Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Once it's been designed for you? No not really. Plus a lot of ppl value money more than time

Very true, also if you made it you can fix it, or you can customise it for your purpose. It's a bit like AP in general if you just want the cheapest vegies you are better of buying them.

That last line is a bit risky i think the reason veg in ap sometimes cost a lot is people do not follow the kiss principle [keep it simple stupid ]
ie system controllers feeding fancy foods expencive pumps air blowers ect
My whole system cost around $350 to set up and been running 3 years no problems [only one that was my fault] and costs $50 power $67 feed and in the end i will have more veg that we can eat [and beter quality the tomes we are eating now are sh;'t] and by xmas we will have 100 trout and up to 40 large silvers

Maybe have ways to make one from scratch and also include the way to wire in a ready made timer. Then it would allow more people to utilize the info based on there skill and or safety level.

I know what you mean F&F, but you are a bit of an exception, you are a master at scoring valuable throw aways. What I meant is that most people buy a system or they design and build one, if you count the time spent on building and running it the food is unlikely to be cheaper than bought food. The same thing pretty much applies to ordinary vegetable garden if you count time and input costs. However AP is much more interesting and addictive than grocery shopping, I have no doubt the benefits are more than monetary.

Maybe, peoples skill issues certainly make a difference, i.e Kuda would easily be able to do his own so I guess that most people that need this are the ones without the training/experience.

Maybe people could put up what they would like to be able to do if they could, from that we might see if it is worth trying.

As an example I use continuous pumping and have three timers running one for each growbed. I need to open for flood time of about 10m and then shut of for 14m then open the next GB in the sequence for it's cycle. I am working with 12v or less so no worry about 240v. All three timers are in one unit and cost me about $30 total.

If someone can make me a timer that will run for 5 minutes on, 30 seconds off, I'll buy 2

Then two of rupes spiders

Mega Expansion.

Mine will do that OB. Would you like me to design it for veroboard? so all you have to do is solder the components?

btw: revised the design to save a chip.

What would be the best way to get it to switch 240v? I am more than capable of soldering and wiring.

Veroboard is fine

see that relay? on the right, switch with a coil? if that's rated for 240, off you go. all you need is a 5V plug pack to power the timer.

Oh so glad I started this thread. I see several lines of thought going to allow options for many different people and purposes!!!!!

A small point, a diode across the relay coil will prevent back emf from taking out a chip.

Maybe a dumb question, but is soldering hard to learn?
I dont realy understand what all the bits are, but if you guys can make this like lego I would love to try it out.

no, it's not hard... some practise is good, but this would be a simple project - soldering wise.
As for like lego, we can but try.

All the chips I have drawn are tolerant of poor soldering techniques. Micro-controllers are not.

Thanks KP