Arduino Based Aquarium Auto Lighting System: 6 Steps

In this DIY guide I will show you how to make your own Arduino aquarium auto lighting system. In this project I decided to make my own PCB that is based on Arduino UNO microcontroller - Atmega328p. Bellow you will find the electronic schematic with PCB layout so you can easily produce it. The current time can be set for the first time (or when the coin batteryis low) via the serial monitor. You can change the "lighting change time" or led color from code.

Project updates and more Arduino projects can be found here:

http://www.ardumotive.com/arduino-aquarium-auto-l...

Watch the video below:

Let's get started!

Step 1: What You Will Need - Hardware

For this project you will need:

Our custom PCB circuit

Atmega328 (with Arduino UNO bootloader)

NeoPixel Digital RGB LED Waterproof

DS1307 Serial RTC

28 dip socket & 8 dip socket

16 MHz crystal oscillator

32.768 MHz crystal oscillator

2x22 pF capacitors

3x10 k Ohm resistors

Coin Cell Battery Holder

Screw terminal 2P 2.54mm

Pin Header 1x5 Female 2.54mm

You will also need a TTL to USB module or an Arduino UNO board for the programming procedure.

For power you will need a 5V-1A power adapter or you can use a usb cable as I did.

Step 2: The Circuit at EasyEDA, the Free Online Circuit Design Platform

Click here to see and make any changes to the above circuit.

Step 3: The Code

Connect your circuit with TTL to USB module with 5 cables to the programming header.

The pins RX and TX must be cross-connected.

NOTE: If you are using the Arduino UNO board make sure to remove the ATmega328 IC from it first and connect the headers RX to RX and TX to TX pins of the board. The RS pin must be connected to Arduino UNO reset pin.

Download the code from here and open it with Arduino IDE. Inside you will also find the library file.

Changes that you can make:

Number of neopixels that you have at line 13
Fade effect time at line 32
Changing lighting color time and color at lines 59-71

Note: Function setColor(0,0,1); will turn off the led strip and setColor(255,255,255) will set -full brightness - white color.

Current time can be set from serial motior (check the video in the first page)

Step 4: JLCPCB - Make Your Own Circuit Boad From 2$!

Click here to produce your PCB board!
Use JLCPCB for $2 PCB Fabrication & 2-day Build Time, the quality is really good, check the below photo of our pcb board.