Cptbjorn's 3g DIY Pico Cube

[cptbjorn]

Way too much stuff from Lucid Propagations will be here Thursday, I hope they ship small frags lol. I don't even know how this is going to work, I'm going to have >50 corals in this pico once all the stuff I have ordered gets here.

 

It's looking like the sandbed and lower rocks will be a acan/chalice garden and the middle and top tier will be mostly sps with all the soft corals filling all the shaded areas and sides. I ordered a bunch of aqualifters and hope to have automatic 2-part dosing ready when the time comes.

 

Also here's a pic I snapped a couple days ago, one of my mushrooms disappeared one day and I found it a while later in the very back and when I brought it back out it had attached inside a snail shell, which it retracts into at night. I think it is having identity issues...

 

[Guest TheBlueLorax]

BEATIFUL AND CREATIVE give it up to you G!

[pismo_reefer]

MushSnail ftw/

[cptbjorn]

I traded some softy frags with amnesiak for a cool little mantis shrimp yesterday and he also hooked me up with a rotary encoder for when I stop being lazy and start working on the arduino again

 

The mantis is orange/white/black and I looked pretty close but I can't tell if it is a smasher or a spearer, I'll have to see it hunt I guess. As much as I would like to put it in this pico I think I would regret it and also it will be happier in a different tank; I have it in the sump of my 13g that was going to be a refugium but now will probably be a majano anemone and mantis tank. I took a bunch of pics but my color balance was set for LED actinic shots so they are almost useless and now the it is in the tank hiding so I won't get more for a while. Here's one I kinda salvaged:

 

 

I finally made some legs for my light a couple days ago, it raised the LEDs to about 2" off the water and it made a big difference in the spotlighting at the top of the tank. Should have done it long ago.

 

And last but not least I have a working prototype for my new powerhead that I alluded to a couple posts back. The hardware is coming together nicely but figuring out the software is going to be just awful if I want it to do cool vortech style pulsing etc while still doing all the other stuff I want. I think I need to take a programming class or something.

[Weetabix7]

And last but not least I have a working prototype for my new powerhead that I alluded to a couple posts back. The hardware is coming together nicely but figuring out the software is going to be just awful if I want it to do cool vortech style pulsing etc while still doing all the other stuff I want. I think I need to take a programming class or something.

 

[cptbjorn]

I should have done a video of my first test where I ran the wet side in a ~1g plastic bin using one of the magnets mounted to a dremel which spins like 10x faster than the motor I'm using now. First thing that came to my mind was "omg it's so angry" and then "what has science done?" lol.

[badfish816]

And last but not least I have a working prototype for my new powerhead that I alluded to a couple posts back. The hardware is coming together nicely but figuring out the software is going to be just awful if I want it to do cool vortech style pulsing etc while still doing all the other stuff I want. I think I need to take a programming class or something.

 

 

you sir are genious!!!

[amnesiak]

I think I need to take a programming class or something.

 

I can always help a lot with that, I just need to get an arduino. I usually program pics, and I've heard the arduino is a lot easier.

 

That powerhead prototype is awesome... I can do what I can to help you write subroutines, just send some details/code in a pm or email.

 

Do you want a separate/standalone microcontroller for the PH or are you going to use the arduino?

-a

[cptbjorn]

Thanks for offering to help, I'm making some boards in the next couple days and I'll make you one of my arduinos if you want to help me with some of the coding. They are functionally the same as a standard duemilanove board but shrunk down and with an RTC and EEPROM onboard.

 

I ordered parts for 2 more of the powerheads if you want to play around with one of them and maybe help with coding for it too. I was thinking it would be a good idea to use a second microcontroller for the powerhead but it seems like overkill to put a whole second arduino on it just to basically be an oscillator. Seems like a good job for a small PIC but my PIC skills go about as far as burning a precompiled hex and I don't know how much work I would be asking for you to help me with that.

 

Only thing is I'm using a small brushless motor with an integrated controller and even at 5 watts the motor body gets up to ~50-60C and I bet whatever drive circuit it has is just roasting in there. I'm going to try drilling out some bigger cooling holes in the rotor and maybe putting a fan on the back shaft to help out with that but otherwise I might have to learn how to wind motors

 

It's a cool concept though, I'm still surprised how well the 1/2" magnets can transfer the torque through the glass. There's a thread around here somewhere called "DIY vortech" that I got the idea from and the guy used beefier magnets and a bigger prop/motor and turned a 10 gallon tank into a tidal wave, the video was pretty funny.

[amnesiak]

I ordered parts for 2 more of the powerheads if you want to play around with one of them and maybe help with coding for it too. I was thinking it would be a good idea to use a second microcontroller for the powerhead but it seems like overkill to put a whole second arduino on it just to basically be an oscillator. Seems like a good job for a small PIC but my PIC skills go about as far as burning a precompiled hex and I don't know how much work I would be asking for you to help me with that.

 

I'm always looking for an excuse to program in assembly. That would be hilarious except that it's totally true.

 

I'm sure I have a couple of high-end (and low end) pics lying around here somewhere. I'd love to help.

 

I also have several of these laying around, they generate good sine waves if you want to try super simple at first.

[cptbjorn]

I think I have some 12F509s and 629s and a programmer but I don't know where, haven't used them since I moved last.

 

That wave generator looks really cool, I wish I would have seen those back when I used to build guitar stuff. The pump starts at 10-12v depending on how it stopped, runs down a couple volts below that and I've only gone up to 14v or so for fear of killing my only motor. A rectified sine wave would probably turn into a "pulse", and a sine riding a DC bias should modulate nicely.

 

I should test the motor better and see how it handles PWM and if I can get it running cooler though, and I'll get you some hardware to play with. I'm stoked to see what we can come up with

[badfish816]

i love trying to follow along!

[cptbjorn]

I forgot to say, this morning I saw something peculiar in the tank and looked at it closer just in time to see a eunice worm strike at and grab a bristleworm and disappear into its cave

 

It was like 1/8" across and extended out about 2" from the rock and it was FAST, I know that some/most of them are reef safe but its cave is very close to the palm tree cloves which happens to be the only coral in the tank that isn't doing well. I'm going to keep an eye on it and hopefully get it out of there somehow and into the mantis tank

[amnesiak]

That wave generator looks really cool, I wish I would have seen those back when I used to build guitar stuff. The pump starts at 10-12v depending on how it stopped, runs down a couple volts below that and I've only gone up to 14v or so for fear of killing my only motor. A rectified sine wave would probably turn into a "pulse", and a sine riding a DC bias should modulate nicely.

 

<threadjack>

 

I still have a ton of boards unstuffed sitting around for those. killer germanium diode distortion. I also made a prototype with one of those wave generators and a multiplier, on that pedal you could also choose another instrument. I used to plug my microkorg into one input and the lead guitar plugged into the other. Crazy crap that was never useful for a song.

</threadjack>

 

What made you choose that particular model of motor? I have to get another chip to update my pic firmware. If I'm going to be ordering a new pic for firmware, I can order a few different motors too. Jameco has a minimum order anyway.

 

Of course, I can't find my programmer anywhere... dammit.

 

Edit: got an idea for a motor controller using two of those 8038s.

 

waveform generator 1: fast (doesnt matter, 100khz or whatever) triangle wave.

waveform generator 2: slow/variable speed sine wave.

 

put them both into a comparator input. The comparator would fire when the triangle wave voltage exceeds the sine wave voltage, making a sine-wave-modulated PWM. simple way to make just a sine wave type action, and we could do a lot more with a microcontroller, but what i just described should be pretty easy.

[farkwar]

Regarding your water level device.

 

Do you think an online pressure transducer could do what you need?

We use them for measuring internal blood pressures.

They are very accurate.

 

With your electronics skills I'm sure you could figure out how to access the outputs on one.

 

I have no idea how expensive they are. That would need more research I suppose.

[cptbjorn]

Nice, guitar electronics is always on topic in my threads lol. I made a bunch of different stuff back in the day but I think all I have left is a modded proco rat clone and a 1w combo amp with a 12AU7 as the power tube that I pieced together from 3 or 4 different schematics and miraculously worked on the first try. I always spent way more time building equipment than practicing so I just use modeling software and headphones now lol. If it weren't for ampage and a couple other sites back 5-10 years ago though I wouldn't know a thing about electronics.

 

I chose that motor because they were cheap and I figured a brushed motor would need gearing and a stepper would be too loud. Plus most of the brushless motors I found are for model airplanes and are wound to run fast at low torque and need an external controller just to spin. This one seemed like the quickest way to get going but I'm open to whatever you've got.

 

I'll try to find my PIC stuff, I think I have/had 2 programmers, only 8 pin sockets though. Your PWM idea sounds good to me, we can give that a shot

[cptbjorn]

I think a pressure transducer could be used in a kinda similar way with just a single tube going into the tank but it might be hard to calibrate properly and might drift over time and I think if a bubble got into the line somehow it could cause the pump to just run continuously. It would allow the use of black tubing to prevent algae growth though so I might look into it if I start having algae problems.

 

... You just gave me an idea though, I wonder if the regular black air tubing is transparent to IR at all and if I could just use it with the optical sensor as is?

[farkwar]

I was thinking the same thing.

We flush the lines we transduce through regularly.

And they have to be zeroed to air pressure about every 12 hours to achieve the accuracy we need.

I don't think an air bubble itself would be the main worry, they transduce through those.

But I would be concerned if some snail or invert plugged the opening.

But that is the same worry with any float device.

 

Anyway, I might snag one that's going into trash and play with it.

They only have 4 prongs on the connector. Can't be too hard to figure out the outputs.

[amnesiak]

Went to LFS today (saltwatercity in bellevue) and the guy there had history with mantis tanks and care. He reiterated that 2 mantii (?) in the same rock was crazy, especially 25 lb, so i guess i feel special now. I asked him what his ate and he said that his 5" (!) peacock mantis ate 3 crabs a week. I then proceeded to ask him what his cheapest mantis food was and he told me they had emerald crabs for $8.

 

So, when you can get that thing in a tank where we won't risk vibrio infections, let's get some crabs from the beach.

 

BTW farkwar if that's your mantis that's a beautiful shot.

[cptbjorn]

It really really didn't want to go but after ~4 hours cursing in front of my lathe today I fit the motor and a 50mm DC fan into a 1.5" PVC pipe cap, making it approximately 30% smaller than the MP10 dry side It would melt all over my desk if I tried to get 1500 GPH out of it but for my pico I think it might just work.

 

If you look close you can see that there's about a millimeter of material left up at the top after I removed enough to keep the fan and the motor from rubbing. It was close, they need to make these caps longer lol.

 

 

Just need to clean it up a bit, dye it black and order some new suction cups and it'll be time to start working with amnesiak on a controller for this little guy

 

 

I'm thinking the mantis might get a new home here pretty soon, there's a <5g pico contest starting this month and I've got some ideas. Saltwater city is decent but you should check out Barrier Reef in Renton sometime too if you haven't yet, their main display will make you want a huge SPS tank though...

[cptbjorn]

After some rescheduling due to weather/frag healing I'll be getting 5 acans and a favia from Mr. Coral tomorrow and an acan, 4 chalices, 4 montis, an acro and some zoas on Wednesday from Lucid Going to do some bargaining/fragging with my sister's fiance to try to keep some pieces but some cool stuff is going to have to go at least for now. I have a jam packed pico and he has a mostly empty 120g so I should let him have a couple things lol.

 

All the SPS I added 2 weeks ago is looking good and there is visible growth/encrusting on most of it. The tyree undata has put in a new row of polyps and colored up even better than when I got it and it has been on the sandbed, that's the main one I don't want to get rid of.

 

The hair algae has eased up a bit and either the rocks have slowed down their calcium leeching or the SPS is pulling ~20ppm per day, I'm fine with either one. Hopefully the rocks are finally maturing and getting ready for some coralline growth

[badfish816]

lookin good. cant wait to see a vid of it in your pico!

[cptbjorn]

I just tested the pump side by side with a K nano, it seems this pump isn't just for picos.

 

500+ GPH easily at 12v with the bearing not yet broken in and I think it can do quite a bit more

[badfish816]

sweet. do you have something on it to control voltage? or are you just waiting to finish a controller?

[cptbjorn]

I've just been running it on various voltages of wall warts but once my suction cups get here I'll do some real testing with a variable supply and see what it can do. I might burn out a motor for science too