03-10-2018, 10:22 PM
Hey everyone, just thought I would post an update, it might seem like I haven't done much lately but I'm actually hard at. :) I was working on a software update but got sidetracked and should have that out shortly. Still having fun with this so big changes are coming.
Since starting this venture I always had a vision on how I wanted the controller to look and function and it's basically there but couldn't see a complete image in regards to equipment and overall features. Lately I've been thinking a lot about where I'm going with the controller and now have the final plan in motion.
I always wanted the controller to be all-in-one solution and not play the module game so I tried to have ports for all kinds of equipment and sensors and set in stone the amount of equipment/sensors that could be used. That's not working so well because a lot of sensors/equipment I want to add require a slightly different circuit. I knew this would happen a bit but figured people could do a slight mode if needed but it's not practical.
There's also a lot of instances where more temp sensors, float switches and DC accessory ports could be used, a lot of people use or want to use Robo-Tank for horticulture as it has a lot of similarities and for people who want maximum control on an aquarium, to my surprise quite a few, and start playing with valves, cooling fans and pumps these disappear quickly. I was thinking about having options for the LED ports as there's 16 of them so they could do these other chores but that gets messy and still requires extra circuits to connect etc...
So with a lot of thought and the input I've been given I've come up with the following.
Simplify the controller but still have an all-in-one solution and use addons for more equipment and special sensors, why didn't I think of that 2 years ago or someone tell me, ah I probably wouldn't have listened anyways... :)
Originally this was a true DIY kit but over time I've been trying to make it an easy DIY kit as that's what people want and Gen3 will complete this task. I've made the current setup as easy as possible but still takes a long time to assemble, the worst was the AC power bar, a lot of people stay away because of it, but that's been solved. With Gen3 the users complete assembly time will go from say 5 hours down to 1 hour or less and my time will drop significantly as well.
A big change is Gen3 controller will only have one circuit board instead of two, originally I split it up thinking I would have a basic and deluxe version but everyone gets the deluxe. The biggest hurdle doing this was all the plugs on the two boards, that would make for one large controller so I gave it thought and eliminated a few ports that most don't need and could be handled with addons. I also changed some of the 4pin plugs to 2 and 5 pins for better management. The dosing pumps used the RJ45 which was hard to work with so I've changed that to the plugable screw terminal connectors which will be nice for users. Other improvements include incorporating the DS3231 RTC and added flyback schottky diodes for the dosing pumps and DC accessory ports. The old board could only handle 3 amps, that's been increased to 5 amps on the 12v side, still 3 amps on the 3.3v and 5v. I also added a micoSD card cage to the board so the w5100 didn't have to be used for it, sometimes those didn't work and now no ribbon cable extension for accessing microSD externally.
The ports being removed include 2 temperature sensors, 4 dosing pumps, 2 flow meters and the 4 power head ports that aren't setup in the software anyways. I never did that because those ports probably only work for one type of powerhead so they'll be handled with addons so all can be used. These are the ports remaining, as you can see everything is still there.
![[Image: V3_Main_RevA_Front.jpg]](https://www.robo-tank.ca/pictures/V3_Main_RevA_Front.jpg)
I didn't mention AC power bars there because they use the addon port. I've redesigned these and they'll now be compact and professional looking inside and out, I'm really excited to have these soon. With the relay module and power supply in the old power bars it made them quite large and heavy and took a lot work to wire up which didn't look the greatest no matter how much care was taken, hard to make a mess of wires look safe even though it is. The new power bars don't have a single wire inside so they'll be a breeze to assemble, I expect 30-45 minutes for full assembly and if a customer assembles only 10 minutes as I always assemble the circuit boards. Here's a link to the thread if you want to check it out, already have a 2nd design on there. :)
https://www.robo-tank.ca/forum/Thread-AC...uit-Boards
Now for the addons, these are good if you want more equipment and will be great for specific sensors/equipment which I hope to have a lot over time. They all connect using a factory USB-A male to USB-A male cable. Because the controller has a lot of ports on it there's only one addon USB port, if you have more than one addon (chances are you will as the AC power bar uses this) you can use a junction box I'll have or you can make you own. I started with the following because these are what the controller is already setup for and won't take as long to get up and running. I'll probably cap it at 64 I/O ports and 32 DC accessories.
Then comes the fun part, the user interface on the display. Adding these extras to the controller isn't so bad but the UI will have its challenges, I've been giving it quite a bit of thought and have some good ideas. There'll be a lot of customization features and an easy method to handle addons, for example if you have a 8ch I/O expander you'll be able to assign different things to each port on it. I'm going to redo the display code completely and update controller accordingly, it'll definitely be a major update. I know I'm bad with time frames but hope to have this done in 3-6 months.
For those who already have the 2nd Generation Robo-Tank this update applies to you as well and you can take full advantage of everything. Obviously you don't have the addon port, if required you can simply drill a hole in your case, run a USB patch cable inside and solder or plug wires into headers on controller board. The new update will still support the old VGA AC power bars and you'll be able to add more using the addon port. WIth that said you will lose control on the 4 dosing pumps, 2 temps sensors and 2 flowmeters ports but new users won't have those as default either. If you currently use these extras we can definitely work something out so you get them back with the addons.
So yeah this is my current agenda, if you have thoughts or suggestions let me know.
Since starting this venture I always had a vision on how I wanted the controller to look and function and it's basically there but couldn't see a complete image in regards to equipment and overall features. Lately I've been thinking a lot about where I'm going with the controller and now have the final plan in motion.
I always wanted the controller to be all-in-one solution and not play the module game so I tried to have ports for all kinds of equipment and sensors and set in stone the amount of equipment/sensors that could be used. That's not working so well because a lot of sensors/equipment I want to add require a slightly different circuit. I knew this would happen a bit but figured people could do a slight mode if needed but it's not practical.
There's also a lot of instances where more temp sensors, float switches and DC accessory ports could be used, a lot of people use or want to use Robo-Tank for horticulture as it has a lot of similarities and for people who want maximum control on an aquarium, to my surprise quite a few, and start playing with valves, cooling fans and pumps these disappear quickly. I was thinking about having options for the LED ports as there's 16 of them so they could do these other chores but that gets messy and still requires extra circuits to connect etc...
So with a lot of thought and the input I've been given I've come up with the following.
Simplify the controller but still have an all-in-one solution and use addons for more equipment and special sensors, why didn't I think of that 2 years ago or someone tell me, ah I probably wouldn't have listened anyways... :)
Originally this was a true DIY kit but over time I've been trying to make it an easy DIY kit as that's what people want and Gen3 will complete this task. I've made the current setup as easy as possible but still takes a long time to assemble, the worst was the AC power bar, a lot of people stay away because of it, but that's been solved. With Gen3 the users complete assembly time will go from say 5 hours down to 1 hour or less and my time will drop significantly as well.
A big change is Gen3 controller will only have one circuit board instead of two, originally I split it up thinking I would have a basic and deluxe version but everyone gets the deluxe. The biggest hurdle doing this was all the plugs on the two boards, that would make for one large controller so I gave it thought and eliminated a few ports that most don't need and could be handled with addons. I also changed some of the 4pin plugs to 2 and 5 pins for better management. The dosing pumps used the RJ45 which was hard to work with so I've changed that to the plugable screw terminal connectors which will be nice for users. Other improvements include incorporating the DS3231 RTC and added flyback schottky diodes for the dosing pumps and DC accessory ports. The old board could only handle 3 amps, that's been increased to 5 amps on the 12v side, still 3 amps on the 3.3v and 5v. I also added a micoSD card cage to the board so the w5100 didn't have to be used for it, sometimes those didn't work and now no ribbon cable extension for accessing microSD externally.
The ports being removed include 2 temperature sensors, 4 dosing pumps, 2 flow meters and the 4 power head ports that aren't setup in the software anyways. I never did that because those ports probably only work for one type of powerhead so they'll be handled with addons so all can be used. These are the ports remaining, as you can see everything is still there.
- 16 - 0-5v PWM LED channels
- 4 - 12v Dosing Pumps (1 amp each)
- 4 - 12v DC Accessories (3 amp each)
- 2 - 12v Flow Meters
- 5 - DS18B20 / DHT22 Temperature Sensors
- 5 - Analog/Digital Sensors
- 1 - Auto Fish Feeder
- 1 - ATO System
- Port for Atlas Scientific Curcuits
- Port for Addons
I didn't mention AC power bars there because they use the addon port. I've redesigned these and they'll now be compact and professional looking inside and out, I'm really excited to have these soon. With the relay module and power supply in the old power bars it made them quite large and heavy and took a lot work to wire up which didn't look the greatest no matter how much care was taken, hard to make a mess of wires look safe even though it is. The new power bars don't have a single wire inside so they'll be a breeze to assemble, I expect 30-45 minutes for full assembly and if a customer assembles only 10 minutes as I always assemble the circuit boards. Here's a link to the thread if you want to check it out, already have a 2nd design on there. :)
https://www.robo-tank.ca/forum/Thread-AC...uit-Boards
Now for the addons, these are good if you want more equipment and will be great for specific sensors/equipment which I hope to have a lot over time. They all connect using a factory USB-A male to USB-A male cable. Because the controller has a lot of ports on it there's only one addon USB port, if you have more than one addon (chances are you will as the AC power bar uses this) you can use a junction box I'll have or you can make you own. I started with the following because these are what the controller is already setup for and won't take as long to get up and running. I'll probably cap it at 64 I/O ports and 32 DC accessories.
- 8 port I/O expander (for digital sensors, temperature sensors, flow meters, float/toggle switches)
- 4 port DC Accessory expander for DC pumps, fans, dosing pumps etc... It'll be speed controllable and each port can handle 5 amps running at 6v-36v, it requires an external power supply.
- 2 port DC Accessory expander, same as 4 port but good for 10 amps per port.
Then comes the fun part, the user interface on the display. Adding these extras to the controller isn't so bad but the UI will have its challenges, I've been giving it quite a bit of thought and have some good ideas. There'll be a lot of customization features and an easy method to handle addons, for example if you have a 8ch I/O expander you'll be able to assign different things to each port on it. I'm going to redo the display code completely and update controller accordingly, it'll definitely be a major update. I know I'm bad with time frames but hope to have this done in 3-6 months.
For those who already have the 2nd Generation Robo-Tank this update applies to you as well and you can take full advantage of everything. Obviously you don't have the addon port, if required you can simply drill a hole in your case, run a USB patch cable inside and solder or plug wires into headers on controller board. The new update will still support the old VGA AC power bars and you'll be able to add more using the addon port. WIth that said you will lose control on the 4 dosing pumps, 2 temps sensors and 2 flowmeters ports but new users won't have those as default either. If you currently use these extras we can definitely work something out so you get them back with the addons.
So yeah this is my current agenda, if you have thoughts or suggestions let me know.
