Help with automatic weir squeegee design

[Formulator]

Ok I went back to the drawing board and realized I was overcomplicating things with the linear actuator. I can use a scotch yoke to do what I need with a single direction rotary motor!

 

[Troylee]

To help folks visualize the weir, its purpose and the problem:

Looks like a ton of hair algae, not chateo.. I’d clean that tank out! Scraping the weir is gonna spread it everywhere else.. sorry I’m still of no help on your weir wiper.. I’ll move on now..

 

[Formulator]

Looks like a ton of hair algae, not chateo.. I’d clean that tank out! Scraping the weir is gonna spread it everywhere else.. sorry I’m still of no help on your weir wiper.. I’ll move on now..

Yes I have a hair algae problem at the moment. Already in the DT. There is plenty of chaeto in there too, but the hair algae is the biggest culprit of my clogging weir. I just picked up a pincushion urchin. He is acclimating as we speak

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Ok I went back to the drawing board and realized I was overcomplicating things with the linear actuator. I can use a scotch yoke to do what I need with a single direction rotary motor!

As I was reading through, this is exactly along the lines of what I was thanking.

It would be fairly easy to use a stand alone unit that would operate 1 full revolution at whatever interval you want.

This is a fun solution to tinker with.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Better refugium maintenance. You are complicating the issue.

If you insist then the simplest setup is wiring the motor leads through limit switches, one on each end. You bridge the switches with suitable diodes. When the switch opens the bridge diode allows conduction in the opposite direction, reversing the motor.

Not where I can draw the circuit. For higher current motors a relay could be used to reverse polarity.

Both very simple circuits that you can search google for.

Also horizontal over lip of weir is what you want not vertical on back of weir.

Still…. Better refuge maintenance and/or different ATO thresholds if that little of a change is throwing off salinity.

 

[Idech]

I have tons of hair algae in my refugium, just like you. And a weir, too. Since I put an urchin in there, I was able to double my light duration because it eats the algae more than it grows.

Before that I would put buckets of algae out.

Just an idea. Also, in my refugium, running a squeegee on the sides does not unclog the weir. I need to run a cleaning pipette in and out of every hole.

 

[Formulator]

Better refugium maintenance. You are complicating the issue.

If you insist then the simplest setup is wiring the motor leads through limit switches, one on each end. You bridge the switches with suitable diodes. When the switch opens the bridge diode allows conduction in the opposite direction, reversing the motor.

Not where I can draw the circuit. For higher current motors a relay could be used to reverse polarity.

Both very simple circuits that you can search google for.

Still…. Better refuge maintenance and/or different ATO thresholds if that little of a change is throwing off salinity.

The weirs clog within a day or less and I’d rather not have to clean them multiple times/day. Yes, perhaps the issue will resolve itself when I get the hair algae under control, but I’m already half way down the rabbit hole with this idea and I want to see if it will work. I think I’m going to go with the yoke design instead of forward/reverse actuation.

 

[BeanAnimal]

The weirs clog within a day or less and I’d rather not have to clean them multiple times/day. Yes, perhaps the issue will resolve itself when I get the hair algae under control, but I’m already half way down the rabbit hole with this idea and I want to see if it will work. I think I’m going to go with the yoke design instead of forward/reverse actuation.

The weir should be solid with a lip… an “over” baffle, not a toothed weir. You will not build enough algae to change water level. Place vertical egg crate an inch or so from it to prevent the cheato from going over. Cut section out of egg crate to make large holes if you want. Or skip it and put a small power head in push macro back away from the weir.

For that matter just stuff an egg crate grill in there to get some space and get the light off of the existing weir.

Ohh and empty that thing and clean it and put macro back in. You won’t need to do any of this.

There are a dozen ways to easily fix this without the complication.

Use a better design instead building a Rube Goldberg to compensate for it.

 

[Formulator]

The weir should be solid with a lip… an “over” baffle, not a toothed weir. You will not build enough algae to change water level. Place vertical egg crate an inch or so from it to prevent the cheato from going over. Cut section out of egg crate to make large holes if you want. Or skip it and put a small power head in push macro back away from the weir.

There are a dozen ways to fix this without the complication.

Use a better design instead building a Rube Goldberg to compensate for it.

Fine. I will cut my weir. I thought of all the things you suggested, but I enjoy tinkering and thought it was a fun project. Its not a rube goldbergh. Its a dc motor and a shower squeegee. I thought this was the right place to discuss things like this.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Fine. I will cut my weir. I thought of all the things you suggested, but I enjoy tinkering and thought it was a fun project. Its not a rube goldbergh. Its a dc motor and a shower squeegee. I thought this was the right place to discuss things like this.

I enjoy tinkering too when it make sense. Rube Goldberg in context to complication that does nothing. It can’t clean in between the teeth without even more modification, etc.

I wouldn’t cut it. I would simply block the teeth with a strip of something and put up the egg crate barrier and get the light pointed back toward then macro, not the weir. I would also clean it out fully and put the macro only back in.

Do what makes you happy. Just offering advice on easy ways to solve the issue. Plenty of cooler thing to use an actuator on.

 

[Formulator]

I wouldn’t cut it. I would simply block the teeth with a strip of something and put up the egg crate barrier and get the light pointed back toward then macro, not the weir.

I like this. The light you see hanging is not used. I have an LED bar and submersible tunze light over the center that you can’t see. The hanging light is a remnant of a failed prior attempt to grow a mangrove at the end of the fuge. I just never took it down…

 

[yury88]

I need help with the electronics piece.

Nothing to develop here, H-Bridge used for these purpose, connect 2 control wires from your Apex and GND and write a script.
Or use arduino with 10 lines sketch