Robo-Tank v5.0 Screenshots and Flowchart - Ideas Needed

[Rob F]

I did too but have been told otherwise. :)

[rott]

lol so many relays wont remember what went where

[aquaalgae]

I currently am using all 16 and would use at least 4 more plus it would be nice to have some extras. I definitely do have an issue remembering what is what though! :)

[Rob F]

Outlets and sensor ports seem to be the most used. Tracking equipment should be easier, every sensor and piece of equipment has a custom name and you can add custom names for addons. Also the outlets now have 60 icons to choose from. Those are used every where, if setting up a schedule as an example it'll say something like "Power Bar 2, Outlet 3 - Custom Name". Also you can easily remove any sensors or equipment from the display that you aren't using which will clean things up.

[aquaalgae]

I'm definitely looking forward to V5! Another week or so?

[Rob F]

Yeah maybe another 10 days, something will be released before end of month. It's coming along nicely but so many details to cover which takes longer than I was hoping.

[rott]

hopefully making some hardware addons for this will be a lot easier for you :) A little less stress

[Rob F]

They won't be. :) I prefer the code over hardware, at least with code if make a mistake just do an edit and hit upload, with hardware its cry and place another order.

[rbrtwtrs]

This may be covered by having custom rules and an additional float switch but would like to have delay between turning devices on at end of feeding cycle. My protein skimmer goes nuts when sump water level is high like it is at end of feeding cycle. It takes a couple minutes before water level in sump goes back to normal after main pump starts.

[Rob F]

You will be able to do this. When you create a rule instead of using a parameter to trigger it you can base it on the feed or maintenance schedule. This would ensure the rule only runs during/after maintenance/feeding. You can set a timer so the custom rule triggers X minutes after start of maintenance/feeding. So you could have something come on/off 5 minutes into feed and something else 10 minutes into feed.

[aquaalgae]

Will there be DIY version of the SSRs?

Also, is it possible to have power usage monitoring? This way it would be possible to determine if a relay is broken while away.

[Rob F]

Yeah you can DIY the SSR, I'll have multiple kits available. I will be making a power bar that can be fully monitored and there will be logs for them, each individual outlet and overall, I plan to start pre-selling them as soon as I finish v5 as I'll be working on them then.

[aquaalgae]

Awesome! How will it measure the current? Something similar to the ACS712?

[Rob F]

I'm using current sense transformers, I don't think that IC works for high voltage. I looked around for IC's to do this but it doesn't seem any exist.

[aquaalgae]

So you would correlate the increase/decrease in total current being used by the relay box with what individual relay(s) just turned on/off?

Will we be able to send an alert if say relay 7 was supposed to go on with a 1.2 amp draw but when it turned on there wasn't an increase in current?

[Rob F]

There'll be 9 current transformers, one for each outlet and then one for all so you can monitor both ways. Any parameters I add to the controller will be added to custom rules and alerts so you'll be able to do anything with the current readings. I'm also planning to add a system that learns over time how much current is used on a specific outlet and when normal use falls out of the range you'll be notified, this might help spot any equipment that's about to fail. This would be optional for different outlets.

[aquaalgae]

That all sounds fantastic!

A couple more questions (for now lol) on the SSRs...

Will it be possible to easily replace a single SSR if it fails?
I know that SSRs heat up in relation to the amount of current flowing through them (and if there is/isn't a heatsink attached). I believe you had mentioned before that they were going to be 8amp SSRs. As far as heat build up, will it be ok to have a constant 5 amp current on them?

[Rob F]

Yeah I'm really excited about it too. The SSRs are rated for 8amp and I'm hoping they will be ok with 5amps constant, don't have the answer yet on that one. It also might be possible for someone to add heat sinks. I'm also debating individual fuses for each outlet and one for overall but then labor and cost goes up which isn't good. If I did that the overall power bar could still handle 10 amps and then each outlet limited to whatever the SSRs can handle. If the SSRs can only handle 4 amps let say that's not very much overall. These are the largest SSRs I could find that are actually usable for 8 outlets, after this you get to those bricks. Once I finish this one I am planning a 4 outlet using 30amp SSRs so they should run 10amp ok.

The overall design will be larger than what you have as the CTs are about the size of the relays you have and the SSRs are larger yet. And if there's 9 fuses that's a lot to mount on a PCB plus the actual circuit to make it work. I agree I need to do something to make it more serviceable, I'm still thinking. I'm hoping I can design the case in a fashion so it can be opened from the top and bottom so a soldering iron can be used. Not sure how I'll do that yet as the outlets need to push through the top. Any ideas lol?

[aquaalgae]

That's right, I forgot that you were doing larger amp relays with less outlets. I'm thinking of replacing my (2) 8-outlet relay boxes with (2) of the 8amp 8-outlet boxes and also have 1 4-outlet 30amp relay box.

As far as making it serviceable from both sides, the only thing that comes to mind right away is to have a 0.250 quick disconnect wire attaching the outlets to the relays.

[Rob F]

That's basically how the power bars use to be and it was a nightmare adding disconnects and in the end it didn't look very professional. The current power bar is a breeze to assemble compared and much safer. I have some ideas but trying not to think about it too much right now as my brain is full of code. I would say I have about 90% of v5 fully up and running so getting there, working on the ATO right now.