Arduino or Raspberry Pi pH probes

[Bruleyii]

Does anyone have any experience making their own pH probe from ardunio or raspberry pi?

 

I found this article and thought about making it one of my winter projects. You know... because its too cold to do anything outside. 
https://www.sparkyswidgets.com/portfolio-item/ph-probe-interface/

[rrbigdog]

Atlas Scientific recently updated their pH stamp and were selling the older version for $9.  I picked up (4) for controller builds about a month ago

[Bruleyii]

Do they still have them? I dont see them on the site. Maybe amazon or something?

[Bruleyii]

I did find more code and other documents. 
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10972

[DuffyGeos]

Motti? calling Motti......

[rrbigdog]

Looks like they sold out of the pH, only have the ORP left.  The newer pH are $34 but they are either serial or I2C.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ORP-Circuit-Version-4-0-/201172728108?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ed6d4392c

 

I am building another of d0ughb0y's DIY controllers on RC.

[Bruleyii]

Never heard of ORP. Still new to reefing. It seams like the only reason to test for that would be if you are using tap water. I'm most likely wrong though. That tends to happen

[Bruleyii]

Is Motti experienced with this?

[Bruleyii]

Any probes recommended? Ive seen them from $30 - $150.

[ctenophore]

I have an Atlas salinity probe + stamp that I got for the Pi but haven't had a chance to play with yet.  IME, a pH probe isn't all that useful for saltwater unless you're using a lot of kalkwasser in your top-off water, or are using a high output calcium reactor.  If you test alkalinity and maintain that value correctly, and ensure your tank has sufficient aeration, pH won't be anything you ever need to adjust or account for.

[Bruleyii]

But if I dont build a pH probe then what will I do with this expected cold wet winter? lol 

[ctenophore]

Build a salinity probe which is much more useful in a salt water tank

[Bruleyii]

Thanks. I will look into that then. Im slowly moving towards automation of my little 37g tank. Trying to do as much diy as I can to tie multiple hobbies together.

[motti]

I would absolutely go with the atlas scientific scientific stamps, they are great.  I got the previous version of all of their stamps, had to upgrade to the EZO version of the conductivity probe because they stopped selling the old calibration fluids for the old stamp.

 

 

each probe will require one serial connection, if you are running only ph probe, arduino uno might be ok. But I ended up getting the arduino mega, and also the multi circuit board: http://www.atlas-scientific.com/product_pages/components/multi_carrier.html?, which allows you to use one serial connection for up to 8 probes.

 

For my controller I went with the following:

- Arduino mega to control lights, pumps, get sensor information

- An old linux box with bluetooth dongle to communicate with the arduino mega

- A nodejs server running front end, and all the complex logic.

 

I've been working on it slowly for the past year or so, still pretty buggy, and I've spent way more than what an Apex gold package would probably cost me. However i enjoy messing around with it.

[Bruleyii]

I would absolutely go with the atlas scientific scientific stamps, they are great.  I got the previous version of all of their stamps, had to upgrade to the EZO version of the conductivity probe because they stopped selling the old calibration fluids for the old stamp.

 

 

each probe will require one serial connection, if you are running only ph probe, arduino uno might be ok. But I ended up getting the arduino mega, and also the multi circuit board: http://www.atlas-scientific.com/product_pages/components/multi_carrier.html?, which allows you to use one serial connection for up to 8 probes.

 

For my controller I went with the following:

- Arduino mega to control lights, pumps, get sensor information

- An old linux box with bluetooth dongle to communicate with the arduino mega

- A nodejs server running front end, and all the complex logic.

 

I've been working on it slowly for the past year or so, still pretty buggy, and I've spent way more than what an Apex gold package would probably cost me. However i enjoy messing around with it.

I also was wondering if it would be cheaper. Would you say it was more expensive in general or just because of the learning process? I already have an arduino and a raspberry pi at home that Ive been looking to put into action somewhere so I thought this might be a good place. If its really more expensive, it might make me rethink this route then.

 

Thanks for the reply.

[motti]

I also was wondering if it would be cheaper. Would you say it was more expensive in general or just because of the learning process? I already have an arduino and a raspberry pi at home that Ive been looking to put into action somewhere so I thought this might be a good place. If its really more expensive, it might make me rethink this route then.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I think it's mostly because of the learning curve.

[ctenophore]

The education is hard to put a number value on, but certainly quite valuable.  I'd pay to make my own vs. buy a black box, at least for the first one.  The Apex has enough quirks to irritate me; I use one also.  At least with my own, I know any problems are within my control.

 

motti, did you ever hook up the atlas stuff to a Pi, or just arduino?

[motti]

The education is hard to put a number value on, but certainly quite valuable. I'd pay to make my own vs. buy a black box, at least for the first one. The Apex has enough quirks to irritate me; I use one also. At least with my own, I know any problems are within my control.

 

motti, did you ever hook up the atlas stuff to a Pi, or just arduino?

I did some basic testing with it using the arguing, but all the communication with the stamps is done via serial communication, just sending text messages to the device and listening for feedback.

 

One important thing that I had to learn the hard way was not to take continuous conductivity readings. It will mess up all the other instruments. You want to wait at least a second or two and make sure you only pull single readings.