Making Ecotech Radions wireless USB?

[aquatechy]

Was wondering, has anyone tried/had any success in making their ecotech radion fixtures wireless (wireless USB)? I feel that the radions' requirement to be hooked up to a computer running the connection manager is a disappointing (but not awfully upsetting) limitation when it comes to controlling them remotely.

Scouring some other forums online, like Reef Central, and Marine-depot's forum, it sounds like some folk have had success with these two products:

http://www.marinedepot.com/AquaticLi...LTACUS-vi.html

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=KL4335...facture=IOGEAR

Any thoughts?

[RPatsula]

I think you would have the best luck with the USB adapter. Because with this device all you are doing is converting the wired USB device to a wireless device. My only concern would be, the moisture getting into the Radeon at the point where the USB device is connected. The reason I say this is because I left one of my Radeon's plugged into the USB cable for approximately 6 months. Then all of a sudden that Radeon stopped working correctly. I had it replaced and now I no longer leave it plugged in at all. What I would like to see, is for ecotech to come up with a dongle that you would leave connected to your computer that would wirelessly talk to your existing Radeons.

Rick

[aquatechy]

You bring up an excellent point - that micro-USB port on the radion would normally be closed (sealed with the rubber stopper they give you in the box). If you constantly keep it connected, moisture could probably seep in.. After all, USB connections arent necessarily water tight connections haha

[RPatsula]

What I thought would be an interesting thing to do would be to find a Radeon that someone is just trying to get rid of at a reasonable price and disconnect the LEDs and have it hooked up directly to a computer so that you could manage your existing Radeon's.

Or try to reverse engineer an existing Radeon and build your own Radeon circuitboard.

Rick