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Comment by Michael M. Moore on April 18, 2013 at 7:44am

I am not a programmer but I did look into some measurement probes for the arduino's (constant use) so some of the hardware is out there.  For an Android app. (or web based) my wish list would be to look at captured data (charts and detail data) and web cam.  Some form of alert would be nice if something got out of limits or failed (ie: temperature, pH, pumps, power).  On temperatures, assuming greenhouse, what would be nice is outside, inside, and fish tank temperature.  I am assuming some kind of internet link (WIFI, NIC).  A couple of cheap web cams for a  a couple of views would be nice too, show & tell from a tablet would be outstanding.

Just some wish list thoughts.

Mike

Comment by Jim Fisk on March 29, 2013 at 9:18am

What can I say, I love Ebay. I sell a lot and buy a lot. I just purchased a $4K (new) Zerox Phaser 2 sided printing tabloid 2 second per sheet color printer that sells right now on Amazon for 1200.00 for 49.95 with toner and all and works perfectly. Drove to DC to pick it up as I know what the shippers do to these but well worth the trip. I could write a short book on how to buy and sell on there. #1 rule of thumb: look for a sale, on the item you are after, that ends on Sat. between noon and 3. I call it the steal-it hours. Never have an auction end during that time as a seller obviously. There is no one bidding at that time unless they are using an automatic bidder "sniper" program like I do

By the way I lied. It was 45.00

Comment by Frank De Block-Burij (hygicell) on March 29, 2013 at 6:45am

a DO meter at 40 bucks? Would like to know about that

Comment by Jim Fisk on March 29, 2013 at 5:58am

I believe they have their own heater and are designed to work at very high temps in a gas. Not sure how that would adapt to AP.

I pu a very nice DO meter off ebay fairly cheap (around 40 bucks as I recall) about 4 mos. ago and have yet to try it. I think DO is the least of my problems though as I run plenty of air. Now if we could just get out of the 20's here before Summer I might get out that DO meter and check a few things just to see how it works.

My first 2 automatic fish feeders go online today. The Trout are ravenous and don't like to wait for me. This is about the look they give me.Here's a pic of the prototype:

I'll take some pics of the finished units in place today. They have evolved.

Comment by Frank De Block-Burij (hygicell) on March 29, 2013 at 2:24am

almost every car has an oxygen sensor to adjust fuel mixture. These come very cheap. Has anyone thought of trying to adapt one of these to monitor DO?

Comment by Jim Fisk on March 27, 2013 at 8:16am

I pu a Mitsubishi 20-MR PLC mounted on a power supply/relay (3) board. Anyone have experience with these? 12 in and 8 out. PU the software since for the pc so I will start laying out a program soon to control fans, vents, woodstove, and system alarms, etc. Otherwise I am sticking to flood and drain siphons. Have a few things to get done around here first however

Comment by Iowa Aquaponics on March 15, 2013 at 12:42pm

We've created a series of tutorials with some of these features using the Arduino and Google's cloud infrastructure.

Online Temperature and Humidity

Real-Time Graphing Online

Online Relay Control

Comment by David Schwinghamer on February 17, 2013 at 3:12pm

Does anyone here know how to use a parallax board to control devices such as lights, fans and motors?

Comment by Jim Fisk on December 12, 2012 at 12:24pm

This comment wall is looking so lonely since Feb I thought I'd add my simple cheap monitoring methods. Not as fancy as I buttons which are kicking around here somewhere as I used to mon temps on my remote outdoor boiler with them on a pc but very handy none the less. I have been purchasing dig indoor/out gauges off Ebay for around 7.00 delivered and use 3, one for trout ibc temp and 2 for the wood stove water in and out of the hw coil temps:

At these prices I may take one (or 3) apart and replace the internal sensor with another remote sensor so one unit can monitor the in and out woodstove water temps for example.

Also I use a SkyScan in our living rm and bedrm to monitor the remote GH temps and that has been great. I sync both to the same outdoor remote and then place the remote sender in the GH. Now I know when to go start the woodstove even in the middle of the night if I have to.: (hint: I placed the sender on a steel shelf bracket in the GH which seems to have boosted the signal strength considerably. It came in stronger than the ones right on the front porch. Yeah, I have about 6 of these, some very old and still working perfectly. DON'T USE DURACELL as they leak and ruin your electronics. Been seeing it over and over)

I also purchase these wonderful and easy to program Ranco digital t-stats off Ebay rather cheap for controlling the draft blower on the woodstove, the gh power vent, etc. They can be easily programmed to heat or cool. The differential can be set all the way down to 1 degree F. This one is controlling the GH woodstove:

So there's my 2 cents worth

Comment by Rik Kretzinger on September 8, 2012 at 9:36am

@jim - This is a good list. It has all the ones I like and use also in the Bay Area of California.

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