Collective Break and Temp Control Question

[Rickloffg]

Newby here.

I am in the midst of adding an X4 (primary) and XP8 collective to my Red Sea display. The Hydros has been running on my desk for a couple of weeks and I am impressed--looks like a great product family and the programming is simple as expected. This morning, the collective was broken by the X4 being unreachable and red lights/siren were flashing. Control smoothly shifted to the XP8, so the router was not at fault, and my skimmer and sump fan (plugged into a wireless Hydros Power Strip) continued to run on programmed schedules that were held in both the X4 and XP8--all good. The X4 was connected to 2 temp sensors on my desk, measuring ambient air. I could not communicate with then temp units given that the X4 was non responsive--not so good when I setup the X4 to control display tank temp.

I checked all cables, which appeared to be good--nothing changed. I rebooted the collective--nothing changed. I disconnected the XP8 from the wall power and reconnected--the collective booted and all is well. This is the only glitch experienced to date, so I am not overly concerned. But I am curious......

Any suggestions as to why the collective was broken? Are random electronic breaks to be occasionally expected with Hydros, or are there a couple of known causes documented in this forum, beyond the few obvious connect issues listed in the Hydros manual?

I assume that, had 1 of the temp sensors been in the display water and providing the control signal for the heater/Inkbird plugged into an XP8 outlet, then control function would have continued with the X4 down and the XP8 operating. I simply would not be able to remotely read or change the temp functionality remotely. Is this correct? Or does the X4, if disconnected from the collective, compromise the temp sensor input to the XP8 outlet and thus break temp control?

Here is my logic for temp control: I will use a 300W BRS Ti heater plugged into 1 Inkbird, a 200W BRS Ti heater into a 2nd InkBird, and both Inkbirds plugged into separate XP8 outlets. I will control with the X4 and using 1 temp sensor input, and I will read-only with a 2nd temp sensor. I will run the Hydros at 77F +/-0.2F and set the Inkbirds at 82F for high end protection. I have used this approach with 4 Inkbirds, but no controller, for several years. Any suggestions to improve the redundancy and control accuracy now that I am adding Hydros? Is it useful/necessary to add an additional controller with a couple of sense ports so as to provide redundant temperature reading and control?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Rick

 

[Carlos]

Did the temperature fall outside the range specified in the Temperature input? That would explain why the beeping and the alarm. Did you submit a ticket? If you did, it would allow me to check if someone has been helping you and what they have done so far. It would also give me the information needed, and I could remote into your system (with your permission) and check things out.

 

[Rickloffg]

Thank you, Carlos for the reply. No, I have not submitted a ticket since this was a one-time collective break and I wanted to first check the forum.

To answer your question, for the past week or so, the X4 has monitored 2 temp sensors, each in a bucket of water and not in my display, so I can gain experience before the Hydros install in the DT. Each temp sensor was set to Notify on Orange (e-mail and push, but no audible checked) if outside the Safe temp range. Several times over this week, before the collective broke, the temp was outside the range as my room cools at night and I was Orange alerted with push and e-mail without audible---all good as expected. It was at the end of this week test that the collective broke, the X4 was not connectable, and required an off/on wall power to reconnect, per my description above.

The X4/XP8 collective has worked well over the past couple of days since this single collective break. I have now put the 2 temp probes into the DT to monitor but not yet control the XP8 outlets---values are spot on and stable, consistent with my other temp measurements. The Safe Range is 76.5 to 77.5 with Orange Notification and the probes are each giving 76.8-77.0F 24/7 with good InkBird control. I will continue to monitor the stability of these 2 temp sensors and the X4/XP8 collective, and add my pH probe.

I suggest that I not submit a ticket, unless another 'random' break occurs. But, if you wish, I can certainly submit the tic. And you are welcome to remote access my setup.

More generally, I am particularly interested in understanding if my thinking is correct, per the final 2 paragraphs in my original message. Rick