DIY Reef Controller

nkd5024,

I just wanted to say thank you, I check all the pins and it turns out one pin was bad. The pcb had a scratch across the line. I fixed the line and now have everything running perfectly. Surprisingly, the SD card on the sain smart shield worked perfectly out of the box. The SD card had to be formatted with a 3rd party software before it would work.

This project is awesome and you do great work. Cant wait for the updated software.

Thanks Again,
 
Glad to hear everything is working for you! I just finished soldering up the the main board and pressure sensor board. This was my first attempt at smd soldering and I have to it wasn't that bad. The only annoying parts were the 0603 leds and the 0402 capacitors. In all I think I lost around 6 0.1uF 0402 capacitors when they flew out of my tweezers. I still am waiting on some 1K resistors and some extra header to complete the board.

Here is the board as of now.

Mother_zpsb753a6c6.jpg


Pressure Sensor Board,

Pressure_zps2a76f601.jpg


For a size comparison the atmega328p and ds1307 RTC in dip form next to their soldered smd conterparts.

Compare_zps8858d48a.jpg


Here is a reference for how small these capacitors are,

0402Cap_zpse9814ceb.jpg


I am going to start testing on the boards tonight to make sure all is well. Then I will put the finishing touches on the code and let it free on my tank for testing!

Nick D.
 
the new boards look great. glad your soldering that stuff I dont think I could even see that on a board what kinda solder and solder pen you using?
 
I am using the basic materials, a $20 lowes soldering iron, 60/40 lead solder, solder wick, and Kester brand flux pen #959T.
 
I am actually just going to make sure everything runs for a week without any major errors before sending the boards out to the people who have already signed up for them. These people will be the beta testers, haha.

I am actually have some problems uploading the arduino bootloader to the atmega328-au. I did a few tests and the circuit is fine so its back to google to see what else I can do.

I am able to upload programs to the attiny without any issues.
 
Keep in mind that the components are static sensitive. Wearing a wrist strap is always a good idea.

Looking good,
Mark
 
I am still having issues with programming the chips via the avrisp mkII. I was able to burn the bootloader to the attiny85 chip but now it is returning the wrong signature so I can't program it anymore?

The atmega328au chips first give a wrong signature error than it just says I have the isp connected incorrectly.

I don't really know how to move forward other than trying on a windows machine with avr studios. I ordered the atmega328p-au version that has the same signature as the arduino uno so if I couldn't get these chips to work I'd have them and not have to wait.

Anyone have experience with this?
 
Have you been doing most of the recent programing from you Mac? Let us know when you try the windows machine. I'm planning on doing it all on my mac.
 
DeepSea,

Yes, everything so far has been done on a mac. It may just be that my mac is ready for the trash and needs a new hard drive/dvd driver I am not sure.

Unfortunately the only windows machine in my house is my fathers work computer that I can't go installing tons of stuff on so first i'm going to try on a different mac and see if that helps and if not maybe try to dual boot my mac again for windows and just download avr studios.
 
I have never loaded a boot loader but with that said seems most problems are with the need to add it to the boards.txt also check you tube there is often videos of how-to's
don't know if this helps but cant hurt
 
The strange thing is that the chips that I could program bootloaders for, (atmega328p dip and attiny) it works once or twice and then stops working completely. Its very strange/infuriating.

I also lost my mac this morning to a short power outage which was enough to ruin my external drive with the mac OS partition. So now I have to get a new internal drive installed. :headwally:

In the meantime I downloaded vmware fusion software on a new external mac OS so I can run windows XP with Atmel Studios 6. From what i've read using atmel studios makes everything 100% easier.
 
Controller name

Controller name

How about
My favorite
Calypso was a nymph in Greek mythology also the Goddess of the sea.
Second choice
Salacia she was the female divinity of the sea, worshipped as the goddess of salt water who presided over the depths of the ocean. She was the wife and queen of Neptune, god of the sea and water

Terry
 
Nick, Could you please post the code repository for your sketch again.
I'm sure you did before but I just cant seem to find it.
I think it might help me with a problem I'm having.
Thanks
 
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