I am very new to all things Arduino, so please be patient, as I will need a lot of guidance
The idea is to have a temperature controller, for 8 aquariums
If temperature is under x value turn on the heater, if it's above y turn off the heater
Ideally I would like to have a screen, and keys to be able to check the temperature and to be able to configure the x an y for each aquarium individually
I guess the 1st question is. Is this possible?
The second question would be, what hardware should I get?
Arduino nano and sensors ds18b20 is as far as I got, I have no idea what relays, what screen and what keys are indicated for the project
Doable but some clarity is needed.
Will there be 8 screens?
I assume there are 8 heaters.
Will this project be responsible for the heater safety circuits or is that outboardf in the heaters themselves. I am talking about overheating primarily.
The second question would be, what hardware should I get?
Arduino nano and sensors ds18b20 is as far as I got, That would be good
I have no idea what relays, what screen and what keys are indicated for the project
Google Arduino relay
Screen size is a big criterion. For small projects the 0.96-inch SSD1306 OLED
The heaters are aquarium heaters, they have their own safety and regulation, usually the controler is a backup, I usually set the controller (commercially available ones that exist for 1 heater only) for imagine 28 degrees, and the heater itself to 29, so if either of the 2 goes wrong the other will turn off
An Arduino NANO would be an okay controller to start learning on.
The SSD1306 OLED is a bit small but would probably be good as the display, there are larger ones available.
Eight DS18B20s would work for the temperature sensors.
An IR remote as mention above reduces wiring complexity and is very flexible as an input device.
An inexpensive ESP32 is also a good controller.
It has WIFI capability so your display could be a web page accessible via an iPhone etc.
You could have one ESP32 for each tank.
An eight channel relay module could be used to control the heaters.
You might want to consider an RTC for lighting, an annunciator for alarm conditions.
The above is just a starting point.
Start with a design for doing 1 tank, the other 7 can then be added after everything is working with the first.
Couple of pointers from my own experience with aquariums:
a) Have a failover in case your controller/arduino system fails and you(or somebody else) needs to manually turn on your heaters. Failover could be a three way knob, so even others with no idea about your setup can operate, otherwise this would bite you very bad.
b) Use a board with WiFi capabilities (Nano ESP32 maybe). Gives you room to grow your project later
c) Make sure the relay you use is rated appropriately for the heater. Most of them are 1A or 2A, so check your heater rating before hand. Also, the heater might need to run for a long time, so solid state relays are a better bet.
d) If the aquariums are large, make sure the sensor and heaters are placed a bit far away from each other.
If you are planning to use a single controller for all eight aquariums, check for the length of wires for ds18b20 sensor. Someone else might be able to guide you in better manner for the appropriate length for such one wire sensors. My experience comes from trying to automate a single mid size aquarium.
As side info: aquarium heaters often work with a simple bi-metalllic switch inside the heater. A knob on top can be used to set the temperature (put the thing in a water bath with apprporiate temperature, wait, turn the knob till 'click' sound/feel ir till inside neon light switches on/off).
have a look at 4" CYD Freenove_ESP32_Display
has on board ESP32 which give you WiFi and BLE connectivity
CYD displays tend to be limited in IO capabilities but should be sufficient for your requirements
This is not a beginner project, it can be accomplished but you have a very steep learning curve ahead of you. I highly recommend you place this project on the back burner for a few weeks, get a copy of the Arduino Cookbook and skim through it cover to cover and stop on anything that interest you. You will find a lot of the basics you will need for your project. Try some of the projects with the equipment you already have, then you will understand how things work. Also learning the basics of doing a schematic will go a long way in helping you learn electronics. Schematics is the language of electronics. Good luck and let us know how you progress.
maybe a good idea not to attempt to control the temperatures but just monitor them plus an alarm in case a temperature goes outside a specified range
temperature control would be done using commercial heaters as at present
using an ESP32 or similar WiFi enabled microcontroller the monitoring could done remotely
