Aquaponics control

Using Arduino Project Guidance
1

Hi,

This is my first post at the forum. I have moved away from Picaxe since I discovered the Arduino stuff. I have an idea for a project and to avoid all the expected pitfalls I am asking kindly for a bit of advice.

I want to set up an aquaponics system at home. The system will be in one of my sheds which is about 60 metres away from my networking router. The Arduino Mega board which I bought from Yourduino will be controlling several sensors: Temperature, humidity, pump activity, water levels, light level, pH, nitrates, nitrites, ammonia in water, oxygen level in water, etc. The unit will then control several pumps, ventilation systems, heater elements, lights, fish feeder, etc.

Now, and here it comes, as I am not always home I would like to receive simple emails if something goes wrong and I would also like to set up a website on which I could see readouts of all sensors. It would also be great to have all readings datalogged which would then be represented in graphs on any computer.

I know this must have been done many times before but it's all new to me.

-Which shield could take care of the networking?
-Would a CAT-5 cable be good enough to cover the 60 metres of distance?
-Which software or service would you recommend to set up a website showing real-time data which can also send out alerts in case something goes wrong?
-Do you know about good tutorials where I could read up on it? (Scaled to novices and especially about the system being integrated in the home network).
-Do any of you have similar systems of which they like to share a bit of info? Any websites?

Many thanks in advance for your advice and I'm sure I've done the correct thing by moving to the Arduino system.
Have a nice day!

Luc

2

LRAT:
-Which shield could take care of the networking?

Probably the standard ethernetshield (or clone) with w5100-chip. Others exist as well, but there's a lot of support for this one.
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoEthernetShield

LRAT:
-Would a CAT-5 cable be good enough to cover the 60 metres of distance?

In theory it should, ~100 mtr is possible using ethernet. 60 meter is quite a lot though, to be sure I'd use CAT6 with a maximum length of ~230 meters.

LRAT:
-Which software or service would you recommend to set up a website showing real-time data which can also send out alerts in case something goes wrong?

Simplest will probably be buying an gsm- shield which can send you SMS-messages in case something goes wrong.
A very easy way to show realtime data on a website is sending all data to Xively.com (previously known as Pachube).
It doesn't give you the possibility to study readings that happened long time ago accurately, but gives nice graphs and checking data accurately up to a month ago is possible. You can create a small website on the arduino as well, you could store all data on the SD-card of the ethernetshield and retrieve it later.

LRAT:
-Do you know about good tutorials where I could read up on it? (Scaled to novices and especially about the system being integrated in the home network).

I have some experience with arduino, but like you I'm just starting with Arduino + Ethernet and can't recommend you much yet.
Important in your project is that you may ruin a lot if it doesn't work for some reason, living materials are quite unforgiving.
I'd study the ethernet examples as close as possible and start a small study-project. Something like building a small weather station sending data over internet. Reading you should be able to skate on it while the only thing you can think of is a nice refreshing dip in the lake, isn't a disaster. A mistake, ruining your crop 3 weeks before harvesting, is and you certainly didn't pick an easy project.

LRAT:
-Do any of you have similar systems of which they like to share a bit of info? Any websites?

Some people here are busy with Hydroponic systems and you'll find a lot of similar systems as well used by people with aquariums. If you don't mind people, smoking relative expensive cigars made of a certain herb..., searching for the word "Arduino" in related forums may produce some nice results as well.

A lot of people do use arduinos, but... loads of 'm unfortunately don't write here.
Billie's Hydroponic Controller is a nice example on this forum and there are tons of questions about subsystems on the forum. Simply googling Arduino + (sub)system, does present some jewels on other sites/forums as well.