02-21-2017, 11:25 PM
Hi, I've got an update ready, this was supposed to be only for the flow meters but one thing lead to another and now it also includes the ability to customize the home page some. I had to do this because there wasn't enough room on the home page to show all the data and the bottom dock didn't have enough room so now you can customize the dock and for now create 2 of them. You can also change the box on the home page that shows the fish bowl and last feeding, it can still show that or the 4 flow meters. Later the dosing pump box and all other boxes will have options to show different data.
Currently the flow meters only monitor, they won't controller anything. I'm going to be adding them to the custom rules so they can control some equipment and creating alerts so you can receive emails and have the controller freak out if the flow drops below a level, there will also be a graph for each meter. Is there anything else I should be doing with them?
Here's the home page now. You can see the view is set to show the 4 flow meters. The meters can show litres or gallons and flow per minute or flow per hour. You'll also notice an arrow on each side of the dock, this is so you can switch to the next dock. When the dock is changed only it gets redrawn, nothing else on the screen will change.
![[Image: homePage.jpg]](https://www.robo-tank.ca/pictures/homePage.jpg)
Here's the screen you get when you press the meters on the home page or a shortcut on the dock.
On this page you see the flow per minute and flow per hour in either litres or gallons. You can switch between them by pressing the right-hand bottom corner. On the meter is a counter which displays the total litres or gallons that went through the meter. The total volume is stored on the SD card every minute so after a restart it will continue. You can reset the meter by pressing and holding the "reset" button the meter for half a second. The actual meters don't have the commas in the counter, it was to much code to convert to strings so I left them out.
![[Image: flow_main_data.jpg]](https://www.robo-tank.ca/pictures/flow_main_data.jpg)
Here's the screen for the flow meter settings. This screen you access from the "hardware" menu under settings.
On this page you can select the measurement type, home page view and a calibration value for each flow meters. You also see the current amount flowing so when you adjust things you don't need to leave the screen. If you change the measurement type to gallons the labels and flow will update to match.
Most flow meters have an F value, they call that the calibration factor I believe. Typically this is 4.5 but I have seen some with 5.5. I'm hoping the calibration value is based on that however mine say 4.5 but on the controller I have it set to 4.8. Not sure if its the cheap flow meter or code but its best to measure your pump to get a proper value. The easiest way to do that is get 2 - 5 gallon buckets. Fill one with water and then run the pump for 60 seconds and turn off. Then measure how much water was pumped. Lets say you pump 6.2L in that 60 seconds. Now you can connect the flow meter to your plumbing and adjust the calibration value on this screen until the flow value under matches what you measured.
When you connect a flow meter to the controller you need to add a resistor (around 10k) to the green screw terminal connector, this goes across the 12v and data line. Any controllers shipped after writing this will have that onboard. Without this resistor the flow meters will interfere with each other. No soldering is required just need to put it in the connector with the flow meter power and data wire.
![[Image: flow_settings.jpg]](https://www.robo-tank.ca/pictures/flow_settings.jpg)
Here's the screen for customizing the home page. You can access this page from the "customize" menu under settings. This is under construction but everything on it works. As you can see not much can be changed but more will be added soon along with the other boxes on the home screen. If "home page box 1" is set to view "last fish feed" and you press that area on the home screen you get the manual fish feeding screen. If its set to "Flow Meters" and you press that area you get the main flow meter page.
![[Image: custom_home.jpg]](https://www.robo-tank.ca/pictures/custom_home.jpg)
Here's the screen for customizing the home page dock. At the top is the different shortcuts that can be added, this will be increased shortly. Yes I agree that icon in top left corner is horrible and looks like a computer, one day I'll make it better. :)
Currently only 2 docks can be made but adding more is easy, I didn't yet because there isn't enough shortcuts. The "Resume" and "Settings" button are locked as these are required so you can only change the 5 in the middle. When you press an icon on the bottom dock it'll disappear and then you select a shortcut from the top and it will appear. You can put them in any order you want. Everything gets saved to eeprom so they will always remain the same. To switch the dock to customize press "Dock 2" on the left side and it'll appear and repeat above. If there's any special requests for shortcuts let me know and I'll add them for next update.
![[Image: custom_dock.jpg]](https://www.robo-tank.ca/pictures/custom_dock.jpg)
If anyone notices any issues or sees ways it can be improved let me know.
Currently the flow meters only monitor, they won't controller anything. I'm going to be adding them to the custom rules so they can control some equipment and creating alerts so you can receive emails and have the controller freak out if the flow drops below a level, there will also be a graph for each meter. Is there anything else I should be doing with them?
Here's the home page now. You can see the view is set to show the 4 flow meters. The meters can show litres or gallons and flow per minute or flow per hour. You'll also notice an arrow on each side of the dock, this is so you can switch to the next dock. When the dock is changed only it gets redrawn, nothing else on the screen will change.
Here's the screen you get when you press the meters on the home page or a shortcut on the dock.
On this page you see the flow per minute and flow per hour in either litres or gallons. You can switch between them by pressing the right-hand bottom corner. On the meter is a counter which displays the total litres or gallons that went through the meter. The total volume is stored on the SD card every minute so after a restart it will continue. You can reset the meter by pressing and holding the "reset" button the meter for half a second. The actual meters don't have the commas in the counter, it was to much code to convert to strings so I left them out.
Here's the screen for the flow meter settings. This screen you access from the "hardware" menu under settings.
On this page you can select the measurement type, home page view and a calibration value for each flow meters. You also see the current amount flowing so when you adjust things you don't need to leave the screen. If you change the measurement type to gallons the labels and flow will update to match.
Most flow meters have an F value, they call that the calibration factor I believe. Typically this is 4.5 but I have seen some with 5.5. I'm hoping the calibration value is based on that however mine say 4.5 but on the controller I have it set to 4.8. Not sure if its the cheap flow meter or code but its best to measure your pump to get a proper value. The easiest way to do that is get 2 - 5 gallon buckets. Fill one with water and then run the pump for 60 seconds and turn off. Then measure how much water was pumped. Lets say you pump 6.2L in that 60 seconds. Now you can connect the flow meter to your plumbing and adjust the calibration value on this screen until the flow value under matches what you measured.
When you connect a flow meter to the controller you need to add a resistor (around 10k) to the green screw terminal connector, this goes across the 12v and data line. Any controllers shipped after writing this will have that onboard. Without this resistor the flow meters will interfere with each other. No soldering is required just need to put it in the connector with the flow meter power and data wire.
Here's the screen for customizing the home page. You can access this page from the "customize" menu under settings. This is under construction but everything on it works. As you can see not much can be changed but more will be added soon along with the other boxes on the home screen. If "home page box 1" is set to view "last fish feed" and you press that area on the home screen you get the manual fish feeding screen. If its set to "Flow Meters" and you press that area you get the main flow meter page.
Here's the screen for customizing the home page dock. At the top is the different shortcuts that can be added, this will be increased shortly. Yes I agree that icon in top left corner is horrible and looks like a computer, one day I'll make it better. :)
Currently only 2 docks can be made but adding more is easy, I didn't yet because there isn't enough shortcuts. The "Resume" and "Settings" button are locked as these are required so you can only change the 5 in the middle. When you press an icon on the bottom dock it'll disappear and then you select a shortcut from the top and it will appear. You can put them in any order you want. Everything gets saved to eeprom so they will always remain the same. To switch the dock to customize press "Dock 2" on the left side and it'll appear and repeat above. If there's any special requests for shortcuts let me know and I'll add them for next update.
If anyone notices any issues or sees ways it can be improved let me know.
