ok this is one of the biggest features I think is missing from Apex, is the ability to wake me up with something needs attention.
I have bought one of those buzzers and hooked it up to the 24Volt plugs and have a CritAlarm setup that makes it go off if some specific things go off (My tank temp go low, etc), which I have had happen in the middle of the night (Why would it happen during the day when you can do something about it), but its not easy to hear from my bedroom.
I spent some time digging around and I now have critical alarms setup and have an app on my phone that will keep going off till I acknowledge it. Kind of like PagerDuty for those of us that have been on-call
Here is how I setup it up. Its a bit of work but with the investment in our tanks it worth it.
First I setup Home Assistant
www.home-assistant.io
Its a free home automation software you can run on a Raspberry PI, Docker container (Which is how im running it) or on your machine. Im actually digging into it and will use it for much more stuff since it integrates a bunch of other devices I have on my network.
Second I bought PushOver (5$ one time charge)
its an app that you put on your phone that allows you to send notification messages to your phone and has Priorities so you can send normal messages or Critical messages and you can specify what happens when you get them.
Now for the glue and how it works (All credit goes to this guy for writing it, I was going to do some of my own programming but he did it for me).
github.com
This is a Home Assistant plugin that connects to your local apex (Not Fusion so you are not violating licenses), it can read the status of all your devices which can then be used to build automations around them. I plan on doing more like "Notify me when my Trident is almost empty", not when its empty like apex does.
Once you setup this plugin in Home Assistant you can connect to multiple apex in your home and you get all the switches, probes and devices on the apex listed like the image below
I have setup and begun to test my critical alarm and right now my only automation was to send me a Critical notification when my Critical alarm goes off on my Apex. That was worth all the time and effort I just put in to getting this working.
I plan to do much more but if you have any computer skills (And you dont need many because you can buy a raspberry pi and just run it off of that very easily, this is a project that any Apex owner should try. Might save you a ton of money in the end when you are asleep or not home.
I have bought one of those buzzers and hooked it up to the 24Volt plugs and have a CritAlarm setup that makes it go off if some specific things go off (My tank temp go low, etc), which I have had happen in the middle of the night (Why would it happen during the day when you can do something about it), but its not easy to hear from my bedroom.
I spent some time digging around and I now have critical alarms setup and have an app on my phone that will keep going off till I acknowledge it. Kind of like PagerDuty for those of us that have been on-call
Here is how I setup it up. Its a bit of work but with the investment in our tanks it worth it.
First I setup Home Assistant
Home Assistant
Open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server.
www.home-assistant.io
Its a free home automation software you can run on a Raspberry PI, Docker container (Which is how im running it) or on your machine. Im actually digging into it and will use it for much more stuff since it integrates a bunch of other devices I have on my network.
Second I bought PushOver (5$ one time charge)
its an app that you put on your phone that allows you to send notification messages to your phone and has Priorities so you can send normal messages or Critical messages and you can specify what happens when you get them.
Now for the glue and how it works (All credit goes to this guy for writing it, I was going to do some of my own programming but he did it for me).
GitHub - itchannel/apex-ha: Local Neptune Apex HA Integration (Aquarium Controller)
Local Neptune Apex HA Integration (Aquarium Controller) - itchannel/apex-ha
github.com
This is a Home Assistant plugin that connects to your local apex (Not Fusion so you are not violating licenses), it can read the status of all your devices which can then be used to build automations around them. I plan on doing more like "Notify me when my Trident is almost empty", not when its empty like apex does.
Once you setup this plugin in Home Assistant you can connect to multiple apex in your home and you get all the switches, probes and devices on the apex listed like the image below
I have setup and begun to test my critical alarm and right now my only automation was to send me a Critical notification when my Critical alarm goes off on my Apex. That was worth all the time and effort I just put in to getting this working.
I plan to do much more but if you have any computer skills (And you dont need many because you can buy a raspberry pi and just run it off of that very easily, this is a project that any Apex owner should try. Might save you a ton of money in the end when you are asleep or not home.
