Wireless control of VorTech pump will soon be possible for third-party aquarium controllers
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Ecotech Marine made a splash today by announcing a development kit for their wireless interface. What this means is that 3rd party companies will be able to create products that interface with the wireless technology that is in select Vortech Pumps. Tim Marks the president of EcoTech Marine had this to say:
We are extremely excited to announce the release of a development kit for third-party aquarium controller companies allowing them to create a wireless interface to our VorTech aquarium pumps. In addition to offering customizable controllability of the VorTech remotely through your controller, EcoTech customers will be able to download firmware updates and be remotely updated as to the operating conditions of the VorTech. The limits of this platform are vast and are only just beginning to emerge as controller companies take interest and start working with the development kit.This kit will be available to the industry’s leading controller companies and we are working diligently with them to wrap up the arrangements necessary to bring controller interfaces to production. While we know that there are still many unanswered questions and we are working to provide those answers to you, this is all the information that we are able to announce at this time.
With this announcement we can expect to see a larger array of controlling devices on the market. Our first guess would be interfacing with popular controllers like Digital Aquatics’ Reef Keeper Elite, Neptune Systems Apex or GHL’s Profilux II (III?) aquarium controllers. This was probably one of, if not the highest requested features with the popular Vortech aquarium pumps. Who knows what else might show up to market in the months to come.
Geeze about flipping time. I have one of the older controllers and am not going to change it out any time soon so this really isn’t happy news for me, but geeze took them long enough.
I wish Ecotech sold two versions of their MP40, a wired and a wireless, I much rather would have liked to have a third party controller control the pump anyways rather than paying a $75 premium on each pump just to have control ability (whether I wanted it or not).
November 13th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
@Mike, perhaps the release of the developer kit for the EcoTech Marine wireless protocol is a signal that Ecotech might implement something like what you are talking about for the future?
November 13th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
GHL are in communication with Ecotech also
Please see here
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1739336
November 13th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Good news to hear. Glad to see this. I own old basic Netpunes controllers for now but hope this connectibility will be placed in the Apex as well.
November 13th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Jake: Think you were missing my point, I would much rather spend $75 per pump, and let a 3rd party do a wired controller similar to an Aquasurf or something. $75 isn’t THAT much, but when you throw 3, 4, 5 Vortechs on your tank that adds up in a hurry
November 13th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Sorry that should read “I would rather NOT spend AN ADDITIONAL $75 per pump…”
November 13th, 2009 at 7:08 pm