Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So there are mainly three sections that I need checking before I solder them up. These bits are the most likely sections that will see me toast chips.

Something I'd like to avoid.

The first is the serial and power connection...





The second is the fish lever that they press when they want food...





And the third is the motor connection. This is most likely to fry chips if I get it wrong...




I have a lot of other stuff that I plan to add, but most of those are dealing with less danger to the chip, so I wont need so much hand holding.

Please help.

on the motor part, I understand the cap (green) is optional depending on how electrically noisy my motor is, and the diode is also for suppression

Looking good Bullwinkle.

Couple of things to check:

1) The fish switch is powered always, not only when the power switch is on.
2) The fish switch appears to have 2 x 1k resistors, not 1 x 1k and 1 x 10k
3) The motor as drawn will never turn, because both the emitter of the transistor and the other motor lead are grounded. One lead of the motor needs to be connected to your +v supply.


I used to do lots of layout on strip board, and found that it was easier to have a good solid circuit diagram first, and then lay out the components, rather than the other way around. Then when laying out the components you can refer back to the diagram to check that things are set up the way they should be.

I also lay all my components out first, without soldering or cutting anything, then when I'm totally happy I start soldering. This allows you to make last minute adjustments to the layout.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out, and whether you can train your fish to feed "on demand". What a great experiment!

Thanks for the feedback. I'll sort it.

It's a funny thing this electronics thing.

I was fishing the other day from land and catching fish where people either side of me were catching none. Same rig, same bait same position, but I was catching fish and they weren't. Then along came an old Italian guy and he was pulling in fish faster than I cold count, then he went home. I was still catching them at the same rate, and the others went home with perhaps two each to my 20 and the old guys 20 (but in half an hour)

I can look at a bit of ocean, and it makes sense. The old guy can clearly do the same, but a shi[p]load better.

When is a circuit going to begin to make sense? Do you ever get to read a circuit like reading a book?

When I ask you people who know this stuff to check my work, am I asking you to spend the 6 hours that I did to make it, or can I look forward to a time when I can look at it, and see errors stand out like a dead end on a map does when you are trying to find your way to the other side of town?

Electronics is harder than bread making.

With basic components you can find errors fairly easily (caps, resistors, etc.). But when you have a bunch of ICs with different pinouts you just have to go to the datasheets.

After a while it certainly does become easier. Some circuits however can still be quite mystifying!




Well since you brought it up, here's last weeks effort!

draw a schematic first !

Seriously. I and others find it much harder to check your work without one. A quick glance at a schematic and I can quickly tell you if something is going to blow up etc. A quick glance at your pcb tells me nothing, I have to try and figure out what is going on.

There are 2 main parts to electronic design, schematic layout and pcb layout.
ONLY when the schematic is finished and correct should you start the layout.

Please draw a schematic. Even just in pencil and I will draw it properly in a free package for you. Let's do it properly from the start.
Otherwise the same thing will happen as with the first attempt.
Deal ?

I cant :crying;

I've been trying every couple of weeks or so since version one of this project and it turns out to be a birds nest that I cant read if I do it by hand, and every program I try falls over because it doesn't have chips in it's components or something. One that I tried had 250,000 parts, but they were all listed by catalogue number. So if I wanted to put a diode on the board, I had to find a catalog of diodes, find the part number, then find it in the components list with a code like DDL2432 rather than being able to go to a menu called diode, and pick the value I wanted.

That's why I thought I'd put the circuit diagram of each little section on the board. ie the switch part has the switch circuit diagram, and the layout right next to it. For some reason, I just cant wrap my head around adding each of the "sub-circuits" and laying them out in such a way as to avoid crossing tracks.

Other than the power connection, there is a circuit diagram and layout for all of it, it's just not all on one piece of paper.

The other important aspect of this, is that I dont know any of this stuff. I'm learning it as I go. So I dont have a big picture in my head. For instance, the next step will be to input the feed amount via a trim pot. I have no idea what a circuit for that would look like. I have to research what a connection like that might look like, draw up that lump of components all connected like they should be, then put it all on the board. (I'm using Pebble rather than a real breadboard because I dont have a camera any more).

I'll keep trying and see if can figure it out.

I really do understand the need.

don't worry about parts, you don't need them.
If you want to use a diode just put a generic diode in. Then label it if you want (eg. 1n4004 or whatever it is)
Just make sure the symbol shows it is a schottkey/zener etc if that is the case.
If it is a micro or other IC just make your own. draw a box, add the pins and label them. and arrange them how it works best for your circuit (GND pins together, IO pins together etc)

...watch this space

Yeah, I know I don't need the parts numbers, I was just winging about how some people construct user interfaces.

What software do you use?

There seem to be a lot of things like LEDs that could all be powered from a third power rail ie one that was 2 volts or something. Is that something people do?

What do resistors resist?

First go here

http://sourceforge.net/projects/tinycad ... t/download

Now give me an email address so I can send you the library file of the Picaxe 20M2 I just drew.

After you get the file, we can work on it together (you add the bits you think, then I can fix/improve/admire what you did.)

Very basic and messy, but here is a start for you

Send me your email or something so I can send you the file and library for tiny cad

Legend! ;nolongercrying;

I also bought another couple of picaxe 20M2 so I can cook some

The motor driver circuit seems weird to me.
I dont get how the current flows to the transistor base.
I would think you would want a resistor from base to ground.
Or replace the transistor with a FET.
I dont know Arduino though, so it could work for the processor.

Also I would definately use the cap and diode.
The diode shorts out any flyback effect from shutting down the motor.