Reef Automator - DIY Controller

[Zepo.]

The plan is to have the arduino control my two halides, actinics, sump light, ATO, fans, and possibly dosing. This is an ongoing project to help me gain a background in computer engineering (my major).

 

Current Parts:

-Arduino Duemilanove -$30.00

-2x Memory Atmega328 -$ 4.00

-9V Wall Adapter -$ 3.00

-Magnecraft Solid State Relay (240VAC 10A) W6210DSX-1 (x4) -$19.00

-TMP36 (Room) & Waterproof DS18B20 (Tank) -$10.00

-LCD 20 x 4 Character LCD Display with BL. -$20.00

-DS1307 Real-Time Clock Mini Board -$10.00

-3 GFCI Outlets / 1 Normal Outlet -$ 7.00

-Buzzer, Resistors, Solder, Jumpers, Small Keypad -$10.00

 

Total cost so far: $113.00

 

Current Features:

-Night, Dawn, Sunrise, Daylight, Sunset, Dusk Lighting Modes

-Different Currents (Powerheads) At Different Times

-Room & Tank Temperature Monitoring w/ High's and Low's

-If Temperature Is Too High It Cuts Lighting & Emits Sound Until Lower Temperature

 

Coming Very Soon:

-Smart ATO With Sump & Display Water Level Monitoring

-PH Monitoring & Recording

-Nice Enclosures For Everything

 

[jm82792]

Interesting..

You might want to upgrade to a sanguino or the mega

So how hard is it to get the 20X4 to work?

I thought you'd need some work,

I'd like to go bigger than my 16X2 because they 20X4's aren't much more.

[Zepo.]

Interesting..

You might want to upgrade to a sanguino or the mega

So how hard is it to get the 20X4 to work?

I thought you'd need some work,

I'd like to go bigger than my 16X2 because they 20X4's aren't much more.

Any reason why? The I2C adds 16 more digital pins and the 2x chip gave me 34KB memory (up from 16). I think that will be more then enough. I cant comment on the LCD yet, it's still in the mail. I'm really just doing this to become familiar with arduinos, I want to eventually build a robot. The LCD I bought was from futurlec.com. They have super cheap prices ($0.01 per resistor) but they can take up to 3 week in shipping as they come from Taiwan.

[jm82792]

IC2 will definitely fix the pin issue because the LCDs take like 6 pins and it's a lot on the normal arduino.

I've only dabbled with arduino I'm far from knowing a whole lot.

 

The best place I've heard for lcds is FCB USA on ebay,

a few people said their great and I agree.

I got a 16X2 with led backlight white on blue for $8 shipped with free header.

I know you've already bought one but in the future if you don't want to wait

since they ship from the USA.

[Zepo.]

IC2 will definitely fix the pin issue because the LCDs take like 6 pins and it's a lot on the normal arduino.

I've only dabbled with arduino I'm far from knowing a whole lot.

 

The best place I've heard for lcds is FCB USA on ebay,

a few people said their great and I agree.

I got a 16X2 with led backlight white on blue for $8 shipped with free header.

I know you've already bought one but in the future if you don't want to wait

since they ship from the USA.

This is my first experience also. I really have no idea what im doing =P. We can learn together.

[Zepo.]

Just got my futurlec order in, took about 3 weeks. Very good prices, now i have my LCD, keypad, and RTC. Waiting for my I2C to connect the LCD.

[jm82792]

Cool!

I still need to build my RTC(2.7K pullups needed),

then borrow a laser printer to etch all my boards.....

 

Are you going to hookup the relays directly to the arduino?

Are they 5V logic voltage?

Just curious because I want to maybe integrate some plugs with my arduino...

 

Man I should order more stuff but I'm going to wait until I hopefully get my stuff I have working.

[Zepo.]

Yup, strait to the digial pins, they are 3-50v. Hmm I bought some infrared sensors, i wonder how I can incorporate them. Make a reef alarm, anyone who gets too close and it tells them to get away haha.

[jm82792]

Do you know if the inductance(err I think there would be?) might hurt your aduino?

I know if you add say well an inductor, transformer or anything like that when you cut the power to the coil you get an (uhh I think it's called this) inductive spike from the collapsing magnetic field. That's why when I planned out my(never did it) 120 vac controller I was going to use SSR's.

[Zepo.]

Do you know if the inductance(err I think there would be?) might hurt your aduino?

I know if you add say well an inductor, transformer or anything like that when you cut the power to the coil you get an (uhh I think it's called this) inductive spike from the collapsing magnetic field. That's why when I planned out my(never did it) 120 vac controller I was going to use SSR's.

Never thought of this...just shows how much of a noob I am. Are you telling me to add resistors?

 

Just have the RTC hooked up and coded to control the two halides, actinics, fan, and sump light. Waiting for my I2C and I lost my temperature sensor so i had to buy more.

 

You should have seen this before the new powerstrip, three "3 way prongs" and plenty of ghetto adapters. Still pretty bad and in need of organization.

 

See ya later!

 

Dusk Dawn:

 

Sunrise:

[Zepo.]

So I got my LCD controller today and soldered the LCD onto it and hooked it all up and its flashing Serial LCD Controller web4robot.com kind randomly flashing sometimes jitttery. I tried changing the readout of the screen with the provided examples and it still does the same thing. Nothing loose I tried different jumper cables and breakboard holes. The Clock works using the same pins so i'm lost. Is the controller fried, or is there something im doing wrong?

Pics:

[Zepo.]

Bump for help

[jm82792]

Okay i am somewhat lost here.

You can't share pins with your RTC (I think).

Try AdaFruit's LCD tutorial,

it worked for me although the pinning, numbers and junk confuses me terrible tot he point the LCD will be last.

I have no clue about the inductance, and what to do(barely a clue lol!)

Google microcontrollers and inductive relays or something within that range.

Or you could use SSRs,

they use like barely any power and have no inductance at all.

[tanky321]

As far as having the inductive kick back hurt the arduino, use a diode in Anti-Parallel. The diode shunts the current, making it not pump into the arduino. Regardless though, its still a very good idea to use some type of opto isolator or darlington driver, because its not a great idea to drive the relay right from the Arduino. Use a 4N25 ( I think) or a ULN2003 Driver. Both will drive the relay with no worries back to the Arduino, always use a kickback diode though.

[Zepo.]

I am using solid state relays. The LCD is going to an I2C LCD controller and the clock is I2C aswell so they can both use the same pins, Its not a problem with the wa itd hooked up but the random flashing and kinda glitchey screen. What rated diode do you think would be sufficient?

[tanky321]

Woops, I didnt even notice you were using SSR's. You shouldnt need any diode protection with those. Just make sure that the current draw on the line side isnt too much for the arduino.

 

Do you have a schematic of your system? It will be easier to troubleshoot having a schematic. Im not terribly familliar with I2C, but I might be able to figure out whats going on with a schematic.

[Zepo.]

Woops, I didnt even notice you were using SSR's. You shouldnt need any diode protection with those. Just make sure that the current draw on the line side isnt too much for the arduino.

 

Do you have a schematic of your system? It will be easier to troubleshoot having a schematic. Im not terribly familliar with I2C, but I might be able to figure out whats going on with a schematic.

Ya I thought so I was totally confused. I dont have a schematic but basically alalog pins 4 & 5 on the arduino are the two i2c connectors. I hooked up the RTC to the 5v, ground, and two i2c lines and it works fine, great!, So I solder the serial to i2c controller to the lcd and replicate the steps i did with the RTC but the LCD is erratic flashing around like theres a loose wire when everything is soldered together(my first attempt at header soldering BTW). I try the example code that came with it and cant change the default text on the display it just erratically flashes the default lines. Is there a possibility I soldered it wrong? Or maybe bad controller?

This is the controller: http://web4robot.com/LCDCtrl.html

Thank you for the help so far.

[tanky321]

Ya I thought so I was totally confused. I dont have a schematic but basically alalog pins 4 & 5 on the arduino are the two ic2 connectors. I hooked up the RTC to the 5v, ground, and two ic2 lines and it works fine, great!, So I solder the serial to ic2 controller to the lcd and replicate the steps i did with the RTC but the LCD is erratic flashing around like theres a loose wire when everything is soldered together(my first attempt at header soldering BTW). I try the example code that came with it and cant change the default text on the display it just erratically flashes the default lines. Is there a possibility I soldered it wrong? Or maybe bad controller?

This is the controller: http://web4robot.com/LCDCtrl.html

Thank you for the help so far.

 

 

Have you confirmed that you are running at the correct baudrate? Default is 9600 for the controller, that could do some real screwy stuff if its not set correctly.

 

Can you hook up the module using UART just to see if the controller works? If not you could try to write a binary number to the output of the controller, write a 5 (101 I think) to the I2C port and see if you get 101 on the controller.

[Zepo.]

Im not sure if its the controller setup thats causing the problems, it happens when just the power cables are connected. Hmm

[jm82792]

Updates?

For me it's I need access to a laser printer still

[Zepo.]

Still cant get the damn LCD to work, I think im going to buy another controller... Im pretty sure thats the problem. Other then that temperature sensors came in, workin on making probes. But probes are no good without a working LCD.

[jm82792]

Bypass the controller?

You only use 6 pins and you might be able to get it to work.

[Zepo.]

ya but ill use no pins at all if i can get it to work because it shared the two pins from the clock. I dont think i even have 6 to spare. ill just try another controller.

[Zepo.]

Bypassed controller = happy me. Now I got LCD working im making temperature probes and figuring how to do an ato.

[Zepo.]

After playing with the temperature sensors I bought they arn't ideal for this situation, so I bought more expensive one wire sensors to use. Worth the extra cost for the simplicity. Also looking into buying a PH probe from ReefAngle, trying to figure out if it works with 5v. Also going to buy an I2C extender so I have more ports to play with - hopefully being able to hook up a keypad and relabling the keys to functions to show temperature data and other useful information such as max / min PH, temperature, room temperature, ect. Fun but costly.