Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

@gsb. Punch cards!!!

I hated them, used some in college I would make so many mistakes, glad we don't have to go there.

But you had to think logic to program I think Arduino takes away a lot of pain and has enough power to be a controller for this.

But as I told Peter who got this discussion moving again, I want to put my aquaponic system in place and understand it before I try to put a bunch of electronics in place.

My system will have 4 IBC grow beds (made to expand to . Sump big enough to support 8 grow beds. start with one IBC 275 gallon fish tank already 2nd fish tank is in place.

Once the half system works go with full system.

Most likely sensors:
* Water level
* alarm in case flow stops
* start air pump in water flow fails or oxygen level low
* Water temperature (because it is easy)
* some automated feeding
* some water chemical tests (O2 etc)


But again before I do that I want a working aquaponics so I know what the real issues are.

Doug in Orlando, FL

@DougL

Punched cards. Ah yes. Was back in the late 60's and early 70's for me, as well. Ask me sometime for my "best ever" use of the punch chips! It's been enough years that I might let it out now.

Anyway, I agree. System running first; then electronics for monitoring; and lastly, some controls.

I am starting a simple "build thread" for our system in the "Members Systems" thread, ...by EOD today that is.

Hello there everyone! I'm still alive, it's been a couple of days. So yesterday I received all of the PCBs that I ordered, and they were waiting for me when I got home from work at 8 PM. I got super excited, planned on posting only to find out that I had a water leak behind my shower. It soaked up into four rows of wood flooring , and took out a 3 x 5 section of drywall. So that was fun, running back-and-forth to the hardware store last night so I could get water on in the house for everyone. Anyways THERE HEREEEEEE !!!!!!!! I was so excited to post pictures, this is the first revision so the board is rather simple, but I'm not expecting any hiccups. After the boards are tested I will have nine available. The features of the board are fairly simple, it gives you a easy place to attach peripherals, The clock,  and pH and dissolved oxygen sensors. I personally do not have a dissolved oxygen sensor, nor do I plan on buying one but I figured I would include it in the board for those who might. I'm not sure when the second revision will be coming out so don't hold your breath, but this board should work very well. For those who are interested in securing one of the nine boards left shoot me an PM.

Anyways, enjoy I will be putting the rest of my system together this weekend.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Those are some very nice boards folks are making... Where are the low-cost small runs being made these days?



It's been so long since I've made any controller boards that a wire-wrapped Motorola 68HC11 was my brain of choice!

--
Sam

Sam there all kinds of software that now that allows you to lay out your board and lots of companies that will do short runs of the boards. I can help point you in that direction if you like.

BTW my first computer I hand wire wrapped it like you back in the early 70s, it was an 8008, next one was a Z80 so that really dates me.

Doug

Peter I may be interested in a board BUT I need to know more of what goes on it.

What is the MCU?
What is the schematic it is based on?
What sensors?

Everything is coming along quite nicely and besides the code hopefully I need some help with that later this week and finish assembling the rest of my system. We bought the house in new Smyrna last year (where my setup will be) and it's needed quite a bit of work, sometimes it's fairly difficult to work on the system because there's plenty of other things to do haha. Anyways there is a board all soldered up.

looking nice

The boards are awesome, the quality is much better than I expected. The solder mask is perfect keeps the solder right where it needs to be. The best part about all of this, I ordered the PCBs on a Thursday at 2 AM and received them Wednesday morning, talk about speedy delivery! That Monday was Labor Day, so technically I had the boards in four business days talk about crazy fast! pcbgogo is what I ordered them from keep him in mind if you need to make any PCBs in the future!

Here are some working pictures ( I don't have very many peripherals hooked up).

Fantastic Peterosorio

As OP seems to be missing how would one go about getting their hands on your boards?

I am sourcing as much outside help I can get and I am dedicating a lot of time to this project, I'm afraid I'm having the same issue that Chumanfu had with letting go of the boards. I want to make sure the code is fairly reliable and the peripherals that are now available work with the code (the original ph sensor board cannot be sourced anywhere) I also don't plan on using dissolved oxygen although some of you may so I need some input on that. I plan maybe a month at most and I will have a final PCB released (this current one had 2 very small errors because of design). If you know Arduino very well I'm willing to let a board or two go (the errors are small but you will still have coding issues) . I repeat only if you know C++ very well will I release a board. I, unfortunately, don't have time to answer simple questions with school focusing time on solving issues with this project, and random things I'm up 16-18 hours a day. If you do not fall into this category you should wait for the final release and I will be doing a full in depth tutorial so ANYONE CAN set this up.

Vote for whether or not you want dissolved oxygen here http://www.poll-maker.com/poll828477x24324BA7-33

yes please and a way to do multiple probes
ie) main tank , biofilter , MT, settling tank