Replaced car battery with 12 volt supply ($29) and added a plug ($5) between controller and pump/valves.
Used a piece of pine board to mount arduino, bread board, and cable ends.
Not a minute too soon, I needed to dump the water that had the 2x4 fountain nozzle support soaking in it.
Have a plastic holder now.
The remote cannot be read while the "delay()" function is running so I wrote "my_delay()" which checks for remote commands every 10ms for the desired delay time.
The remote doesn't work from very far without adding an antena wire.
Youtube video link.
Also the replacement valve is leaking internally and dripping out the back.
I cut out the bad valve (was afraid I would break things trying to pull the tubes off). Desoldered and resoldered the leads to the replacement. Somehow the valve that wouldn't close has started working!
I was also able to verify the 12volt PWM was actually working but the little pump wouldn't run while the signal is pulsing. I assume the pulse isn't long enough for the little DC motor to rotate to the next fixed magnet.
Investigating configuring the arduino timers to lengthen the pulse cycle, or alternativley programatically pulsing the motor to adjust the water output.
Need to replace 2 valves but better than nothing.
Need to get the PWM pump control working still.
#4 and #2 work.
#3 doesn't closes entirely.
#1 just doesn't open.
Have a spare valve to replace for #1.
Need to check maibox for my second spare.
I guess it is to be expected with surplus parts.
Looks like just valves #4 is opening and closing fully. #2 opens and closes but lower volume.
#1 and #3 don't close, even though I hear them clicking.
Still.... kind of fun...
I expanded on the blink example and added 3 more LEDs to represent 3 more valves being turn on and off in patterns.
I also thought that the pump should pump 1/4 the amount of water when only one of the 4 valves turned on, 1/2 for 2 valves, and so on.
This requires turn the pump on and off quickly using Pulse Width Modulation feature of the arduino digital output pins.
The program set the pulse with to 100% (255) when all valve are on, and 50% (127) for 2 valves.
To represent the Pump I used one yellow LED, and the valves are all red LEDs.
I had ordered 5/16" ID tubing based on the size to fit the submersible pump, and later bought 1/4inch OD "T" connectors and 1/4 OD tube (.170 inch ID) at Lowes.
The "T"s were a little small for the larger 5/16 ID tube and too large for the .17 inch ID tube I bought to fit the valves.
I wrapped teflon pipe tape around the legs of the "T" that I attached to the large tube and sanded down the leg for the small tube. Then I used zip-ties to hold the tube joints.Hoping these won't leak.
The pump 3.6 (Lpm) and valves are all driven at 12 volts but the arduino is 5V. I used my car jump-starter as my 12V source.
Having a helping hand on the soldering station is nice.
I read about arduino in November while waiting at a doctor's office.
Next came some web searches, youtube videos, and an amazon wish list of items needed to build a prototype.
I found a great website for electronics basics.
https://ww.electronicstheory.com
Learned diode pin identification and NPN transistor basics (No Power to base then No output power; Schematic has emitter arrow Not Pointing iN).
I placed the order and all of the parts arrived last week.
Fortunately I already had some tools and speaker wire, since the 12 volt valves looked used (had 1 inch wire soldered to it already. Not long enough to reach anything, and too fine to solder another wire.
Started my first learning project on the bread board... Blinking and LED.
