Relay VS RF433 - Would you trust RF 433 to control an automated aquarium?

Other Hardware Home Automation
1

Hi,

I'm new to Arduino. I am planning to make an automated aquarium control system to be able to do remote waterchanges to my salt water reef.

But I pondering if I should go for relays or RF433 to do this. The reason why I am afraid of using relays is because I'm afraid of doing something wrong, as I'm not an electritan. I would not dare to use AC pumps for this, so if I would go for relays, it would be DC pumps.

Relay VS RF433
Would you trust the an RF433 socket receiver to stop pumping water at the correct time when a float valve is triggered?

Sorry if this does not make sense

2

The 433mhz hardware is a RAW Wireless receiver and/or transmitter.
For controling an aquarium; you can use my Library "433mhz lightweight"

My Library send "bigger" packets 500us for "0" and 1ms for "1" ans use CRC for check the DATA.

I control my Oreck Air purifier in Wireless with no problems.... it work great.... :slight_smile:

You can control a relay with 433mhz.....

3

Thank you for your reply.

But what I am really asking for is the stability of RF433.

Scenario

Signal 1
TURN PUMP ON
Pump starts filling aquarium with water.
When the two float valve gets activated it's sends signal 2.

Signal 2
TURN PUMP OFF.

I'm afraid of a failure of signal 2 being received. Which means my apartment will be flooded :slight_smile:

Perhaps I've really answered my question here. Relays are reliable as in you know if it is ON or OFF. :roll_eyes:

4

Perhaps I've really answered my question here. Relays are reliable as in you know if it is ON or OFF.

Actually, you don't. If you close a relay, and the contacts are bad, no power goes through it. If you close a relay and the power fails, it will probably open up and whatever you're running will stop and not come back on.

Consider closing the relay and then sensing the voltage on the actual thing you're running. You still won't be able to tell if it is actually running, but you eliminated one more thing that can fail. Also, remember that the float can get stuck, wires can break, cats can rip things apart, so think of failure possibilities. Then, run the automation only while you're home for a couple of weeks to get a feel for how reliable it is before you take off on vacation. I know a guy that has pressure sensors on water flow to be sure the water is actually moving. He turns on a pump then watches the flow sensor to be sure it started and is moving water. To be sure the flow sensor didn't fail, he has another one on the pump input. They both have to be moving before he trusts it.

You have the opposite problem, but you see what I'm getting at.

5

Thank you for the reply!

I will come back with schematics at a later stage and ask for feedback from the community :slight_smile:

But I have gone away from the thought of using RF. Relays is a better option.