Home made Automatic Water Tester

[catweazle0172]

Hello Guys,

Here I want you to show me my homemade automatic water tester.
Its more or les te same idea as the Reefbot.

I used the following parts:
Raspberry Pi 3 as controller
2 Arduinos, 1 for controlling the stepper motors with an CNC Shield, and the other for analysing the color of the liquid in the reactor.
The software on the Raspberry is from Robogardens , but the software is changed a lot because of the other type of controlling and analysing.
On the CNC Shield Arduino is GRBL installed
And on the Analyse Arduino is running IO Rodeo Colorimeter

Aim still bussy with finetuning it, but the KH and Calcium results are almost reliable.
I still need to make an cover, so the light cannot influence the test results and effect the reagents.

If your interesting in the software or you have some feedback, please let me know.

Here are some pictures of the project:

Web interface:

Water Flow:

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Wow!! I'm impressed!!

 

[Hallowhead]

Holy cow ! That's a DIY if I've seen one

 

[GlassMunky]

Need more info.
how "automated" is this? It looks like you still have to manually add the tank sample water? and then i assume you have to discard it yourself as well?
is this doing the titration for you of off the shelf test kits like salifert etc?

 

[SAWFISH]

This looks like an awesome system, thank you for sharing. Any estimate on what all the hardware cost for the system above? I wonder how comparable it is to the reefBot!

 

[gary henkel]

wow. way out of my league

 

[gregor]

Good evening.
Would look at your program files and assembly diagram. If possible, a list of required parts.
Yours faithfully, Grigory.

 

[robbyg]

Really nice job! And I can tell a lot of work went into it. The framework alone must have taken a lot of time. It makes me feel old because 20 years ago I would have jumped right in and been ordering parts to make one. Today I have gotten so lazy that I only build stuff that I absolutely cannot buy.
It's kind of sad that I have lost that zeal for creating something new for the fun of it.

BTW now we need the video of it i operation

 

[catweazle0172]

Need more info.
how "automated" is this? It looks like you still have to manually add the tank sample water? and then i assume you have to discard it yourself as well?
is this doing the titration for you of off the shelf test kits like salifert etc?

Its directly connected to the sump/aquarium and RODI as you can see on the waterflow diagram.
So you don't need to fill/drain it up by hand. This is automatically done with the dosing pumps.
I am using the following tests:
KH - Salifert ( Titration)
Calcium - API ( Titration)
Nitrate - API (Wait an check the collor)
Mg Pro - Red Sea (Titration)
PO4 Pro - Red Sea (Wait an check the collor)
For now the KH and Calcium tests are giving an acceptable result.
The others are going in the right direction but still not accurate enough.

Here is an picture of the result of the KH - Salifert test:

And this is the colorsheet of the PO4 - Red Sea.

This looks like an awesome system, thank you for sharing. Any estimate on what all the hardware cost for the system above? I wonder how comparable it is to the reefBot!

Thanks you! I think the estimate price will be around 350-450 Euro.
I think i'll make an required parts list with the estimate prises.

Good evening.
Would look at your program files and assembly diagram. If possible, a list of required parts.
Yours faithfully, Grigory.

i'll post the software on Github within an few days, but don't expect an nice programmed program, its working but it could be cleaned up.
At this moment I don't have some assembly diagram, but I can make some. because ill make an new PCB in the future.
Aim now using the PCB of the Robogarden, this now only used for 1 stepper controller of the dosing pump, and one switching output for the shaker motor.

Really nice job! And I can tell a lot of work went into it. The framework alone must have taken a lot of time. It makes me feel old because 20 years ago I would have jumped right in and been ordering parts to make one. Today I have gotten so lazy that I only build stuff that I absolutely cannot buy.
It's kind of sad that I have lost that zeal for creating something new for the fun of it.

BTW now we need the video of it i operation

Thanks mate!
The framework is still from the Robogarden AutoTester, but I adjusted it for controlling the 2 arduinos by a Serial connection.
i'll make an video of it, my Gopro is now charging

 

[catweazle0172]

And here is the video:


Result by hand:

 

[robbyg]

Very cool, when will these be ready for production? I would like one for Christmas.
I take it that your servers are here in the USA and fast, It uses all of the Reagents in the bottle not half and the price will not force me to sell one of my kidneys.

Just kidding, wow that is nice. I have been thinking that if GHL and another Entity do not come out with their units these type of devices might be very appealing. If they could be made in kit form and not super expensive I would be interested.

 

[theatrus]

Looks to be a good reimagining of a ReefBot setup - which is great, as I think that design could be improved quite a bit and see some good upgrades here already. Keep up the good work - the more you can share the better!

 

[Brewtoszek]

Really awesome project! Thanks for sharing it! I'll be interested to see how your able to improve accuracy on the other tests. Aside from adding the cover, what are your thoughts on how to do it?

 

[Soulreefer]

Thanks for sharing.. this looks like an awesome system.
I tried to IO Rodeo Colorimeter, but the software is no longer available.

 

[catweazle0172]

Thanks for sharing.. this looks like an awesome system.
I tried to IO Rodeo Colorimeter, but the software is no longer available.

This is what I had in my download folder:

AutomaticWaterTester/IO Rodeo Colorimeter files at main · catweazle0172/AutomaticWaterTester

This is an Automatic Water Tester running on a Raspberry PI and programmed in Python - catweazle0172/AutomaticWaterTester

github.com

 

[Scott Moote]

Love it - what a project!

 

[FangsAndGames]

Same! You should make an article about the finished product! Definitely following this thread.

 

[Greg Gdowski]

Wow... It just goes to show what people with a passion can accomplish. Nice job. I'm a big believer in testing.

 

[catweazle0172]

Thanks all for the nice responses!
Just started with the documentation, so if you're interested, you could build your one, and give feedback to become to a better product.

 

[catweazle0172]

Its a long time ago but here is an new update of my Automatic Water Tester.
There are a few things changed in the meantime.
1. Added an Alkalinity tester with PH Probe in a Jar.
2. Replaced the Relay board with PCA9685 DC motor boards for controlling the DC pumps, DC motors (shakers) and valves. (So now no more clicking noise of the relays, and more controllably)
3. made the machine smaller, so it fits in my tank stand (In a separated space next to my sump)
4. made a 3D printed cable chain to support the wiring while the syringe is moving.

Now the next part is to change the software, to get better readings with the PO4 and NO3 tests.
At this moment the color sensor is using all the 3 colors to measure the result.
I'll change this to a certain color, so the change of a certain color of the test sample should be more visible.

The size of the machine:
Old size: Lenght: 70 Width: 23 Height 40 (cm)
New size: Length: 60 Width: 23 Height: 36 (cm) (Still including all the 13 vails)
Here some pictures of the changes:

Here some pictures of the changes: