diy aquarium controller

[A.T.T.R]

ok guys. wanted to bring to your attention the r3ca project at the bottom of this fourm ( see it i know you do)

it is for diy controllers


i am in the process of trying to build one

just ordered some pic chips and programming kit.

after fiddling with it for a bit ill be making my own thread... but it depressing to see how little activity there is in that fourm!

[easttn]

I agree.

GL addict.

[Whalehead9]

This is something that i have been toying with, and I will be looking forward to your posts.

[A.T.T.R]

whalehead what type of system did you go with

im going to be asking alot from the chip possiably too much ( may need multiple chips. one as main one as slave

im going to need to calculate cycle times to vary hz of an electrical outlet. unless this thing can do threads.

remember im just a hobbiest with next to no training. but .. w/e i learn best by trial and error!

[funman1]

I don't care for pics because they don't have very good clocks and timers, and you have to add relays to their outputs..

This is the best of all worlds!! Has relay outputs, cheap, screen for visuals, and programable via bolean logic

Start of unit thread...
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1013411

Somewhat finished unit thread..
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1017295

LMK if you have any questions.

[A. Iosue]

I´m with you. In this forum could be a lot of people with the skills to make a nice project.

I use to program Microchips PICs since 1998 and Parallax Basic stamps. I could help you in electronics, automatition and control,
just let me know.

[A. Iosue]

Don´t worry about calculating anything. This will be a simple linear system. I have pics running from 6 years ago with a RC oscilator and still running OK.

Relays to the output!!! of course..... how do you think that something made for drive only little power will draw enough current to drive something heavier than itself without relays????
This are two differents things.

Go ahead and ask what you want. I´ll help you.

[BeanAnimal]

PICS do PWM so you don't need to put too much thought into modifying 60Hz mains freq. Secondly, why would you want to modify it? Motor speed control is possible, but may be a lot more complex than it is worth. It takes a good bit of know how to build an VFD that does outputs a clean sinewave and is robust enough to trust.

As for the DIY controller... there are quite a few of us that have taken different routes. There are a lot of good threads here. Some of us use Dallas 1-wire, others Phidgets.com, others home brew ARM based boards, others Atmels or Pics... easttn is a PLC guy... etc.

Bean

[A. Iosue]

It depends on which you want to do. I assume that you want to control motors, first it is to detect the zero crossing and soon shoots according to the angle (of the sine wave) you want.

Please try to make something simple for everyone, every reader.
Start asking for the principle of the project, then go further.

[A. Iosue]

Excuse them but they really don´t know what they are taking.

[BeanAnimal]

Maybe I misunderstood your last comment, but it appears that you are saying that we do not know what we are talking about.

So that there is no misunderstanding, I said:

1) many PICS have built in PWM
2) A reliable Variable Frequency Drive that puts out a clean sine wave is somewhat complex.
3) There are several very well informed people here at RC that have built their own controllers from the ground-up using their favorite microcontroller (PIC, ATMEL, ARM, Etc.). Others have hacked off-the-shelf equipment (linksys routers) to build their controllers. Some folks are using hybrid systems that are based on a personal computer running linux or windows. They use digital I/O cards, USB I/O, Dallas 1-wire I/O, Zigbee, X10, etc. Some folks (like donw) are using home automation controllers like the ADI Ocelot. Yet others (like Funman, eastn, H20ENG, GreshamH, ect. are using PLC based systems.

The reality is that there is no shortage of electronics experts here at RC. We have systems automation people, software people, ladder logic people, and other disciplines represented. Plenty of us know what we are talking about

[A. Iosue]

Answer:
1) yes.
2) don´t needed.
3) same as before,,,, you don´t really know what you are talking.

[funman1]

Well said Bean


A. Iosue,
Those are some fighting words... Watch out on here, people don't take too kindly that that kind of talk, when clearly we DO know what we are talking about!

[A. Iosue]

O.k. A.T.T.R. lets try this under e-mail, you will find mine in my profile.

[A. Iosue]

funman1,
Don´t talk without knowledge.

[ErikJL]

Originally posted by A. Iosue
Answer:

3) same as before,,,, you don´t really know what you are talking.

I think you are the one who doesn't know what he's talking about. Maybe it's the language barrier, who knows. I have built a few PWM devices to control motors. We're not talking about varying the frequency, just a simple logic on-off.

[ErikJL]

Oh and Bean, you forgot to mention FPGA's. My specialty!

[funman1]

hahah, A. Iosue
Ok dude you won't last long here.
Especially since all you seem to be doing on every post is soliciting your "great knowledge".
It almost sounds a bit "fishy" to me.

Have you seen the post count on Bean? He's been here quite a bit more than most, and has read thousands of threads.

Are you offering FREE help, or will you be needing monetary trades for you help?

[BeanAnimal]

I had at first thought that there was a language barrier, but your subsuquent comments make it very clear that there is no barrier and your intention was to be rude, if not arrogant. Please DO take you discussion to e-mail and far away from here.

You see none of us understand zero crossing, phase angle, pulse width modulation, rc circuits or microcontroller design. We are not capable of discussing such advanced topics and certainly do no want to misinform A.T.T.R. Hell, we don't even know Ohm's law so how could be possibly contribute to the design of an aquariumn controller.

Erik do you package those FPGAs in an FCPGAs and stuff them into ZIFF sockets... or would those be FPGAs in BGAs? What a DIP I am!

[BeanAnimal]

Anyway, back on track here....

In my constant addiction to try something new, I have ordered a few new toys.

1) http://www.coridiumcorp.com/ARMweb.php (but I am not happy with the very limited program memory area). I like it because I can program it in basic and it has built in support for 1-wire and I2C etc.

2) http://embeddeddatasystems.com/page/EDS/PROD/HA/HA7Net

I thought that would be nice to play with.

3) I just breadboarded a circuit with (2) Dallas 1-wire 8 channel switches. I have used TTL tri-state latches to multiplex the 8 channels into 32 outputs and 32 inputs. 1 of the DS2408s will control the 8 data bits to the latch, the other DS2408 will select the active latch via the Latch Enable strobe line. In theory you could expand this as wide as you wanted. It is nice because your controller only needs to be hard coded with the address of the DS2408s.

I have an atmega 128 but no dev board ( I was going to build one but decided not to go crazy trying to solder it down).

Lastly, I am looking at the ethernut base boards and the netburner stuff.

I am having troble shying away from the PC even though it is not the most stable thing in the world. VB.NET is very powerful and I am having trouble cramming what I want into a small uC.

[ErikJL]

Originally posted by BeanAnimal
I had at first thought that there was a language barrier, but your subsuquent comments make it very clear that there is no barrier and your intention was to be rude, if not arrogant. Please DO take you discussion to e-mail and far away from here.

You see none of us understand zero crossing, phase angle, pulse width modulation, rc circuits or microcontroller design. We are not capable of discussing such advanced topics and certainly do no want to misinform A.T.T.R. Hell, we don't even know Ohm's law so how could be possibly contribute to the design of an aquariumn controller.

Erik do you package those FPGAs in an FCPGAs and stuff them into ZIFF sockets... or would those be FPGAs in BGAs? What a DIP I am!

I use premade proto-boards like this one:

http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/...mmable%20Logic

You can download the free design software from Xilinx. It takes some work to get running, but for $60 you can just about do anything.

[ErikJL]

I also though of using an old working laptop with a parallel port. You can use the parallel port to provide 8 outputs to control relays.

http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/parallel_output.html

Cool stuff! I've wanted to try this but haven't had the time.

[BeanAnimal]

You could easily multiplex the parallel port to provide many more outputs. It would only take a few TTL logic chips and a few lines of code.

Phidgets.com, activewire usb, etc have USB I/O that is very inexpensive as well.

I will look into the FPGA stuff... I never took the time to delve into it.

I will let you guys know how the dev boards I ordered work out! That ARM ethernet board is going to be fun to play with.

[BeanAnimal]

And FWIW I have trouble wrapping my head around FPGAs.

[ErikJL]

Good point, 2^8 = 256 possible output combinations. Here again an FPGA may serve well in adapting the signals to allow for duplex communication so you can poll your sensors at specified intervals, or create a PS2/USB input controller.

What do you mean by a TTL chip? When I see TTL, I think time-to-live; is this what you mean? If so, you send the control signal first, then a cycle later the data signal?

I've been thinking of possibly making my own home automation/security controller using RS485 communication and FPGA's. You could connect the tank to this network as well.