This competition has been mainly the bloging about systems I already had implemented after some fine tuning, recently I found a relatively large group of collaborators around 30 miles from my home who have been working on open sourcing aquaponics control systems, small world! Between us we now have access to multiple test systems, high tech work shops and a wide range of skills. Hopefully this collaboration will lead to more efficient, easier to make automated aquaponics systems, cheap open source options.
Take a look at the group:
Meet The Team At Aquaponics Lab
Having access to multiple systems of varying sizes really helps with testing control strategies and hardware, a good testing regime will allow us to release strong reliable devices/code. So many of the blogs Ive covered will be having updates posted as they are developed further within the group.
Here is a video shot at one of the larger aquaponics set-ups the group is using for testing control systems and an introduction to Paulo, the only guy who is more exited by aquaponics than I am:
So what have Paulo and the group been working on before we collaborated:
Take a look here for the build instructions for the ebb and flow valve: [a cheaper updated version will be up soon!]
How To Build An Air Actuated Water Value - Aquaponics Lab
This valve replaces the awkward auto siphons that cause so many head aches, using a valve like this one will allow us to move to machine/mcu timed flood and drain routines. Increased flexibility and a good step forward towards running sump less systems without compromising fish tank levels. Now we have the proof of cencept tested [18 months] we will work on reducing the price, we will aim for sub $10 per valve.
