Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

If your connections are protected from the elements then they should do but remember they are not water proof.

I have used normal power extension cords 1.2m long for the mains. I cut the male end off to terminate and the other end sits in a water proof enclosure. Then you can run normal pump leads without modifications.

Your AC sockets look much better quality. They are not the typical outlet style though. Are you going to modify all your equipment plugs?

Minimum order was 10 boards. Once I've tested them out, I will make the remaining boards available to you guys.

Yes, either that or make up simple extension/converter leads. I thought this format was clean, small and safe.

Okay, so in 7 days I'm then away for a weeks holiday. I don't have enough time to complete this build, especially the enclosure work with is time consuming. Is the code modular enough that I could for example only do water flow and pH monitoring in that time?

I can organise a friend to come by every couple of days. Any advise on what I could / should do? Worst case I thought I could order an IP camera for at least the ability to visually check in.

Yeah sure. If any sensors are missing, the program just continues on to the next one. The only missing component that will cause problems with a big timeout delay is the ethernet module.

Fish can go a week without eating, but if you can arrange it, get a friend to feed a "pre-measured" amount of food half way through the trip.

The only other major worry would be power loss or pump failure. Setup grovestreams to send you an alert if the flow rate drops below a threshold and alert you if it does not hear from the arduino after a couple hours.

Let me know if you need help configuring grovestreams. I should really provide more details on that.

I'm getting a compiling error:
In file included from /home/bedlore/aquaponics/Chiumanfu/libraries/Time/DateStrings.cpp:11:0:
/home/bedlore/aquaponics/Chiumanfu/libraries/Time/DateStrings.cpp:41:22: error: variable ‘monthNames_P’ must be const in order to be put into read-only section by means of ‘__attribute__((progmem))’
PGM_P monthNames_P[] PROGMEM =
^
A few others similar and also related the the date.

Solved the above issue, the default Ubuntu repository version of the ardunio compiler is old, updating to the latest resolved it. Although I had to rename the default libraries to force your version been used or other errors would get through. I don't know the proper way to preference non default libraries.

I'm now able to verify the sketch and upload it, however the serial monitor remiains blank not can I ping the unit. I uploaded the ethernet test server sketch and it worked fine. So the hardware is okay.

Any suggestions on how I troubleshoot this please?

The problem is that you are using Arduino IDE ver 1.6.5. This code was written on 1.0.6

It is not backward compatible. Download 1.0.6 from here and try again
https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/OldSoftw ... s#previous

As for the sketch not running... What sensors do you have hooked up? Is the ethernet board connected to your network? If you wait for 10 minutes, do you see anything in the serial monitor?

Thanks, I downloaded 1.0.6 and it compiled and uploaded smoothly. My first attempt was with 1.0.5 and my earlier with 1.6.5 r5.

I haven't attached any sensors yet, just an ethernet shield. Should I be able to ping it shortly after boot? You mention a 10 minute period for console but what about just raw ping. I've set the IP to 192.168.1.202 but not response after 5 minutes or so.

I created a grovestream account, selected the adunio template so get started, looks pretty tricky to setup. I'll investigate more tomorrow, its 3am here now so better get to sleep.

Cheers

I don't believe that ping echo is a built-in function of the W5100. You would have to instruct the arduino to respond to a ping using the ICMPPing library.

http://playground.arduino.cc/Code/ICMPPing

Grovestreams setup is a little more involved. I will put together a proper how-to when I get a chance. Maybe a look at my dashboard will give you an idea of how I set it up. Also look at the config screenshots on page 1.
https://grovestreams.com/singleDash.htm ... b2d32921bf

I just noticed that during an initial run, the eeprom values could be anything. This can cause the program to hang on the flow sensor and sonar sub-routines as it waits for a timeout that is really really big. Easy solution is to run the "set factory default" command. (B)Settings, (7)System Settings, (3)Reset to factory defaults. This will set all the EEPROM memory locations to know values.

You could also comment out those subroutines if you are comfortable with that.

Don't forget to...
Set the DS18B20 temperature probe addresses if you have them (line139)
Set your grovestreams API key (line158)
Set the grovestreams ComponentID if you changed it (line159)
Confirm that the hardcoded MAC is unique on your network (line168)

Let me know if you have any more problems.

Hi Chiumanfu

I'm just trying to make sense of the wiring and earlier schematic you provided. Trying to work out which pins devices connect to isn't always clear, checking the code does help. For example the LCD,
On line 134 # LiquidCrystalFast lcd(36, 34, 32, 30, 28, 26, 24, 22); // rs,rw,en1,en2,d4,d5
I presume these are the pins to the LCD connects to, if so which LCD pins, the schematic isn't clear since it doesn't matter to the same pin numbers. Similarly your there are 6 other points on the right LCD side, 17,18,A,K

Sorry for the newbie questions, I hope to contribute a dummies guide once I work it all out.

You should look into interfacing lcd with arduino. The lcd has several pins that are on it. Rs, re, en1, (his has, though not all have) en2, then you have the parallel pins (D0-D1) A and K are for the Backlight led (anode, [k]cathode). Just do a little go ogling on them and it will be clear as mud. It is important that you at least somewhat understand these systems otherwise you will never be able to troubleshoot it.

Thanks adamlwvdc36, I do believe that was the most polite RTFM I have ever received. I agree of course, and intend to even understand in the fullness of time, just running for short of it right this minute.