My first system...and blog post

[Kevin Mahoney]

This is my first blog of hopefully many more to come. I'm in the process of designing a DIY system in my garage out of industrial shelves and 55-gallon plastic barrels. My initial goal was to create a sustainable garden that can feed my family year round, but, it has become much more than that. The more people I talk to the more I discover that Aquaponics may just become the next food revolution. 

I own my own Embedded Product Development business. As I look for solutions to monitor, control and automate my Aquaponic system, I have only found a few talented tech savvy DIY'ers that have designed and built one-offs. As a result, I have begun dedicating some of my business resources to developing the technology to automate the control and monitoring of small-scale Aquaponic systems. I welcome any and all input from the community!!

[Kevin Mahoney]

Thanks David! Cool website.

[David Smiley]

I ran across this that might help with some ideas.

https://www.cooking-hacks.com/documentation/tutorials/open-aquarium...

[Kevin Mahoney]

Pieter, I completely agree. The PH and dissolved oxygen sensors are quite pricey. For someone on a budget building a system of this size, it wouldn't make sense to include those. My intent is to use this aquaponics system to development the control and monitoring technology, and maybe grow some food along the way for my family! By making the technology modular, the end user can decide the level of investment and therefore automation they are comfortable with relative to the parameters of their system.

[Pieter Swanevelder]

I'm just curious about the cost vs aquaponic system size. Some of these probes cost a few pennies.

[Kevin Mahoney]

I am looking for feedback on which parameters are the most critical so that I can prioritize, but so far from my research, the list of parameters to monitor includes temperature, PH, and dissolved oxygen of the water, ambient light sensors, temperature and carbon dioxide levels of the ambient air, flow rate meters and flood / drain cycle times. And for control, the list includes heaters, pumps, grow lights, food dispensers, and a system for adjusting PH balance. I want to design a system that is able to monitor its power consumption so in addition to all the other parameters, that data can be used to optimize the system and make it more energy efficient.

[Pieter Swanevelder]

Hi Kevin

What parameters are you thinking to monitor and control?

Regards,