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Need a little bit answer
#1
I‘m very interested in Robo tank!
Because it’s very fine and looks like easier then build up my own arduino tank controller.
I’ve two Aqua Light LED lamps and two Aqua Medic Ocean Twin LED lamps I know the Vorlage from Original Controller I want to control and there is in my sump one more LED lamp aqua Medic reef led the voltage I must get out of the original controller
complete I have to control 10 LED channels
Then I need 4-6 dosing Pumps i have
then I urgently need a few floating switches because I have already come several times wire algae in the back valve and the sump
has overflowed so when the dc pump is restarted and another floating switch at a certain water level, the skimmer off so that does not overflow continuously
then I have to adjust it so when the feeding time is over start the skimmer only 2 minutes
after the dc pump starts.
I've already bought a lot of modules and accessories to build my own arduino together but I still have to learn c plus plus and you can certainly help with some programming things.
Since I have not found any other controller that you can customize as far as the robo tank I'm very excited
but there are a few other things but everything in his time
is there a detailed assembly instruction for the diy kits !?
Can I change Display language to German ?
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#2
Hi Gordon, welcome to the forum. Unfortunately I don't know anything about those lights but if you can get the voltage from the original controller you should be able to wire it up. The controller has 16 LED channels, each channel outputs 0-5v PWM but I also have a small converter board to up the voltage to 0-10v.

The controller has 4 ports for dosing pumps but soon I'll have a 4 port expansion available and up to 3 of them can be connected giving a total of 16 dosing pumps. I'm probably 2-3 months from having those.

There are 5 ports available for float switches that can be used to turn on/off any equipment or run a dosing pump, in the future I'll also have expansions available for more ports.

I'm currently working on a software update which will allow you to turn equipment back on after a feeding delay which would work good with your skimmer or anything else. For example you could run a feed for X minutes and then 2 minutes after feed turn on the DC pump and after 2 more minutes turn on the skimmer, etc...

The controller isn't open source but you do get all the code and can make any changes you like to it for your own use however without any experience it could be difficult as there is a lot of code and sorry but I wouldn't be able to help. As I plan to keep improving the controller software I'm always open to ideas and could possibly add the feature. Changing the language to German would be quite involved however in the next 3-6 months I will be adding language packages.

Currently I don't have a detailed assembly manual but do have full instructions showing pin outs on connectors, etc... The good news is the assembly is pretty straight forward, basically you only need to mount the PCB's in the cases and plug things in. There's 4 wires that require soldering, 2 for an external LED and 2 for a DC power socket inside the case. Sorry but the website is a bit of a mess at the moment, the pictures in the DIY kits isn't what you'll actually get, if you look at the pictures on the plug and play kits that's what you'll end up with after assembly as those pictures are accurate. Recently I made some changes to the controller hardware so its more reliable and assembly is much easier but after finishing that I immediately jumped into the software update I'm currently working on and haven't had time to update the website. In the next few weeks I will be doing a big update on the website.

Hope this helps some and if you have more questions let me know.
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#3
the soldering and wiring is no problem! I have a soldering station and I am proficient in electrical engineering. Changing the program code is certainly not too difficult for my knowledge. I also have to build a power outlet for which I have 2 times 8 relay
board
then I think I'll wait a few more months until everything is possible what I have in front of my website
and the german translation.
maybe it will cost up to then what the shipping costs. because that's the only reason why I have not bought robo tank yet.
I did not want to use the original housing because I am working on black acrylic and have a technical housing and lasers for dosing pumps
The display comes in one of my flaps over the tank therefore I build a waterproof box behind the display
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#4
Sounds like you won't have any issues assembling it, without the cases you just need to mount the PCB and plug the display into it's PCB and your ready to power up. I send the PCB's with the Arduinos mounted and programmed so I can do some testing.

Waiting a few more months might be the best and I'm very sorry about all the confusion, at this point I've decided I want to finish this software update before redoing the website as I'll have to redo it after this is finished either way. At that point I'm also making some videos so you'll be able to see better what you'll get, if you saw the current videos on YouTube they are very old and don't do the controller any justice. So yeah at this point I'm not focused on sales as I need to get this finished and why everything is a mess. :(

As I mentioned in the shipping thread I'll have another option in about a month and without cases the weight won't be an issue and shipping would likely be $60-$70 with full tracking.

On a side note, you can connect 2 standard 8 channel relay modules giving you 16 AC outlets but after that you need a special I2C converter to connect more as the Arduino doesn't have enough I/O pins to support more. I should have these by the time you order if you need more outlets.
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#5
My main lamps have this voltage I measuring out of the original
Controller that means I can use resistors to pull down voltage for each lamp
Aqua Medic Aquarius Lights original voltage
0% = 3,26V
25% = 2,43V
50% = 1,62V
75% = 0,82V
100% = 0,00V

Aqua Medic Ocean Twin LED original voltage
0% = 1,80V
25% = 1,36V
50% = 0,90V
75% = 0,46V
100% = 0,00V

Aqua Medic Reef LED measuring voltage coming soon
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#6
Yes that should work but unfortunately the voltage is reversed so you would need to add something to reverse that otherwise it would be backwards on the settings. When the controller is set to 0% it puts out 0v and 100% is 5v. Maybe easier to make the change in the code though, I'll have to add that one day so it can be reversed.
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#7
I thought so! what Aqua Medic has thought hmmm I think if the respective controller is subtracted that at least the lamps to 100% work when the controller is broken
if there is this option then maybe soon in fer software would be great
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#8
Yeah lights are difficult, they all seem to put out different voltages, some are even negative voltage and I've been told about a couple others that are reversed like the Aqua Medic. I actually forgot some lights are like this so I am going to add an option to reverse the output, I'm happy you posted that. The controller would still technically put out 5v @ 100% but with sliders flipped it would feel correct. At a later date I also plan to have a board where the voltage can be adjusted to anything.
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Current time: 03-29-2024, 07:16 AM