PiAWC - An Open-Source AWC Device Based on Raspberry Pi

[chipmunkofdoom2]

I'd like to share a project I've been working on with the community. It's called PiAWC. It's an auto water change device that does one thing and does it well: change water on a schedule or manually. The software is open source and is available on Gitlab. The brains of the operation is a Raspberry Pi. It's written in ASP.Net Core and accessible via web browsers on mobile devices, PCs and Macs. The pumps and relays are all commodity parts and are interchangeable with virtually any other similar part.

The estimated cost of the project is about $200 if you have nothing already. Obviously if you already have some Raspberry Pi or maker stuff, it'll be cheaper. I chose to go all-out and get exactly what I want for this build in terms of pumps and connectors, so your actual cost could be lower if you choose parts differently. You could also probably go with cheaper pumps or find tubing/connectors cheaper locally.

While the code is complete and works, I'm still working on building the first physical prototype. The code is still very much in beta and is "use at your own risk." Having said that, preliminary testing with only the relay boards seems to work as expected.

I have all the parts I need except a project box. I hope to measure out the space needed and order one this weekend. I'll update this post to show how I put mine together once I have all the parts.

Let me know if there are any questions.

The home page. Has controls for setting the pump pins, calibrating, and running manually to purge any air in the tubing. Also shows the next scheduled change.

Shows editing the water change schedule.

The calibration screen. Includes instructions on how to calibrate the pumps.

The main menu, collapsed by default on mobile. Lets you view the schedule, perform an adhoc water change immediately, or view the system log.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Here are the parts I've acquired so far. From left to right, on top there's the 12VDC adapter, 2 relay module, and Raspberry Pi. On the bottom, the 12V to 5V converter for the Pi and the pumps.

It looks like the total space needed is about 6.5"L x 5"W. If anybody has any good sources for project boxes, let me know. It's tough to find a lot in this size range. They're either a lot bigger than I need (10"+) or too small.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Well, it looks like I couldn't find any project boxes that were a reasonable size. The 7-8" x 4.75" size is really really close, but when you consider usable space, they were too small. I've decided to go this 10"x 7" x 3.4". It's bigger and more expensive than I wanted, but it will do.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

The project box arrived over the weekend. As expected, it's enormous and there's a lot of extra space. On the plus side, I have room for two terminal blocks. I had originally left them out of the design to try to make the device fit in a smaller project box, but since there's extra space now I can include them to clean up the wiring a bit.

 

[Stephen2]

Really like the project
Shame it cant run on piZero

but wil try it out. Everything looks great and easy to use

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Really like the project
Shame it cant run on piZero

but wil try it out. Everything looks great and easy to use

Yeah I was really bummed to learn that ASP.Net Core doesn't support Pi Zeros. I actually bought a Pi Zero specifically for this project.

Thanks for the complement, let me know if you have any feedback or if you need any help setting it up.

 

[Mr.Koo]

I really like this project
I also made awc with Arduino and am using it now. Does this work well without errors? My pump sometimes goes wrong, so I'm trying to change the program.