Post your diy apex add ons/ creations

[spit.fire]

after picking up an apex unit, ive decided to run EVERYTHING off of it due to ease of programming


atm im working on diy'ing a breakout box to run my ato, skimmer shutoff, and leak detector (still not sure how im gonna build a leak detector)

and ive swayed away from arduino after seeing what all the aquacontroller can do and how easy it is to program for it

i spent 4 hours yesterday reading up on what i can do with it and programming everything

only program im having a hard time with is ph control for my calcium reactor

[Reef Pilot]

I built this leak detector using the io breakout box. Couldn't be any simpler. Just a couple nails, solder, wire, piece of paper towel and masking tape. Works with SW and RODI water. When the paper towel gets wet, it closes the switch on the io breakout box, which you then reference in your programming. I use it to shut down my return pump. But you could tape it to the side of your skimmer, or wherever, and shut off (or turn on) anything that is connected to your Apex.

[Maverick00]

[byee]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

I built this leak detector using the io breakout box. Couldn't be any simpler. Just a couple nails, solder, wire, piece of paper towel and masking tape. Works with SW and RODI water. When the paper towel gets wet, it closes the switch on the io breakout box, which you then reference in your programming. I use it to shut down my return pump. But you could tape it to the side of your skimmer, or wherever, and shut off (or turn on) anything that is connected to your Apex.

Reef Pilot,

very simplistic approach!!

[spit.fire]

So after logging onto canreef at 2am yesterday I no longer need to build a breakout box... Picked one up for a steal of a deal

After doing some thinking on my drive home from work I figured out how I'm gonna build my leak detector

It's going to have 4 detectors where if any 1 of the 4 get tripped it will sound an alarm and shut off my ato

I'll post pics once I get the parts to build the unit

[tobysmurf]

I bought a batch of cheap float valves from eBay that I use as backups in case the ones built into my ATO fail, and one up top in my overflow in case a big sally lightfoot crawls in again and blocks the return (don't ask). Programming them into the BoBs is trivial and eases wear and tear on your carpet!

[BMW Rider]

Nothing fancy for me, just rigged a salvaged micro switch that I had in my junk bin to the cabinet door of my stand. It turns the fuge light on so I can see in there for maintenance.

[spit.fire]

Originally Posted by BMW Rider

Nothing fancy for me, just rigged a salvaged micro switch that I had in my junk bin to the cabinet door of my stand. It turns the fuge light on so I can see in there for maintenance.

oh man im gonna have to do that once i get a second eb8

[spit.fire]

Skimmer shuts off when the cup is 2/3 full and sounds an alarm

[Delphinus]

I rigged a 110v relay to the I/O switch 1 to monitor for GFCI trips and get the Apex to email me if one of them trips. Actually did 3 in series so I can monitor 3 GFCI circuits together on Switch1. I'll try to take pictures of this later, it was really neat. I actually have 4 circuits in my tank room but there's no point in monitoring the same circuit that the Apex is on until I get some kind of battery backup for the unit (and maybe a small UPS for my cable modem and network hub - that way a whole house power outage can still result in a notification email).

Next up I'm hoping to get some of the floor flood sensors and connect them to switch2. Something like this that has normally closed contacts: http://www.specialtyalarms.com/site/...product/80-519 ... should be able to be wired in series and then a bunch can be monitored using the same switch.

(I know I could just get the flood module but this way would be cheaper and .. kinda more fun/interesting..)

I DIY'd my own breakout box. I'm not sure I'd recommend going that way to anyone else. You can build it for less than you can buy it, but unless you have a mini-DIN 8 pin *cable* to work with, odds are you can only get the cable connector and then you have to solder the wires to the pins and unless you're really good at soldering in tiny scale it can be a bit of a challenge to get a clean job of it. (You can mail order the cables pretty easy though ... all I could find locally were the cable connectors though .. no brick and mortar storefront has a mini-DIN 8 cable these days! Found a few places willing to make one up custom, but that's not the same as off-the-shelf IMO..)