Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The PICAXE chips are PIC chips with a bootstrap to allow programming through a serial port without the need for EEPROM burner. They are cheap and would be suitable for control and logging or both for a AP system.
PICAXE Website
Useful Intro
MicroZed, Aussie supplier

You can buy kits so you don't need to solder, just get straight into programming. The prog software is free and has a simulator.

For data logging the bigger chips (with X, like 18X) have i2c interface to talk to EEPROM's. Attached is basic description of the chips, but there are some others.

Here is a program I did for a simple (read cheap) pump controller with some logging. It would cost about $30 + the cost of something to interface to the pump (ie. a TTL switchable relay) which I haven't sussed out yet. It uses the 8M chip which has 256 bytes for program and data.

It simply turns a pump on for 30mins and off for 15mins, or stops it when an interlock is activated (eg. sump pump full float switch). It also uses all remaining memory (96 bytes) to log data from an analog every 15 minutes. The on/off time and log rate are settable in the program, just change and download. You push a button for 1s attached to one of the inputs and it dumps the log to programming software, for copy paste to Excel etc.

It is tested only in the simulator. When Joel fences off his front yard I will buy a kit and test on one of Joel's new systems. You can view in notepad, but if you are really keen it's worth downloading the prog software from the PICAXE website opening it with that for colourised syntax.

Nice, so this is like the smart relays we were looking at a while ago? Basically a build-it-yourself version? I assume the programming is exactly the same?

Could be a good little pump controller for a sump pump also.

Nova

You could use the same 8M for fish tank pump and sump, forgoing the primitive logging.
Out 1: Fish pump run
Out 2: Sump Pump Run
In 1: Sump high level
One IO point still spare

So you run the fish pump on for A mins, off for B mins just like in the program above. It should still have it's own low level cutout float.
Start the sump when sump level high and run for X mins (will stop on it's own integrated low level float)
Stop the fish pump on sump high (protects against sump pump failure loosing all your water)
Stop the fish pump when sump high level not seen for Y mins (protects against burst pipe to grow beds or blocked drains to sump and again loosing all your water). Y would have to be bigger than X plus the time it takes to fill the sump.

good tom see the thread resurrected B2B.

If some of us are going to go the way of micros then i'd LOVE it if we all agreed on one so we could easily info share.

is the model with the polled interrupts much more expesive? might be good for fail safe triggers?

god help us all when ssgem76 finally moves house and sets up a system...................

Anyone been experimenting with these chips..I notice that PICAXE even have a Net Web Server Module that will allow communication between the chip and the web..remote monitoring from anywhere!

http://www.rev-ed.co.uk/docs/flier_picnet.pdf

Never used micros until the Picaxe,
Very easy and simple, unless you want to go to RTC, I2C ect.
Especially now, with the new Prog. Editor with simulator.
Still in beta, but a full new vers. coming out within days.

http://www.rev-ed.co.uk/picaxe/forum/to ... lse&S=True

OK for monitoring.

But a control sys.?????

Most water or air pumps run on 240VAC,

That implies switchbox with circuit breakers and relays for those pumps,

and a SPARKY.

Cheers, Steve S

Had a look at the site but electronics isn't my strong point.

If I wanted to turn a pump on what would I need to buy and then do?

You would use a "relay board" for that Steve S, then you wont need a sparky......theres heap around.......and if you need over current "safety" you could always wire in an inline fuse holder.

I use pic microcontrollers (I think they are the SPU the pic axe is mad from). Very easy to program. My main controller is one of these though:
http://www.ewayco.com/51-embedded-syste ... ystem.html

$110US including flash and preloaded and tested linux. It has ethernet, I can log in and change the program at the drop of a hat, and can mount remote file systems for unlimited logging.

Here is a live plot from the sensor network:
http://njhurst.com/tmp/GHT.svg

OK. Unless there's another thread somewhere....

Can we start at the basics?

I have a PC (obviously!).
I want to be able to monitor GH temperature.
Eventually i want to be able to control stuff.
I want to keep it cheap!!!!

Can i buy a temp sensor that will plug directly into the USB connection?


Thnx.
Poppa

What is GH Temp?
Yes you can get USB temp loggers:
TemperatureAlert
Some Other One
Remember though USB is only good for 5m (16'5")
Another option is Tinytalk. They log temp at a rate you set, then you whip them out and connect to PC serial port to get the time stamped data. (most modern PCs don't have serial anymore but USB to Serial converters are reasonably cheap
If you want to control though a microprocessor with memory, or small PLC would be a better solution, with 232 serial (50m) or ethernet (100m) connection to your PC.
If you can live without control, the data loggers are the go.

Okay - you guys are going to be like drug dealers to an old engineer aren't you... I used to do statistical process control and controllers as well...

Beware, this is seriously fun stuff... next thing you know you will be putting sensors in your dogs kennel and tracking the amount of methane he produces.

Great, another one..... is there anybody apart from myself that HASN'T done this stuff at some time

Keep it coming... I'm seriously intriqued... enough to maybe try and dabble anyway.

Fun stuff why not put a candle in there when he fa==s he will blow the roof off