HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I tend to simply empty, rinse, and refill the dishes periodically... and Reverse Osmosis water is kind of overkill. Dechlor salt water does just fine for me. :) And unless I had 1 or 2+ gallon pools, I wouldn't be too willing to invest in an auto top-off system. I have a portable refractometer my da...

Keep in mind the cost of a pH probe though- even the cheapest can be prohibitively expensive. And they do wear out. :roll: That schematic will not work, though- like I said, there were many bugs, and even total additions and subtractions to the circuit itself. All that's left to do is stabilize the ...

:oops: Again I'm really humbled by all of your comments :oops: I got the 130-in-1 electronics lab by Maxitronix for my birthday from my parents when I was around 8 or 9... that's about when I started basic electronics, then into basic analogue and digital. So my basic knowledge of electronics came f...

:oops: It's very humbling to hear your encouragement... :oops: Here's the cheapest I could find Zoomed's HygroTherm, as it's called (75$ US): http://www.reptiledirect.com/zoomedhygrotherm.aspx In the end, the unit I'm building is far behind other reef units as far as programmable interfacing goes......

I'm still working on it... some more parts I ordered just came in, and I'll be building the final version quite soon. :) Realistically, units like this exist already- Zoomed makes a temp/humidity controller for just under 100$ (though the humidity sensor's accuracy would be very questionable), and f...

Nope I'm no EE major. :wink: I'm only 16 so not in university quite yet. :) I may be able to send you one of the older revisions of a couple of the schematics (there are 5), since the final ones have yet to be drawn. However, I'll tell you the base idea for the circuit is that it operates as a voltm...

The only down side I would say to the system currently has, is that it cannot "recognize" the type of sensor being attached to it. As a result, each sensor must have circuitry to convert whatever measurement output a sensor gives, and convert it to something intelligible for the display. The next ve...

Here's some pics!!! As you can see... I kind of ran out of real estate on the first board and had to resort to a second :lol: http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n204/Ryanstein06/IMG_5268.jpg Close up of the power supply (with the considerably large gray heatsink... some parts get quite hot otherwise...

I finished the prototype for the first part last night and it works!!

I'm now waiting on the circuit boards which I ordered on ebay, and once they arrive I'll start building a permanent version

Thanks for all of the support everyone

~Ryan

I just finished exams a week ago, and have been working furiously on this project day and night (don't tell my mom...), and I had a breakthrough a day ago with the pH... so it can now read pH and temperature, and humidity will be on the way (I just ordered new sensors.... they cost a fortune at 17$ ...

OK... still working on it... and have been several times a week. I am drawing the schematics right now... and I finished the first one, with the display readout and controls. Just to give you an idea of why it's taking so long... just that one circuit board (1 of 5 in total) has over 150 electronic ...

I've noticed those twice before... they are teeny tiny specks that at first glance seem not to move at all... I've just ignored them, and at most didn't seem to last more than a week

***UPDATE*** So yesterday (late-ish last night) my friend came over and helped me build the pH measurement part of the circuit. So far, though the calibration is horrific (I don't have any buffers to calibrate to, but will ask for some at school on Monday ;) ), it is semi functional, giving a higher...

Just to let everyone know who was following this months ago, the project is NOT dead... Here's the original topic: http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=63101 I've redesigned the entire circuit almost 4 times now, and added loads of new features. Currently (as of yesterday) I'm prot...

Maybe you could tell them there's a hermitcrabassociation.com??? Or would you be laughed at... my hermit crab hobby is a definite form of amusement for some of the rather pesky people in my grade. :roll:

Anyways, I think you've got a great idea happening there. Let us know how it goes.