RODI Reef Tank Water System

Projects General Guidance
1

So I have an RODI system for my reef tanks. It takes hours to fill up a 5 gallon bucket. I would like to automate turning the water on and off.

My water level sensors are the optical style. No water = HIGH output from sensor
I will need 2 of these sensors one for bucket empty and bucket full.

I have a motorized ball valve which will be turned on with either an H-bridge or DPTP relay driven by the Arduino. This ball valve has 3 additional wires for LED's or monitoring the position of the valve.
Green Wire is for OPEN when HIGH
Red Wire is for CLOSED when HIGH
The ball valve takes approx 8 seconds to open or close, so I would like the relay to be on for 10 seconds then in its resting state...

I also have a water meter sensor to monitor the amount of water used by the system. I will have at least two of these in the system to monitor total usage and waste water.

I can monitor the valve positions no problem. I have issues getting the relay to close for 10 seconds then open. Anybody have any suggestions on how to do that without delay?

2

If you mean without using the delay() function so that other things can happen at the same time then see Using millis() for timing. A beginners guide, Several things at the same time and the BlinkWithoutDelay example in the IDE

3

Do you have any code you can post?

4

I tried using millis with no luck at all. I can see if I saved any of my sketches and post an update tomorrow.

5

Hi,
What are the specs of your ballvalve?
Some have built in limit switches so you can apply the closed or open signal indefinitely and the drive motor is internally switched off when fully open or closed.

Tom.... :grinning: :+1: :coffee: :australia:

6

It does that, it basically uses no power when fully open or fully closed. I was mainly worried about the relay I was going to use overheating and wearing out. Someone on another post suggested using an H-Bridge to control it instead which I bet would be the better choice.

7

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