Something Electronic For A Fish Tank?

[CluelessScot]

Interesting idea... let me think about that

 

[piper]

Thanks for the heads up but i think doing the project on a hobby will motivate me more as in doing something which will be a bit of a pain...

Kev

You will be very motivated, thats the big plus I got from doing mine. And motivation = top grade

 

[prios]

why not take something like the eclipse hood idea and incorporate all those suggestions into it somehow. like add liquid crystal guages for all the different readings to the front of it or something. the world's greatest tank top! then lemme know when you're done and i'll buy it...lol

 

[CluelessScot]

Thanks for the heads up but i think doing the project on a hobby will motivate me more as in doing something which will be a bit of a pain...

Kev

You will be very motivated, thats the big plus I got from doing mine. And motivation = top grade

And top grade mean weee for meee
There are 4 outcomes to this class,
1 - Mini Report (Give details of customer req's, why's, Solutions ect)
2 - Finding Stuff (Circuit diagrams, schmatics pics, how to built type of things written)
3 - Buildng it (order parts, Built, Test, find out its not working, Order replacements, test, yay it works)
4 - Big Report (The bugger thats like 300pages which needs data sheets and all info on everything )

Im about to start outcome 3 on teusday... only had the class once and its spread out every teusday till june lol So making something related to a hobby does motivate me Once im finished to outcome 3 like built it and tested to see if it works ill add some pics of the thing "fingers crossed" working and some of my mimi report.

why not take something like the eclipse hood idea and incorporate all those suggestions into it somehow. like add liquid crystal guages for all the different readings to the front of it or something. the world's greatest tank top! then lemme know when you're done and i'll buy it...lol

Ive never heard of that befor but ill have a look at it cos i think i may have a little extra time on my hands... Cheers

Kev

 

[Matty]

..wow, alot of good ideas, here's mine. Design a thermostat the doesnt rely on a bimetallic strip to operate. We've all had a bad heater experience in which the heater sticks, heating the tank beyond safe levels. If there could be a new system, that is cheap, small and more reliable, i think not only would it sell in aquarium heaters, but it would have many applications in other industries.

 

[daza]

Hi CluelessScot,

How is the course and project going?

Do you have any programming skills? With mechatronics, if you can prove programming skills in a project then it could be useful if for example, you went for a job in robotics (design/maintaining/commissioning, etc). It is all about logic.

A project relating to a hobby is a good idea because it gives you plenty of motivation to do a good job, but if possible then try and show other uses for the device in your report and put an industrial spin on the project.

I did an ONC project once, it was a box which accepted analogue inputs from process control instrumentation. The inputs could connect to pH, conductivity, temperature, redox, anything that used the 4-20mA standard (instruments not the sensors). I wrote a bit of software which displayed the readings on a computer. It was a simple data aquasition device. I was working for a company that made instrumentation for analysing chemicals at the time so it was ideal but it (or something similar) could quite feasibly be used in this hobby.

Controlling LEDs would require a digital output (i.e. a constant voltage that is on or off). A water level controller would require a digital input (i.e. send a current out through the level switch and detect it returning when the switch closes) but the valve(s) which it would control would require digital outputs (assuming they are solenoid valves), and they could be the same digital outputs (check voltage though) as the one which controls the LEDs (so you get your LEDs and put a more complex use in to the report).

You could perhaps provide an analogue output and control a positional valve to vary, and not just shut off, the water flow. You could then analyse and talk indepth in the report about the valve (stepper motor) intself as well as your circuit. Again, in the report talk about how the valves use the same type of stepper motors that are used in a variety of other things such as robotics, which are controlled in the same way.

There would need to be a way of programming the logic inside to say for example - this digital output is being used to control LEDs so must be permanently on, or comes on at this time and off at that (but then you need a real time clock too), where as the valve would be activated depending upon the state of the level switch input.

How easy you could make the logic to the user would depend on your programming skills. But you could make it a black box, with dedicated inputs and outputs and no user adjustment of logic or preset variables (i.e. water level, time, etc).

I've mentioned robotics a lot, but that's what I mainly think of with mechatronics.
Good luck with it all!

 

[CluelessScot]

Sounds very interesting.

Mechatronics is a pain in the ass as it only lets us know limited parts to each skill, like 20% elctrical, 20% computing, 20% mechanical and 40% electronic...

I have done quite a bit of programming and it was hell lol but a lecturer suggested using PLC's (programable logic contollers) which would make like easier. Also im doing a class atm which is all about Micro-processing chips and micro-controllers, but im not to sure on using them for my project.

I could make life easy and just disign and buid a digital thermometer but nah lol, Class has been moved to a thursday so this week was a bit of a mess turning up on the wrong day... doh. ive submitted some of my small report to check for the go ahead to make it. Cant wait

Ill keep you all posted.

Kev