Author Archives: Erik Zandboer

The Canopy: Building a wooden hood

Posted on February 25, 2023 by Erik Zandboer| Leave a comment

In the past I have always had wooden hoods on top of my paludariums which I call “the Canopy”. The latest one did not have a hood, as I placed lighting and fans in the open on top. For this new and big design that will not work, so once again it is off to the store to get wood cut to size.

Modules, modules everywhere.

In the past I used the Canopy to mount everything I needed directly in to. I even had a version that had a full-blown PC power supply mounted on top. Not this time. I want everything to be removable, modules everywhere. So I had plywood sawed to size not just for the Canopy itself, but also for up to 4 modules which slide into the Canopy. As I do not want to remove the canopy whenever I need to make a change, this time I will build a detachable front element which is held in place by magnets.

So far I have only two modules in mind, one that carries a few pumps (rain pump, backdrop moisturization pump), nothing too fancy.

The second module is more interesting. It holds the complete “air conditioning” system. There are two 120mm regulated fans in there, an air heater and two mistmakers. This is quite a complex module, as it will measure air going in (to get an ambient reading), and have multiple connections for osmosis water pumped through (for the mistmakers), connections for the air heater and of course the fans.

These modules will be covered in a later post.

Constructing the Canopy

For the Canopy itself, I just need some holes for feeding through cables, sliders to mount the modules, and a system rail in front where I can mount a series of power leds. Also, I’d like to maximize accessibility. The idea is that I’ll build an “inner layer” of plywood that sits on top of the paludarium, and a thinner “outer layer” that neatly falls over the edges of the glass paludarium, hiding the top two centimeters or so. First it is off to the inner layer construction. Yet it always seems to start with a saw:

Why do things always seem to start with a saw? Anyway, sawing some corner beams to form the shape of the Canopy.

Assembling the inner layer of the Canopy

Using the sawed corner supports it was relatively simple to build the basic construct. As usual the fit was ALMOST right. So I guess there will be some sanding and filling in my near future 😉

I needed to add some holes in the rear of the Canopy for feeding through cables and such. Not quite sure how big the holes should be, so I settled on a slit of 28mm high (just because I had a 28mm drill handy 😉 ). Hopefully all connectors I will ever use will fit through! In line with the other 2 holes I just added some holes in the back (yes, 28mm as well 😉 ).

Slit added to the rear for feeding through cabling and hoses. On top you see the two holes for the 120mm fans which will sit in the “air conditioning” module.

Furthermore I have added fan guards to the 120mm holes on top. The biggest struggle will probably be to get the air conditioning module to align with these holes 😉

Fan guards added to the Canopy. Bring on the module that actually has fans 😉

Finally, a cozy look from the inside of the Canopy that demonstrates the shape of the Canopy a bit more:

Inside view of the Canopy for as far is has been constructed. It clearly shows the cable feedthrough and the fan holes with their fan guards.

What next?

So up next is figuring out a way how to fix the top in a more solid way and not just on the edges. Anyway, I’ll figure that one out soon enough. Then it is on to constructing the outer layer and the sliders for the modules and the lighting rail. Not to mention the lighting rail itself 😉

Stay tuned for more!

Posted in the Canopy

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Adding the sewer-dump

Posted on February 13, 2023 by Erik Zandboer| Leave a comment

If you want a paludarium where plants will grow under water, I have learned you need to separate the aquatic water system from the “land” water system. The sewer-dump does just that.

The idea is that any water you add in the aquatic part which is too much will overflow in the sewer-dump. Watering the backdrop for example comes from the sewer dump. Any water falling on the (yet to build) land portion will be dumped here as well.

This accomplishes two things: A steady water level and a clean aquatic water world!

1. A steady water level

Anyone who owns a paludarium will know: The water levels tend to fluctuate constantly. Evaporation, adding water, it just varies all the time. How to solve this? Well, just add water on a regular basis (aka automated!) and make sure the water can overflow from the aquatic part. Like some cool infinity pool that keeps the water level at a constant. Excess water overflows into the sewer-dump section.

2. Clean aquatic water

Over time inside a paludarium soil will form. You can choose to add soil, or to leave it out… But as the paludarium becomes bio active rotting leaves will form soil. Lots of nutrients, but that will simply overpower the aquatic section. Too much nitrates and phosphorites will kill fish, ruin plant life, and if you are unlucky cause algae to massively bloom instead.

How to make sure that won’t happen? Divide the water systems! The sewer-dump recycles any water for the land portion. Any water from the land portion should flow back into the sewer-dump as well. Aquatic water that is “too much” flows in there as well.

What the sewer-dump looks like

So the sewer-dump in itself is pretty basic: It is a sealed-off portion of the paludarium by glass. I used to have a glass “wall” 10cm from the rear for this, but in order to maximize the aquatic water section this time I decided to make a really small sewer-dump:

The sewer-dump: Nothing more than three glass plates separating the aquatic water system from the “landmass” water system

The trick is of course that these pieces of glass have the exact height of the water level you require inside; in my case it is 5mm below the front window vent.

You can see that there are three PVC feedthroughs; one outside the sewer-dump and two inside. The one outside is used to draw water from the aquatic part into the external canister filter (notice the 3D printed filter cap on the right) so it obviously needs to sit in the aquatic part.

The one in the middle is used for the canister filter return line. Water gets pumped in through the long PVC tube you see in the picture above, which ends up in a (yet to construct) waterfall. That waterfall flows back into the aquatic section closing the loop. It is vitally important that no water gets “spilled” into the sewer-dump in this process!

So where does the excess water in the sewer-dump go?

The PVC tube on the left in the picture above is the real trick: Any excess water will flow through this pipe (in the picture the 20mm PVC tube is too short; I need to order more 😉 ). It will flow out of the paludarium eventually into the sewer (the real world sewer that is). I will capture excess water into a small canister under the paludarium which I will empty using a pump with 6mm hose that goes to the sewer (unfortunately the location of the paludarium is in the mancave, meaning it sits lower than the sewer system in the house).

Posted in Water physics

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Handiest of DIY paludarium tools: A 3D printer

Posted on February 9, 2023 by Erik Zandboer| Leave a comment

Nope, I am not a fanboy of any 3D printer brand, it is a tool for me that (hopefully) gets the job done. Some of the most complex shapes and some of the simplest shapes I have printed for the paludarium… It is always nice to have the ability to print things you just cannot buy (and usually are hard to build otherwise).

The simplest: Alignment washer for the PVC feedthroughs

The awesome guys at Blue Lagoon built me a nice glass setup with holes in the glas predrilled. But these holes are drilled at 29mm, while the actual PVC feedthrough only measures 20mm. Not really a problem, there are wide flanges with rubber rings to cope with the sizing difference. Still, I was able to “misplace” the PVC elements in such a way that it would simply leak. “If only I had a washer at the exact right size”… Uhm… I DO have a 3D printer.

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Posted in 3D printed

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Ordering the Paludarium itself

Posted on February 4, 2023 by Erik Zandboer| Leave a comment

After some measuring, more measuring and several conversations with the people at Blue Lagoon (A Dutch Terrarium shop who build custom terrariums / paludariums), I pulled the trigged and put in an order.

The Big Bad Glass Box has arrived!

It took them less than a week to build. I got a phone call that my paludarium was ready for delivery… So I needed to speed up the construction of the cabinet! I had triple verified where the holes should be drilled in the glass… But that stays exiting every time. Will they have drilled in the right place, did they measure from the outer wall or the inner wall? Did *I* measure correctly when I drilled three big ugly holes in the cabinet for the PVC piping to go through? Luckily, in the end it all worked out great.

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Posted in Glass structure, Paludarium

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Electronics and Waterworks in a Cabinet How?

Posted on January 28, 2023 by Erik Zandboer| Leave a comment

The next issue I faced was one I remember well and I think you may actually “feel” as well: You add stuff and add more stuff in the cabinet underneath, and at some point it is just wires, tubes, pipes and devices… Completely inaccessible.

I wanted to do these things differently this time. What did I come up with? Why not install a slider drawer inside the cabinet! I can put all electronics on one side, water-related stuff (osmosis, heating, valves and pumps) on the other side. If I add enough length to all wires and hoses, I’d be able to pull out the entire
“module” to do work on without banging my head ever again! As a picture says a thousand words:

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Posted in Cabinet

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The Birth of a new paludarium – Palu2022

Posted on January 23, 2023 by Erik Zandboer| 1 Comment

Yes, I am back! Ok, ok, I can hear you saying: “Yeah we are in 2023 and you are building a 2022 model”. Well true, but these things take a LONG way before they actually see the light of day, especially given the nature of the paludarium projects I run. Every single time there is more pipes, more sensors, more lights, more stuff. This project was started over a year ago…

WHY? Well, welcome to the age of Zoom and Teams calls

I have come to the realization that things will not change much after the pandemic. Especially in the world of IT where I am still part of (#IworkForDell !) the movement back to how things were are slow or maybe even absent. Where I used to be on a plane like once a week I am now cooked up in my house doing online calls. Also, it doesn’t help that I do have a room where I can work, but it is in the “Mancave” and it has NO outside windows. Yuck!!

So what to do?

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Posted in Cabinet

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Adding software features to Artemis

Posted on May 24, 2020 by Erik Zandboer| Leave a comment

New things! Everything is progressing nicely. Did additional testing on the 230VAC detection circuit and wrote software to read SHT31 digital humidity/temperature sensors. Also added a ClosedLoop function so analog inputs can be used to compare to store values and have an outputs act on the comparison.

230VAC detection

Finally I had the time to properly measure the mains voltage inputs. No shorts or anything… So I decided to go on and plug in the mains voltage into the Artemis.

The 230VAC detection circuit is connected to D48 (ICP5 on the Arduino), which mean I could potentially measure the exact frequency of the mains AC voltage. Still, I do not require to have that, so instead I built a simple timer that resets if the phase comes up, and counts down if the phase disappears. This way I always have a stable reading on the signal, even when the Artemis accidentally measures on an exact phase zero crossing.

        if (digitalRead(PIN_230V_DETECT) == LOW) // Active? Reset Timer.
        {
                TIM_50HzDetect = 10;
        }
        else
        {
                if (TIM_50HzDetect) // Not active -> count 2 zero and stay.
                {
                        TIM_50HzDetect--;
                }
        }
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Posted in Automation, Paludarium

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Putting Artemis through it paces

Posted on May 20, 2020 by Erik Zandboer| Leave a comment

The hardware is finally in! This post is a geeky tech post as a result 😉 I had some issues soldering an SMT component that was not in stock at the PCB manufacturer… So I needed to solder that manually. After that the rest of the THT components were soldered, and then it was test, update software, test, update software.

Just like the computer render – but this time it is for real! The first prototype is just about ready to go!

Manually soldering a TSSOP28

As I quickly discovered – no fun. The Chinese PCB manufacturer mounted all SMT components, except one: The PCA9685 PWM timer which was out of stock.

So I ordered the chips separately and manually soldered the thing. Using a soldering iron and soldering flux I managed to get the component soldered. Up close it is REALLY ugly, but eh, it works:

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Posted in Automation, Paludarium

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Artemis hardware ordered!

Posted on May 6, 2020 by Erik Zandboer| 3 Comments

After looking at the schematic, looking over it again and once more, then at the PCB once more… I decided there could not be too much wrong with the design as-is… So I pulled the trigger and ordered five PCBs including SMT parts!

After Artemis v1.00 was almost sent to production I did make some last minute changes. That resulted in v1.01 of the hardware. Yesterday was a big day: I finally uploaded my design to jlcpcb.com and progressed with the order!

Exciting! The PCB or Artemis v1.01 finally went into production.
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Posted in Automation, Paludarium

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Final tweaking to Artemis, the smart paludarium controller

Posted on April 29, 2020 by Erik Zandboer| 1 Comment

Getting ready to have the main PCB built in China, I discovered some things that made me rethink… And make some pretty radical changes to the PCB… Enter v1.01!

Change 1: PWM for LEDs in high-res

The most major change “came to light” when I played with a prototype to control my new LED panel. Right now it uses PWM directly from the Arduino, so that is 256 steps (8 bit resolution).

But especially at lower light intensities I can see the LEDs take their steps. As I also have 16 channels controlled by a PCA9685 chip which is 12 bit resolution (so 4096 steps), I decided to use the PCA9685 outputs to run lighting. This in turn meant I needed to rethink which outputs work on 12V and which ones work on 24V. In the end I solved the puzzle and came up with a clean design:

Artemis v1.01: Changes to the layout of 12V and 24V power feeds and connectors. Note the large 6 pin connectors on the left: They are 24V RGB-CCT outputs now run from the PCA9685 PWM chip.
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Posted in Automation, Paludarium

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