Nixu's Aquarium setup (Work in progres)

[rott]

niksunen
that lock out is a nice addon like you said for people with kids it is great addon. Did you get the in line pressure meter done for c02? that would be a nice addon also :)

[roland33]

Hello Rott,
normaly the pressure of CO2 is about 60bar as long the CO2 is fluid, at the end of fluid when all CO2 is air/gas the pressure falls down and you can see that the bottle is empty (This is a verry short time about some days). Therfore it is not able to see how many CO2 is in the bottle. I think it would be better to use the weight of the bottle so you can always see how many CO2 is used.

[Rob F]

You beat me to it again. :) Quite a while ago someone asked for that. IMO an icon under the date is good, it could be grey if screen isn't locked and once timer kicks in it turns green.

[niksunen]

Well Rob you have been busy for other stuffs. I have to time so i start to add it :D

Now it works, but needs offcourse little adjustments and tweaking etc. Also i have to made that lock icon etc :)

There is short video of how it works currently. Like you see in video when you input pin/code "0000" it goes to "setup" where you can enter new pin, offcourse you need to know old pin before you can proceed :D So it is easy to change, no uploading sketches etc. Default pin i have now (1111) but i change that to 1234 because it is so logical :)

Now i am done this day, and i continue better time (maybe weekend), but this is soon done. And if Rob wants i can send him this addon when it is complete, and like always, Rob can do it anything he likes :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMd9UMn4vhE

[rott]

for those of us with no kids make sure there is an auto unlock for that thing please :)
Roland I can tell how much C02 is used by looking at the gauge but that tank is in a bad place for me to see it is hidden away where the wife likes it. if I was going to put it on a scale I would have to pull it from behind the tank to do it.
I wouldn't mind filling it even if it wasn't totally empty c02 is very cheap

[niksunen]

for those of us with no kids make sure there is an auto unlock for that thing please :)
Roland I can tell how much C02 is used by looking at the gauge but that tank is in a bad place for me to see it is hidden away where the wife likes it. if I was going to put it on a scale I would have to pull it from behind the tank to do it.
I wouldn't mind filling it even if it wasn't totally empty c02 is very cheap

Well, you can choose if this "pinlock" are on or off. Just like you can choose do you use screensaver etc. If you not tic that feature on to it select box you never even know that is there. So there is no must  using it if don't want or like :D Just like everybody don't use screensaver etc :) But those who wants to use it, it is easy just select feature on and choose timeout when screen is locked :)

[rott]

thanks, it will be good to turn on when family comes over and wants to play with it. Then I will have it locked

[roland33]

Hello Rott,
There are sensors that determine the weight.
You could hang the co2 bottle on it or put the CO2-bottle on a sensor, then the controller could always display the current weight.
Unfortunately I have no idea of ​​the programming but rob or niksunen could make sure....

I mean such a one:...

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/Brand-New...605b416398

[niksunen]

Hello Rott,
There are sensors that determine the weight.
You could hang the co2 bottle on it or put the CO2-bottle on a sensor, then the controller could always display the current weight.
Unfortunately I have no idea of the programming but rob or niksunen could make sure....

I mean such a one:...

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/Brand-New...605b416398

I am currently doing / testing this method. But i have couple problems still, like i said earlier i use that HX711  module to measure weight. But i have a problem that value drifting over time littlebit. Normaly scales measure only little time at once, this have to work 24/7 :D Also another problem is when controller restart. You have set that "scale" free when restart (just like normal scale, if it have weight when its start, it not show correctly) With this i can live, because normaly i don't restart controller often, and ideal world i don't have to restart it loong time :D 

---

Now that pinlock feature is almost ready. I added sound to keypress, but i think i add option to check that on or off. Also i have that lock icon next to ato icon, it shows when screen lock is on (then it is green)

I cannot choose do i keep those numbers in "plain" or do you guys think that adding astericks instead is better ?

And now pin is save to sd card, so if you ever forget it can change or remove easily :) (yeah i know that is not very secure, but if people likes it better, i can save it to eeprom instead, but then if somebody forget pin code you have to upload sketch and wipe that eeprom location ) :D (or reset defaults, but nobody wants to do that :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUGDTK-YRqs

[Rob F]

For your scale maybe you save the weight, then if controller is restarted it can be used to tare the scale?

The beep is cool, makes it more authentic. I also liked that asterisks but I don't know what's better either. :) If you want to share this when you're finished I would be happy to add it.

[Nerowolfe]

Your solution to measuring the amount of CO2, in the bottle, is to use a 12V gas pressure transducer and to connect that to the regulator's gauge, which shows the bottles pressure, (not the supply side pressure). Then connect that to Robo-Tank. You will need the appropriate code to convert the voltage/data input to something understandable, but that is pretty straight forward.
This method is immune to any restarts and unlike a pressure plate/scale, does not need to be reset when you do a restart.
Something like this, would suit:

   

and simply add a t-piece between your regulator and the pressure gauge which displays the bottles pressure, like this:

   

Then when the bottles pressure starts to drop, you can have an alert set up to warn you. Be aware, depending on the rate at which your using CO2, that will only give you 2 to 5 days warning before empty. But at least you'll know. Also as it's data you can add code to display the current pressure on the Home screen.

[Rob F]

Thanks Nerowolfe, I'm going to add this as an option. What's considered understandable? What would the lowest and highest level be and what format?

I found this pressure sensor, is it the same? Using a 5v version you could connect directly, with a 12v the output would probably be 12v so a logic level converter would be required.

[Nerowolfe]

Thanks Nerowolfe, I'm going to add this as an option. What's considered understandable? What would the lowest and highest level be and what format?

I found this pressure sensor, is it the same? Using a 5v version you could connect directly, with a 12v the output would probably be 12v so a logic level converter would be required.

That pressure transducer wouldn't be suitable, as the pressure range is only 0 - 2.4Mpa. My 4kg CO2 bottle runs at 6Mpa until just before the CO2 starts to run out. 
That pressure depends on a number of factors; bottle size, steel or aluminium, & the containers actual pressure rating, so I would suggest that the transducer handle 0 to 10Mpa or at least 7Mpa? 
My gauge is calibrated from 0 to 25Mpa (0 to 3520psi). (that range is the range found on pressure gauges used to measure the bottle's pressure for both aquarium and home brewing use).
Now my supply side gauge, on the other hand, is only calibrated from 0 - 1Mpa (0 - 145psi), but only runs at around 0.25Mpa or 36psi)

By understandable, convert voltage/data to numbers, with an option to set either Mpa or psi.

[Rob F]

Great, this is exactly what I needed to know, the Mpa and psi answer the understandable question. :) I'll set it up so it can be viewed in the scrolling parameters section, have alerts and be used in custom rules, am I missing anything else?

[Nerowolfe]

Great, this is exactly what I needed to know, the Mpa and psi answer the understandable question. :) I'll set it up so it can be viewed in the scrolling parameters section, have alerts and be used in custom rules, am I missing anything else?

Nope. You've covered it.

[Rob F]

Great, thank-you, much appreciated!

[Rob F]

Here's one that should work up to 11Mpa.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/5-1600psi-Press...0820562097

[Nerowolfe]

Here's one that should work up to 11Mpa.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/5-1600psi-Press...0820562097

That's the sort of thing ou want. Just ensure the thread size suits the t-piece that will be used.

[Elmo2002]

Have just read through all of this and can I just say wow niksunen, I'm so impressed with what you have done. What you have all done has blown me away so much so I'm primed to hit the order button and get rid of my Neptune Apex, just waiting for the additional ports to be added.

A few things
Power monitor = amazing as will be handy to use to see if equipment fails or blocks
And the number of probes, 2 ph probes I think is a good amount, however if it's possible would 2 salinity probes be possible? As Rob knows I'm looking at setting auto water changes on my marine aquarium, and it would be perfect to measure the salinity in but the main aquarium and the water to be added.

Keep up the great work

[Rob F]

Yes Niksu did a fantastic job and I will have this one day for sure. I have lots of plans for the power bar, I want wireless, power monitoring, smart outlet learning, plug something in and over a period of time it will know what the current should be and base alarms off that. Also want an MCU in power bar so it can monitor things and if anything goes bad outlets can go in a "safety" mode. I believe your Apex does this? And of course some indicating lights. This will be my next project shortly after I finish v5 which is coming along nicely, it will blow the current away especially on the display.

As for the probes I'm happy to say yesterday I ordered up my own PH, EC and ORP circuits, they will work similar to the Atlas circuits so multiple can be connected. Because I'll have my own I'm not going to improve the features for the Atlas circuits, I'll always support them because many use them but the counts will stay the same. For my circuits I'll be setting it up to manage 8-12 of them, easy to change count, and you can mix and match any combo, run 12 ph or 12 EC or whatever. These won't be ready till after v5 though as I have to do all the coding for them and testing but it's coming.