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Bluefish Feature Wishlist and Suggestions

DC5

By DC5,
in Bluefish Lighting & Aquarium Controller

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DC5

DC5

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I figured I would start a thread to organize our thoughts on things we might like to see implemented/changed/customized within the awesome Bluefish controller that Genix has created.

 

Any complaints or issues should probably be emailed or PM'd to Genix, and not posted here.

 

I'll start:

 

- is there a way to turn off the LED on the controller? It is pretty bright!I could put a piece of tape on it, but it could be software controlled possibly

 

- how about a warning that I am about to back out to the login screen? When I was getting used to the software, I often times found myself backing right out of the app and back to login. It would be cool if a pop-up warning asked me if I wanted to exit

 

- Lighting schedule export to email - press a button and the app sends an email to the address that is on the account and shows me my current lighting schedule

 

Again, not sure if any of these is possible, but considering what Genix has been able to accomplish so far, I figured this thread couldn't hurt!

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jedimasterben

jedimasterben

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- how about a warning that I am about to back out to the login screen? When I was getting used to the software, I often times found myself backing right out of the app and back to login. It would be cool if a pop-up warning asked me if I wanted to exit

I would much prefer this login system to go away altogether. I personally see little reason to have to log into the controller every time I want to look at something (especially since I've now got my full array completed and am fine tuning everything and taking pics/readings/etc). Persistent logins please? :)

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DC5

DC5

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I would much prefer this login system to go away altogether. I personally see little reason to have to log into the controller every time I want to look at something (especially since I've now got my full array completed and am fine tuning everything and taking pics/readings/etc). Persistent logins please? :)

 

I don't mind it...I can just see my nephew getting a hold of my phone and setting my lights to come on at 3 AM full blast or something...I imagine it is there for that one off chance that would probably happen to me.

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SpencerShepard

SpencerShepard

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Ahhh man....I was hoping you guys would think it was perfect the way it was and I wouldn't have to do any more work!



Kidding of course...I'm listening to your suggestions. Keep 'em coming.

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DC5

DC5

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Well, you are in a unique and advantageous situation, in that you are right in the middle of your user base and can make changes to your product almost on the fly on those things that are possible.

 

Show me a big box manufacturer that has that flexibility!

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Exquitas

Exquitas

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How far away is a full blown controller?

 

I guess that it will take at least 4-5 months considering the quality of work they do.

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Reefporn

Reefporn

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1+ on persistent logins. My phone won't even save and automatically input the login.

 

It would be cool if there was a way to access your phone/tablet camera directly through the app.

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rod00007

rod00007

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1. check box to save credentials for login. An option would be nice here.

2. I would like to have a Status page for the current time/light schedule. Could be an Android widget. It could show you what is on and off without any buttons as well as current intensity and lights.

3. Check box option to turn off the preview while entering settings for different times of day. I would like to have the option not to preview as I am making the changes.

4. Display what time does the bluefish think it is currently. - That way we know for sure its on the correct schedule.

5. Banner below doesn't make sense to me. It's 4:21pm in st lucia yet it says @11am and has moon ilumination on?

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KP_Reef_Tank

KP_Reef_Tank

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I'm sure if you come up with a comprehensive set of upgrades, we'd be willing to chip in to get it.

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jedimasterben

jedimasterben

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Another thing I would like is to have both sunrise and sunset both be dynamic, but be able to offset it to my preferred photoperiod range.

 

As it is right now, simulating Bora Bora, today sunrise is at 6:49AM, sunset is 5:41PM. If I have it set to my time zone, like normal, then it actually starts at 6:49AM and ends at 5:41 PM. I just played around with it and set my time zone 5 hours ahead so that my photoperiod will be from 11:49AM to 10:41PM, which is close to the 11AM to 11PM that I want it to be set near. While it works this way (or should, anyway), it would be cool to make it easier to do. :)

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risk1994

risk1994

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Another thing I would like is to have both sunrise and sunset both be dynamic, but be able to offset it to my preferred photoperiod range.

 

As it is right now, simulating Bora Bora, today sunrise is at 6:49AM, sunset is 5:41PM. If I have it set to my time zone, like normal, then it actually starts at 6:49AM and ends at 5:41 PM. I just played around with it and set my time zone 5 hours ahead so that my photoperiod will be from 11:49AM to 10:41PM, which is close to the 11AM to 11PM that I want it to be set near. While it works this way (or should, anyway), it would be cool to make it easier to do. :)

 

You would then want the weather to be offset as well.

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jedimasterben

jedimasterben

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You would then want the weather to be offset as well.

The weather sim doesn't really bother me. As far as I can tell, it doesn't really handle cloud cover like I want, so the weather sim can stay off and I wouldn't notice lol

 

cloud%2520cover.jpg

 

 

^ realistic cloud cover

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SpencerShepard

SpencerShepard

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As far as I can tell, it doesn't really handle cloud cover like I want, so the weather sim can stay off and I wouldn't notice lol

 

There's no reason why cloud simulation can't be improved. I think the graph you posted is pretty close to what happens when weather is partly cloudy. However I don't think there are enough data points on the graph to get a good idea of what realistic cloud simulation should look like.

 

Another thing I would like is to have both sunrise and sunset both be dynamic, but be able to offset it to my preferred photoperiod range.

 

As it is right now, simulating Bora Bora, today sunrise is at 6:49AM, sunset is 5:41PM. If I have it set to my time zone, like normal, then it actually starts at 6:49AM and ends at 5:41 PM. I just played around with it and set my time zone 5 hours ahead so that my photoperiod will be from 11:49AM to 10:41PM, which is close to the 11AM to 11PM that I want it to be set near. While it works this way (or should, anyway), it would be cool to make it easier to do. :)

Any reason why you don't want to shift towards a set start or end time? ie. If you set your manual morning time to 8am, sunrise simulation off, sunset simulation on -- the result will be starting every morning at 8am but varying sunset time to match the photoperiod of Bora Bora.

 

5. Banner below doesn't make sense to me. It's 4:21pm in st lucia yet it says @11am and has moon ilumination on?

What it should be displaying is what time of day you are simulating, and not the current time of day in St Lucia. I think it's only relevant/accurate with dynamic photoperiods. Moon illumination is more like the phase of the moon, not the current output of the controller.

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jedimasterben

jedimasterben

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There's no reason why cloud simulation can't be improved. I think the graph you posted is pretty close to what happens when weather is partly cloudy. However I don't think there are enough data points on the graph to get a good idea of what realistic cloud simulation should look like.

Any chance we could get a graph of what the sim data does? A way to export a graph of the current settings we use, taking into account any sim data, would be awesome. :)

 

This one has a few more points :) This data was logged in early Februrary. From Dana Riddle: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2013/9/aafeature

 

cloud3.png

 

cloud2.png

 

As does this one. This data was collected in late April, with intense cloud cover setting in around noon. Also from Dana Riddle: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2009/7/aafeature2

cloud4.jpg

 

Any reason why you don't want to shift towards a set start or end time? ie. If you set your manual morning time to 8am, sunrise simulation off, sunset simulation on -- the result will be starting every morning at 8am but varying sunset time to match the photoperiod of Bora Bora.

My 'optimal' photoperiod would be starting and ending somewhere between 11AM and 11PM, average out to 12 hours photoperiod over the year like it does in the tropics. I would prefer both sunrise and sunset be dynamic. I don't want it to always end or start at the same time and then only vary one point, it's not what happens in nature, but I'm weird about little things like that. It's something that I know I would like, but that others probably don't care about lol.

 

The workaround that I am doing, though, by offsetting my time zone by five hours, seems to work out well and appears to do exactly as I'm wanting, so I am content with the settings how they are. I started playing around with it at around 5PM yesterday (so the lights were already past their set peak and in their downward ramp), and noticed around 10:30PM (when I figured the light should be pretty dim by that point so late in the photoperiod) that I needed to shift by one more hour, so I went back in, set the time zone, changed my location to somewhere else, then back to Bora Bora, and boom, lights were at like 4% and were full off by 10:41, which is five hours past the actual sunset time in Bora Bora.

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Exquitas

Exquitas

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- Somekind of webserver or Software compatible with Windows/MacOS would be nice ... So that you can controll everything just like in your app but over the PC. (You could show diagrams of temperature readings, salinity, etc etc)

 

- Master and Slave System ... Master would be the current controller and we should be able to buy a second (slave) controller so that we can hook up more than one tank to the controller. EDIT: If permormance would be an issue you could make the current controller a slave (firmware update) and release a faster controller as master....

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DanielSydney

DanielSydney

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- ability to see firmware version in app.

 

- option to force random storms during morning/ evening schedule despite the weather at the chosen location.

 

- mute storm sound checkbox

 

- been suggested before but +1 to a checkbox that allows changes to your lighting schedule without affecting light. If you stuff around with light schedules it creates mayhem in the tank. Not a biggie but would be nice.

 

- my kessil will dim more via the pot that's via the controller. Very frustrating as one bug bear is getting the kessil to dim as much as possible.

 

- maybe a holiday or algae mode that allows you to set a light schedule for a set period, say 4 days then resume normal schedule.

 

Great product guys

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Sedivec

Sedivec

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This probably wont be a popular suggestion but I was dissapointed to see iOS 7 is required to use the app. iOS 7 has run so horribly on my iPhone 4 that I refuse to update to it on my iPad, so I can't use the app on my iPad..

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