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09-18-2022, 10:56 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-18-2022, 11:08 AM by dmsc2fs.)
I know that sounds silly but let me explain. I struggle with my Clarisea Roller mat. The problem I have is the model I have is too large for the tank I have. Because of this it will not rotate the fleece often enough from a float switch trigger. When it doesn't rotate for 8 hours an alarm is triggered on the Clarsea and it turns itself off and dings a warning. I want to pigtail off the float switch and every few hours complete that circuit back to the Clarisea. This would make the roller mat think it should advance the mat due to the water level. I'm struggling with my simple understanding of Robo-Tank and how I can use it to complete a circuit like this.
Could this be done using Rob-Tank? I am thinking maybe it is best done with a 12v relay and the Robo-Tank controls the relay to close and complete the switch circuit?
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Hi dmsc2fs, I think it should be possible and using a relay sounds like a good idea.
I'm guessing you have the float switch connected to a sensor port and the water level triggers the roller mat. For a demonstration if you added a 2nd float switch to the same sensor port so they are parallel either float switch should trigger the mat no matter the position of the other float.
You can then replace the 2nd float with a relay. You can connect the coil side of the relay to a DC port which would provide the 12v to switch the relay on/off. You would create a schedule to turn the DC port on and off. The output of the relay would connect in parallel to the original float.
Let me know if that makes sense.
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I actually went a different route. I decided to to harvest the float switch and power supply from the original Clarisea controller. I used the float switch on a sensor input and the power supply on one of the controlled plugs. I set it up as an ATO in reef-pi. Now I won't trigger an alarm if the fleece doesn't move in a specific period since I removed the Clarisea controller. The reef-pi will monitor the float and advance the mat when needed. I also have the option of setting a timer to advance the mat each day. My RedSea Reefmat does that and I think I will set the Clarisea to also do that. I'm thinking 2 second advance once a day just to move the mat and prevent it from getting stuck.
I do have another question. Since this is the only sensor I am using at this point I didn't want to buy the sensor add on module yet. I need to order another bank of controlled power plugs and will order the sensor module at that time. When I was creating an RJ45 cable and connecting the float switch I sent +5V onto sensor pin 1. It appears I am no longer seeing +3V on sensor pin 1. I moved the float switch to sensor pin 2 to make it work. I assume that pin 1 is probably dead on the reef-pi now?
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09-19-2022, 10:18 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-19-2022, 10:19 AM by fietsenrex.)
You can lower the floatswitch in the clarisea.
If that doesn’t help you can drill an extra hole in the acrylic backplate to set the floatswitch lower.
Also if you have a SK5000 you can switch it for a SK3000
I don’t know what type op switch it is, but some have a 4.7K resistor in them to limit current draw.
You don’t want to fry your clarisea with fiddling with a relay
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Right on, nice when things work out. :)
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I had to dig up this post since I fitted a second clarisea on my emergency overflow.
But I can just hook up a relay to a DC plug to simulate the float switch?
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Yeah for any of the backup ports you can use a relay, anything that can short the two backup port pins together will work.
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Turns out the clarisea takes directly 12v to the float..
So I just wired the DC port parallel to the float and it works the way I want it to work
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Right on, it's nice when things work out.
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