My Neptune Apex web interface compatible DIY reef controller

I ordered a ton of theses to build my leak detector circuit (10 with grid on bottom and 10 with grid on top) :) my tank will be so safe!
74ba4c6bb75a10b3ee7e5e5f4aaef316.jpg
 
Foggman said:
if someone can find a schematic i can make up some prototype boards to see if i can get it working
Click to expand...

Well if I have time here at some point I could dig into something. I don't think we have to do the exact same circuit as atlas, but the main thing would be to program a micro controller that would accept and respond to the same commands as an atlas or at least the ones that are used in this project. The guts of say the PH measurement or whatever circuit could be anything we choose.
 
ok d0ughb0y if you hopefully reading this.

So I did the firebug thing and finally got it so I could get it to act like I was remote connection through my work VPN so I could get it to fail. So I am getting an parser error in the code on line 2855 in status.json. Maybe it isn't retrying enough times? Every once in a while it does seem to work.

EDIT I guess that is line technically line 2855 in index.html but it said something about status.json for what that is worth.
 
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geekengineer said:
Oh.. lol thats too bad. Wonder if anyone sells used Atlas stamps but I haven't seen many. lol Maybe we should build atlas clones. :)
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At 1 time when I was still doing my build I seen someone of ebay selling complete Atlas conductivity kits for ~$100. Stamp and probe. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), I never pulled the trigger.
 
chucklez said:
At 1 time when I was still doing my build I seen someone of ebay selling complete Atlas conductivity kits for ~$100. Stamp and probe. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), I never pulled the trigger.
Click to expand...

unfortunately there is never enough of them around when you need one. :)
 
geekengineer said:
Well if I have time here at some point I could dig into something. I don't think we have to do the exact same circuit as atlas, but the main thing would be to program a micro controller that would accept and respond to the same commands as an atlas or at least the ones that are used in this project. The guts of say the PH measurement or whatever circuit could be anything we choose.
Click to expand...

i did a quick google search to see if i could find the schematic for the atlas stamps or something similar but i couldnt. i dont know enough about circuits to make one from scratch, but give me a schematic and i can get a board together for testing just as quick as i can get the parts
 
Foggman said:
i did a quick google search to see if i could find the schematic for the atlas stamps or something similar but i couldnt. i dont know enough about circuits to make one from scratch, but give me a schematic and i can get a board together for testing just as quick as i can get the parts
Click to expand...

Would you be willing to make something to test out? I could put something together fairly easily I just don't know how well it work of course. :)

EDIT I just want to make sure you understand that this isn't something that may be something I personally tested.
 
Ok this is what I was thinking of and this is a fairly simple circuit. However the parts might not be ideal for you if you want through hole. In this data sheet below there is a PH circuit in there that I bet is roughly close to what Atlas uses. I presume they either don't use the precision resistor or they use a surface mount version. They may likely do the temperature compensation in software.

http://cds.linear.com/docs/en/datasheet/60789fa.pdf

I was looking at one of the old atlas PH circuits I have and they use this op-amp instead. It does have a through hole DIP version if that be preferable.

http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tlc2262.pdf

The new one I can't figure out what it is since it has SMT markings but it is a very tiny part and would have to be baked on likely anyhow.

if you need a better package option for a voltage reference than the LCT part I can look around and find one but it does look like it has a through hole version for that one.

Would we you rather have surface mount eventually?

So the other piece would be the processor to use? ideally it would be a very small one that has a, ADC, serial, and I2C interface. I use TI MSP430 because that is what I just got into, but there are other options. I think Atlas uses a Microchip PIC which I am not familiar with how to use them.
 
im not good at reading data sheets, what one on the sparkywidgets page were you looking at i think there is a couple schematics on there i can do through hole or surface mount. for the most part if i can make it on eagle than i can etch a board for it. i did make one PH board when i first started this build but i never used it because it wouldnt work the coding so i scratched it
 
Sorry I was busy tonight and didn't get on till late.. :)

Ok actually This did have a link in there to a newer version sparky put out there that is more what I be looking for. I would start out with just PH and we go from there lol. My thinking would be start out with that. Someone else has a good EC circuit already going in different thread. So you think we should start up a different thread for this project? BTW

https://github.com/SparkysWidgets/MinipHHW

So This schematic is for using the aurdinio to do the PH calculations and just reading it over the I2C bus. Think that would work? It would require code changes is the issue.
 
Wow that is the first time I have seen an i2c ph on that site, I wonder how hard it would be to adjust the coding to work because the price is a lot better than the atlas stamp, I might have to get one and play around with it
 
geekengineer said:
ok d0ughb0y if you hopefully reading this.

So I did the firebug thing and finally got it so I could get it to act like I was remote connection through my work VPN so I could get it to fail. So I am getting an parser error in the code on line 2855 in status.json. Maybe it isn't retrying enough times? Every once in a while it does seem to work.

EDIT I guess that is line technically line 2855 in index.html but it said something about status.json for what that is worth.
Click to expand...

line 2855 is console.log command. In firebug, one of the tabs there is console, and you can print out debug messages there using console.log command. What do you see in the console window? did you get a parse error or connect error alert?
 
chauvet project started out using sparky's ph circuit. It only has the analog out before and that caused a lot of problems. I think the current ph circuit has improved quite a lot with the i2c interface, but the board is almost always on backorder. You can try to build it yourself, but I think your total cost will be way more than buying it for $18, but then again, it is usually not available.

think of it this way, atlas is $38, sparky is $18, for $20 difference, you don't have to write new code.
 
d0ughb0y said:
chauvet project started out using sparky's ph circuit. It only has the analog out before and that caused a lot of problems. I think the current ph circuit has improved quite a lot with the i2c interface, but the board is almost always on back-order. You can try to build it yourself, but I think your total cost will be way more than buying it for $18, but then again, it is usually not available.

think of it this way, atlas is $38, sparky is $18, for $20 difference, you don't have to write new code.
Click to expand...

Sort of remember feeling like I got raped on shipping so by the time I was done it was like almost $50 just for a PH circuit. (Maybe I'm just spoiled on Amizon prime. lol) But yeah. Could do something cheaper than sparky he did overdo a bit I think compared to what Atlas does and it has a processor. But yeah it be easier to add a small CPU to the mix and then you wouldn't have to do the processing of the PH/ORP/EC values etc. Then the plus is it is it would be transparent to your code.

EDIT: Other thing I don't like about then is I don't like dealing with companies that don't give me a tracking number and I have no idea when they ship out. As far as I know I never get any information from Atlas. Which I don't know if that Sparky guy is any better which is likely the case for all I know.
 
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