PBA: Pleco Breeding Assistant

A small monitor that reports the external, fishroom and water change parameters to have suitable water parameters and induce breeding. These two features already represent 50% of the "reproductive success of Pleco".

Everything has been realized with a UDOO Quad board. UDOO DUAL/QUAD is a single board computer that can run Android or Linux OS, and also features an Arduino-compatible microcontroller embedded onboard. It is a powerful prototyping board for software development and design. Easy to use, it allows to develop projects with minimum knowledge of hardware design. UDOO DUAL/QUAD merges different computing worlds together: each one has its proper strengths and weak points, but all of them are useful in todays life for educational purposes as well as Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and quick prototyping. UDOO DUAL/QUAD is an open hardware, low-cost platform equipped with an ARM i.MX6 NXP® processor, and an Arduino Due compatible section based on ATMEL SAM3X8E ARM processor, all this available on the same board!

The Arduino has been used with the following sensors:

• BMP180 Temperature and pressure sensor
• TDS Conductivity sensor
• DS18B20 Immersion temperature sensor
• Netatmo Environmental sensors
• Engage Efergy Consumption sensors

The wiring diagram is as follows

To visualize the data instead it has been realized a python script to collect data from various sensors and display them through a dedicated web page

The monitor shows

• The current consumption necessary to heat the water in the exchange tank
• Temperature, humidity and external pressure
• Temperature, humidity and pressure in the fish room
• Temperature and conductivity in the exchange tank
• An icon showing if it is raining
• An icon that lights up in "green" in case there are conditions to stimulate reproduction (low fishroom pressure, rain, low conductivity of the exchange water, low exchange water temperature)