Well, Before RC banned me, I had been following and building their Hydra reef controller... VERY flexible and expandable, built in web interface, can interface an infra-red remote control to it so you don't even have to go over to the tank to switch things on/off, modify params etc. Uses any standard PH probe, and the temp probes are pretty common as well.
Total for parts and the board ran under $100 bucks, and about 4 hours of assembly time for me, an experienced electronics tech.
It's been sitting gathering dust, as you all probably know, I sold my equipment last October due to a forced move to a tiny place.
Finally decided to finish it today.
the way this one is programmed it is set up to dim/control 2 banks of blue LED's and 2 banks of White LED's. Monitor temp and PH, has a web page you can go to for monitoring OR controlling/modifying settings. Pretty powerful. Has 2 CPU's, a real time clock with a battery to keep time if the power dies. VERY expandable... you can control up to 64 devices, and have up to 16 inputs from sensors/switches. Software is public domain and fairly easy to modify/write (Atmel AVR based on the Arduino boards).
Total for parts and the board ran under $100 bucks, and about 4 hours of assembly time for me, an experienced electronics tech.
It's been sitting gathering dust, as you all probably know, I sold my equipment last October due to a forced move to a tiny place.
Finally decided to finish it today.
the way this one is programmed it is set up to dim/control 2 banks of blue LED's and 2 banks of White LED's. Monitor temp and PH, has a web page you can go to for monitoring OR controlling/modifying settings. Pretty powerful. Has 2 CPU's, a real time clock with a battery to keep time if the power dies. VERY expandable... you can control up to 64 devices, and have up to 16 inputs from sensors/switches. Software is public domain and fairly easy to modify/write (Atmel AVR based on the Arduino boards).
