Home made aquarium driver

[Vermes]

This useful aquarium driver controls heating, light, ventilation and fertilization in the aquarium.

Features of the light „mode”:

• day main light
• night light
• dawn
• twilight

The driver also controls the right temperature, measures pH of water and decides about CO2 fertilization based on that. It also ventilates the interior under the cover without allowing water condensation, etc.

Presented device was based on processor Atmega32. Software was written in Bascom AVR.

PCB looks like that:

One-sided with soldermask and elements description.

Mounted PCB:

The PCB was adapted to Z1A Kradex housing. Drill the necessary holes for LEDs in the housing, LED display, keyboard and connectors in the back, using a thin drill on line of marked edge of the hole, breaking unnecessary elements and smoothing with file. Round holes with a large diameter are made by special feather drills for wood. Below pictures present housing cut using CNC.

A print of inkjet printer on a normal paper, which after cutting a hole for LCD was then lamianted. Holes for LEDs should be cut and the whole mask glued to the housing panel using a double-sided adhesive tape.

The device looks like that:

Features of the driver:

• 24-hour clock with battery back-up
• temperature control and kept with an accuracy up to 0,1 degrees Celsius, set separately for day and night
• possibility of temperature sensor correction manual control
• control over the duration of the main lighting – by default, two groups of lamps (fluorescent or metal halide) – you can set 4 groups using the outputs of timers
• possibility of forced, manual switching any light group at any time, day or night
• night (twilight) lighting control with a function of dawn (smooth brightening and darkening)
• 2 additional programmable outputs of any purposes of devices that are operated for a defined time in the circadian cycle, such as aerator
• pH measurement with a resolution of 0,01 dpH in range of 4:9 or 7:9 dpH
• CO2 high-pressure cylinder valve control based on the pH measurement
• automatic callibration process of pH measurement probe in buffers 4/7 or 7/9
• HQI lamps protection against starting hot
• measurement of quantity of CO2 based on water
• control over cover fans in function of water temperature (preventing water condensation on the cover)
• possibility to actualize system software by user, using „PC-Skalar” cable (LPT port extention)

Link to original thread (useful attachment) – Sterownik do akwarium