ambitious DIY aquarium controller

[eleontie]

I saw that product, I was thinking about the building about the same thing, only with more probes if those would be available to buy.

I would need some input from Rick on how is he using it, and ... what else would he want from such a device.

But now we all want probably the same story from you Rick

Eugen

[JMLenke]

you can buy more probes, there are add ons that can be purchased

[JMLenke]

http://www.mcuresearch.com/index.html

here is another one I had in my bookmarks,

[JMLenke]

might want to look at this for the OS side of your controller
http://www.draquarium.com/

[Rick Dotson]

The bad thing about the Neptune Controller is that it doesn't have a 7 day clock. So you can only time events to happen everyday, not every other day or Thursday only.

Still I have been happy with it and may still use my industrial timer for the dosing so that I can dose two containers separately.

Rick

[DelawareJim]

$175, monitors PH, temp, and controls pumps too...

http://www.neptunesys.com/aquaControllerJr.htm

Never knew these existed. I missed the part on your tank Rick, how are you using this for water changes?

It has a pump controller (wavemaker) option. Think of a single long wave each day.

WaveMaker
Each pump to be controlled can either have a random or fixed time period. Both the on and off times are fully programmable and can range from 1 minute to 4 hours in 1 minute increments. Up to 12 pumps can be controlled by one base unit. A variable length feed timer cycle can be initiated with the press of a button and will disable some or all of the pumps in the system (programmed by the user). Soft start for pumps is available when the Jr is used with the Direct Connect 8. Soft start reduces wear and tear on pumps and results in noticeably quieter start up for most powerheads.

Cheers.
Jim

[Rick Dotson]

$175, monitors PH, temp, and controls pumps too...

http://www.neptunesys.com/aquaControllerJr.htm

Never knew these existed. I missed the part on your tank Rick, how are you using this for water changes?

The one thing I didn't find out until after buying it is that it does not have a 7-day clock. This would allow you to skip a day or go every three days.

I have a very small pump that is used to start a siphon. I turn it off after one minute and let it run until the siphon breaks at the cutoff level, this drains into a PVC drain run to the laundry tub in the basement. I then turn on a solenoid that is attached to city water for about 20 minutes. This runs until it overflows the drain. I do this everyday for about a 8 gallon water change. When I feed I squirt a shot of stress coat but I don't think it is necessary.

My old changer was an industrial programmable timer relay with a seven clock. It was a little difficult to program and it didn't do analog sensors, like pH or temp. I have been happy with the Neptune but it could be better. I am not using the Neptune for pH control, I am worried that I would neglect calibrating the probe and either dump a tank of CO2, or have an algae outbreak realizing that CO2 was feeding.

[eleontie]

It is ALIVE !

I didn't give up on the idea and now it is in its early betas.
I ended up choosing a relay board that connects to an old laptop via USB (linux and windows supported for now, mac... just not tested yet). For now it has the following capabilities :
- temperature sensor
- 4 very flexible programmable power outlets ( I think I may be limited to about half of a second control level, but I do not plan on needing more than that): can be used for lights, dosing, solenoids.
- water level sensors (on/off)

Having a full fledge computer acting as a controller adds a lot of features that would be very difficult to get from a dedicated controller ( have any kind of interface to configure it, auto synchronize the time with a time server, wireless networking, remote access, program in any language of preference - I chose Java for this one )

I have the controller run an autodoser. I am using an air pump and a 2L bottle ( I have a 20 day schedule, each day it doses 100ml of liquid ). I found that the very cheap airpump has more power to lift liquid higher up than the similar priced powerhead, allowing me to have the bottle with fertilizers at ground level. This is why I chose the airpump instead of other methods.

The Ph probe requires more circuitry for me to build, and since I never check the ph of my water - there is no hurry. I would just add the ph measurement as a challenge after I am done with polishing up the programming.

Eugen

[krisw]

Very neat project! So, the relay board is what has the power outlets on it, and you can configure each power outlet independently?

I presume you need to have the laptop positioned next to the tank, right?

I'd love to see this in action sometime. Nice work!

[chris_todd]

I'm also really interested in learning more about your relay board, power box and its USB interface. I once looked into doing something like this using the open source home automation package MisterHouse, but I am not an electronics guy, so all the hardware baffled me. And while I also looked at Neptune controllers, by the time I calculated how many probes and power outlets I'd need, the cost was prohibitive. So this DIY solution sounds very appealing.