DIY Tank Monitor --> Tank Controller chat

[Gilles]

@Bad_Inferno: Good point. Do you allready have failing CF cards?
The ballasts where 15$ each (using connections @ Philips Lightning). New and unused hehe... I calculate the light sequence using MySQL every night at 24:00 once for all lights for the upcomming day.

[Bad Inferno]

I know there was some talk about this on the NSLU2/SLUG forums. I am not at the tech level to understand how to limit linux disk access. I am sure there is help on the net on using CF and limiting disk access on the linux distro you are using. I just use a small laptop drive.

Great job, that many lights you could create a DISCO sequence

[Bald_noggin]

I know for the NSLU-2/Linux, there are some answers on how to reduce the amount of read/writes to your storage medium. It does also mention that you are better off using a HDD as opposed to flash memory as flash does not last as long with many read-write cycles. I think it is in their wiki or FAQ.

$15 a piece for the ballasts !! I should be talking to you mate, buddy, pal, friend!!!!

I did the same with my PIC based dimming system. It uses DS2890 100K Ohm digital pots (1-WIRE!!!). Only problem was, ballast dimming is logrithmic, digi pots are linear so I had to work out the correct value with a formula. It's somewhere else in this post.

I will eventually port all of the PIC based system over to a linux based set-up.

That's a good price on the dosing pumps. I eventually want to add these to my system as well. The plan is to use them to dose ferts about an hour before lights on so it has a good chance to mix with all the tank water.

Again, great work mate!

[Bad Inferno]

This thread has been too quiet, what are people up to with respect to tank monitoring ? A lightning strike in December took out my telstra modem/router/ethernet port of my server and my 1wire network. So its taken a little while to get it back online its 90% back up and runsing.

Last year I did an update to the web interface. The gauges, for those that are a little web savy should be able to duplicate them as my code is documented.



www.rjconway.homeip.net

rob

[Bad Inferno]

Completed a new 8 channel relay mounted onto 4mm perspex plate. It looks alittle complicated however it really allows easy connection of the tank devices and also distributes the 12VDC power.

From Left to Right
1wire interface - Relay boards (double decker) ATO float relay and light actuator relay - terminals



You can see I had to mount the two relay boards ontop of one another



Under the 1wire controller I ahve mounted the refugium LED constant current power supply. This supply enables up to four 3W LED's to be driven.


AC Power Control

I required only two 1wire controlled AC powered devices. One being the main light the other the heater. I debated for quite a while in how best to acheive this in the safest way however deviced to simply use two good quality 12V relays inside a small box. These relays are controlled via the 1wire relay isolators on the main interface. above And yes there are now two relays controlling these outlets however all AC wiring is contained within the small box.

The heater needed to be normally ON thus without power to the relay the outlet is ON. That way if the controller fails the heater will be on, as it has its own thermostat, it will function as normal. The reason I wanted to be able to power off the heater was so that I can better regulate temperature on hot days. I did not want the heater fighting against the cooling fan when the tank temp was low. That way on hot days, ambient >26 I can just use fan control to regulate the tank temperature and turn off the heater.

The other outlet is simply the main light. Powering on the relay will turn the lights on.

[malcomm]

Nice work Gilles!

One of the great things about electronics is that you are usually limited only by your imagination.

I take it by looking at the photo's, they are dimming ballasts?

What's the specs on the little computer?

For your dosing pump, have you made something DIY or are you using a commerical product?

Sorry for all the Q's...

Cheers,
Col.

Thanx for your reply; here are the answers:
Yes, dimming ballasts, 100% - 1%. The 1-wire chip sends 0-255 steps to the network. Then, there is some smart stuff integrated onto the PCB which i did not invent.. hehe It turns off the power to the ballast if the voltage comes below 1v. (e.g. less then the minimum dim power). This way, it does not cost me any relais.

The little computer is this one:


Specs:
CPU: VIA C3 533 MHz
Memory: 512 MB 133 MHz SD-RAM
Slot: 1x PCI with riser
IDE: 1x IDE with convertor for Compact Flash (unfortunately, no DMA)
LAN: 1x 100 Mbit LAN onboard (bootable)
Video: Onboard Trident VGA 8 MB, max 1600x1200
Sound: Onboard sound, speaker/mic
I/O: 2xPS/2 2xUSB1.0 (bootable) 2xCOM 1xLPT
Dimensions: 5x23x21 cm (hxwxd)
Weight: 1,7 kg
Power usage: 15 Watt

For storage i use a 1gig CF card. Which makes it 100% noiseless.

As for dosing; i was going for a DIY, but then i found 1.5l/hour pumps which only cost 40$. Complete with housing etc. This means ~0.5ml/sec.

Well you can compare them with Aquamedic SP3000, they almost look thesame:


All that is left for me to do is:
- Make the PH and ORP/Conductivity unit.
- Connect the 8-port relais (4x = dosing, 3x heating (2 tubes, 1 bottom heater), 1x CO2 valve)
- Start monitoring temps

There will also be a new kinda "hub" which can connect "floaters" (you know, those things which monitor water level).


Using that, i can detect low water/high water and use the PC speaker to alert me (since the canopy is closed).

Where did you find the dosing pumps?
How have they worked out for you?

ta