This needs to be read in Dan LaFontaine's voice.

I'm wondering about the switched inputs in respect to an ATO. Most of the arduino, etc.. based ATOs I've come across don't have any "debouncing" on the switches. Due to the nature of water flowing through our tanks, I think it's wise to have about a 2-3 sec "debounce" of the float switches to allow for water surface fluctuations. From the code I've seen, extremely easy to implement, unless all switched inputs are meant to be general purpose.

If I wasn't both moving into & fixing up a house and setting up a new frag system, I'd have one done already. I'm currently using an Amtel based Multi-mode timer kit for ATO control http://www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/elec/ck1614.htm & it's working very nicely, for what it is.

Debouncing is not a problem. I have my system programmed to respond to ATO switch only once per hour regarding what the switch says. I had tough to calibrate the pump running time so on a calm water the switch will travel from on to off position with the ATO addition. It take 10 sec. for me using a small Tunze pump.So, ... ATO can run only 10 seconds/hour. This way is totally safe for dosing kalk.

hope it helps,
Marian

Hi Steve,
I want it all,the entire package, as indicated I will be breadboarding the system to develop custom software for same.

As to distribution I suspect a wiki would be best for distribution so you are NOT mailing out endless copies and all can contribute .(my 2 cents)

thanx again
gwen

Yes debouncing is easy money in the arduino like marion said. I didn't think about it but sounds like that would make a good option in the menus.





I'll be posting everything on Reefbuddy.com as soon as I get a solid PCB design finished.

What you are talking about is a slosh filter. Common for fluid measurements. I had to implement one for a fuel tank once. Not hard, and certainly easier on this system than in a moving vehicle.

Still looking for any volunteers for the PCB design part. I have finished a PCB design over the weekend that will allow us to move forward with the final PCB design. This basic design I made includes all components in a larger PCB so that we can build something and get a design that can work to everyone. I'm going to start working on the gcode to get it working on my CNC this week.

Steve

Hi Steve,
while I could help with tha(pcb design)t I am sure there are others far more skilled than moi in current PCB design techniques. What I can help with is design verification of that schematic by writing routines other than the ones you have planned for it. This will help expose hardware/software defects in the design as a whole(as I am planning on breadboarding the circuit(yes i DO have a solderless breadboard that large and enough jumpers:)(have to watch out for stray capacitance with that approach though) .


And as I mentioned before I need to have Dual EC or multiplexed EC measurement sections as my application for the circuit is quite different.


None of this requires me to wait for a PCB board from bulgaria/china, after I get through verifying the modified design I need then I will see about expanding one of the present PCB layouts you and others are producing.

Also have you decided on an appropriate Open Source license to release your design as yet?

and are you using the same PCB design tool as firewolf or something else?


all the best
gwen

ps did you modify isabellas circuit by substituting PWM output for her oscillator circuit?(ie I had a similar idea but decided against for whatever reason at the time)(and this is the question that i am especially curious about...)

Still following and still excited.

Hey Steve, just saw this today - I think you might find this VERY interesting !!

http://hackaday.com/2010/03/01/batchpcb-pays-you/

Wow. Where are all the people that were offering to do the PCB work not too many pages ago now?

Still here

Sent a PM

Blizzard always delays the hell out of their games too.

THANK YOU PM SENT.

OK guys hopefully we have a winner here. Looks like theatrus might have some experience in this so I'm hoping we are moving forward.


Gwenhastings, I've sent you a PM also.

..

Tell me about it. I want Diablo 3 bad.

woot the project is still very much alive.

Is the estimated $89 also included the salinity probe and has the powerpack plug priced in?

D3 would be cool. But I still "pwned" you in d2 with my Amapk!

OK I sent everything off to the "new guy" lol. I'm excited to be moving forward again. I'm going to cut this bad boy this weekend if all goes well on the CNC.

D3 sounds good. I'm playing COD6 and the new battlefield right now.



thewire,

The final price will not include any probes but should include the power adapter. I've left the $89 up there as my goal but it is possible it could be 10-20 higher depending on the final board design. Right now we are on track for the $89 based on my last pricing 6 months ago. I have leads on awesome probes and the pricing will be lower than anything in the market right now. I've got samples and they seem to work just fine.

Steve

yes.

^this. Oh man I loved the first 2 - I have to upgrade my puter just to play it!

So can some one fill me in really fast with an update on this whole project so I dont have to read all 22 pages

there's a controller coming out sometime that will be cool and we still don't know when Diablo 3 will be released.

yw.

Diablo 3 will be released in 2096!

Along with Gran Tourismo 5. At least FFXIII is out finally.

Don't get me started on Gran Tourismo 5.... it was a spit in the fans faces with GT5 Prologue.... >:(

car games are for cool people. my inner geek craves wizardry.

How accurate/whatever is the salinity probe? My holy grail for a tank is a system that monitors the salinity and can do slow continuous water changes.

My plan would be that every 10 minutes or so the salinity probe gets dipped into the tank to measure the salinity. It would than get placed back into a fresh ro/di water container since keeping a probe like that in salt water is apparently a bad plan for the longevity of the probe. If I could somehow accomplish that with this controller I.... I don't know what I would do. No more water changes for sure!

Even better would be a system that could add salty/fresh water to correct any issues

Man I can't wait for that. I made so much money selling stuff on Ebay from DII.

I sold some random unique hammer for 250 bucks.....

This is a fantastic project. I am concerned though how mutliple probes pH, salinity, orp etc can work simultaneously. I know other manufacfures that cannot support multiple probes in the same tank as each of the probes are NOT electrcially isolated from one another. Are we sure salinity and pH both work together. You may have to look at a DC/DC isolating converters for the probe cct. It get difficult as the adc channel with provide an earth loop as well between probe cct's.

BTW I do infact have ph, orp and conductivity running in my tank however these probes do have isolation see
www.rjconway.homeip.net

Rob

Just letting everyone know that I am working (though a bit slower than I had hoped for) on the current PCB design. Lots of functionality is placed, mechanical constraints are in place, and a few optimizations have been made. There is only a small amount of routing which is complete, but there aren't too many complexities in the design so once part placement is finalized, it should be a few hours tops

Can't wait

Nice build, you are way more handy than I am.

Bruce

Very nice,
I will look forward to buying the controller and assembling it.
I could whip an arduino one up,
however this will be superior to whatever I can make.

Is there a new projected release date?

IS the kit included net access too?

Sorry guys it's still hunting time in texas with spring turkeys and now spring tball for the kids so I normally leave the house at 7am and return around 9pm so no time to devote to nano-reef, but theatrus is working away. I'll try to answer a few questions that are stacking up. BTW if you need to get in touch with me the best way is PM since I don't come here much right now, but since PM lets me know you have a question I'll come right in and answer.

I found the Salinity probe is very accurate. I've tested it against my calibrated refractometer and have not had any issues. You could set it up robotically to dip in the tank and move it to a fresh water container after but that adds a bunch of complexity. You could replace the salinity probe annually as a maintenance item and be fine I'm sure. It might be better to have the salinity probe only turn on twice a day or so to check. What makes the probe fail is compounds in the water building on the probes because of the way the ions move towards the two probes in the AC field around it. The final option would be to clean it weekly as part of your tank maintenance. You could easily do water changes using the system, but so much tank maintenance revolves around that time that I think I'd continue to do that manually. A better option is to monitor salinity to add makeup water. I"d put in a failsafe float just in case the probe was not reading right and wanted to add water indefinately, you should have this anyway with anytype of ATO system.

You are right about the issue with electrical isolation. I can tell you in my case I struggled with this very same subject for a few weeks. What finally solved it? Well believe it or not I added a ground probe to the tank and all the issues went away. I also keep the salinity probe away from the PH and orp probe and that is a big help. But yes it is working fine on this system at this point. I think adding the ground probe is good for several reasons 1. Safety (this reason alone should make it mandatory) 2. Stray voltages are bled off (The benefits or not of stray voltages in a tank are much debated. My personal belief is that bodies of water are grounded by the very nature of being in the ground and so should our tanks This is based only on personal belief and not based on any science at all so take it with a grain of salt ) 3. Adding the ground probe creates a common ground for the entire system. Once we release this verson I think I'll rely on the community to come up with ways to optically isolate these probes as it is beyond me at this time.


In the end it will be arduino based but with the sanguino processor so there are a ton of applications. I'm looking forward to it to

No there isn't. My life is entirely too busy and since the work is volunteer based I'm not making any commitments at this time. I will promiss to keep everyone up to date on the progress and Theatrus will do the same. The work he does professionally revolves around open source projects so he is a VERY good fit for this project. On top of everything else in my life I try and fly heli's competitively and restore motorcycles. If the day was 5 hours longer I'd be set.

Not in the release form, however, it will be easy to add with off the shelf components currently available for arduino. This will be one of the features I definately want to add for the second release and will look to the community for help on this after the initial release. Basically all the parameters are passed via Serial communications to an ethernet card that has an embedded webserver and that information is displayed on the site that we build. It really is easy. I'm not sure how much memory is on the ethernet deal for storing historical data at this time.

Hi... any luck routing the boards?

You may have already solved your SSR design challenge, but if you haven't you might find this application note interesting (if you have not already seen it):
Zero Crossing Detector

It would require replacing the i2c port expander with one or more micros that have i2c capability but any simple AVR with i2c and 19 available I/O pins would probably do the job. Two pins for the i2c. One pin for the zero crossing detector and 16 more pins to control your outlets, or 8 if you're using 8 outlets. So 19 pins total or 11 pins total for 8 outlets.

Personally, I like the idea of putting one ATtiny25 on each outlet, but that's several dollars more expensive than using a single processor to control them all. The nice thing about one uC per outlet is that it simplifies the i2c command structure a little bit. With one processor for eight (or more) outlets you send it commands with its i2c address, but then you must also tell it which of the several devices the command is meant for. Then if you have other i2c devices on the bus which control only one thing, you either send them a redundant word, or use a different command structure.

With one uC per switchable device, you just send the i2c address and then the commands. And it's the same for every device, except that some commands obviously wouldn't apply to some devices.

updates?

Very excited about this project. Any updates would be appreciated whenever you get a chance. :-) Also I noticed your domain (reefbuddy.com) is parked at godaddy. If you need hosting for this I manage a couple linux hosts for clients and would be willing to host you for free (full shell access, cPanel, etc).

- aba

I look forward to the release of this, I will buy one for sure.

+1

I want 2 or 3 Spares never hurt

im sorry i havent read through all of the posts but any odeas when the unit is going to be aviable?

no ETA right now.. originally it seems it was supposed to be done Fall/Winter last year but got delayed.