Tank Controller

[ro_nicu]

Any interest in building some tank controllers?
I've been compiling a list of useful docs / webpages and will start building soon. If anybody is interested I can share the progress.
I plan on going Arduino but might still consider the beagleboard. If you have a homebrew controller please let me know - I am interested in your experience.

 

[Flame Angel]

You might want to try attending this months meeting.

http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?137301

 

[ro_nicu]

i'm planning to but it's a little out of the way, it would be different if it would be summer and one could go hang on the beach either before or after, ...
in fact I am leaning towards an arduino 2560. hopefully I make it there and see what people have to say about it.

So far I have the board, the lcd shield (lcd was broken during shipping; the touch does not work), the rtc, a couple of circuits on the breadboard and a bunch of open source code from the internet, most of it relevant to my project. I do plan to run just the lights for starters and than see how it goes.

 

[johntan]

Check out my old posts I did this and put up nice friendly PDF diagrams for each step, temp LEDs ato and the code. Currently I am developing a new system which is a raspberry pi using the arduino as a slave device to run my office fishtank!

 

[ro_nicu]

Are you developing it already or just in the planing states? reason for asking is I can still switch the direction of the build without sacrificing too much. I was actually considering the beagleboard but doubt that 8 outputs will suffice for a full blown controller. Linking a pi with an arduino brings this well over my current comfort zone.

 

[johntan]

The arduino only controller has been running since July 2011, the pi arduino duo has been running three weeks. Both haven't failed me yet, I consider anything younger than three months 'in development' hah

 

[ro_nicu]

any chance you could share your build experience with the pi - arduino?

 

[johntan]

The arduino build I documented start to finish, I have not yet documented the ENTIRE Pi process. If you're fairly technical and can setup up a pi on your own, the basic outline of what to do is at https://github.com/johntan/rpicontroller.

The code is pretty well commented with little notes on how to test it. I will be giving a short presentation at the next meeting too!

 

[ro_nicu]

NICE!!!; I will try to attend.

Do you think a PI is preferable to a beagle board? Reason for asking is that the beagle has some PWM outputs to begin with.

 

[johntan]

I haven't used the beaglebone board but I would guess it's just preference. I like the pi because even with an arduino nano it's cheaper haha.

The arduino outputs at 5v too which neither the Pi nor the beagle do, and all the relays I use want 5-24v dc to activate. Again probably just preference, you could get a transistor for every pin on the beagle or pi GPIO and pair it with an additional power supply. I just try to keep it as cheap and simple as possible.