Creating the Dream Aquarium with an Arduino, shared on the Adafruit Forums:
So, I am throwing my hat into the Arduino total tank build, and I will try and document as much of my journey as possible here. I have tinkered around with the Arduino in the past, but have never attempted anything of this complexity. I have zero real world programming experience, but enjoy reading sites like hackaday, lifehacker, and such. What I’m saying here is that my code will look pathetically amateurish and possibly unreadable if viewed by a professional…
So, the goals of my personal build will be:
- Autodosing
- Keeping track of the fert levels and alarming if they become low (I am rather forgetful and would like a warning)
- Keeping my light schedule
- Controlling CO2 solenoid
- Scheduling an auxiliary RGB strip, as I will shamelessly steal from AnotherHobby Fallen Tree Branch 60cm
- The aux RGB strip will have sunrise, sunset, and moonlight as AnotherHobby has, ideally
- Writing all of the alarm times to the DS1307 RAM, in case of a power outage (Unnecessary, but what the heck, why not?)
- Keeping track of tank temp and cutting power to the tank heater in case of an issue
- Anything else that I don’t need but would like to try and implement
Thus far, my current build consists of:
- SainSmart Arduino Mega 2560 (Knockoff from Amazon for like $28)
- Sparkfun DS1307 RTC
- Adafruit 20×4 LCD display
- Adafruit 10K Precision Epoxy Thermistor
- Small piezo buzzer for alarms
- Assorted buttons, resistors, transistors to make it all work
…
March 29th is Arduino Day 2014! Arduino day is “a worldwide event bringing together Arduino people and projects. It’s 24 hours full of events – both official and independent, anywhere around the world – where people interested in Arduino can meet, share their experiences, and learn more.” Adafruit will be celebrating with 24 hours of Arduino posts on our blog as well as a special Saturday night LIVE show with Massimo Banzi, co-founder and CEO of Arduino. Join us Saturday, March 29th at 7 PM EST to celebrate Arduino Day 2014! Be sure to check out our extensive learning system tutorials on Arduino as well as our Arduino blog coverage and products.