Pond monitoring system idea

[CarpCharacin]

I've been thinking about building a monitoring system for my 1500 gallon goldfish/koi pond for a few years now, but I haven't worked on it. I still need to come up with a more detailed plan of exactly what I want it to do and how to make it happen, but it's something that I'm thinking about trying at least. With my pond, there aren't really things that need to be "controlled" per se, like for example heaters or lights on an aquarium, so I'd like to focus more on the monitoring/logging aspect. Thoughts?

 

[CarpCharacin]

I found some software that may work: https://reef-pi.github.io/
I know it was built with saltwater tanks in mind, but it appears to be fairly modular, and it looks like it has the monitoring/logging capabilities that I need. I might pick up a pi zero just to test it and see if it would work for my purposes.

 

[backyard pigeons]

Sounds like a good idea! keep us updated please!

 

[CarpCharacin]

My WiFi doesn't reach the pond, and I'll need to connect the Raspberry Pi to the internet, but I think I found a workaround that will hopefully function in order to get internet out there.

A long time ago, when I was 8, I ran electricity out to the detached garage that previously had no power. The pond runs off the garage power, and the garage is ran off the same circuit breaker box as the house, so I'm thinking I'll use one of those powerline Ethernet adapters from inside the house to send the Ethernet signal over the electrical line. It works by transmitting the signal at a frequency very different from that of the AC power, at about 2-86 megahertz as opposed to the 50-60 hertz frequency of the alternating current. I just hope that there isn't too much signal degradation. I don't need super fast internet out there anyway, as I just need to upload telemetry, and be able to access the admin interface from my computer inside of the house.

I was thinking I'd use a Raspberry Pi Zero, but I'm thinking I'll probably just spend the extra money on a regular Pi 3, as it has an Ethernet port, and I don't want to take up GPIO for an Ethernet port that would be needed for the pH and temperature probes. I'm planning on getting a pH sensor from Atlas Scientific, and I'm going to use a DS18B20 temperature probe.

So far, planning this project has been easier than I initially thought it would be, so hopefully it won't be too hard to put together.

 

[CarpCharacin]

@casportpony don't you have something similar to monitor the temperature of your incubators?

 

[casportpony]

@casportpony don't you have something similar to monitor the temperature of your incubators?

We have a Raspberry Pi and a bunch of wired and wireless sensors.

 

[casportpony]

@CarpCharacin, do you know about places like https://www.digikey.com/ and https://www.mouser.com/?

 

[CarpCharacin]

@CarpCharacin, do you know about places like https://www.digikey.com/ and https://www.mouser.com/?

Yeah, I ordered some SMD resistors and mosfets from Mouser 4 or 5 years ago.

 

[casportpony]

Yeah, I ordered some SMD resistors and mosfets from Mouser 4 or 5 years ago.

Oh good!

 

[CarpCharacin]

Oh good!

I never actually ended up finishing the project that they were for
I was trying to build a soldering station that would drive a Weller fine tip, because the Weller ones were expensive, and I didn't have a soldering station with temperature control at the time, just a soldering iron, and therein lied the problem. I guess I was just being an idiot. I kept frying surface mount components and lifting traces, which was a shame, since I had to special order the PCBs. I ended up just getting a Hakko soldering station with temperature control.