Aquarium Controller - Custom PCB - 2x Arduino Mega - MySensors - Domoticz

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:

1. 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 ..