Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'd like to start putting one of these arduinos for logging. What do I need to get started? I'd like to start with monitoring temps in 4 spots, pH, and sump water level with possibly more in the future.

This is sweet! Thanks for sharing.

I use the hardware timer on Arduino pin 47 as a counter. Super accurate and precise but it requires a little bit-banging to get it to work properly as it's not native to the Ardiuno IDE. The flow meter outputs pulses based on the amount of water flow. I count the pulses and send the number to Grovestreams. You have to do a little math to get a real LPH number but that is easy in the arduino.
Frequency: F=4.5 * units of flow (L / min) * time (seconds). 270 output pulses/liter.
I didn't bother to do the math because all I wanted is an indication that the pump is working and a notification when flow starts to slow down so know when I need to service the pump and clean out the impeller.

Thanks Boss. I'm in the same industry so I know the lengths that we go to to remotely monitor tower sites.


You need...
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/SainSmart-Mega25 ... 3f2403d1b0
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Ethernet-Shield- ... 43e1ab174d
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/DHT22-AM2302-Dig ... 3395302eea
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/1pcs-Waterproof- ... 58cbb1c634
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Ultrasonic-Modul ... 43e1ac91f9
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Adhesive-Special ... 2ed31d7b21
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Wide-Angle-40x4- ... 4626b6770a
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/IIC-Precision-RT ... 3a88b746f4
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/5V-Eight-8-Chann ... 2a38f218f3
http://www.amazon.com/pH-DEVELOPMENT-AR ... 00798612C/

You'll also need a project box, mounting bits, interconnect wires and power. Relay module is only needed if you intend on controlling your pumps, fans, heater, etc. You can use a cheaper smaller LCD module if your going to keep the number of sensors down. Any hd44780 compatible LCD will work. I can help you modify the code.

Thanks for the information, I'll have to bug you for more information when I get it all up and running.

And the head banging begins.

Can this be done over wifi? I would have to run 100-125 feet of Ethernet from AP to router.

WIFI is dodgy with the Arduino. I've tried the original Arduino WIFI shield and the CC3000 shield. Neither was stable enough to depend on. If you must have WIFI, I suggest using a different platform such as Arduino Yun, RaspberryPi or Particle Photon.

I use powerline ethernet AV200 link which sends ethernet traffic through the power lines. They have been 100% reliable and I'm very happy with the solution.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EOSMT8U

I bought the cc3000 shield for arduino, i was hoping that'd work

Hooking up to the Raspberry Pi, is it just a matter of putting Raspbian on the pi, and then plugging the arduino into the ethernet slot? (with a wifi shield)

This has been an awesome thread... thanks Chiumanfu for all your effort!



In addition to some of the other options mentioned above (alternate mcu, powerline ethernet, etc.) you could also run your ethernet from your arduino into a wifi bridge (e.g. http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-MP01-150Mbp ... 463d0397a3) especially if you already have the arduino and ethernet module.

I got the CC3000 to work for a bit but soon discovered that it locks up quite a bit if there is other traffic on the wifi network. It is a know problem in the chip firmware and Texas Instruments has stopped supporting it. I would return the one you bought. It is garbage and not worth struggling with.

If I was to use a raspberry pi, I would send serial strings to the RPi and have it transmit via wifi.

Take a serious look at power-line ethernet. They are dead simple to use and it will work better than wifi considering the ap system is out in the backyard and typically at the edge of wifi router range.

Colum I am in Brisbane for the next week and a bit but on my return I can help you with the Arduino as they are quite easy to setup with the 5100 ethernet board.

Thanks Bernhard.

I might take you up on that (although, I'll be in Thailand from tomorrow), I've got a few of the ethernet shields lying around.

I'm just contemplating on if I should just run an ethernet cable through the roof and into the router. For $20 worth of cables, it's probably be the easiest option.

I spent 5 hours yesterday trying to get an automatic feeder to work. I wired in potentiometers to the aduino, and used the pot value * 35 as the delay for the amount of time the relay was on, making each feeder click on in turn. But it just wouldn't work. The relay would click, but the motors wouldn't turn. I bypassed the arduino, and the motor worked. So I think I have a buggy relays.

So new relays are on their way from china.

When you get back let me know and I can have a look for you. As I am sure Chiumanfu would agree it could be the smallest insignificant line of code or a wire in the wrong place that can stop things working.

It's an old relay that's been knocking around in the shed for quite some time. I think it's a physical problem with the relay itself.

I'll see if the new one fixes it.

This is correct. I've built a similar (fewer bells & whistles) monitoring/controlling thing based around the raspberry pi. Even with a good wifi card it craps out too much, and is just a general pain in the ass. Go with ethernet, even if you have to get creative with stringing a big ugly cable.

I bought a tp-link tl wr841n(cost me $29 new), put dd - wrt on it and turned it into a wireless bridge. Been pretty stable for the last couple of months and no long network cable out to the garage.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

As I'm slowly building up a list of questions (then removing the dumber ones as I educate myself), I figured it would be good manners to introduce myself before jumping in.

I volunteered to take over replicating Chiumanfu's system from a friend who is in the process of launching a commercial AP operation, and thus has zero hours to allocate to peripherals. He mailed over the parts (as per Chiumanfu's list), and I've been chipping away at the project as time allows.

My day job/background is in public health/social science research. I'm handy with data, statistics and programming (R), but until a couple of months ago knew nothing about C, Arduino or electronics. Suffice it so say, the learning curve has been a kick in the pants and about the most exciting intellectual adventure I've been on in years.

I'm hoping to be at a point soon where I can contribute to the discussion, if only by asking useful questions.

Best regards,

Luc