The author has long had a desire to automate maintenance of the aquarium. In the global network, he found many different designs of aquacontrollers, but decided to choose the multi-function controller Vitaly Sharapov, who received many flattering reviews and for which there is more than one modification.
Materials:
- Peltier module
- LEDs
- Power Supply
- surge protector housing
- fan
- radiator
- MT-10T7 indicator
- timers
- battery
- resistors R6-R9-R13
- transistors
- thyristors
Description of the operation of the device.
The multifunctional aquacontroller counts real time in hours and minutes. Controls three time loads. It has six timers that can be programmed and they are independent of each other. Each timer is able to control one of the loads, with a resolution of 15 minutes. Measures and changes the water heating every ten seconds with an accuracy of 1 ° C. It has a fan and a Peltier module. Has an indication of turning on and off loads. It allows you to manually adjust the time, and is also able to automatically adjust it to a predetermined value within + - minutes per day. Thanks to the presence of a battery, it can save hours from 2 to 7 days. It also saves all user settings when the power is turned off, in memory independent of mains power, and restores them the next time the network is connected.
Description of the assembly process of the device.
Step one: gather the necessary details.
Below is a diagram of the controller, which he took as the basis for his development:
To begin with, the author collected all the necessary details that will be used to create a multifunctional aquarium controller.
Step Two: Create a device processor board.
The processor board was fully assembled according to the original scheme and repeats the design of the sample controller board. There are small changes, but they are not fundamental.
Step three: continue assembly of the device and work on the indicator.
When designing and assembling the device, the author walked on from the available parts, so the whole structure was quite cheapened. Therefore, the cheapest MT-10T7 indicator was purchased. For the cheapness of parts, you have to pay with obvious disadvantages of convenience, one of these disadvantages is that it is difficult to display letters with just seven segments.
After assembly, the indicator circuit was redone so that it was powered not from the battery, but from the network.In this case, the author was guided by the idea of increasing the duration of the possible power supply of microcontrollers by turning off the main power of the device, and there is no point in feeding the indicator in this case. Thus, the indicator will work exclusively from the network, and when the device switches to battery power, there is no indication. Since the author had already soldered the board by the time of choosing such a solution, he decided to make new tracks by wall mounting. It turned out not very beautiful, but the main thing works, because the author did not develop a printed version of the board for implementing such a connection.
This is the location of the modified installation:
As a result, the following version of the scheme of the aquarium controller was obtained, slightly different from the original scheme of the exemplary device:
Fourth step: power unit board.
And here is the circuit diagram of the power supply board:
And so it looks already in the assembled state:
The battery will be used as a backup power source, so the author installed a resistor R6. The author chose other resistors from R9 to R13 based on the need to install an aquarium controller device for the design of his power block.
Step Five: Install the parts in the housing.
As a shell for the whole e Stuffing, the author chose a case from an old broken line filter, simply because one was available.
In this device, there is no need to use a load of 220 V more than 150 watts, so the author decided to install thyristors without radiators.
For most of the aquarium devices, this will be even more than enough. Radiators are also absent on transistors that control the load of 12 V, so the load on the channels of 12 volts should not be more powerful than 2 W, taking into account the existing transformer and other factors. To power the fan, which cools the device, as well as ensure the operation of the LEDs, such power should be enough.
However, the author nevertheless installed one radiator, this only radiator was installed on Krenka, but it serves more for safety than for real needs.
In this form, the timer is able to control the operation of lighting in the aquarium, and in the meantime, the author continues to work on the body of the controller device.
Summarizing.
In general, during the assembly, the author did not notice any serious problems or errors. In the process of operation and active use of the device, no problems were also identified, which indicates high-quality circuits of the device. True, there was a slight hitch with the mismatch of the indicator holes on the board with the holes on the indicator itself, the discrepancy was about 0.5-1 mm. This blot was solved with the help of a file, since the place was quite disposed to similar work.
The device itself turned out to be very universal, thanks to the available six timers, automation of the process of caring for the aquarium is close to ideal. The entire design of the controller is easy to understand and assemble, so repeating it is quite simple with some skills and desire.