grafting geekery
Brian L. Naylor
I'm slowly preparing to set up my first reef tank, and being more
of a computer geek than a fish geek, I'm interested in automating
various things with my computer. I already have the lights on all
my tanks controlled from cron with X10 modules, and intend to do
the same thing with a homemade wanna-be peristaltic pump for
nutrient/trace element dosing.
I'd also like to monitor pH/temp/nitrogen compounds/ORP (and graph
them over time, etc..) What I'm having trouble with is finding
suitable test equipment for this. Things like the AquaController
(http://www.neptunesys.com/products.shtml) are overkill. Not only
do they cost a lot, but they remove the need for any sort of
hackery and thus half of the fun.
All I really want is a set of probes that have an RS232 serial
interface. No bells, no whistles. I've perused countless
chemistry-instrument pages and they either sell the cheap
monitors with built-in LCD readouts and that's it, or the
big industrial-strength $40k BMonitorFH contraptions.
Any suggestions, or am I just wasting my time?
--
Brian Naylor br...@sackheads.org
"We are of different species. You and I cannot cross-breed."
-- Brandon Franklin to Kim's cat (hmm)
Richard J. Sexton
In article <slrn6kpdog.nq...@penfold.sackheads.org>,
Brian L. Naylor <brian+...@sackheads.org> wrote:
>
>I'm slowly preparing to set up my first reef tank, and being more
>of a computer geek than a fish geek, I'm interested in automating
>various things with my computer. I already have the lights on all
>my tanks controlled from cron with X10 modules, and intend to do
>the same thing with a homemade wanna-be peristaltic pump for
>nutrient/trace element dosing.
>
>I'd also like to monitor pH/temp/nitrogen compounds/ORP (and graph
>them over time, etc..) What I'm having trouble with is finding
>suitable test equipment for this. Things like the AquaController
>(http://www.neptunesys.com/products.shtml) are overkill. Not only
>do they cost a lot, but they remove the need for any sort of
>hackery and thus half of the fun.
>
>All I really want is a set of probes that have an RS232 serial
>interface. No bells, no whistles. I've perused countless
>chemistry-instrument pages and they either sell the cheap
>monitors with built-in LCD readouts and that's it, or the
>big industrial-strength $40k BMonitorFH contraptions.
>
>Any suggestions, or am I just wasting my time?
>
I've been wanting to do this for about 15 years, too.I don't
think you're gonna find NO3 probes with RS232 ports, the best
you can hoep for is NO3 electircal probes and get some HW geek
to wrap wires for you.
If you ask me there is a market for something like this, the marine
segment of the hobby is the only group with any money.
TFH recently did a reader survey and the freshwater peopel
said "less ads" and the marine folk said "more ads".
--
Richard Sexton 28...@mbz.org Bannockburn, Ontario, Canada
1970 280SE, 1972 280SE http://www.mbz.org
Brian L. Naylor
And on 3 May 1998 17:45:02 -0400, Richard J. Sexton (e) came down
from on high, and said:
>
>I've been wanting to do this for about 15 years, too.I don't
>think you're gonna find NO3 probes with RS232 ports, the best
>you can hoep for is NO3 electircal probes and get some HW geek
>to wrap wires for you.
*sigh* Thanks, I was starting to get this impression. Luckily,
I do know lots of HW geeks, so we'll see..
>If you ask me there is a market for something like this, the marine
>segment of the hobby is the only group with any money.
Or, in some cases, the marine segment are the folk -without- money
because they've blown it all on silly contraptions and expensive
animals, while the freshwater types save their pennies for other
things. <g>
That sort of device doesn't seem like it would be that much of a leap
for Neptune; they're aquarium-oriented and they've already put out
something that does all this and much more; a trimmed-down version
doesn't strike me as being too big a deal. Then again, perhaps they
think everyone will buy the monitor-only version and DIY the rest,
which is exactly what I want to do. Hmmm.. Plans within plans..
--
Brian Naylor br...@sackheads.org
A society without religion is like a crazed psychopath without a loaded .45