Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

True....

Yes water level or flow would be the most important, with quick notification. If you use multiple pumps in your system pump failure is not as critical.
I will take some pics of a job I done recently which had a GSM modem attached to a Logo controller, which sends SMS messages to indicate pit levels on a tank farm, you can also SMS back to the unit to start pumps etc.

My latest controller performs the following:
Outputs:
ST->FT Pump control.
Raft -> ST Pump control.
Servo control for each GB, inlet and outlet valves.

Inputs:
3 x GB Water level sensors.
ST->FT flow sensor.
FT overflow sensor.
Raft tank full sensor.

All simple stuff, but adds to the fun

I am playing with the bigger brother of one of these.
http://www.tri-plc.com/nano10-1.htm
I have just had it email me a message. The mail part is all built in. Not bad for around $130

Again automation isn't for everyone. I just like to tinker...

secs
That's a pretty cool lookng toy.
How does the internet controllability work?
Can you access and control it from anywhere?

I have a chip around here somewhere with an Ethernet port built right on it. Pretty cool - and let's you use c and c++ for programming. I forgot I had it until reading this thread. I may have to dig it out and see what I can do with it.

http://www.beck-ipc.com/en/products/products.asp

I'm about to program an Arduino chip to control my chicken coop (off the grid). http://arduino.cc/
Open the coop door at sunrise.
Close the coop door ~15 minutes after sunset. (hopefully this will be reliable with a photo-sensor).
Heat the coop when it's cold.
Cool the coop when it's ridiculously hot at night with a fan.
I will open source the code so it should be easy to take what I make and redesign it to other applications.

I really want to push one of my aquaponics systems off the grid, so I may be doing that this year too.
Also, I've just picked up a few xcore86 CPU systems. Basically, it's a box about the size of two altoids tins that runs a full operating system (linux or windows) on 2 watts of power. With usb, network, vga, serial, etc, I'm very excited with what I can do with these. I may use them for the future off the grid aquaponics system. http://www.norhtec.com/products/mcjrmx/index.html.

The reason I'm posting all of this is because I want more motivation to get these projects started

From the aforementioned http://www.norhtec.com/products/mcjrmx/index.html
Very interesting. And motivation is a good thing.

Can it send a message to your mobile phone?
It obviously has to be permanently connected to a computor which is turned on to do this?
IMO by the time you add a screen, load relays, RTC with battery back-up and enclosure to mount it in, a $200.00 compact smart relay is looking better to me.
After briefly comparing the software with Logo, I think the Logo has a lot more functions, a lot easier to use and industry proven.

It doesnt need a pc. You program it with one then its stand alone. You can access it from anywhere as long as its connected to the net. You can program it from anywhere or simply monitor or change values. It doesnt need a pc to send emails just a smtp server. These are industry proven as well. I must admit it only has a RTC as an extra. I use the big brother ones the F2424 units. As far as the mobile phone, I simply direct the emails to my sms provider and get it that way

Peter,
I assume you have to have a static IP address?
Internet connectivity is something that is very exciting, I have been looking at TCP/IP stacks etc. for the PIC.
It is probably too much to do on 1 x 16F877 but the bigger PICS will handle it.
Microchip has a free TCP stack in fact, for the 16 and 32 bit devices.

Some people have interfaced the 877 to a legacy 8/16 bit NIC card, another option.

I actually have 2 systems. One has a static ip and one a dynamic but on the dynamic one since I also have pc's connected, I use a dynamic dns client and that works ok. The static one is used for my server/data room at my main location. The other system is 600 ks away. Both talk to each other when needed for my VOIP phone system

I used to program up PICs. I started doing it with Picbasic and 16f877's and in fact, have a couple of projects still running. I did one for the National Indigenous Radio Service to sync servers across the top end. Worked well.

However, the time taken to design up a circuit etc that works well and doesnt introduce other problems like RFI is a pain. Now I have found these units, I will be using them or similar from now on

Below are some pics of the GSM modem I mention earlier.
This unit is set up to monitor any part of the Logo program and can send predetermined SMS messages to 20 recipients if required. You can also SMS back to the unit to control devices connected to the Logo. The modem can be set to send periodic messages to indicate it is OK and will send a message in the unlikely event that the Logo fails. It is a stand alone unit, no other connections required.
At a cost of about $1000.00 for the unit, would only be justifiable on a very large AP system.

Hello,

I've thought about implementing some of the environmental sensors offered by Phidgets: http://www.phidgets.com/products.php?category=6

But I haven't yet. I would really love to see accumulated sensor data over the course of a year.

If you can send an email, you can generally send a SMS text message to a phone.

Here is a good resource:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_SMS_gateways