Glass !

Big thanks to wonderful neighbors Fred and his nephew Phil for helping get the glass tank out of the garage and into its new home.  No one lost fingers and hopefully no injuries.   Progress is going to be real slow now thanks to life getting in the way.  I’ve sketched out skimmer baskets in SketchUP and am going to get a friend with a CNC router to cut them out for me as soon as I can go get some appropriate dark plexi.

Skimmers on filter inlets

I had researched some filter plans and various pumps etc, but money will not be available for this project for a little while.  But at least garage space has been reclaimed and a little universal entropy has been fought off.

Back panel

Had to disassemble some, took the base and hood frames back into the garage, and welded odd tabs to hold the various electrics in place.  Will probably end up taking the base apart again to weld in more tabs for the plumbing.  Anyways; here is the back panel which will have a power jack, and an ethernet jack.  The power and the ethernet cables run through the grey pvc conduit, just for safety.

The brains.

Here is the computer and the various control bits.  Ended up mounting it a bit differently.  I had to order a custom sized USB cable after being unable to source one locally.  Its not in the photo yet.  The computer control AC relay unit is inside the left grey box.  I made a shroud for the fans to vent out the back, instead of blowing all the wonderful humid air onto the computer parts.

Ruh roh

Jason at sourceselect built a custom linux for me.  Based on opensuse, unfortunately it didn’t care to boot up for me off the livecd.  The little computer sure is finicky.  I installed Archlinux in a VM on my mac, and started working on the control software, pretty confident it would install and boot on the little box, but no dice.  I ended up settling for Zenwalk core linux, it installs and runs without issue, however even the core version has X installed and a bunch of other fluff I’m not interested in.  So I’m still searching for a suitable host OS.  I wrote a simple little program in C that gets run via cron job every 5 minutes.  It reads a temperature sensor in the hood and turns the fans on or off, as well as turning the lights on or off depending on the time.  I’m working on a nicer standalone daemon, but that’s for another day.

She lives !

Here it is plugged into the wall, and the network.  It works with no sparks !  My only concern is the fans are somewhat ineffective if the hood isn’t closed up with wood.  Its a bit like trying to blow out a candle 3 meters away.  I don’t care how big your lungs are, it ain’t happening unless I give you a 3 meter straw to blow through.  Still waiting on custom USB cable to arrive to finish up the wiring and making things all tidy.

At this point, I’m thinking about the wood finishing and the plumbing.  I have a contact for a woodworker from a friend, so will be contact with him in the next few weeks.  Thanks to the new ride, I have to put off the fancy filter and pumps; I do still have an Eheim canister filter from the old setup, so will be using that meantime.  Next immediate step is to make some room in the garage, clean up the tank and carry it inside and into the stand.  Did I mention its 1/2 inch thick glass ? Yep very heavy.  Fun fun.

I’ve been looking for a little while for various reasons.  Today ( last night ) that long search ended, and I ended up with a new whip in the driveway.  So let me introduce you to them.

1994 Civic Si

This is/was my current ride.  The EG Civic SI.  Pound for pound this is the most fun I’ve ever had driving.  My only gripe is the front wheel drive.  The engine (d16z6) and the short geared 5speed are just a joy to work with at mortal law abiding speeds.  The car has been dropped 2 3/4 inches with race springs, upgraded brake pads, some sticky rubbers, full stainless exhaust.  It is a street legal go-kart.  This car will now be up for sale, if you are interested send me an email.

1997 BMW 740i

This is the new ride.  Its a big bigger, has 2 more doors, 4 more cylinders, and probably a lot more safer for me.  The list of goodies inside is endless.  Heated steering wheel ? got it.  Voice activated rear seat Martini mixer ? got it.  Insider stock trading secrets twitter feed ? got it.  I’ve loved the styling on these cars forever.  Certain BMW’s are at the pinnacle of esthetics in my opinion.  The E30 M3, the E46 M3, and the E34 M5 all achieved that status for me, as well as the E38 short wheelbase models.  This was the car chosen for the original Transporter movie.  Its a bit larger, and probably a lot safer for me to drive around in.  Everytime I found a corner in the civic,  I was fighting urges to test G-Force limits that maybe only jet pilots knew.  This car has no need to test every corner one comes in contact with, although when it needs to go, it certainly will.  I’m a bit too giddy at the moment to offer up a worthy commentary on this ride, maybe in the near future.

As a really special note; I’d like to thank my friends, Adam and Dorian for helping me in this acquisition.  The perma-grin cemented on my face at the moment is dedicated to them.  Thanks guys :)

Laying out the control board

So just a quick synopsis of the current situation as I’ve been lazy with updates lately.  I gave up trying to source a nice thermostat to control my cooling fans.  The problem was all line voltage thermostats are for triggering heaters, not cooling systems.  Cooling thermostats were typically using a 24v system, and were getting up close to 200$ in cost.  Although from the specifications it was unclear weather or not I could create a small buffer to avoid rapidly switching on and off the fans if the temperature was hovering around the switching point.  So started exploring the second option, which was to utilize my ambiguous mini computer that had been doing nothing for far too long.

Originally I had hoped to use the mini computer for an in-car setup, but that concept was having a hard time getting any traction at this time.  In order to get the mini computer to jive, I had to source out some sensor and control kits.  After a few days of intense googling; came across phidgets.com and ordered a temperature sensor, the usb interface board, and a relay module to toggle a pair of wall outlets.  With all the hardware in hand, I can now fully mockup how I’d like the electronics to sit and deal with all the necessary remaining holes, welding tabs, and visits to Home Depot for any fastening type pieces.   One of the big pluses of using the mini computer, is that adding a webcam in the future should be no big thing ;)

So part of the purpose of this post is to layout my intentions in a clear way and to refer to peoples as I solicit for help on a few matters.  My first contention is the operating system.  I’m a freebsd guy, but this mini computer does nothing but kernel panic, sad times.  I’ve tried installing gentoo on it, however even a x-less gentoo install is needlessly large, and takes forever to bootup ( sorry gentoo guys ).  For the record my mini-computer is running with 1gb RAM and an 8GB compact flash card as its hard drive.  My wishful criteria for a candidate operating system would have to accomidate :

• Fast bootup, low idle overhead
• Allow for remote terminal via sshd
• Allow for logging of the phidgets sensor data
• Provide a lightweight httpd to allow access of webcam feed, and graphs for phidgets sensor data logs
• Run a custom implementation of the phidgets control software ( see below )

The second issue will be dealing with the software to control the phidgets hardware.  They have documentation and API’s available for various languages, the two candidates would be C/C++ and Python.  At this point I’m thinking a C variant program running as a daemon with a simple config file would be ideal.  However it is one I’d need to rely on someone else to write for me, although I could probably learn it quick enough.  The Python option looks like something I could jump into again.  A simple script that would run every 5 minutes scheduled via Cron for instance.  However this just isn’t as elegant as the C route; I won’t claim to understand Python at this time, however loading up the Python runtime every 5 minutes to read a temperature sensor and toggle a relay just seems a bit overkill.  Anyways for the sake of having it on here, my imagined config file would probably look something like:

# aquarium pc control file
# /usr/local/etc/tank_control
#
# relay1 is used to toggle cooling fans
# relay2 is used to toggle lighting

port_temp_sensor = 1
port_temp_relay_sensor = 2
port_temp_relay_control = 2

port_lighting_relay_senor = 3
port_lighting_relay_control = 3

temp_sensor_onTemp = 25
temp_sensor_offTemp = 23

lighting_onTime = 0700
lighting_offTime = 2100

temp_sensor_log = /var/log/tank_temp.log
temp_sensor_log_interval = 5

The phidgets interface has a few I/O ports on it, which might allow me to add various environmental sensor to measure things like water pH and CO2 levels, but for now, temperature is good enough.  Hopefully this post should give a better idea what my intentions / wishes are at the present regarding the software.  Any help with this will be greatly appreciated, rest assured you will be shamelessly immortalized in this blog series :)

Meantime I will continue to mockup, measure, and mount all the hardware.  More pictures should be coming soon in the next couple days, getting closer !

Hood makes an appearance.

So finished drilling up and painting the frame for the hood, and moved it indoors.  Also attached in this photo is the railing that will hold the plexi reflectors and the lights.  Lots of little trips to Home Depot for various screws and fasteners etc.

Hood detail.

This is how I’m holding up the plexi glass.

Read for wiring.

Here is the hood with about 250$ worth of plexi attached ( grrrr ), and the fans in place.  Ready for wiring now.  The plexi solution isn’t cheap.  I’m not going to mention the store Industrial Plastics where I got the plexi from, but I’m never going there again.  They quoted me about 47$ to have the two little side pieces cut.  Figured ok seems a lot, but I gave them some precise measurements to cut.  Not only did it take them a week longer than they said it would be ready, but when it came time to pick it up they wanted to charge me $150 for it, ( settled for less in the end ).  The three long strips that make the reflecting surface were 120$.  Absolutely crazy.  So if you happen to walk into Industrial Plastics in Richmond and there is a chubby, cocky, quick talking, turd behind the counter, turn around and walk out.

Time to do some electrical hookups now.  I have the timer and some of the other stuff needed, but still missing the thermostat control for the fans.

Rigging up hood hardware.

So basically been waiting for the metal store to get in some more metal in order to continue.  Needed to create the rails that will support the lighting, as well as the reflectors in the aquarium hood.  The interior railing is removable via 6 small bolts, and will hold the lights and the reflecting surfaces.

Shopping

While was waiting for metal, bought some parts that will be used.   Once I got the fans, I was able to draft out and order the side plexiglass pieces that will bookend the inner hood area with the lights.  One of the sides will also hold the fans.  The fans are some nice low noise units that will inaudible in a quiet room.  There is also a nice digital timer unit for the lights.  I have some ideas how this will all go together, but going to wait until the hood in place before any work continues.

I’ve also got some ideas how to build filters using 3″ abs plumbing.  But this needs more research,  I have an Ehiem canister filter that will handle duty meantime.  Ideally I’d like to run plumbing to underneath the tank where I can have the media filters, the UV filters, and maybe even a water heater, too keep as much clutter out of the actual tank as possible.

Our Lights

So after about an hour and a half walking up and down the same three isles in home depot.  And after about 100$ CDN, I emerged with this setup.  It should be plenty wattage ( rated at about 600watts, but I severely doubt it ) 6700K, 82 CRI bulbs, which should grow our plants and make the colours look nice and pretty.  Spent the evening drawing up some designs about how to run them in the hood, how to rig up all the mounting and hardware.  Thinking about using 3 strips of white plexi inside as reflectors.  Monday will need to visit the metal store yet again.

Test fitting

Been a few days since any posts, but there has been progress.  The main frame has had the welds cleaned up, and has been painted.  With flat black tremclad ofcourse.  Moved it inside to free up some room in the garage to work on finishing and painting of the hood.  Bought the wood for the shelf pieces.  Also bought the hinge and handle hardware for the cabinet doors.  Checked out some plumbing hardware; I’m thinking of building my own filters.  Need to source some quality, leak-free quick release joins from somewhere.  Will also need to research what type of lighting will end up using, and ventilation.  Going to try keep the word-working down to a minimum, as I don’t much enjoy working with wood.

Lining up the hood

I had this idea of having the pivot point for the hood at the very back edge, using these hinges with one arm longer than the other.  You can’t see it very well in this image.  The hinges were duty, non-disassemble-able, so bolted one end to the main frame, and welded the long arms to the hood frame.

Closed hood

Used vise-grips to mock up some strut positions.  This is using the gas-strut I had lying around from a Honda Civic Hatchback.  trying to find an ideal position to support the hood when open ( with all the eventual weight ) and have decent feel while opening/closing.

Open hood

This shows strut holding hood in the eventual open position.  Looks good … nope.  I boxed in the hood at the point where the shock would be mounted, rigged it up again, and it just wasn’t right.  First; the strut wasn’t going to be strong enough, and this mounting position meant the initial opening was difficult, middle part of motion was smooth, and fully open it probably wouldn’t support the full weight.  Another issue was the hinges were flexing.  I fully welded the hinges to the hood frame as I thought that would solve things, but nope.  So off it came.  Went to the wrecker, picked up a matching set of gas struts off of a Mazda MPV minivan rear door ( much more pressure, little less travel ).  Went to Home Depot and got some standard door hinges.  Cut and ground off the old hinges, tried some mockups, and tacked on the new hinges of which there are now 5 in total, rather than 3 before.  When mocked up the hood no longer flexes under the pressure of the gas strut.  However, will need to be creative when it comes to covering everything with wood.  The hinge ensures there will be some sort of gap in the top wood piece.

New hinges and strut

Need to grind a small notch in the frame to clear the strut when the hood is closed, otherwise this part is getting closer to completion.

Main frame nearly completed

Just before welding on the final piece.  Off of the workhorses now.  You can see the glass tank in behind, on my old wooden stand, as well as some the mess in the garage.

Constructing the hood frame

Back on the workhorses now.  I’m building the hood frame out of 1 x 1 x 1/8 inch steel,  its a bit flimsy, but once boxed in with wood it will be more than solid enough.  Went to home depot and found some Stanley door hinges which should be heavy duty enough and the right size.  Also looked at cabinet hinges; might have some candidates there as well.  Its coming along, just need to grind down some of the welds, paint it up, assemble it and the frame will be done.  Still not sure how to deal with propping up the hood open.  I have a gas strut from a civic hatchback, as well as a spring/shock combo from my brother’s moped.  Once its hinged up will play around with ways of doing it.