Red_Beard
Valuable Member
Quick and dirty but it gets the job done! Just felt like I should do a quick write up on my arduino ato while I’m waiting on fed ex for parts for my other project. The whole thing came about because of a family trip we had planned to go to Island Park fly-fishing and into Yellowstone to see the geothermal wonders, and I needed a way to keep up on my little tank while we were gone that week and a half.
Right now it is in prototype, just breadboarded and stuffed in a plastic bag to keep water out. But, it will eventually have a nice case and be integrated with my reef pi (when it gets set up all the way on my new tank) and a top off tank level sensor to keep my pump from running dry too once I figure out what container I want to use long term. As it sits, it has been in operation for 2 months without a hiccup.
It is using 2 dfrobot optical switches, one as a primary level sensor and the other as an emergency high level cutout, a screen to keep track of how many times it has cycled/been too high, a relay board to control the pump, and my trusty uno on a proto backer. Initially I wanted to use an ultrasonic sensor so nothing actually touched the water. I even prototyped that one up on a 20 gallon tank with nothing in it. It actually worked pretty good and was fairly consistent, but it was the “fairly” part I had a hard time with leaving unattended, so I decided to go optic. Glad I did to as they have proven to be very reliable and consistent. The included breakout boards are super easy and it was pretty straight forward to code.
The whole thing pump and all cost about $50 which the wife was happy about... The bracket is a piece of black acrylic I heat bent to shape and drilled to fit the sensors. It just clips onto the rim of the tank. The pump I grabbed is a sicce mi mouse. It works good but has like 2 feet of rise which wasn’t a problem because this will all eventually get moved to my 75 and go into the sump. At that point I will have to build a new adjustable bracket to go in the sump or got one of those sweet magnetic mounts BRS and others sell, as well as switch out the uno for a teensy or feather or something smaller.
I know, right now it is pretty much a mess of wire but it works great! Hopefully this will help inspire a few people who are on the edge about a diy solution. If anyone wants my source code I’d be happy to share. I will post updates down the road when everything gets cleaned up and pretty but it will be a month or two.
Right now it is in prototype, just breadboarded and stuffed in a plastic bag to keep water out. But, it will eventually have a nice case and be integrated with my reef pi (when it gets set up all the way on my new tank) and a top off tank level sensor to keep my pump from running dry too once I figure out what container I want to use long term. As it sits, it has been in operation for 2 months without a hiccup.
It is using 2 dfrobot optical switches, one as a primary level sensor and the other as an emergency high level cutout, a screen to keep track of how many times it has cycled/been too high, a relay board to control the pump, and my trusty uno on a proto backer. Initially I wanted to use an ultrasonic sensor so nothing actually touched the water. I even prototyped that one up on a 20 gallon tank with nothing in it. It actually worked pretty good and was fairly consistent, but it was the “fairly” part I had a hard time with leaving unattended, so I decided to go optic. Glad I did to as they have proven to be very reliable and consistent. The included breakout boards are super easy and it was pretty straight forward to code.
The whole thing pump and all cost about $50 which the wife was happy about... The bracket is a piece of black acrylic I heat bent to shape and drilled to fit the sensors. It just clips onto the rim of the tank. The pump I grabbed is a sicce mi mouse. It works good but has like 2 feet of rise which wasn’t a problem because this will all eventually get moved to my 75 and go into the sump. At that point I will have to build a new adjustable bracket to go in the sump or got one of those sweet magnetic mounts BRS and others sell, as well as switch out the uno for a teensy or feather or something smaller.
I know, right now it is pretty much a mess of wire but it works great! Hopefully this will help inspire a few people who are on the edge about a diy solution. If anyone wants my source code I’d be happy to share. I will post updates down the road when everything gets cleaned up and pretty but it will be a month or two.
