Reef Angel Forum

Hi,
I was planning on building an arduino controller for my science project, but I just found out about this product. I'm having trouble finding exactly what the limits of this system are, so before I spend any more hours looking around, please let me know if I am on the correct track.

- I want to be able to drive fully dimmable LEDs to accurately recapitulate daylight intensity. It looks like this shouldn't be a problem.

-I want to be able to CYCLE temperatures (I didn't see that listed anywhere). It don't think I need active cooling, just the capacity to regulate it by turning on and off the heater.

-I want to measure pH. This looks like it is included

-I want to be able to make my own sensor. Specifically, I want to use a photoresistor, or some other light sensor, to be able to determine the amount of light reaching the sensor. I will be modifying this extensively (with different filters and light sources), so I essentially need the capability to add code for my own sensor. Is this possible? Will I be able to calibrate it and display units of my choice, or would I be stuck with displaying something like resistance.

-I guess what I am asking is, how modifiable is this?

Thanks!
-m

Sky is the limit for you
You have many choices to interface with the controller with your own sensor.
You can even connect an Arduino board to the controller. Look for posts from jsclownfish. He's done that too.
He used a photo resistor to measure light.
You can dim 0-100%, you can measure temperatures and control heaters/chillers/fans based on temperature, measure the pH and interface just about every sensor with the correct interface circuit.
RA is ready to accept I2C and Onewire signals.
You can draw anything on the screen. Even your wife/kid's photo if you wish
Calibration and conversion of units is very simple when you have full control of the code.

Great, thanks. I think I will go ahead and purchase a unit and see how it works for me. After doing some more reading, it sounds like using a photodiode might make more sense for light sensing. Thanks for you input.
-m