Aquarium Controller - Custom PCB - 2x Arduino Mega - MySensors - Domoticz
3 min read
I always enjoy the view of my aquarium ( still after more then 10 Years)
But 1 thing about this hobby I never liked…
And that is monitoring the water and the actual weekly water changes.
Last year I noticed the project MySensors over @ https://mysensors.org because I was playing around with my home automation system ( https://domoticz.com)
And suddenly the idea came to create an Aquarium Controller based on the MySensors Project and Controlled by Domoticz. I started ordering all sorts of components from E-bay to play around with and build a little setup that is able to control my LED Strips / the High Power(10W) Leds / and monitor the temperature of the water and the surroundings.(ph and TurbiditySensor are on its way)
On the picture ( it’s probably hard to see because of the cable mess) are 3 small arduino’s
- Monitoring Temp
- controlling Relais ( for 12V PWM LED Drivers)
- Controlling Fans ( pwm)
That is to build a custom PCB where I can fit on 2 Arduino Mega’s to control and monitor the majority of the aquarium ( Changing water will be a sepperate PCB - And I still need to figure out the waterpipes I need to create for that.)
Next I downloaded Fritzing and started playing around with the components until i had a nice PCB that I could use ( This process took me about a month.)
What’s all on the board?
- 2x RGB control
- 4x PWM Fan Control and FanSpeed Monitoring
- Turbidity sensor input
- PH-Probe Sensor input
- OneWire ( Temp.)
- 8x Relais Controls
- ATX PSU Control
- Connection for backup power 5v( small powerbank ) - just in case the power goes out one of the arduino's would still keep running.
- 3x Volt meters ( 12v / 5v / 5vStandby)
Issues to resolve before the board can be created:
- I should somehow be able to control the LED drivers over PWM but I'm still working on that part since the driver requires a 12V PWM signal and the arduino send a 5V PWM signal it won't work. gotta find something for that ..