major development. The archon is the future of DA.

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[fishguy306]

Well you convinced me. Just sent over the funds for one. Starting to feel like I've got a collection of DA controllers, a lite, two elites and now the Archon.

Anyway thank you for the thoughts. I'm sure I'll be back when it is actually time to install it and put it into use.

[shellsea]

Originally Posted by Pickupman66

The rke should continue I reckon, just not major development. The archon is the future of DA.

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First let me say once again, I have had my Archon since Feb 2015 and love it!
Prior to Archon I ran RKE for years and before that RKL. Support both here and DA support has been so greatly improved in the last year or two.

Now my question, some time ago it was rumored the RKE would morph into a display unit that would talk to the Archon. Anything further on that development?

[illjoshlli]

Alright, here is a quick tutorial on how to hook the Eheim Feeder 3581090 to a 5v relay and the Archon. I am no expert on electronics so excuse my explanations if I'm using the wrong terms/lingo. You are doing this at your own risk!

This is the Relay I purchased. They also have a 9v that would work.

[fishguy306]

Originally Posted by shellsea

First let me say once again, I have had my Archon since Feb 2015 and love it!
Prior to Archon I ran RKE for years and before that RKL. Support both here and DA support has been so greatly improved in the last year or two.

That is actually something I noticed as well and I hardly have used the products. All I heard was negative things about DA and their service, but I went with the RKL due to the lower price for a FW tank. Well I had some issues with a SL2 module and got a reply same day to my email. Thankfully I haven't needed them a ton but the couple times I have it has been pretty good. Now if only I can figure out how to reactivate my account on their forum lol

[FlyingFishSKYw]

Nice job!!!

[MJNTWise]

Nice.....Waiting on my relay....Should be here Friday.....

[Pickupman66]

Originally Posted by illjoshlli

Alright, here is a quick tutorial on how to hook the Eheim Feeder 3581090 to a 5v relay and the Archon. I am no expert on electronics so excuse my explanations if I'm using the wrong terms/lingo. You are doing this at your own risk!

This is the Relay I purchased. They also have a 9v that would work.

Man, that was Fantastic. now you can also setup a timer to have it fire that ramp daily or every x hours to automatically feed the fish. Man that makes me want to find my feeder.

[crs751]

Will this work with the RKE and if so how would you connect it? Would it be just a wall wart to supply 24v to the relay?


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[crs751]

Also how do you control the number of revolutions on the drum. When the relay is powered won't the drum turn until power is off?


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[illjoshlli]

Originally Posted by Pickupman66

Man, that was Fantastic. now you can also setup a timer to have it fire that ramp daily or every x hours to automatically feed the fish. Man that makes me want to find my feeder.

Thanks a lot! I'm excited to finish up and get it on the tank. I recently got an Anthias kashiwa that requires multiple feedings a day. He/she eats pellets like a champ so I won't have to worry about day feedings.

[illjoshlli]

Originally Posted by crs751

Will this work with the RKE and if so how would you connect it? Would it be just a wall wart to supply 24v to the relay?

I don't know enough about the RKE and if it has voltage outputs..you could just get a 5v wall wart... The wires that goto the Archon would go to the wall wart and that would plug into a powered RKE outlet. When the outlet turns on, the feeder turns on.

Originally Posted by crs751

Also how do you control the number of revolutions on the drum. When the relay is powered won't the drum turn until power is off?

I'm not sure, I'll test this weekend. I believe that when I tested holding down the manual button on the feeder it did not continue after the first spin. If that doesn't work the timer would need to repeat multiple times in a row with enough of a pause for a rotation (10s or so).

[crs751]

Ok I wasn't sure how many times it turned with the manual mode. This is a great idea. Thanks.


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