Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Voltage regulation can be done with a rather simple circuit these days, but to build it in such a way that can handle the demands on a boat is another story. Corrosion, mechanical shock, and constant cyclical motion take their toll. Even once great companies like Xantrex lose sight of that fact, and let their bean counters ruin their product.

Very true… boats destroy EVERYTHING The vibrations and shocks alone in my boat are enough to wear out cables and destroy any electronics.. that's why I took out my stereo (and it was a Fusion marine stereo) it broke once, and I decided it would make a better home made boom box… AND the boat is so loud I couldn't really hear the music anyhow

Wow! You broke a fusion! I sell them on their durability all the time.

Yep and another one got water into it even though it only got water mist onto it (it is mounted in dash but water blew in under a bit) even though it is meant to be water resistant or proof.. whatever.. they gave me a new one and told me that the waterproofing test is only for getting sprayed for 5 minutes or something like that… I told them it hadn't even got sprayed… the water apparently can run into the unit along the cables even though they are meant to be sealed..
I am sure it would be fine in some big boat, but then so would probably a normal car stereo.. so too much hassle and i turned it into a very ugly boom box for the garage.

Yea, they are supposed to be water proof front and back. They are the only stereos that are.

Just thought I would post a quick "thankyou" to chainsaw for posting this thread as it was a great help when designing my backup. I ended up with this setup:



Just waiting on the Hailea pump to arrive, I'm hoping I can flip this setup to backup to 240V when I get around to designing a totally solar powered system.

Your welcome Tristan

Tristan. That coil of wire in your container is a bit of a problem.
I know it looks neat and tidy, but it creates a resistor. Resisters get hot.
It also creates magnetic fields and if you have a relay under it, that relay may fail to work.
I suggest you take out the extra cable.

Actually now that I zoom in closer. It looks like you have 240 and 12 volt cable together in that coil.
I'm not sure how to explain this but that is how transformers work and you could actually fry your battery and any thing attached with that set up.

Hey Eric, Sorry didn't see your post til just now....

Hmmm hadn't thought about inductance through coils of wire in this setup, thanks for pointing that out

As far as I'm aware, the amount of winds needed for there to be efficient enough inductance between two coils is fairly large, hence why transformer are so bulky. The gap between the coils also needs to be minimal.

Admittedly my industrial experience is limited in this regard, and I'm willing to be proven wrong, but when I did a lot of live events work, we used to wind the lighting cables in a figure 8 pattern to break up the effect of the coil, and its inductance on unbalanced cables in the nearby vicinity. These cables were carrying several thousand volts at 15A though....

At any rate the setup seems to be reliable so far but I have been meaning to see how it has fared through the winter so I will report back with any findings....

Thanks to Chainsaw and Tristan for helping out.

Today I bought 2x relays, large clips, battery trickle charger and the large grey 190$ battery from jaycar.

Question1:

1. what wire should I use - can I use ordinary power cable?
2. Can I run 2 systems off the same battery (yes), then how long can the cable be from the battery to the other system?

Here is the backup parts



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I'm going to make one of these too. I already have the charger and a spare car battery (not deep cycle but it's what I have on hand). I'm sure I can scrounge up a 120v to 12v adapter. I priced generic automotive relays at the local parts store and they run for about $6. Just need the DC air pump. Not sure which one to get and where.

I've got little bilge pumps - aquarium whole sale has the aco-003 hailea used by some on here


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Is that enough pump for an IBC system? I'm totally lost when it comes to air pumps.