Awesome! Thank you for that!
Honestly, I am not great at documenting and rather just develop the ecosystem. I have to use AI to write up documents sometimes so I don't sound too technical. I could use help so I don't spend so much time writing.
The hardest part, IMO, is sharing a good dashboard. I hate the mosaic setup in the default layout manager for HA, I simply cannot get the results I want. Plus, every AquaPi sensor may have a unique name because the MAC address is added, in case you use more than 1. So, for a workaround, if they use can install
Auto-Entities and
Layout-Card and a few more cards, I can share a dashboard a lot more easily (using layout-card also allows me to build a mosaic dashboard that is mobile-friendly, so in hopes we just need to create one, universal dashboard). I got something working that adds entities based on a ID, that is on an AquaPi device. I haven't shared that yet but will add it to my "Home Assistant Cards & Templates" directory in my GitHub with more information. For example, I can pre-install Home Assistant on an SD card and edit some files on that card to pre-load some dashboard, integrations, cards, helpers, blueprints, etc. I can sell an "AquaPi version of HA" with most everything needed to go when you add an AquaPi to HA. I can elaborate more if wanted. Again, I'm not a writer but I hope this kinda give you an idea of what I hope to achieve for a curated UI for a quick setup.
Also, default units are in USA standards, but I have it configured to change units as needed. It may be an issue with some calibration blueprints but that's not as important right now.
Switches:
Anything compatible with HA will work! I use TP-Link Kasa Strips with energy monitoring for my setup. I would like to sell these as an "add-on" with AquaPi, for a complete setup.
Sensors:
I mostly use
Atlas-Scientific sensors, although I don't know if they are available word-wide, as they are based in New York. Being American, they are probably more expensive than the orange and grey products, but these have much more quality and durability.
I went this route because I wanted to make the AquaPi modular. So you don't have to pay for the pH, conductivity circuits, etc., all in one go, especially if you had no use for certain probes/sensors. Atlas-Scientific sells separate EZO boards for the logic of interpreting the data from the probes, so I can build separate housing for these EZO boards to sell with the probe, and not the base version of the AquaPi. So you can choose not to use them at all, or upgrade as you go! Versus spending $1000 for everything all at once. I think this is what really sets AquaPi apart from the rest.
- Water Level
- Currently using IR Optical Sensors. However, since theses are generally binary sensors, the code should work with any binary sensor!
- For example, I had a EXPENSIVE ATO, only for the control board to go out on me. So I repurposed the float switch to add to the AquaPi and now I have another sensor! I designed the PCB board to include extra terminal blocks, so you can just wire whatever you wanted. Some are coded for extra binary sensors, but some are not, so you can add your own! I think this also sets AquaPi apart from the rest.
- I would like to experiment with other sensors for a direct measurement in water level, in % or in volume. But for now, just binary sensors or High, Normal or Low.
- Temperature
- Yes, using cheap Dallas sensors! I have it wired so you can daisy chain them using Y-cables and add more and more! Currently the code is written to support 2 but you can always add another sensor to the yaml. I may add more by default but I just started with 2. One issue is that some are really inaccurate or need to be calibrated. I included substitutions in the yaml code so you can add your own offset if needed, but this is a little advanced (as you'd need to recompile the code) and may not be suited for some.
- I would like to add support for more temperature sensors, namely the Atlas-Scientific RTD Probe for better accuracy and configuration.
- pH
- Using Atlas-Scientific pH Kit. This uses the Lab-grade probe and comes with everything needed to build a external pH circuit, namely the isolation board and EZO circuit. This is a little more expensive the the other pH probes out there solely because of quality. I wanted to use the Lab-grade probe because it will stay calibrated for over a year and has a lifespan of over 2.5 years. The cheaper, Consumer-grade probe needs to be calibrated every 3 months and lasts a year. Honestly, no one wants to do that, and it creates issues with consumers when they see an inaccurate pH reading simply because you got to calibrate it often, and then you realize the factory recommends you to replace it yearly. What do you think?
- The EZO board can work with any pH other branded probe as well.
- These would ship calibrated but I would also create blueprints to calibrate them on the consumer end. And I can sell calibration solutions but any 0, 7, and 14 point solutions would work.
- Conductivity
- Using Atlas-Scientific Conductivity K 1.0 Kit. Separate EZO board and quality EC-Probe.
- The EZO board can work with any EC other branded probe as well.
- These would ship calibrated but I would also create blueprints to calibrate them on the consumer end. And I can sell calibration solutions but any 12880, and 80000 umS/cm point solutions would work.
- CO - Gaseous
- Using Atlas-Scientific CO2 Embedded Carbon Dioxide Sensor. I don't yet have it fully designed and prototype made yet, just supported in the code. I personally use one of these sensors in another project, so the code is good
- Peristaltic Dosing Pump
- Using Atlas-Scientific Peristaltic Pump. Great for micro-dose of medicine/treatment or a quick or slow water change!!! Up to 105 mL/min
- Current testing. I have protypes made and using them now but not on my website yet.
- Humidity
- Flow-Rate
- Water Leaks
- Not started yet but I'm sure any binary sensor type sensor will work.
- ORP, Dissolved Oxygen and possibly more.
- Not yet started but on the list to be implemented These are quite expensive.
Integrations:
- I am not skilled enough to begin with creating integrations....
- But that ReefBot looks nice, I'll try looking for it soon.
- I recently disabled BLE improv because that took SO MUCH memory for the ESP32 and really hindered my ability to add more components. For example, I was approaching under 20,000 bytes of memory available while developing this with BLE improv on and started experienceing major crashes and could NOT get WiFi improv to work at all, which is what I wanted to be the main way to add the AquaPi to the WiFi anyway, not Bluetooth. While troubleshooting, I just removed the BLE component and WOW, I went to having 170,000+ bytes memory available and everything started working much better. This may kill some available integrations....
Feeding
- I have tried and not yet succeeded in building anything for feeding, for mainly pellets. I have not even considered a frozen food delivery system! That sounds amazing, I would love to look into this further!
Cameras:
- You got the right idea. I used Kasa cams. They can be tricky to get into HA. I haven't really found an easier solution yet.
Automations:
- I see the other brand has Tasks, and I really didn't like them at all. But, HA has Blueprints!!!! So, I started created these for myself because I have at least 3 tanks and got tired for writing an automation for each. So I learned how to make blueprints and HA has a neat little button to add it to your system. My hope is that I can link to my blueprint page, and consumers can just add whatever they needed. If they purchase a pre-installed HA bundle with AquaPi, I can pre-load thHe