Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ah ok. It will come, just can be confusing if you're trying to find your way but it will happen eventually.

Transplanted some more swiss chard and peas today and found a live worm, so glad they are still doing their good work in my system.

Worms are great. You think "what ever happened to those worms I put in the growbed???" Then you pull an old plant and all of a sudden you have a mass of worms that need to be put back.

Thats great, think I'm going to add some more, the wormery has millions to over.

Got my arduino programed perfectly, now it will keep the solar heater running to a max of 30C and only turn it back on when temp dropped to 28C to keep the pump from cycling on and off. Just need to solder everyting on vero board and add a few relays just for expansion sake.

Well done Jaco. Give us a photo of the Frankenstein Contraption.

Here is a pic of how it currently looks, I'm thinking that I should etch it on a board and do it properly, but I first have to add the relays and their supporting circuitry, will also add optoidolators just to make sure that I dont get 12volt on the ATMega pins.

That looks great. Very impressive. Wish I had me some electronics skills!

There is nothing that you can't learn from the internet, google is you best friend.

HI Jaco, my problem is actually practical right now - three young kids. Anything I work on gets quietly dismantled or distributed throughout the house where it is impossible to find. They're such fun and so cute I can't really get cross with them so I rather avoid doing stuff which will wind me up if they undo it.

It's kinda like doing a puzzle and there is someone moving along behind you undoing it as you work.

Also I don't have a workspace at the moment which is very frustrating.

I'll get there but it will be a few more years yet.

Regards, Martin.

Luckily I don't have that problem....yet.
Try to get them involved in the building.
There arealso alot of beginner projects available from electronics hobby shops. They are never too young to start...... I got my first soldering iron when I was 4years old..... and only because my dad couldn't use his as I was playing with it 24/7.

Cool. I have an 8 year old and 2 1/2 year old twin girls. They're like a force of nature. At the moment it's not worth doing anything that requires more than 7 seconds worth of concentration as then I am not paying them enough attention and I will regret that.

If I was building an AP system I could include all three of them and it would be lots of fun but small finicky work like an electronic circuit... I wouldn't get past "Go".



Regards, Martin.

Jaco, what technique do you like to use for etching your circuit boards? I tried the Citrisolv/ laser printer transfer. Is only worked so so for me...

Ron, so far I have not etched anything yet, I will try the laser printer technique, etch with ferric chloride or hydrochloric acid/hydrogen peroxide mix and see how it go's, I wll go back to using vero board if that doesn't work.

Moved passion fruit vine to AP today, as it was on it's way out in the ground, probably got too much water or something. Hope it recovers quickly.