Open Source Aquarium Control system

[in-dubio]

Not sure if this post belongs here or to the DIY forum. Anyway:

For the last couple of years I have been developing my own automation system for my marine fish tank.
I would like to publish the software now.

The main features include:

• Refill control for fresh water
• Data acquisition of temperature, pH, conductivity
• Data acquisition of ambient temperature and humidity
• Temperature control using ventilation fans and heater
• Automatic feeder
• Balling mineral dosing

The main control runs on a Raspberry Pi 4. The relay actuation is done via an Arduino-based unit called "Controllino" (but the SW also allows direct actuation of GPIO).

You can control the system using a website running on the Raspberry Pi itself.
I also developed and published mobile apps for Android and iOS.
All of your data stays on your devices. There is NO cloud involved.

The complete SW is published as open source (MIT license).

For the water measurement (temperature, pH, conductivity) the system uses sensors from Atlas Scientific.
For temperature measurement, there is also an option to use less expensive DS18B20 sensors.

The system also allows recording ambient conditions (temperature, humidity) using DHT11 sensor.

Tank level is measured using the a simple level sensor connected to the GPIO of the Raspberry Pi.

The hardware setup requires some electric/electronic handling skills: Relays, fuses, power supplies...
A friend of mine is developing a PCB to make all of that easier.
Since this is not my strong point, I hesitate to publish a complete instruction set. I would rather prefer someone else in the community picking up on that...

I setup a demo server: http://vps2483992.servdiscount-customer.com/
user: demo
password: demo

The documentation is hosted there as well: http://217.79.180.177/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page

What do you think about the project?
If you are interested, feel free to reach out to me here or via private message. I will gladly assist anyone who is interested in commissioning the system.

Regards,
Uwe Martin

 

[Subsea]

Welcome to r2r. You are in the right forum, however, you may consider this forum as well: happy reefing.

Reef Hobbyist Experiments and Research Forum

A place where reef hobbyists can conduct, collaborate on, and discuss experiments and research to benefit reefing. These might include but are not limited to: 1) Microbiology experiments - including cycling, 2) Product experiments., 3) Quarantine experiments., 4. Theories based on new trends in...

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“The complete SW is published as open source (MIT license).“

Have you patented your platform network. In this context, what does open source mean.

I have been addicted for 55 years and as an “old school” reefer, I run everything on manual with “Dynamic Equilibrium”. However, I am interested in following along.

Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[in-dubio]

Dear Patrick,

Thanks for your reply.
I did not file for any patent. I am inventor of two (unrelated) patents and therefore I have some experience about the process. It is expensive, takes huge amounts of time and sometimes yields no benefits.

Open source in this context means that:
- Anybody can download, copy, use, modify or even re-publish the software.

Regards,
Uwe

 

[Subsea]

Dear Patrick,

Thanks for your reply.
I did not file for any patent. I am inventor of two (unrelated) patents and therefore I have some experience about the process. It is expensive, takes huge amounts of time and sometimes yields no benefits.

Open source in this context means that:
- Anybody can download, copy, use, modify or even re-publish the software.

Regards,
Uwe

Uwe,
I salute your endeavor to share your expertise.

As a subsea engineer in charge of BOP (Blow Out Preventor) maintenance & operations used in deep water drilling, I worked with instrument & electronic technicians. In my day, we used PLC (Programmed Logic Controllers) to make changes in the field, instead of proprietary chips.

If I understand your terminology, your open source architecture allows for changes by the end user. So I am interested as a spectator.

 

[Tlovely]

Not sure if this post belongs here or to the DIY forum. Anyway:

For the last couple of years I have been developing my own automation system for my marine fish tank.
I would like to publish the software now.

The main features include:

• Refill control for fresh water
• Data acquisition of temperature, pH, conductivity
• Data acquisition of ambient temperature and humidity
• Temperature control using ventilation fans and heater
• Automatic feeder
• Balling mineral dosing

The main control runs on a Raspberry Pi 4. The relay actuation is done via an Arduino-based unit called "Controllino" (but the SW also allows direct actuation of GPIO).

You can control the system using a website running on the Raspberry Pi itself.
I also developed and published mobile apps for Android and iOS.
All of your data stays on your devices. There is NO cloud involved.

The complete SW is published as open source (MIT license).

For the water measurement (temperature, pH, conductivity) the system uses sensors from Atlas Scientific.
For temperature measurement, there is also an option to use less expensive DS18B20 sensors.

The system also allows recording ambient conditions (temperature, humidity) using DHT11 sensor.

Tank level is measured using the a simple level sensor connected to the GPIO of the Raspberry Pi.

The hardware setup requires some electric/electronic handling skills: Relays, fuses, power supplies...
A friend of mine is developing a PCB to make all of that easier.
Since this is not my strong point, I hesitate to publish a complete instruction set. I would rather prefer someone else in the community picking up on that...

I setup a demo server: http://vps2483992.servdiscount-customer.com/
user: demo
password: demo

The documentation is hosted there as well: http://217.79.180.177/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page

What do you think about the project?
If you are interested, feel free to reach out to me here or via private message. I will gladly assist anyone who is interested in commissioning the system.

Regards,
Uwe Martin

I love open source and the DIY hardware. I've been thinking about this topic of awhile and I'm starting to think maybe the reef community leverage the home automation open-source community better. It feels like we keep reinventing the wheel. The strength of open source is the number of contributors makes a better end product. like i said I just started to look into this, so I have no experience and only limited visibility, but home assistant seems very mature, and I think someone has already built reef assistant on top of it. I haven't checked but I suspect it can run on your raspberry pi. then there is the reef Pi. As someone who has gone into the bowl of my private lab way too many times, I never come out worse for the effort. Typically, the project wasn't worth the effort but the things I learned.... well you just can't put a price on that.

 

[NeedAReef]

nice and clean! I would encourage you to post to github or similar instead of where ever you are currently or some similar code repository as well as to use an ssl certificate like the let's encrypt ones perhaps. It is too easy for a bad actor to slip something in and ruin your work as well as anyone helping or using it. Sorry my security mindset comes into play too often.
You could also sign your code with a cert but that is expensive for a hobby project however it would make this more smooth for installs and devices in the long run.

Like I said my security mind gets in the way a lot.

 

[in-dubio]

Dear Reefers,
thanks for your initial feedback.

I need to clarify one thing: The current SW works only with the EZO type sensors from AtlasScientific.
The OEM type sensors from AtlasScientific are much cheaper but require some more sophisticated assembly.
We are working on a PCB combining several functionality and allowing the integration of the OEM type sensors.

In parallel to the PCB, we will also work on a simplified assembly instruction for the complete cabinet.

I will keep posting updates on the progress of the development.

Regards,
Uwe

 

[in-dubio]

Two updates:
1. I put the PCB into productive operation - see attached video. The updated software is pushed to the repo as well.
2. I wrote a set of requirements for the hardware of the control cabinet:

Control cabinet - Aquarium-Control

217.79.180.177

Regards,
Uwe