To kill the time waiting for my replacement light (the first one was defective) I ordered a ReefKeeper Elite with the net module from Digital Aquatics. I’m a big fan of the ReefKeeper 2, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the new version. Plus I’m totally weak when it comes to hobby gadgets.

Ignore the temp reading in that shot. There’s no water in the tank yet and I’ve not calibrated anything.

The package contents:

• RKE head unit
• Two four port power strip modules (RKM-PC4)
• Switch, pH, temp, ORP module (RKM-SL1)
• Network module (RKM-NET)
• Temperature probe
• pH probe with calibration solutions
• Two switch port adapters
• Firmware update dongle
• A variety of bus cables and mounting screws

The RKE is a differnet beast than the RK2. It’s a modular system. You can have up to 64 modules connected up via a six conductor ribbon cable bus. You can define a large number of differnt timers and alarms, and these can be assigned to input and outputs as needed. This makes it about a million times more flexible than the Rk2. I don’t think theres much you could not do with this thing.

RKM-PC4

This is the four port power module. It’s a 15 Amp strip with and built in breaker. It has two 8 Amp switched relay channels and two 3 amp solid state channels. It appears to have all the same channel functions the Rk2 had, plus a few. I like that each strip has its own plug and breaker.

RKM-SL1

This a sensor module containing the same temp and pH ports as the RK2, plus an ORP plug, and two switch interfaces. It came with a temp and pH probe, but I’m bummed that it didn’t include the ORP. The switch ports are neat. You can tie the status of an exterbnal switch to a PC channel, alarm mode, or just about anything. I’ll probably setup a auto top off system. Get a couple of float switches… tie them to a channel that runs a pump… log it… graph it… sweet!

RKM-NET

This is neat. I rigged up my own network connectivity for the RK2 a while back. That basically just reported temp, pH, and channel status for me. This looks like a treasure trove of functionality to tap into. The NET module is basically a web server that collects info from the RKE modules it is connected to. It can send its own emails based on alarms, and provide data from any of the inputs or outputs via an RSS feed. I can’t wait to go to town on integrating this with the blog.

Digital Aqautics sells several other modules. One that adds a salinity probe (I guess it’s conductivity? It alo duplicates the temp, pH,  and teo more switch ports), a moonlight controller that will dim the LEDs based on the phase of the moon, a module that is nothing but switches and relays, and more coming out.

Tags: ReefKeeper

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at 5:07 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.