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How to use a PLC to control your fish tank.

I think I will buy this PLC, question... What happens if there is a power failure, Does the LOGO PLC keep the current time/date after power is up again?
 
Yes it has a battery backed up real time clock, so if using the timer blocks will just carry on with correct time when power comes back.

Also for things like counter blocks you can set an attribute to remember the value at power off. You can store things like which 2 tubes out of my 4 were/are on.

Never had an issue due to power failure or being powered off whilst tank fiddling.
 
cfrancop said:
I think I will buy this PLC, question... What happens if there is a power failure, Does the LOGO PLC keep the current time/date after power is up again?
Click to expand...

Plus if you use Ians brilliant 'TankyMYTank' timer design into your software design, you still get the same Photo period etc etc etc
 
Use this button the Logo!Soft Comfort simulator to simulate power going on and off when simulating your design. 😛

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Tick this box to make a counter (for instance) remember over power cycles.
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To anyone thinking of getting one of these babies.

Jesus Tapdancing Christ is this thing reliable! I know Ian has mentioned this before but...
I’m running a massive high tech tank, and recently changed careers ending up putting in 12hr days Monday-Friday.
By God am I happy I invested the money. I go a whole week without worrying about anything (the Mrs feeds the fish daily, and even that could be automated as per Ian’s instructions!) then just water change over the weekend.

If anything needs adjusting, few clicks on my phone, done.

All that while probably only using a tiny % of the logo8’s capabilities (and that’s with control over 2 tanks, 2000L and 200L). Amazing.

Thanks again!
Fil
 
Glad you liked it. Using the PLC just makes the tank run itself and makes making changes very easy. I have followed your system and it is a perfect application of PLC.

Its a shame that people spend £1000's on tank and equipment, spend months devising all these wonderful plumbing & filtration schemes and then trust it all to a £9.99 timer.

If you are looking for further ideas for PLC code (I can't do as only 33 blocks out of 400 left 🙁).
- A algae blackout setting. Runs tank for 3 or 4 days, no lights, no CO2, no fertilisation and no feeding. After 3 or 4 days all runs normal.
- A night time setting for if guests are sleeping in same room as tank. Turns off all pumps and filters between hours 11pm to 8am so tank is silent.
- If your Logo is 8.2 it has a web server so can render HTML pages with active buttons and controls on.
 
My tank us only 180l, so tiny compared to 2000l. PLC just ticks away, turning the things on and off. Been running over 20,000 hours now with no issue.
 
Been using Fe DTPA due to having hard water and the pH isnt low enough for Fe EDTA, however Fe DTPA does have a very short half-life in light so to combat the issue the PLC solves it easy

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Basically it splits the single dose time for my Auto doser into 20 smaller doses and pumps the 1/20 dose in every 24mins. I was using Minutes for my timer but I just changed it over to secs multiplying the minutes by 60 and I think I have it sorted
 

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For those of you "following along at home" (Zeus & Filip & anyone else?) there is a new version of Logo!Soft Comfort V8.2.1 as well as and update to the Logo Web Edit and firmware updates for Logo Modules V8.2.

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This is my Logo!Soft Comfort as of this morning.

Not sure what is new in V8.2.1 or the 8.2 module firmware updates. My Logo is V1.08.02 so firmware updates don't apply, as is very old 😵, but hey ho still working years later 100% reliability, 22035 hours runtime 2 1/2 years now...
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The upgrade is here, you have to agree export conditions and get authorisation to download...
https://support.industry.siemens.co...logo!-8-2-sp1-operating-system?dti=0&lc=en-WW

File is rather large (1.4GB) as contains Windows and Linux 64bit & 32bit & MacOS versions of the Logo!Soft Comfort. Enjoy.
 

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Anyone still following this.... Logo! SoftComfort V8.2 SP1 is available.
https://support.industry.siemens.co...-(download-notes-instructions)?dti=0&lc=en-CN

Also other PLC manufacturers are getting on the Ethernet programmable PLC/relay bandwagon.
http://www.eaton.eu/Europe/Electric.../ControlRelays/easyE4-control-relay/index.htm

Similar range & configurations to Siemens.
- Dev software with functional block diagrams looks similar.
- Uses 32bit values & BCD values instead of Siemens fixed 16bit.
- Access to real time clock, a real boon for fish tank timer.
- Various conversion functions, BCD to 32bit as well as more mathematical functions.
- Look up tables and recipes, so could easily implement normal, holiday & long holiday functions by using lookup table/recipe to control timing.
- Can be programmed in EDP, event driven programming (text file input).

Starter kit is only £140 including development & programming software, which is only slightly more than just the module cost.
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/logic-modules/1883487/
 
Hi Guys, Nice to see that there are others that use their LOGO for aquarium automation.!

I'm not sure if i saw it in your postings, but I'm looking for idea's on how to control the 0-10v out (AQ) on the SIEMENS LOGO to control Kessil's light spectrum and light intensity.

I just bought the AM2 AQ module but need to learn how to control the analog outputs.

I wonder if its possible to create a light schedule like:
- 10 am to 12 pm : AQ1 = 1 v ; AQ2 = 2v 1 v would 10%
- 12 pm to 1 pm: AQ1 = 2 ; AQ2 = 5
- 1 pm to 8 pm : AQ1 = 3 ; AQ2 = 7
- 8 pm to 10 pm: AQ1 = 1 ; AQ2 = 5
- 10 pm to 11 pm : AQ1 = 1 ; AQ2 = 2
- 11pm to 10 am: AQ1 = 0 ; AQ2 = 0

Any thoughts or example coding ?

Thanks,

Patrick, Belgium
 
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