waverz
Slave to the reef!
LOL, it's a community college. Anything goes! :celeb1:
DIY Controller - lots of features - reasonable to build
- Thread starter mprygh
- Start date
LOL, it's a community college. Anything goes! :celeb1:
waverz
Slave to the reef!
Cool man! I was leaning in the direction of pachube myself. What a great service!
mprygh
New member
Main bank of 8 relays are done!
Picture below. Also connected up, with software, and tested.
Relay status is now on pachube web page as well.
I had 3 sets of 4, so could have done 12 relays, but decided to double-up
4 of them, for extra reliability.
So 4 normal, 4 doubled = 8 relays.
Relays can get stuck "on". And Calc/Alk/ATO stuck on is a disaster.
Doubling that up reduces the risk.
It does increase the risk of stuck off. But that is more rare, and not a
horrible problem if it happens.
Picture below. Also connected up, with software, and tested.
Relay status is now on pachube web page as well.
I had 3 sets of 4, so could have done 12 relays, but decided to double-up
4 of them, for extra reliability.
So 4 normal, 4 doubled = 8 relays.
Relays can get stuck "on". And Calc/Alk/ATO stuck on is a disaster.
Doubling that up reduces the risk.
It does increase the risk of stuck off. But that is more rare, and not a
horrible problem if it happens.
Attachments
mprygh
New member
Updated the statistics site. Much easier to read.
http://www.theryghs.com/aquarium_stats.html
I need to tweak the power supplies, and test LED-PWM,
but otherwise done, so getting close.
http://www.theryghs.com/aquarium_stats.html
I need to tweak the power supplies, and test LED-PWM,
but otherwise done, so getting close.
WindowMaker
In Memoriam
great info! I should be starting mine in the next week or so, hopefully it works out equally as well.
WindowMaker
In Memoriam
quick question about the relay boards from futurlec. where did you get the ribbon cables to go with them? and where is it connected to your controller?
thanks!
thanks!
windowlicker916
New member
any updates?
On a side note, I find my name and windowmaker's name in the thread hilarious
On a side note, I find my name and windowmaker's name in the thread hilarious
mprygh
New member
Ribbon cables came with the relay boards.
However, they are not very long, so I made one myself.
I buy most of my misc parts from Jameco
I soldered a male connector the the board, wired that up, and plugged
in the ribbon cable.
You can see it in the enclosed picture.
Attachments
mprygh
New member
Post holiday update:
Getting close to done.
I am debugging the PWM connections.
(I made a mistake and connected a couple to standard I/O)
But seems to be working.
Ethernet, relays, temperature, Clock, and ATO sensors are all working.
I need to wire the PWM controls to the main lights.
I need to make a fancy holder for the display, and mount to tank.
Plus, I am a bit worried about one failure mode:
It turns out, if I lose power to the micro-controller, but not
the relay board, all the relays turn ON.
They are on same power supply, but not the same connector.
Getting close to done.
I am debugging the PWM connections.
(I made a mistake and connected a couple to standard I/O)
But seems to be working.
Ethernet, relays, temperature, Clock, and ATO sensors are all working.
I need to wire the PWM controls to the main lights.
I need to make a fancy holder for the display, and mount to tank.
Plus, I am a bit worried about one failure mode:
It turns out, if I lose power to the micro-controller, but not
the relay board, all the relays turn ON.
They are on same power supply, but not the same connector.
Attachments
WindowMaker
In Memoriam
that made my day!
WindowMaker
In Memoriam
I have had a similar experience, when my controller resets all of the relays blink for about 1/2 second. I am not too worried about this, though I am thinking a small backup battery would prevent some of this.
mprygh
New member
Regarding relay issue:
The problem is:
At boot, your I/O are tristate, so float.
However, if you disconnect power to board, the I/O go low.
(Probably due to protection diodes pulling to power rail, which is zero)
The relays are active low. So when it power off, they go on.
I could switch them to normally open mode.
But that scares me a bit as well, since during boot, the relays will be on.
And if something goes wrong, and board resets, they go on and maybe stay on.
A backup battery would certainly fix things, as long as it is not a long term failure.
In reality - the odds are it will be fine, and I am probably being paranoid.
But my planned fix is to add a high power 30A relay to the main plug.
That one will be normally closed, active high, with a pulldown.
(Which is the way I like it)
Extra redundancy. And a pretty simple fix.
The problem is:
At boot, your I/O are tristate, so float.
However, if you disconnect power to board, the I/O go low.
(Probably due to protection diodes pulling to power rail, which is zero)
The relays are active low. So when it power off, they go on.
I could switch them to normally open mode.
But that scares me a bit as well, since during boot, the relays will be on.
And if something goes wrong, and board resets, they go on and maybe stay on.
A backup battery would certainly fix things, as long as it is not a long term failure.
In reality - the odds are it will be fine, and I am probably being paranoid.
But my planned fix is to add a high power 30A relay to the main plug.
That one will be normally closed, active high, with a pulldown.
(Which is the way I like it)
Extra redundancy. And a pretty simple fix.
WindowMaker
In Memoriam
Makes plenty o sense. Overall I am not concerned about a quick blink if the system resets. Most of my pumps, etc... are set to turn off on low, so it will just delay the startup of the pumps if the power resets.
mprygh
New member
mprygh
New member
The main electronics:
Here is a picture of all the guts.
Upper left = relay boards.
Lower left = ethernet board, main arduino, and buffer.
Upper right = 5V supply, 12V supply, and big 24V supply.
(The big supply is for the tank LEDs)
It may look a bit like a hazard, but all the 120V is pretty protected.
Armor cable, plexi covers.
Here is a picture of all the guts.
Upper left = relay boards.
Lower left = ethernet board, main arduino, and buffer.
Upper right = 5V supply, 12V supply, and big 24V supply.
(The big supply is for the tank LEDs)
It may look a bit like a hazard, but all the 120V is pretty protected.
Armor cable, plexi covers.
Attachments
WindowMaker
In Memoriam
just tested something new, if you put the relays high in your setup, the relays will do about a 1/4sec blink on startup. that is about as fast as I can make it go though.
porksmash
New member
The bootloader is what causes the delay. It waits some time after a reset/power on to see if something wants to talk to it over the serial connection before running your code. There are ways around it, but you need some special hardware to flash the new bootloader code: http://www.ladyada.net/library/arduino/bootloader.html
