By now, you've probably seen those cool signatures that show the temperature, ph, and lighting status of folks' tanks. With a little work, you can have one too.

Step 1. Controller

At this time, there are quite a few controllers that are supported. If you have a Neptune Systems AquaController 3 or higher that has the ethernet port option, a Neptune Systems AquaController Jr / 2 with AquaNotes, a Neptune Systems Apex, a Premium Aquatics LightHouse controller, a Digital Aquatics ReefKeeper Elite with NET module, a Profilux 2 with an ethernet port, or a Profilux 3 with ethernet, you're in luck.

Step 2. Data

Assuming you know the IP address of your controller (or the computer running AquaNotes), grab a notepad and let's get started.

For AC3 or Apex users:
Log into the web page of the controller- hit http://[ip address]/ .. it asks for a username and password. Write those down. Click on the status link on the left. You'll see a page like the following:


Notice that this user has an expansion module monitoring another tank, and device names such as RP2, TL2, FM2. Write down the names of the devices you'll want to show in your signature, and and of the tank parameters like Tmp, TmpA, pH, pHA1, ORP. If you have an Apex, copy / paste the 'XML Status' link on the left side into a notepad. For an AC3, copy / paste the 'Status' link on the left into a notepad.

For AC2 / Jr users:
Log into the web page of AquaNotes- hit http://[ip address]/AquaNotes .. it asks for a username and password. Use guest / guest. Click on the status link on the left. You'll see a page like the following:


Right click on the status link and select 'Copy link location'. Paste this link into a document for safe keeping.

Notice that this user has device names such as LT1, LT2, and CTM. Write down the names of the devices you'll want to show in your signature, and and of the tank parameters like Temp, pH, and ORP.


For LightHouse users:

Bring up the data web page of the lighthouse- hit http://[ip address]/data.htm - you'll see something like this:


Write down any parameters that you would like to put in your signature like NowPH or NowTmp.

For Profilux 2 controllers:

Bring up the profilux software and note which power outlets correspond to which devices- ie, S1 = Left Metal Halide, or S2 = Heater, etc.

For Profilux 3 controllers:

This gets a little tricky. First, you need to have firmware version 5.00k or greater. You have to upload a special file to your controller that allows our server to grab your data. In order to upload the file, you'll need a tftp client. Here's one I found using google. Once you have the tftp client installed, right click on this link and click 'save as..' or 'Save Target as..'. Select a location that you can remember, and click 'ok'.  In this example, I saved this file to C:\Downloads\live.html.

Now click on 'Start', 'Run..' and enter 'cmd'. Click 'ok'. In the window that pops up, use tftp to upload the file you saved to your controller. As an example, the command might be (depending on which tftp client you used)- 'tftp -i [ip address of your controller] [path to live.html] live.html'

This will place the file on your controller and you should be able to browse this file by hitting http://[ip address of controller]/live.html . Browse this page, and then view the source of the page. It should look something like this-

Write down the value between <description> for any data that you might want to use inside your signature. (ie, 'Time', 'pH-Value 1', or 'Temperature 1'.) Beside each one, paste it again and remove all the spaces and punctuation in the line. (ie, 'pH-Value 1' becomes 'pHValue1'  and 'Temperature 1' becomes 'Temperature1')

For RKE with NET module:

Bring up the url http://<ip address of controller>/rss/rss.xml

Take note of the items whose 'current value' you wish to us in your signature. Copy / paste these into notepad. Beside each one, paste it again and remove all the punctuation in the line and put a $ in front of it.

e.g. RKM-SL1, ID 2 Temp: Tank: Sump   $RKMSL1ID2TempTankSump

With a list of the fields that you want to show up in your signature, you're ready to make your controller internet accessible.

Step 3. Static URL

In order for the signature generator to poll the URL to your controller, the address must remain static. There are multiple sites on the internet that allow you to take a dynamic net connection and assign a static name to it. www.dyndns.org and www.no-ip.com are two popular ones. It is beyond the scope of this howto to describe in detail how to do this, but they are fairly straightforward. Please DO NOT use just your ip address, unless you KNOW it's static and will not change. Those using non-static ip addresses are subject to having their signatures disabled without notice.

IP ADDRESSES that start 192.168.*.* are internal ip addresses and CAN NOT be used.

Step 4. Routing to your controller

Now that you have a static URL like http://myreef.dyndns.org you need to tell your router or gateway to point to the controller when http requests come in. In linksys routers, look under applications and gaming; on dlink routers, check virtual servers under advanced. Different routers have different settings, but the general idea is to take incoming traffic on port 80 (http) and forward that request to the internal ip address of your controller (192.168.1.x for example).

For profilux 2 controllers, traffic usually comes in on port 10001, rather than port 80.

When done, you should be able to access your controller's status page using the external address like http://myreef.dyndns.org/data.htm for lighthouse controllers,  http://myreef.dyndns.org/cgi-bin/status.cgi for an AquaController 3, http://myreef.dyndns.org/cgi-bin/status.xml for a Neptune Apex,  http://myreef.dyndns.org/rss/rss.xml for ReefKeeper Elite, http://myreef.dyndns.org/live.html for Profilux 3, or http://myreef.dyndns.org/AquaNotes/status.asp?tankID=1 for an AquaController Jr / 2 with AquaNotes. For Profilux 2 controllers, you should be able to enter this name into the Profilux client software and still see the status of your controller. Write down this URL.

Step 5. Accessing the sig generator

Click on 'Extras' above, then select 'Signature Generator'.

Step 6. Creating a new signature

From the administration screen, you can see a list of all the currently defined signatures. At the top of the page, click the green plus icon. This takes you to the add signature page.

Select your controller type from the list, and enter the external URL you set up in Step 4. Note: This URL must point to a status page (AC3 / AC Jr / AC2/Apex), data.htm (Lighthouse), live.html (Profilux 3), or rss.xml (for ReefKeeper Elite). For Profilux 2 controllers, simply enter the DNS name you set up in step 4. If you chose AquaController III or Apex for the type, enter the username and password used to access the AquaController status page.

The template fields are where you lay out how your signature will look. These lines can contain literal text, or $variable placeholders that will be replaced with actual data from your controller. These placeholders are case sensitive, so $tmp is different than $TMP or $Tmp. Note that LightHouse controllers report ph and temperature values times ten or one hundred respectively. To show proper values, you must use the tcl command [expr $variable / 10.0] or [expr $variable / 100.0]. Advanced users can use tcl to format date and time fields however they wish.

Figure 1. Example AC Jr / 2 / 3 / Apex Template


Figure 2. Example LightHouse Template (Older Version)


Figure 3. Example LightHouse Template (Newer Version)


Figure 4. Example Profilux 2 Template

Figure 5. Example ReefKeeper Elite with NET module Template

Figure 6. Example Profilux 3 Template

Under color details, click the 'Background Color' or 'Text Color' radio buttons and click a color in the color map to change the color. You can also type in custom hex colors. If you don't want a background color, click the 'transparent' button. Select a font and font size from the drop down.

If you have an image you would like to use as a background, it can be uploaded via the browse button. This image must be a png file, specifically a png-24 image. While the sig will dynamically resize to match the dimensions of your image, max recommended dimensions are 400 pixels wide by 85 pixels high. If you've previously defined a background image and wish to remove it, check the 'remove background' checkbox.

Under Graph Details, you can choose your timezone, and specify the text that appears above and to the side of each of the graphs. This is useful if you use celcius instead of farenheit for temperature, or if you use a second ph probe instead of an ORP probe with an AC3. The last three fields specify the colors used to generate the graphs. You can choose text color, background color, and line plot color. These colors must be specified in the hex format.

That's it! Click 'Save' to add your signature.

Step 7. Wait

The addition of a new signature takes as much as ten minutes. Don't be disappointed that when you get back to the administration screen, all you see is a broken image. Hit reload / refresh in ten minutes, and assuming you entered your detailes correctly, your sig should be visible.

Note: Special thanks go to Bigman and boboxx from the Profilux forum for help with the live.html and the method for uploading the file to the Profilux 3.