I’ve just finished the first revision of my open source board for water flow and quality.
It could be used for an aquarium, pond or even a water tank I suppose.
Anywhere you wish to measure the flow rate of the water, and basic quality via TDS probe, as well as the temperature.
I hope someone finds this interesting.
I kept it simple to be easy to create and build, covering the basics.
After having been in this rabbithole for some time, I found that the TDS sensor doesn’t provide any value whatsoever and that the flow sensor is limited to 30L which makes it useless for bigger tanks where the pumps are rated for 100+ liters/min. But what I found that was really providing some value was:
What may be useful would be a proximity sensor to get the water level. I needed that during summer, where a lot of water evaporated and I wasn’t at home. Worst case would’ve been that my pump ran dry (it didn’t).
But what I also don’t really get is why you chose to include a motion sensor and a air temp/humidity sensor (the DHT11)?
If you’re really keen on including a temp/humidity sensor, I’d recommend choosing another one as the DHT11 is complete trash. Choose the DHT22, BME280, or a SHT4x type sensor because of their way better accuracy while still costing as much as the DHT11/DHT22.
Even though this comment may seem quite negative, it’s only what came to my mind regarding your project and I value the time and effort you put into it!
Thanks for your comment. I’ve also bought some DHT22’s after pondering the same. Truthfully the humidity sensing is more for the cabinet’s own “moisture detection” than actually atmospheric measurement. Given how close the device is to the aquarium the ambient measurement of humidity would not be accurate.
I only installed the motion sensor on a whim, in case I wanted to add on old tablet next to it, I could turn the screen on when there’s motion. The reason I didn’t include an lcd screen is because it’s intended to be connected via esphome but you might be right.
I will definitely keep that in mind, particularly the hx711. I appreciate the comments and their constructive nature. Once I’ve assembled it (I need to adapt the hose on the flow meter) I’ll post feedback and upadte designs.