Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Oops I forgot, The bottoms and tops would fall out, or in more likely if you cut them lengthways.

I will post a few photos when I have cut the first one.Do not underestimate the power of MAXBOND

Jeez that is heavy shyte...
Don't breathe that stuff or get it on you!!
worse than bindeez!

Lol... Bindeez.... Looks like the parents are taking more interest in these toys than the kids. mmmm Liquid ecstasy....

They wern't suppose to sell any!
well not to the public anyway!

Red,

If you do need a hand with the AB PLC programming, im familar with slc500, plc5, compactlogics and micrologics.

also on the probes, getting them isnt the problem, keeping them calibrated will be the main issue. Ive got access to pH and conductivty and a few others, but im not bothering with them because i know how much work is involved in keeping them accurate.

springa

Red,

another thing what are you going to use as the frontend on your PC? Another thing to remember is if the PLC doesnt have an ethernet port youll probably have to use data highway, which will mean a dedicated card in your PC.


springa

Red,

You got me thinking now. I planned to use a PLC on my second system.

Taking away the trending and monitoring, the big advantage of a PLC is the automation.

So what could we automate?

The pumps and solenoids to control the flood and drain times is a big plus.

Temperature would be trivial to control.

Now we could monitor pH, Ammonia, nitrate and nitrite levels but would we actually be able to “control” these levels?

Well the pH we could dose for low or high pH. But I reckon shellgrit in the yabbie tank would do the job as AP systems seem to go acidic over time.

Ammonia you could start a fountain type pump to help dissipate the ammonia once it got above a certain level.

Now the nitrate and nitrite levels I would imagine there could be a chemical we could add to drop them, not sure really. But we cant automatically stock or de stock, or plant and harvest.

Instead of spending cash on the sensors I think a couple of flowmeters would be nice. You could compare what is being pumped out versus what is returning, if the difference is too large, we have a major leak. Shut down the pumps and close the solenoids.

We could put in a pressure transmitter at the end of the pipework and use a VSD to maintain a constant pressure, while filling more than 1 grow bed and limiting the pressure to reduce the chance of blowouts etc.

Lots more to think about.


springa

smarty pants

Red and Springa, you might be interested in this thread by member "Sunshine" (on another forum) that discusses automation using an X10 based software program called HAL2000...

http://www.aquaponicshq.com/forums/showthread.php?t=293

thx SOF

ill take a look see

springa

XX is still dreaming!

Thanks guys Ill check it out

Should be interesting

Have faith,I've got a plan