The goal of this project is to build a control system that runs several aquarium devices based on a schedule, gauge values or user input. It provides a web interface that LAN devices (optionally, remote devices) can access in a browser.
The main program runs on a Raspberry Pi in Python and uses Flask. The main display elements -- switches and gauges -- fit a vertical phone screen, marked by the orange rectangle above. All other less critical display elements, such as plots, are added on a side to sweep the web page sideways.
The relays are connected to a Raspberry Pi, while the gauges are connected to an Arduino. Both devices are mutually supervised: the Raspberry Pi sends alarm emails if it does not read from the Arduino, and the Arduino connects to a phone via BLE and sends alarm texts by SMS if it does not detect the Raspberry Pi. Optionally, gauges can be connected directly to the same Raspberry Pi.
Several temperature gauges provide input to the thermostat function.
An optional Raspberry Pi camera provides still pictures or a video stream displayed in the web GUI.
An optional phone located close to the Arduino can be connected via BLE to send alarm texts. The same phone can be used as a standard control screen.
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Gauges are configured by the user in a separate Python module by following the supplied example.
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The main Arduino script as well as several test scripts for many devices are provided.
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The system state is saved in a database managed by SQLite.
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A time schedule of device operations is managed by
crontab-- a Linux job scheduler. Setup instructions and an example are provided. The crontab table is visible by the web GUI and the coming events are displayed there. -
A phone connected to the Arduino via BLE runs an app developed in MIT App Inventor. The source code of the app is provided.
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The ArdquariumPi web server understands web hooks. For example, an ifttt.com applet can receive a trigger from Google Assistant processing a voice command "switch aquarium light on" and then it sends a web request to ArdquariumPi that activates the corresponding GPIO pin.
See detailed instructions here.