Need an electricians or anyones advice on Diy ato

very nice grey, very nice

 

McMaster-Carr:

Relay:
McMaster-Carr
McMaster-Carr

transformer:
McMaster-Carr

 

KARMA for grey...
Simple concepts for some, rocket science for others...

A few minutes of reading should make this a sinch for you to construct. Good luck!

 

thats a good idea grey, cool
and here you go jkat, hope it helps.
3 pcs 6 Volt Relay, 1 Form C, high current contact - eBay (item 130309499906 end time Jun-28-09 02:38:35 PDT)

 

Grey and Bmouch thanks for your help.I read through those sites,seems fairly simple to build.but if either of you could post a little diagram of what the wireing should look like in side the box...K+ to ya both when I get back to my pc(on my phone now at work)...when I build this I will try to post some good pics for others...

 

Here is one i done up that is similar . its done with a 12 volt transformer and a relay got the parts from radio shack.
http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/yep-another-ato-65520.html

 

Whatever you plug into that box--be it a pump or powerhead; would be actuated hundreds of times a day with the simple float switch arrangement you're looking at on eBay.

In real life, there's a component built into controllers called a "deadband" that prevents this. For example, set your home AC to 72*F. When the temp hits 73* it comes on, but it doesn't stop cooling until the temperature hits, let's say 70*F. This is a crude example, but it clarifies the point. If the AC came on at 73 and shut down when it hit the target temp of 72, it would cycle dozens of times daily, drastically shortening the life of the unit. The deadband is a necessity in controller builds.

If you were to design this yourself, you could makeshift a deadband by utilizing a timer to "ignore" the float switch for, say, 30 minutes before the pump would again function.

There's a good reason that controllers for aquariums are hundreds of dollars. These issues have been realized, prevented, or circumvented in their design.

If you're willing to spend $35 for this single tasking device, why not consider saving a bit more, waiting, and buying a controller that does so many more things for you?

BTW, if you have an RO/DI unit, consider a simple float switch. Run two in series for redundancy and you'll never** have a flood.



**almost impossible.

 

2 ways to approach the "dead band" you can use a timer like I have on my ATO, so it's only on a total of about 30 minutes a day now, or you could do the math and figure out a capacitor delay.

... I need a good layout program and I can upload some schematics.