Marine Aquarium lighting controller plus temp display

[raptorbasher]

Hi Everyone,

I have completed my project to build a multi channel lighting timer/dimmer for a new marine aquarium that I hope to set up soon. The commercial items are quite expensive so I thought I would have a go myself.

I have three independant channels, with separate on and off trigger times, an adjustable fade time and a temperature display added for an accurate water temp.

I bought a second hand all in one tank that had been converted to LED lighting ( albeit in a crude fashion but there was no controller or timer...) so there is an 'aquabeam' tile that has 10 x 3 watt leds, ( 7 ultra white, 3 blue ) on channel 1, driven at 700mA. to help with even lighting I have added another 4 x 1 watt whites on channel 2 at 350mA and 4 x 1 watt blues on channel 3 also at 350mA. The third channel has a minimum level that leaves the moonlight shining at night.

I am using a salvaged LCD 2 x 20 display, a picaxe sheild kit with 28x2 on board, the LCD serial module and a few LED drivers. I fitted the RTC and backup batt onthe protosheild that came in the kit. Fitted it in a maplin project box, milled out the front and back panels with my homebrew CNC mill. The power supply is a donated Dell laptop supply so it is a safe consumer grade item, with more than enough current for all LED's on full power at 19.5 volts. I have DC barrel connectors on the back for the channel outputs, 3.5mm jacks for programming the sheild and the LCD driver and a 3.5 mm jack for the remote temp sensor ( potted in a small test tube ) a small switched mode PSU module regulates the supply down to suit the picaxe bits. Finally I printed out a front panel using OHP films for inkjet and using two layers back to back its a deep black with text showing through. The LCD shines through and looks okay.

Here is the code if anyone is interested, probably a billion better ways to do it but it works and I really enjoyed the process!

Things I would like to improve or add...

Timing of button inputs...It works as is but could be better.
adjustment of moonlight level via menu ( ran out of variables )
a nice blue display!
animated characters always look nice to me so hell why not
use the temp sensor to control the ventilation fan over the water...

Thanks for looking.

Tim

 

[raptorbasher]

wow really you have done good job. can you share your project material with me. i want to see your project report.

Hi Ananthapriya,

There is no other material for this project other than what you see on this thread, all out of my thoughts I'm afraid!

Was there anything in particular you wanted information on though?

This was a very much home brewed thing.

Regards

Tim

 

[westaust55]

wow really you have done good job. can you share your project material with me. i want to see your project report.

Unless a project is school/college or commercial related I would not envisage that most folk prepare a report on their project.
Most here post their code, often a schematic and a few photos.

As raptorbasher indicates, if you have specific question they be may be able to help.
But you cannot expect an entire project documented for you to clone.

@raptorbasher,
Well done on your aquarium lighting project.
Thanks for sharing your code. It will no doubt be useful for others interested in lighting related projects be they aquarium, model railway or other.

 

[DanielH]

Hi
First off, well done on the lighting driver and timer, something ive been wanting to do for ages.
Can i ask what LED drivers you used? Also do you have a wiring diagram or schematic that sets out what you have done?
Im very new to this side of things so im struggling with the code, trying to slowly work through what you have done to understand how to compete my tank timer.

Thanks
Daniel

 

[DanielH]

Sorry also forgot to ask;
What shield has the RTC and temp sensor in its KIT? i cannot seem to find it.

 

[raptorbasher]

Hi Daniel,
I used a couple of the meanwel drivers from led-tech.de. reasonable pricing and small but do not need heatsinking.

I don't have any diagrams, but from the code it should be easy to figure out what goes where...

I used the proto sheild to get the rtc and battery fixed so there wasn't a special sheild used, but I have seen arduino sheilds that are ready made with rtc and battery, google it and you should get something back...and the temp sensor was made by sealing off a glass tube to make a small test tube style probe that had the sensor rtv'd in the bottom so it would be saltwater proof...

Regards

Tim

 

[DanielH]

Gday Tim

Thanks i checked the drivers out, i have some PWM controlled buck converters sitting around that i might use for the drivers, just have to work out the current draw of the leds they should be enough though..
Have another question if not too much trouble for you....

The fade delay you have in your code, What exactly can the time duration of the fade be ? i dont quite understand the code well enough to work out what the maximum delay in minutes can be? Im sure its very easy and looking at me in the face but like i said im very much new to this side of things.
Also what is the PWM frequency range that is output? The buck supplies i have accept between 100 and 300Hz
Thanks
Daniel