Custom Aquarium controller - ‘ Malawi-Pi’

[Jamesthecat]

N.b the red border on the panel is the red Electro luminescent strip

 

[Jamesthecat]

13th November 2020

Forgot to put in what I’m doing with the jumble of power cable.

There will be a custom switch panel like below - this is in case I need to switch things off outside of the timers etc.

And ive managed to win this - its an APC rack mounted PDU ( 24 gang!!!)

Ill need to convert the plugs on all the equipment as well. This will be mounted behind the tank on the wall out of sight

 

[Jamesthecat]

Switch panel ordered - manual control of the equipment when needed in the style below.. looks pretty cool

 

[PheonixKingZ]

This is awesome! Definitely following.

 

[Jamesthecat]

This is awesome! Definitely following.

Thanks mate. I’m actually making the panel myself but ordered the bits to do it, just watching some vids on how to do the back lit letters.

edit - mmmm painted Perspex with the letters scratched off with LEDs behind it.!

 

[Jamesthecat]

Had a minor change of plan due to me acquiring a free mini stick pc. So I’ll be using that as the main controller.

Tomorrow is the STC 1000 / neon tubes & pc mounting...

 

[Jamesthecat]

Sunday 15th November update

Had a sleepy day yesterday so woke up today with some parcels on my bed.

The STC 1000
A funky little keyboard for the mini pc
And a new multi tool as mine was battered and frankly a bit dangerous.

So today I’ll wire up the STC , get the pc working and start labelling the power cables

 

[Jamesthecat]

End of night update 15th November 2020

Spent pretty much the entire day cutting off plugs and adding in longer wires so they would all reach under the cabinet. Still a few to do but happy I’ve done a lot.

Stained the panel and mounted the STC 1000 and the mini pc bits and bobs. Tomorrow will be continuing with the cabling and mounting the neon tubing as a border.

Under the iPad will be the switch panel I’m wiring up tomorrow, there led backlight switches and I’ll make some sort of mounting panel out of wood and wrap in vinyl.

Ive got some fancy German extension cables coming Tuesday that are a weird purple colour so should match the neon tube and they will go under the switches


Hopefully now you can get a bit more of an idea of what it will look like and where it’s all going..

 

[Jamesthecat]

16th November 2020 Update

Eventually managed to get all the rewiring done, but there in lies a cautionary tale.

Id spent the day extended the cable length of 15 pieces of equipment got myself in a real muddle and basically wired a plug from the mains straight into the 5ft LEDs which it turns out are rated at 12v..

1 big pop later and I’m left with the Fluval prism by itself. Managed to get another 5ft led of Shpock for £40 so panic over

STC 1000 Is all wired and working, plugs all hidden away, switch panel nearly done and managed to get a screen from a broken laptop to use as the display.

Getting there!

 

[Jamesthecat]

Final job tonight once ive had a quick gaming session is to sort out Logmein or a RDC for the mini pc so i can log in from my ipad

 

[Jamesthecat]

Started the live dashboard, this is what will be on the monitor on the panel under the tank and can be cast to the big tv, just need to wire in the probes now!

 

[Jamesthecat]

And just got the text alerts working before bed!