KM Fountain 2.0

Fountain 2.0:

http://youtu.be/fqgi59HhYKY

Debugging in the dark

Some last minute changes seemed to cause problems with color changing.

Sat in the chair in the dark, plugged into the arduino.

First night run of the fountain

Here is the YouTube link to the fountain at night.

http://youtu.be/4PMQVWDboBc

Fountain pit and plumbing

Used 3/4 inch conduit to run wire to junction boxes.

Used 18/4 sprinkler wire for the RGBLED, and 7 primary wires for the 6 pumps (one is the common negative wire).

Used plastic privacy lattice to mount my 3/4 inch pvc plugs (they have a flat face).

Powered up the LED light strip

YouTube video link

Control box assembly nearly complete

UPDATE: Keedox controllers were affected by changes in voltage or current .  Abandoned them.

Took a while to find DC motor controllers Keedox 6v-90v  15A dc motor pump speed controller) that could support 3 amp bilge pumps.

New new pumps are 750 Gph and still haven't arrived yet.

Found submersible RGB LED strip light for $20 (rated IPB 86) and a Common Anode Controller (DFRobot) for $10.86

Eliminating relays

The relay was very noisy and took up extra space.

I have switched each valve to NPN transistor and Suppressor Diode, just like the pump but just using digital On/Off instead of PWM mode.

Works better with the transistors wired with Emitter to Ground.

====>>> Watch the Video

Needed to be a bit more portable.

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.

Added remote control

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.

Replaced 1 bad valve

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.

Video of fountain prototype

Need to replace 2 valves but better than nothing.

Need to get the PWM pump control working still.

Youtube video

Little bit better now..

#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.

Sort of working....

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...

Fountain program

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.

Fountain prototype pump and valves

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.

It begins

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.