Plans will be free of charge. I'll have a website setup where they can be downloaded including BOM, schematics, and PCB Gerber Files. When I have time I'll do a writeup so that a person could build the entire deal from the BOM and a large Breadboard. I don't have a timeline for the kits just yet. Everything depends on when I get back the first PCB's and if they test ok. It will take about 10 days to get the PCB's back once ordered and another couple of days to build and test a couple of units. Firewolf might need a couple of weeks to get the PCB design back to me so I would say at least mid Sept. before I know for sure the design is good. Once all this is done we can start taking preorders for the kit. My very best guess at this time if everything goes well is mid October to ship the first kits.

I've been working on the BOM today and hopefully I'll have a pretty good idea of how the pricing will come out now that everything is completed. It has been my goal to make sure this is under $100. The more preorders we get in the better the pricing gets for everyone. Right now I have no idea what the demand is on something like this, my best guess is to make 20 kits available the first go around.

Excellent! I can't wait to see what features all make it into the first round of production!

/starts hunting for change in the couch/

Keep us posted! I love building electronics, and I love reef tanks... sounds like a match made in heaven! You can only build so much audio equipment lol I would love a crack at the first batch!

The first round I know will dissapear minutes after you announce presale. How much longer after the first round is shipped will you take orders on 2nd round(for the people who are slow on the draw)

Wow, can't wait to see this for sale.

This is a good question. I'd really like to see how the first round goes. What problems people might be experiencing with assembly, overall experience with the unit, any changes that might need to be made, and any changes related to instructions. Once I have a good feel for how well the product is working for end users we'll then start making sure we have the product available in good quantities so there are no back orders. We've been testing this unit all along for the last several months and it has performed great on three very different tanks. In all the testing none of the systems have locked up or malfunctioned in a way that would have caused an issue with a system. As I've run into issues I've reworked solutions and feel real good about the end product. How people use it in thier own systems will really help us fine tune it. If there is a problem it'll be a lot easier to correct it for 20 users than a 100.

Steve,
I'm going through the PCB layout currently and I have a question about the buzzer you've selected.
Do we have any options for the small 5mm diameter buzzers from Digikey?

We can take any size buzzer you like. As long as it works at 5 volts and sold by digikey we are good to go. Should be a simple swap out with no additional changes. The only reason I choose that buzzer is that it is used in another controller of ours and I have stock on it. Feel free to make that change

Steve

Thanks Steve,
That works out much better due to the limited availability of landscape on the board.
BTW, do you have an actual schematic and not a parts wiring diagram as it'll make the connection crosschecks
1000, times easier.

Thanks again,

Russ

Should be that "Reefbuddy Main Schematics V3" included in the zipped folder I sent you. Let me know if that is what you need.

Steve

OK everyone big awesome news. I bought a CNC today on ebay and should have it this weekend. I should be able to CNC these PCB's directly with this machine. As soon as firewolf is ready I can build the first unit for testing.

Steve

I have always had an interest in electronics,
and soldering together a kit sounds pretty interesting.
I'll be watching this one for sure.

CNC what? CNC router? Model? Come on man, you have to give us tech heads a little more info

I want on the list to be a tester or purchase whichever I can get, since my 1st post is missing from the data loss...

So make sure I am on the list for a kit (prototype testing or otherwise )

Thanks,
Tom

Ok, The Schematics are now opening right. I had a libraries glitch that made it look like a PCB/Schematic hybrid
I'm actually doing the PCB layout and routing on 3 different virtual machines so I can bounce back and forth with different location ideas. The smaller buzzer is opening up quite a few more options now that I dont have to block out a square inch for it. When I get one with a good layout, I'll fire it back over to you for review.

Russ

You are the MAN!!! I've already got my software setup to convert Gerber to G-Code. We are getting close.

Steve




HAHA somehow I knew you would be the first to check in on this. I'm picking it up tomorrow. Man I stole this thing for $107.50 and the guy is local to me so I didn't have to pay for shipping. Needs a little cleaning and tweeking but I think it is workable. I'm going to have my office cut an aluminum top to replace the wood one shown as it looks a bit worn. Here's a link to the auction. Auction

Seconding this, I have a lot of experience with electronics and own an arduino.

Good deal. Should be good for some first run prototypes.

Yep just brought it home. It is in much better shape than the pics showed. He was an old man and was getting rid of all his stuff that made him a living as he is recently retired. Basically all it needs is a good cleaning and it is good to go. I've already downloaded the specs on the servos and the driver board so I've got all the info I need to get it setup with the computer. I'm going to add some home and limit switches to it also as the driver board supports this. Hopefully, I'll cut something by next weekend. He showed me a really nice CNC Mill someone from out of state won from him. Was a total cast iron deal, probably worth 1-2k and someone got it for $150. He had it ready for shipment. Man I wish I had seen that. He used it to cut all his housings for his PCB's.

Steve

Wow. Thats a steal.

Steve,

Thats COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i know where im sending my acrylic to when i want my fuge/sump cutting!!!!!!

I so cant wait to move into my house so i can get all these toys too!!! An apartment balcony sucks as a workshop!!!!!

LOL, yea. When we moved into this house about 11 years ago I told my wife, "Don't get any ideas about parking in the shop (garage)" I've since added an electrical panel, insulated the garage door, added A/C, dust collection/air/power at all the stations, and a ton of tools. There is a pic floating around here of how it looks and it is a mess.

I demand pics of the mess/workshop!!!!

I'm too embarrased by it. You'll have to find it but I think it was posted in the lounge or DIY area.

OK I have the specs on the machine. It is the HobbyCNC.com machine built from a kit someone did. Xylotex 3 axis controller with 24vdc power supply, 1.8 stepping bipolar motors, 9x24 cutting area. I should be able to squeeze 8 boards in one pass. I'm loading ubuntu now with EMC2.

How are you going to hold them down? Did it come with a vacuum table, t-slots or anything? This is something that I've always grappled with.

dave

I haven't got that far yet. It came with some clamps that screw into the top and various places. I think the guy before me used them to hold down the PCB's.





OK I got it put back together tonight and hooked everything up and..... It works!! There is a problem with the top as it is warped. I think the guy must have stored it with something sitting on it. I'm going to have to replace it with something and was thinking aluminum but I might end up with another wood top or ordering some really thick plexi that might be more stable. For those interested here are some pics with my first run with the sharpie.

BOYS AND THEIR TOYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You cant beat it!!!!

If you are going to use the top as a tooling plate, use MDF. It's super cheap and easy to work with. I'd put an MDF tooling plate over an aluminum bed plate if I were going to do it.

Steve,

Exciting project, thanks for all your great work!

I have an unusual need, which I expect will require custom coding. I'm a software developer, so I can write the code, but do you think your controller will be able to be programmed to do what I need?

I want the controller to turn on a dosing (feeding) pump three times per day for seven days (21 total iterations) but run for a longer time each iteration. After 7 days I want it to start over and do the 21 iterations again. I can either explicitly supply each of the 21 durations, or add some custom code that provides a function, based on the iteration number, to calculate the number of seconds to run the dosing pump for each iteration. It would be nice to enable the display to tell me the number of iterations left in the cycle.

Am I correct in assuming that this can't be done with your controller out of the box, but that I can easily customize the open source code to enable the controller to do this?

Yes this shouldn't be a problem at all. You're right ours won't do it out of the box but you should be able to easily code that to work. Just add a counter to 21 adding time to each pass reset to 0 after it reaches to 21 and start again. I think it is very straight forward. Once our code is released you will see how to do it. The difficulty is that our IO ports run off of port expanders so there it is a little bit different to access each output than standard arduino pins.

Great! In reality I need to turn more things on and off than just the dosing (feeding) pump to deal with my feeding cycle. Are each of the four AC outputs independently controllable? how many amps (at 110 Volts) can I draw from each AC output? How many amps total for all four? Any issues about motor startup (soft start?)?

yes each is independantly controllable. I'll have to get back to you on the amps as I don't know off the top of my head. Soft start is controlled by the optocoupler and it senses zero cross over and switches the triac at that time. This is the same way I believe the other soft starts function for AC. In testing I've had no issues with inductive devices locking up the triac.

Could this aquarium controller run a couple of koralias. Using PWM to slow down the pumps but not completely stop them(for use as a wave maker).

No this controller will not be able to do this. On and off is the best we can do.

How are you planning to waterproof your temperature sensor ?

For now I'm using some Uragel I have laying around and just dip it in it to coat it and the connections with. When complete I'll be ordering temp probes premade for the DIY kits.



Update for everyone.

Firewolf4 and the programmer and working fevorishly on the project. I can't thank Firewolf4 enough for all his help. Without him we would have had a lot of issues with the PCB. He is currently cleaning up my schematics and working on the layout.

I'm still working on setting up the CNC for rapid prototypes of the board. I've installed limit and home switches over the weekend and ran a sample test to verify everything. I've got some aluminum tool plate coming in for a PCB work surface and a new spindle designed for engraving that has almost no runout. This should allow us to get to the tolerances we need for the project.

Steve

Are you going to be making all the PCBs yourself or just the protos and send out the final?

For now just the prototypes will be on the CNC and the first 10 units sent out for testing. Once we are completely satisfied with the design and there is enough interest I'll be sending out for a large batch. How many we get on the first batch will depend on you guys. I'd like to order at least 100 units including electrical testing, silk screen, soldermask, etc. Because this is open source we are jumping through hoops to make the design "buildable" by anyone including the PCB. With the design we are going for, you should be able to make a one off PCB via toner transfer method or on your own CNC if you like. If there is not enough interest to warrant having the PCB's made then I'll make them one off for people on the CNC.

Steve

Count me in for a proper PCB.
Also, i am more of a planted tank fan, so if you need beta-testing or modifications for freshwater systems, give me a shout, i am reasonably experienced with circuit designs.

Thanks, Matt

You may want to take a look at http://www.batchpcb.com/ if you don't get the hundred orders, should be pretty reasonable pricing.

I just ordered my Arduino hardware in today and I found this thread. Just my luck. I'm not a candidate for Beta testing since I'm just getting my reef planned out. Count me in for the final kit.

Its amazing what a tight community this is to get something like this done. Awesome!
You should at least put up a Paypal link so we can buy you a Starbucks or a beer. I'm sure you guys have put in plenty of late nights.

I think i might be interested in being a tester. Just pm when they are ready in case i forget to check here. Looks like you might have a big hit with the online reefing community once it is made!

Big update:

OK guys we've made a huge change to the project. We have changed the processor from the ATmega328 and moved to the ATmega644p. The ATmega644p is still compatible with Arduino, however the bootloader is designed by another group. This change basically doubles everything, IO's, RAM, ROM, Speed, etc. Although we could have finished the project with the ATmega328 it was becoming very clear that it wasn't going to leave us any room for future expansion the way we wanted. This new design will leave several Digital and Analog IO's available for future upgrades along with a ton more code space and processing power for larger and more complex systems. The schematics are complete as of yesterday and the pcb is going through another redesign to accomodate it. Bear with us as we didn't make our Sept 1 deadline but we are very close.

Steve

Wow! Very cool project.

Now the problem is that projects like these get me into trouble... I love this stuff. And since I have (or will have soon) controllers on both of my present tanks, I would have to put another tank together to get one of these.

Brandon

Can the new chip be fitted into an existing arduino?
if not will the rest of your electronics be compatible or will there be some slight vlaue changes to make it fit.
In particular im interested in your swtiching circuit and probes.
I had half built my controller when i came across this site, then decided to hang fire on getting more parts until you released your design and code to try and make it fit my LCD, and RTC.

No the new processor cannot fit on an arduino. It is physically larger and has more pins. All circuits that go into the processor will still be able to carry over to a standard arduino. Even the 5v regulated power is identical. Because we changed processors the code will be slightly different but should be easily modifyable to the standard arduino board. The biggest problem you will have to overcome is code space. One of the reasons we switched was simply that the ATmega328 is just too underpowered. The Arduino Mega is very nice, but expensive and doesn't allow for DIY of the entire controller as it is SMD. The ATmega644 is the largest ATmega processor that is still in DIP format and offers a very good compromise to the Arduino Mega. Anyone interested in this processor should search for Sanguino and all the information is listed there.

Steve

Would I be able to convince you to put the programing in for RC servo control as well as PWM?

Dont know if there are extra pins for this but have found some info.
http://www.avrfreaks.net/index.php?name=PN...sc&start=24

SMD can be soldered @ home, especially on a milled board. Easy as pie.

1 - apply a little heat and solder to one leg and the matching pad on the board.
2 - place the SMD component in position, and reheat the soldered leg. Remove heat, and repeat as necessary if it moves.
3 - Gob solder down the opposite side of the original pin. Don't worry about bridging the pins - you will fix it later. Once hard, gob more solder on the same side as the original pin.
4 - Use desoldering braid or wick, and remove the excess solder, one side at a time.

The problem with SMD in this situation is you're looking at incredibly small pin spacing for the average hobbyist
to assemble. Yea, I can do solderpaste and throw the unit into a reflow oven but very very few people have access to that type of equipment.
If this were to be a manufacured design that would be mass produced, then I would've opted for SMD. Pick and place, reflow and even overall size would be significant cost reduction over through-hole design. The typical assembler of these units will be running with a cheap 10 dollar solder iron from Radio shack, the wrong solder (not eutectic 37/63 .031" diameter or less) from their kitchen table. They will be impatient and bridge around 40% of the connections. They will immediately want to power the unit up blowing it up, risking shock and fire. For those reasons, SMD design is not advised.

Russ ( Yea, I'm the one doing the CAD work on the schemes and boards)

Out of total curioisty,
the stats "seem" almost the same on the arduino mega,
the clock speed, memory everything but the number of pins.
What am I missing, why is it better ?
I know the code can easily be ported and I'm wondering,
I'm not against the change by any means.