DIY Aquarium Controller - more

wanareef · 04-16-2004, 02:53 PM

One of the assembled boards - the main controller

http://compudoc97.com/SaltwaterNewbie.shtml

wanareef · 04-16-2004, 02:55 PM

The PH board

-_Nebuli_- · 04-18-2004, 07:21 PM

i just went through that whole site and looked at the message boards, i want one. is he sending them out/figured up the total cost? or is it all still pending?

Phishnoob · 04-18-2004, 11:04 PM

I tried to figure that out as well. I looked at the parts list and looks like everything is easy to get from Digi-Key but it would be great to get the boards.

If anyone figures out how to order these in any form I want one as well.

Phishnoob

wanareef · 04-20-2004, 03:30 AM

If you guy's made it to the bottom of his site - you would have seen this

Preprogrammed Chips and Premade PCB's
If you are interested in purchasing any of the pcbs of these projects, or if you need a chip programmed, I am willing to do this for my cost plus shipping. Go to the signup sheet HERE The cost maybe around $150 or so. Don't forget the X-10 modules for the controllers (lights, pumps ect, ect ,,,)

Just sign up, no $$ up front. I figure an acrylic housing will be just great for this and I'll be making my own. Oh forgot to explain - PCB's = Printed Circuit Boards

This is the first "prototype boeads and he is working out the "bugs", He has made corrections to the schematic and will be ordering more boards for the 2nd run. If you are on the list, you will be notifiked as to when and how much. If you read the Q&A part near the top of his site, you can ask him your ???

Here the promotion for the X-10 modules
http://www.x10.com/products/firecrac...irecracker.htm

Phishnoob · 04-20-2004, 07:24 PM

Okies I have my name on the list for everything. If anyone needs help building this up let me know.

Phishnoob

bap · 11-07-2004, 04:27 PM

His website says he is back working on this after a six month break. This has got to be the best DIY aquarium project of all time. I really appreciate his sharing his work with all of us. I can't wait to get the parts and assemble this thing.

wanareef · 11-10-2004, 09:43 AM

Thanks for posting - I kind of gave up. Heard he just went thru a divorce and I can understand dropping this project

davidc · 11-11-2004, 08:51 AM

i know where to get extremely cheap PCBs, so I might contact him and see if he's interested in getting some made for cheap.

I had 50 PCBs shipped to me for $40 one time. They were simpler though. I also just had some fairly complex, mostly surface mount ones shipped to me for $20 @ 6 pieces. You can't beat those prices!
If he doesn't want to deal with that, maybe I can work up a different PCB with his permission and offer that for cheap.

Krux · 11-14-2004, 10:07 PM

i would be game.

wanareef · 11-16-2004, 07:36 AM

davidc

You'll have to wait till he fixes his schematic and does his upgrades on the board before ordering more bd's. Did you see his cut and jumps?

davidc · 11-16-2004, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wanareef

davidc

You'll have to wait till he fixes his schematic and does his upgrades on the board before ordering more bd's. Did you see his cut and jumps?

yeah, kinda like hopscotch with all those jumpers

I'm in no hurry, I've got plenty of other projects going on

Jimbo · 11-17-2004, 02:36 AM

I put my name on the list for PH and ORP board, but have not received any emails about them. I would just build the ph circuit up but you don't want it to drift and a circuit board adds stability to the circuit. My PH monitor has MV out so I could just hook that to one of the processors a/d converter lines. You can get a x10 interface for the DIOS board. But I'm trying to stay away from x10 stuff

but down the road that might be an option. At first I was only going to use 8 ports, not including lighting should be enough for PH, ORP and heat controllers. ORP only needs one port but if you have a calcium reactor and a neilson reactor you will want two ports for PH. So I could add two making 10 ports to run everything.

wanareef · 11-19-2004, 05:56 AM

Typical engineer - can't understand your language

Jim - would it be possible to use this controller (Saltwaternewbie) and have it look like this - (check your PM since they are a sponsor I'd thouhgt to keep it on the downlow) but maybe more switched "recepticales"? I could use more than the 8 that they have. Fans, lights (4x mh's, 4xvho's the vho's on different times) chiller, calicum rector, usual ph, orp, temp ect ect.. trying to get away from x-10's too.

There was a premade PCB with 10 relays on it 5 were 10 amps and the other 5 were 5 amps. If I can find it, I'll post it but how would you interface it? Never mind, I won't understand it.

And why did you sign up for those two PCB's when the main controller will have them, or am I mistooken about that

Jimbo · 11-19-2004, 01:06 PM

Wannareef I was planning on just using those PCB's (ph, redox) with the DIOS microcontroller. If I redesigned the whole circuit board to include them that would be way cool. But one step at a time, if they all ready made that can save some hassle on the prototype. The only thing that needs designed is the triac on/off switcher (circuit board)

I was thinking of 12 ports total, so that gives you 4 more ports than that other controller. One problem with the triacs I'm using is you can only run 480 watts out of each port. So maybe for lighting we could use 4 relays along with 8 triacs. (relays) are more expensive. Would 4 ports for lighting satisfy you?

On my setup I would hope that the software will allow us to set each port to any specific function, PH, Ph, ORP, Temp (for triac ports), main pump. spare ports could be used for powerheads. 4 relays for lighting each individually programmable.

As you can see there is a lot of work to be done here Triac/relay board design. 30 pages of code, + debug time. The setup will be more complex that other controllers because of the flexibility involved. But several default setup's could be included. If you read the manual on the other board that is for sale you'll see that you can only use certain ports for certain things (this greatly simplifies the software). Hopefully they will change that in the future, but no PH,ORP controller. I'd be willing to bet they are working on it along with additional ports or port expansion.

You would be able to update the DIOS board through your computers serial port, nice feature for sure.

If you want to know more about the DIOS board checkout www.kronosrobotics.com. As many times that I've mentioned them here you would think I would get a free board