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LOW MAINTENANCE AQUARIUM: AUTOMATIC CONTROLLER SYSTEM FOR WATER LEVEL SENSOR,TEMPERATURE AND FOOD DISPENSER SYSTEM.

C.PREM ANAND S/O CHANDIA SEKHARA

This report is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of Bachelor of Electronic Engineering (Industrial Electronics) With Honors

Faculty of Electronic and Computer Engineering

Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka

May 2011

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UNIVERSTI TEKNIKAL MALAYSIA MELAKA

FAKULTI KEJURUTERAAN ELEKTRONIK DAN KEJURUTERAAN KOMPUTER

BORANG PENGESAHAN STATUS LAPORAN

PROJEK SARJANA MUDA II

Tajuk Projek : Low maintenance aquarium :Automatic controller system for water level sensor, temperature and food dispenser system

Sesi Pengajian : 2010/ 2011

Saya C.PREM ANAND S/O CHANDIA SEKHARA mengaku membenarkan Laporan Projek Sarjana Muda ini disimpan di Perpustakaan dengan syarat-syarat kegunaan seperti berikut:

1. Laporan adalah hakmilik Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka.

2. Perpustakaan dibenarkan membuat salinan untuk tujuan pengajian sahaja.

3. Perpustakaan dibenarkan membuat salinan laporan ini sebagai bahan pertukaran antara institusi

pengajian tinggi.

4. Sila tandakan ( √ ) :

SULIT*

*(Mengandungi maklumat yang berdarjah keselamatan atau kepentingan Malaysia seperti yang termaktub di dalam AKTA RAHSIA RASMI 1972)

TERHAD** **(Mengandungi maklumat terhad yang telah ditentukan oleh organisasi/badan di mana penyelidikan dijalankan)

TIDAK TERHAD

Disahkan oleh:

__________________________ ___________________________________

(TANDATANGAN PENULIS) (COP DAN TANDATANGAN PENYELIA)

Tarikh: ________________________ Tarikh: ________________________

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“I hereby declare that this report is the result of my own work except for quotes as cited

in the references.”

Signature : ……………………

Author : C.PREM ANAND S/O CHANDIA SEKHARA

Date : ……………………

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“I hereby declare that I have read this report and in my opinion this report is sufficient in

terms of the scope and quality for the award of Bachelor of Electronic Engineering

(Industrial Electronics) With Honours.”

Signature : ……………………………………...

Supervisor’s Name : Engr. Zarina Binti Mohd Noh

Date : ……………………………………...

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To my beloved father, mother, and all my siblings and friends.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, I would like to praise God for HIS blessing. He gave me

physical and mental to carry on my final year project from the beginning up to

completion. I would like to express gratitude and thanks to my supervisor, Engr. Zarina

Binti Mohd Noh for her support and unfailing patience throughout the duration of the

project. Her encouragement and guidance are truly appreciated. Otherwise, this project

has not been possible. I have learnt a lot under her guidance, be it practically or

theoretically. Other than that, I am also grateful to my all friends who help me and

giving me opinion along implementation of this project. I would like to thanks my parent

and my girlfriend on their moral support as I can count on them whenever I am upset or

down. Finally, I would like to offer thanks and deepest gratitude from the bottom of my

heart for all the support, encouragement and inspirations I obtained throughout the

duration of this project. The help rendered to me priceless, be it from the smallest of its

kind to the largest.

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ABSTRACT

LOMAQ (Low Maintenance Aquarium) project is built for fish farming with less

human interface. The project is based on a microcontroller circuit to control the circuit

of equipment used on fish farming. The microcontroller (PIC) has a keypad to act as

input made to set the timer to control the equipment. All equipment used is controlled by

timer. Equipments controlled are light, water pump and food dispenser. There is a timer

sensor to show the temperature of the environment and the data is shown on LCD screen.

The system would supply the oxygen and food according to the need of the aquarium

and cleans the aquarium periodically. The cutting edge of this system is that human can

always give the input according to the needs. There would be input interface in the

system where it could be altered according to the current needs. Where else the lighting

would be pre set to operate in the given timing. The main idea is to make it as a selling

product using PIC as the controller .The advantage of this project is that it’s very

versatile and very flexible. The system could be integrated with on the market appliance

without regarding the brand, type or size. It’s also flexible via its need of use. It can be

used for large scale or small scale. The project would be done in small scale as a

prototype. Main purpose of this project is reducing human interference in maintaining an

aquarium. Besides that it would also help to cut cost of electricity usage.

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ABSTRAK

Projek LOMAQ (Low Maintainance Aquarium) adalah untuk penternakan ikan

dengan kurang pendedahan manusia iaitu separa automatic.Projek ini dicipta berasaskan

mikropengawal untuk mengendalikan litar serta peralatan dalam penternakan ikan.Litar

mikropengawal PIC mempunyai keypad sebagai input masa untuk mengedalikan

peralatan.Kesemua peralatan yang gunakan dikawalkan menggunakan pemasa

(timer).Peralatan yang dikawal adalah lampu neon,pam air/oksigen dan kotak

pengagihan makanan.Selain itu,terdapat sensor suhu untuk menunjukkan suhu sekitar

dan kesemua data akan dipaparkan pada skrin LCD. Bagi pengagihan makanan,sela

masa yang diperlukan perlu disetkan menggunakan keypad yang telah

disediakan.Apabila sudah disetkan,pengagihan makanan sudah menjadi aktif.Maka ia

akan mula aktif dan menyalurkan makanan pada sela masa yang telah disetkan dalam

tempoh minit. Had operasi pengeluaran makanan adalah 10 saat sahaja. Maksudnya

motor didalam pengagih makanan akan berfungsi selama 10 saat sahaja dan makanan

akan keluar dalam 10 saat sahaja. Bagi pembekal oksigen dan penapis oksigen,

prosesnya juga sama. Sela masa yang diperlukan disetkan menggunakan keypad yang

disediakan. Prosesnya akan aktif mengikut sela masa yang talah ditetapkan. Oksigen

akan dibekalkan dan air juga akan mula ditapiskan. Sela masa yang ditetapkan adalah

dalam minit.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER CONTENT PAGE

TITLE i

DECLARATION ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT vi

ABSTRACT vii

ABSTRAK viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ix

LIST OF FIGURES xiii

LIST OF TABLES xv

LIST OF ABBREVIATION xvi

LIST OF APPENDIX xvii

CHAPTER 1

1.0 Introduction 1

1.1 Objective of project 2

1.2 Problem Statements 2

1.3 Scope of Project 3

1.4 Methodology 3

1.5 Expected outcome of the project 5

1.6 Thesis outline 5

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CHAPTER 2

2.0 Literature Review 6

2.1 Introduction 6

2.2 The Process 8

2.3 Maintaining the nitrogen cycle 8

2.4 Biological Loading 10

2.4.1 Calculating aquarium capacity 10

2.4.2 Factors affecting capacity 11

2.5 Water 12

2.5.1 Water Privileges 13

2.5.2 Water Quality 13

2.5.3 Dissolved Material 13

2.5.4 General Parameters 14

2.5.5 Hardness 14

2.6 Temperature 14

2.7 Lighting 15

2.8 Water Level 15

2.9 The component and devices 16

2.9.1 Temperature Sensor (LM 35) 16

2.9.2 Water Level Sensor (LM 324 18

2.9.3 Light Sensor (LDR-Light Dependent Resistor) 19

2.9.4 PIC1F452 Microcontroller 20

2.9.5 Oscillator 26

2.9.6 Reset 27

2.9.7 Memory Organization 28

2.9.8 Flash Program Memory 30

2.9.9 Interrupt 31

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CHAPTER 3

3.0 Methodology 33

3.1 Overview 33

3.2 Main Board 33

3.2.1 Microcontroller – PIC 18F452 34

3.2.2 Temperature Sensor 36

3.2.3 Water Level Sensor 37

3.2.4 Lighting Sensor 39

CHAPTER 4

4.0 Result and Analysis 44

4.1 Project Result 44

4.2 Analysis of Result 45

4.3 Software Implementation 46

4.3.1 MPLAB Software 46

4.3.2 PICkit 2V 2.55 Software with USB 7CSP PIC Programmer 50

4.4 Flow Chart 51

4.5 Programming Development 52

4.5.1 Initialization Part 53

4.5.2 Main Programming Part 56

4.5.3 Subroutine Part 58

4.6 Circuit Diagram 60

4.7 Circuit Layout 61

4.8 Discussion 63

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CHAPTER 5

5.0 Future Recommendation And Conclusion 64

5.1 Future Recommendation 64

5.2 Project Conclusion 65

REFFERENCES 66

APPENDIXS 68

xiii

LIST OF FIGURES

NO TITLE PAGE 1.1 The block diagram of the system 4 2.1 The project design of Robert Warrington who builds the first 7 Aquarium. 2.2 19 liter aquarium 12 2.3 The LM35 package 17 2.4 LM324 pin connection. 18 2.5 Light dependent resistor figure and symbol. 19

2.6 Graph resistance vs. Illumination. 20 2.7 Microcontroller PIC18F452 pin diagram. 22 2.8 PIC18F452 block diagram. 25 2.9 Crystal/Ceramic Resonator Operation 26 2.10 External Power-On reset Circuit 28 2.11 Shows the Program and Stack for PIC18F452. 28 2.12 Data Memory Map for Pic18f252/452 30 3.1 PIC18F452 schematic circuit 35 3.2 Temperature Sensor Schematic 36 3.3 Water level sensor schematic diagram. 38 3.4 LM324 pin connection. 39 3.5 Lighting sensor circuit schematic. 40 3.6 Graph resistance vs. Illumination. 40 3.7 System flowchart 42

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4.1 MPLAB window after done create a project 47 4.2 MPLAB window after add file. 48 4.3 MPLAB window after write the programming 48 4.4 MPLAB window when programming successfully builds 49 4.5 MPAB window when programming unsuccessfully builds 49 4.6 PIC kit2 software window before and after successful download 50 hex file 4.7 USB ICSP PIC programmer diagram 51 4.8 Circuit diagram for the main board 60 4.9 Circuit layout for the main board, using EAGLECADD software. 61

4.10 Circuit layout for the main board, using EAGLECADD software 62 (Basic view.)

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LIST OF TABLES

No TITLE PAGE

2.1 PIC18F452 Specification. 22

2.2 Capacitor Selection for Crystal Oscillator 27

4.1 The sensor and the voltage output 45

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LIST OF ABREVATIATION

ADC ANALOG TO DIGITAL CONVERTER

ALU ARITHMETIC LOGIC UNIT

BCD BINARY CODED DECIMAL

CCW CONTER CLOCKWISE

CH CLOCK HERTZ

CP CODE PROTECTION

CW CLOCKWISE

GND GROUND

IC INTEGRATED CIRCUIT

ICSP IN CIRCUIT SERIAL POGRAMMING

INDF INDIRECT FILE

LED LIGHT EMMITING DIODE

PC PROGRAM COUNTER

PWRT POWER UP TIMER

PIC PROGRAMMABLE INTEGRATED CIRCUIT

SQW SQUARE WAVE

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LIST OF APPENDIX

NAME TITLE PAGE

A PIC16F877 68

B PROGRAM FOR LCD 72

C PROGRAM FOR KEYPAD 90

D MPLAB IDE and HI-TECH PICC-Lite Installation 96

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

Human is needed to maintain the aquarium where the maintenance could be

neglected if human forget about it or busy with other chores. Besides that, the

electricity cost would increase if the aquarium appliances keep on running without

any usage. Due to the heat the water will vaporize easily[1]. Besides that, there’s no

system at the market that could integrate on the market appliance into a single

system. Feeding the fish is another problem where need to be on time and for fish

breeders need to be there to feed their fish every day, so it makes them bonded to

their routine life and they can’t left it for a longer journey.

The system would supply the oxygen and food according to the need of the

aquarium and cleans the aquarium periodically. The cutting edge of this system is

that human can always give the input according to the needs. There would be input

interface in the system where it could be altered according to the current needs.

Where else the lighting would be pre set to operate in the given timing.

LOMAQ (Low Maintenance Aquarium) project is built for fish farming with

less human interface. The project is based on a microprocessor circuit to control the

circuit of equipment used on fish farming. The microprocessor (PIC) has a keypad to

act as input made to set the timer to control the equipment. All equipment we used is

controlled by timer. Equipments controlled are light, water pump and food dispenser.

There is a timer sensor to show the temperature of the environment and the data is

shown on LCD screen

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1.1 Objective of Project

The objective of this project is to build a prototype aquarium system that can

detect, monitor and control three important aspects to maintaining a healthy

aquarium. The prototype system will control water temperature water level and

lighting hence the aquarium environment are always at normal condition for the fish

in the aquarium.

Able to integrate the controller system with the on the market appliance thus create a system that is very flexible and user friendly. Besides that it could

Able to save time and cost by supplying the oxygen and filter system periodically, and humans have not to worry about it.

Able to reduce human interference. Able to pre set the feeding timing so it will be operating

automatically. Able to monitor the water level in the tank. Able to pump in and out the water to tank according to the need.

1.2 Problem Statement

There are many important aspects inside the aquarium environment need to

be controlled and three of the aspects are lighting, temperature and water level. The

factor why fish inside the aquarium always die because the fish owners do not care

about the quality of aquarium environment..Fish owners don’t have time to monitor

water temperature, water level that is suitable for aquarium environment. Fish

owners don’t know how to control the parameter of aquarium environment that are

suitable for aquarium environment.

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1.3 Scopes of Project

The scopes of this project are electronic component, electrical devise,

computer software and mechanical design. The electronic components used in this

project were PIC18F452 as a microcontroller, LM35 as a temperature sensor, light

dependent resistor (LDR) as a lighting sensor, LM324N as a water level sensor, LCD

16x2, 5V relay and basic electronic component such as resistor, capacitor and others.

The electrical devices used in this project were pump, 200 watt heater, lamp

and fan (12V). This project used microC language to program the microcontroller

and MPLAB v8.10 as a compiler to create the source code and hex file for the

microcontroller. Besides that Altium 2004 is used to design the circuit layout for the

printed circuit board (PCB).

1.4 Methodology

This project can be divided to hardware and software. The hardware parts

consist of four systems. The systems are monitoring system, control system, display

system and output system. The monitoring system consists of temperature sensor

circuit, water level sensor circuit and lighting sensor circuit. Temperature sensor will

sense the water temperature inside the aquarium. The function of water sensor is to

detect low water level inside main aquarium and reserve tank. Besides that the

function of lighting sensor is to detect light intensity outside the aquarium. All

sensors will send analog data to microcontroller.

The Control System consists of PIC18f452 as a microcontroller, Crystal

H49S 20MHz as oscillator, 5V regulator used to regulate high voltage to 5V, reset

button and other basic components. The control systems functions to process data

analog receive from monitoring system and send digital data to display system and

output system.

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The Display system consists of LCD 16x2, LED, Buzzer and push button.

The LCD 16x2 has 2 rows and each row can display 16 characters. First row displays

temperature value while second row displays the condition of the output. There are

five LEDs used inside the display system. One of the LEDs wills ON if the pump is

ON or the heater is ON or the lamp is ON or the fan is ON. Besides that the buzzer

and the LED will ON if the water level inside reserve tank is low.

Figure 1.1: The block diagram of the system

There are two push button used to ON the pump and heater manually. The

output system consists of relay circuits. There are four relay used to control the

pump, the heater, the lamp and the fan. The control system will control the relay by

sending 5V output to the relay. UIC00A USB ICSP PIC PROGRAMMER is used to

download the hex file to the microcontroller.

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1.5 Expected outcome of the project

A system that is able to monitor and carry out the maintenance of an

aquarium automatically with less human interference. Where human could key in the

data or settings required through an interface. A system that is so flexible and user

friendly where it’s easy to use and able to change the configuration as user defines.

1.6 Thesis Out Line

Chapter 1 explain about the, objective of the project, scope of the project and

problem that must be solve while doing this project.

In Chapter 2, the explanation is focusing about the components that have

been use in the circuit to create a standard control system . This chapter also explains

the function of each component in detail.

In Chapter 3, the explanation is about the methodology of the project. The

explanation is more to the operation of the system , sensors application and flow

chart of control sequence before creating a PIC program.

Chapter 4 explains about the simulation and result from the simulation.

Before simulating the circuit, the source code programming for PIC18f452 must be

burn into the PIC using the PIC burner.

Finally , the last chapter explanation about the future recommendation and

the conclusion for the project.

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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

The origins of aquarium keeping have been around for about as long as

keeping food fishes, although the methodology and understanding of aquarium

filtration has varied considerably. The first known formal study of fish was

conducted by the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.). Studying their

structure and other characteristics, he carefully recorded accurate information on 115

species of fish then living in the Aegean Sea. Today, scientists have classified more

than 20,000 species of fish around the world.

Based on the works of Chemist Priestley and Zoologist Johnson, who realized

the plant oxygen relation, Robert Warrington builds the first aquarium. His theory

was, by building a glass structure filled with sand on the bottom, snails, and plants

that can provide oxygen, fish can live forever. The plants would provide oxygen to

the fish, snails eat decaying plants and lay eggs, and the fish feed off of the snail

eggs. The perfect contained cycle. From there on, the hobby flourished. Fueled by

shorter transportation (air traffic was in its infant years), more and more breeders and

the enthusiasts helped make the hobby more popular. The inventions and the

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understanding of water chemistry and fish within the past 30 years has enabled just

about anyone to enjoy fish-keeping with little to no problem.

According to book Common Fish Diseases by Lance Jepson and The

Tropical Aquarium by Gina Sandford, both of these books discussed about the

Aquarium environment. The contents include the aspects in aquarium environment,

the importance of water quality and the effects of bad water quality to the fish.

Temperature or Heat is important to drive fish metabolic process. If the temperature

is too high enzymes will stop working and if too low the enzymes will damage. On

average, most tropical aquariums do best with temperatures ranging from 26ºC to

29ºC.Aquarium not only consist fish but it also consists plant. Light is essential to

promote healthy plant growth and allow you to see your fish. Fish inhale oxygen and

exhale carbon dioxide.

Water level also one of the important aspect. Fish inside the aquarium needs

wide space to swim. If the space is too small space and many fish inside the

aquarium, this situation can make the fishes stress and frightened at last the fish will

die.

Figure 2.1: The project design of Robert Warrington who builds the first aquarium