DIY Alkalinity Monitor

[Borat]

View attachment 3123805
What goes here on my PCB board?

You mean the thing that's circled? It says "Junct" - in my own cryptic language it means "Junction". Nothing goes into that connector - it's merely there to route PCB tracks from one size of PCB into another (sometimes you have no choice but to do that due to space limitations).

 

[cliffE]

sorry to bother

Here is where I am at

I am having a hard time figuring out how to connect the components.

The ph probe has three pins
Encoder 6
Relay 3
RTC 8 different pins

I figure the VIN and GND are used but what other component pins are selected to attach to the pcb and where on the job do these ones go?

I followed the fritzing diagram and read the code but just can’t find the answers.

 

[Borat]

PH probe:

it has 3 pins: [G]ND, [V]CC and IGNAL. This needs to be connected to a connector that has analogue PIN. On the board it could be "Spare A1" connector. On the PCB, the rightmost pin is GND, middle pin is VCC and leftmost pin is Signal (A1 pin).

Encoder (connected to I2C expansion board):
the only pins that need to be connected are [G]ND, [V]CC, SCL and SDA. The connector on the board is named "RE" - for Rotary Encoder. On the PCB, the rightmost pin is GND, then goes VCC, then SCL and the leftmost is SDA. Disregard all other pins on the chip.

Relay: every relay has GND, VCC and SIGNAL. You can connect this to [Spare D8]. On the PCB the rightmost is GND. the middle is VCC and the leftmost is signal (D8 pin).

RTC: RTCs are all connected via GND, VCC, SCL and SDA. On the board the connector called "RTC" has pin arrangement as follows: rightmost GND, VCC, SCL and SDA. Disregard all other pins on the chip.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Borat.

 

[cliffE]

PH probe:

it has 3 pins: [G]ND, [V]CC and IGNAL. This needs to be connected to a connector that has analogue PIN. On the board it could be "Spare A1" connector. On the PCB, the rightmost pin is GND, middle pin is VCC and leftmost pin is Signal (A1 pin).

Encoder (connected to I2C expansion board):
the only pins that need to be connected are [G]ND, [V]CC, SCL and SDA. The connector on the board is named "RE" - for Rotary Encoder. On the PCB, the rightmost pin is GND, then goes VCC, then SCL and the leftmost is SDA. Disregard all other pins on the chip.

Relay: every relay has GND, VCC and SIGNAL. You can connect this to [Spare D8]. On the PCB the rightmost is GND. the middle is VCC and the leftmost is signal (D8 pin).

RTC: RTCs are all connected via GND, VCC, SCL and SDA. On the board the connector called "RTC" has pin arrangement as follows: rightmost GND, VCC, SCL and SDA. Disregard all other pins on the chip.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Borat.

Thank you so much.


I am curious, did you write the code for your peristaltic pump. I borrowed your fritzing and had the PCB boards made. The board and connections were very straight forward using your write up, but I couldn't find the code anywhere.

 

[Borat]

Thank you so much.


I am curious, did you write the code for your peristaltic pump. I borrowed your fritzing and had the PCB boards made. The board and connections were very straight forward using your write up, but I couldn't find the code anywhere.

Both are very similar and the best way to use it for your peristaltic pump is to use a striped down version of the Alk monitor code. For peristaltic pump all you need to do is to run dose() periodically based on a choice of dosing amount.

Here's the code for peristaltic pump, unfortunately I have somewhat forgotten which one is for the latest version - I have 2 pumps and they are running different chips (Arduino Nano and Arduino Mega).

 

[Luiguimore]

Hello, the work you have done is great. I congratulate you. I wanted to ask you a question about the first project. You did it with a 20x4 LCD screen. Is there a way to have that code?

 

[Borat]

I no longer have that code unfortunately but I use the same LCD screen in my DIY LED bar (https://www.ultimatereef.net/thread...ng-temperature-control-active-cooling.890640/) , the attached should give you the code for that LCD screen.

 

[cliffE]

Both are very similar and the best way to use it for your peristaltic pump is to use a striped down version of the Alk monitor code. For peristaltic pump all you need to do is to run dose() periodically based on a choice of dosing amount.

Here's the code for peristaltic pump, unfortunately I have somewhat forgotten which one is for the latest version - I have 2 pumps and they are running different chips (Arduino Nano and Arduino Mega).

I built this peristaltic pump board that you have in your robotic thread. See pic

The trouble I seem to be having is in the pin identity and llc. I have a copy of your old code that doesn’t include the llc. The pins on the arduino nano are also different with the pcb. Fore example stepper motor is pins 10-12 instead of 5-7. I changed pins in the code. The pcb also has the llc for using 3V and esp32but the old code doesn’t. I tried adding llc code from other codes but it doesn’t seem to work.

The code you attached above is too big to attach to my arduino nano.

I can get power to all components but rotary encoder doesn’t seem to turn on or interact with the system. All I see is an lcd screen that counts upward.

 

[cliffE]

Making progress
The rotary powers up
The lcd does not turn on but has 5 volts on multimeter
The rtc powers up
The ph probe powers up
5 v on all steppers
Switch regulator 12v and 5 volts
***LLC has no volts on Lv side and 5 v on HV side
Esp32 no power due to llc issue

Oddly my arduino mega also isn’t powering up. It lights up when I plug in the usb. But no power on multimeter or lighting up when power is applied through pc board. I checked soldering and it looks good. When I add power through vin pin and grd pin bypassing pc board it powers up. Not sure what to make of this.

 

[BassamKassem]

Making progress
The rotary powers up
The lcd does not turn on but has 5 volts on multimeter
The rtc powers up
The ph probe powers up
5 v on all steppers
Switch regulator 12v and 5 volts
***LLC has no volts on Lv side and 5 v on HV side
Esp32 no power due to llc issue

Oddly my arduino mega also isn’t powering up. It lights up when I plug in the usb. But no power on multimeter or lighting up when power is applied through pc board. I checked soldering and it looks good. When I add power through vin pin and grd pin bypassing pc board it powers up. Not sure what to make of this.

I recommend checking the GND line and input12V line in the main board are they wired correctly, (The 2pin connector on the board)

 

[cliffE]

I was able to get power to arduino component. The fan had to be plugged into the PCB. Which doesn't make sense to me but I'll take it.

Still not getting my LCD to light up. It has 5V from gnd to each of the pins (VSS, SDAL, SCL). Should I buy new one? Is there something else that could keep it from lighting up.

 

[cliffE]

 

[Borat]

I was able to get power to arduino component. The fan had to be plugged into the PCB. Which doesn't make sense to me but I'll take it.

Still not getting my LCD to light up. It has 5V from gnd to each of the pins (VSS, SDAL, SCL). Should I buy new one? Is there something else that could keep it from lighting up.

You need to try and run the code piecemeal - to test what's not working. If some other component fails to work (e.g. loose connection) - LCD may simply not be able to initialise.

Start with LCD, see if this works.. then slowly add some code for RTC (and try to display time).. then add code for encoder...

 

[cliffE]

Thanks for the response

Didn’t seem to work.
Here is a picture of my board

 

[cliffE]

is there a way to ensure that the code is actually downloading correctly?

 

[Borat]

Thanks for the response

Didn’t seem to work.
Here is a picture of my board

And using multimeter - can you check if SCL pin on the LCD is connected to pin 21 and SDA connector on LCD is connected to pin 20 on Arduino Mega?

 

[Borat]

is there a way to ensure that the code is actually downloading correctly?

In Arduino IDE, it will say "compiling.. uploading and ...uploaded".

 

[cliffE]

let me figure out how to use the multimeter to check that

Code reported "uploaded"

 

[cliffE]

learned another trick with the multimeter
Yes both beep at the correct pin

Maybe the issue is the Arduino?

Only getting 2v on Arduino between gnd and 5V pin

No volts on Arduino between gnd and VIN

 

[Borat]

2v is not right..