Commercial arduino based scrubbers

[Pulse]

I have been considering building scrubbers commercially for a while now and it seems like the way to go is to jump straight to the chase and build programmable scrubbers that can control their own lighting and potentially other parameters such as main tank lighting, feeding, dosing, etc. An easy and somewhat established was of doing this is to integrate an arduino board into the PCB for the scrubbers. This board would have some kind of simple user interface allowing you to modify basic functions such as scrubber light intensity and duration, and more advanced users would be able to program much more advanced features.

I would like to gauge the interest for an arduino based scrubber. While this is clearly the future of ATS I am unsure whether the market can support such a project. The components for arduino would not add much to the price of the finished product but it would increase the R&D investment significantly so I need to see a strong demand for such a smart scrubber before that extra investment would be worth while. In other words, if I made them who would want one?

[kotlec]

I have something similar running for 2 years already. Must say arduino only replaces one adittional timer and saves few bux . Arduino was build to control main light intentionally, but now controls tank temperature, led heatsink temperature and replaces all possible timers one can need for his tank. ATS is may be max 5% of arduinos ocupancy only.
I can't imagine more functions related to scruber, but may be someone will.

[Floyd R Turbo]

If you look at SM's availability schedule, he updated it a few month back and added this

Technology #8, Embodiment #1

The first electronic control for an algae scrubber. Waterfall and upflow. Perfect for manufacturers that are good with electronics, especially microcontrollers. Impossible to DIY. Almost impossible for DIY Resellers; is for manufacturers only. Monitors progress of scrubber and makes real-time adjustments to maximize filtering.

So I think he has the jump on you here.

[Floyd R Turbo]

As far as programmability of the lighting function goes - I'm all over that

[kaskiles]

It seems like you would want to provide more features than just on/off light timing on the ATS:
-on/off timer
-PWM(blink vs. current) LED dimming
-tunze silence 1073 controllable feed pump (waterfall)
-light detecting diode for screen cleaning (light just one side and measure the light coming through the other)

[Floyd R Turbo]

Again, I think SM is headed this direction.

[Pulse]

The future will definately see the reef controller based out of the scrubber.

[Pulse]

The set-up I had in mind would probably have an alphanumeric LCD display and some buttons that could be used to set basic parameters such as light timing, intensity, and fade. It would also have extra power regulation and PWM channels so that it could be used to control your main tank light, pumps, moonlight, heater, CO2/ Kalk, salinity, etc. More advanced users could add functions easily by making new sketches (arduino programs) allowing them to control more complex equipment. An external USB port would make flashing these sketches easy. At the minimum you would have a scrubber with a built in timer and with a little bit of tinkering you could make it control your whole reef, for the same price or lower than the existing scrubbers on the market.

[Floyd R Turbo]

Couldn't one do this with a Reef Angel (arduino based), modified to take input from whatever monitoring probes you need for the scrubber?

As for the price - are you saying that you could control your whole reef and have a scrubber for the same price as just the scrubber?

[Pulse]

My plan is to build my own power supplies, which will be cheaper and more flexible than meanwells. Since I am building power supplies I will need custom made PCB's, and I figure while I am designing custom circuit boards, I might as well integrate arduino into my own board. The parts for arduino don't cost much, and the price will be somewhat offset by the savings on power supplies. Each unit will have a build in lcd display which can be used to set certain parameters such as light intensity and timing etc. More advanced hobbyists may wish to write their own sketches for the arduino board, allowing them to controll pretty much anything in the tank. It will not be a full blow reef controller right out of the box, but it could easily be adapted to control whatever other hardware your tank has. The price of arduino compared to the price of the rest of the components is almost negligible. What will be expensive is the increased design phase for this project. Not only will it be more physically complicated to design,it will also require some programming and circuit design.