To note
Overview
MQTT Topic Changes
Software changes
Firstly
Secondly
Thirdly
Lastly
Test

Published May 10, 2018 © GPL3+

Fishtank Controller Upgrade

This is an upgrade to my Fishtank controller project to integrate it with my home automation system.

IntermediateShowcase (no instructions)2 hours1,217

Things used in this project

Software apps and online services

Domoticz Home Automation System

Node-RED

Arduino IDE

MQTT

Story

To note:

This project relies upon you having a RaspberryPi Zero running a Domoticz home automation server (quite easily made) with Node-Red and is setup as a MQTT Broker.

Overview

My fish tank controller was my first project I had made after learning basic Arduino IDE and ESP8266 programming, the fishtank was the first I built and installed after this I setup my home automation system along with some temperature sensors and other things so as natural progression I have integrated this into my Domoticz System and moved away from solely using an android app.

User friendly drop down box control:

Control Switch Within Domoticz

Additionally I also have the feedback that is displayed within Domoticz:

Feedback as text object

MQTT Topic Changes

The domoticz home automation system uses MQTT topics 'domoticz/in' and 'domoticz/out', the 'in' topic is for sending to the domoticz system the 'out' is outgoing information from it. So when the control switch is changed the below JSON message is sent out ;

{ "Battery" : 255, "LevelActions" : "|||||||", "LevelNames" : "Off|Lights Off|Lights On|Bubbles Off|Bubbles On|Filter Off|Filter On|Time Check", "LevelOffHidden" : "true", "RSSI" : 12, "SelectorStyle" : "1", "description" : "", "dtype" : "Light/Switch", "id" : "00014071", "idx" : 33, "name" : "FishTank Control", "nvalue" : 2, "stype" : "Selector Switch", "svalue1" : "30", "switchType" : "Selector", "unit" : 1 }

This contains far too much info so I use Node-Red to shorten this, as described below in more detail. Once converted I send the reduced JSON message out on the original 'home/fishtank/control' topic.

Software changes

Firstly:

I had to modify the program for the ESP12 via Arduino IDE to receive the Domoticz specific payloads, previously the ESP12 expected payloads of 1 thru 7 the Domoticz switch object sends payloads in increments of tens so the program was simply changed to expect 10 thru 70.

Secondly:

The ESP12 needed changing so it could parse JSON messages, so I had to add arduinojson.h library, as described below:

Within the MQTT callback function (when a message is received), the message is placed inside a buffer (inData) to which the arduinojson.h library ultimately interrogates and parses the objects and values into their respective parts for use within the program.

In this example the key information I receive is the idx and the svalue1. The idx is the individual device id from my Home Automation System this makes sure the ESP12 control is working to the correct device. The svalue1 is the selector value to tell the ESP12 what to do.

From this we can see providing idx 33 is received we then read the svalue1 and operate the fish tank to corresponding control state. At the same the controller provides feedback that it has received the control, this feedback is a simple numeric string sent back for the Node-Red software to convert.

Thirdly:

Setup Domoticz, this is relatively easy, once a switch point was added, I needed to go into the setup and change the selector values to correspond with the fishtank controller itself:

Lastly:

Setup the Node-Red as a middle man, due to the large size of the Domoticz messages and also I forgot about the feedback points to rather modifying the ESP12 program I added some flows to my Node-Red.

Selector Switch flow

The Selector switch flow mainly removes switch un-necessary object from the original JSON message from the home automation system.

Feedback Flow

The feedback flow converts the numeric strings into description text strings which it passes to the home automation system.

I appreciate this step could be engineered out, I might do one day!!

Test

Turn on the Bubbles (aerator):

Control Switch

Feedback from fishtank

Treasure chest opens to provide the fish with some air!

Code

Fish Controller Version2

#include "ESPHelper.h"
#include <ArduinoJson.h>
#include <NtpClientLib.h>
#include <TimeLib.h>
#include "Chrono.h"

Chrono myChrono(Chrono::SECONDS);

#define TOPIC "home/fishtank/control"
#define STATUS_TOPIC "home/fishtank/status"
#define LIGHT_PIN 5
#define PUMP_PIN 4
#define BUBBLES_PIN 13
#define NETWORK_HOSTNAME "ESP12FishTank"
#define OTA_PASSWORD "YourOTAPassword" // Create your own unique password for OTA updates

char* CtrlTopic = TOPIC;
char* statusTopic = STATUS_TOPIC;
char* hostnameStr = NETWORK_HOSTNAME;
char* otaPassword = OTA_PASSWORD;

const int LightPin = LIGHT_PIN;
const int PumpPin = PUMP_PIN;
const int BubblesPin = BUBBLES_PIN;

bool LightSts = false;
bool PumpSts = false;
bool BubblesSts = false;

boolean syncEventTriggered = false; // True if a time even has been triggered
NTPSyncEvent_t ntpEvent; // Last triggered event

int8_t timeZone = 0;

int ActHr = 0;
int ActMin = 0;
int ActDay = 0;
int Selector = 0;

netInfo homeNet = {  .mqttHost = "***.***.***.***",     //Your MQQT Brokers IP Adress
          .mqttUser = "",   //can be blank depending on your broker config
          .mqttPass = "",   //can be blank depending on your broker config
          .mqttPort = 1883,         //default port for MQTT is 1883 - only chance if needed.
          .ssid = "WIFISSID", // Your wifi SSID 
          .pass = "WIFICode"};
ESPHelper myESP(&homeNet);

const size_t bufferSize = JSON_OBJECT_SIZE(7) + 80;
DynamicJsonBuffer jsonBuffer(300);

void callback(char* topic, byte* payload, unsigned int length) {
  // handle message arrived
  const size_t bufferSize = JSON_OBJECT_SIZE(7) + 80;
  DynamicJsonBuffer jsonBuffer(300);
  char inData[150];
  Serial.print("payload: ");
  for(int i =0; i<length; i++){
    Serial.print((char)payload[i]);
    inData[i] = (char)payload[i];
  }
  Serial.println();
  JsonObject& root = jsonBuffer.parseObject(inData);  
  int Battery = root["Battery"];
  int RSSI = root["RSSI"];
  char description = root["description"];
  char dtype = root["dtype"];
  char id = root["id"];
  int idx = root["idx"];
  Serial.println("idx: ");
  Serial.println(idx);
  char dt = root["dt"];
  float svalue1 = root["svalue1"];
  float svalue = root["svalue"];
  if (idx == 33){
    int CmdSelect = svalue1;
    if (CmdSelect==10){
        myESP.publish(statusTopic,"10",true);  
        LightSts = false;
    }
    else if (CmdSelect==20){
        myESP.publish(statusTopic,"20",true);
        LightSts = true;
    }
    else if (CmdSelect==30){
        myESP.publish(statusTopic,"30",true);
        BubblesSts = false;
    }
    else if (CmdSelect==40){
        myESP.publish(statusTopic,"40",true);
        BubblesSts = true;
    }
    else if (CmdSelect==50){
        myESP.publish(statusTopic,"50",true);
        PumpSts = false;
    }
    else if (CmdSelect==60){
        myESP.publish(statusTopic,"60",true);
        PumpSts = true;
    }
    else if (CmdSelect==70){
        Serial.println("Payload Received 70");
        myESP.publish(statusTopic,"70",true);
        Serial.print("1. Got NTP time : ");
        Serial.println(NTP.getTimeDateString(NTP.getLastNTPSync()));
        NTP.onNTPSyncEvent([](NTPSyncEvent_t event) {
        ntpEvent = event;
        if (ntpEvent) {
          Serial.print("Time Sync error: ");
          myESP.publish(statusTopic,"611",true);
          if (ntpEvent == noResponse)
            Serial.println("NTP server not reachable");
          else if (ntpEvent == invalidAddress)
            Serial.println("Invalid NTP server address");
        }
        else {
        delay(100);
        Serial.print("2. Got NTP time: ");
        Serial.println(NTP.getTimeDateString(NTP.getLastNTPSync()));
        myESP.publish(statusTopic,"661",true);
        }    
        syncEventTriggered = true;
        });
        delay(3000);
        String xActHr = String(ActHr);   
        String xActMin = String(ActMin);
        String xTime = String(xActHr + xActMin);
        char xTimex[5];
        xTime.toCharArray(xTimex,5);  
        Serial.print("Current Time: ");
        Serial.println(xTimex);
        myESP.publish(statusTopic,xTimex,true);
    }
  }  
}


void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200); //start the serial line
  delay(500);
  Serial.println("Starting Up, Please Wait...");
  myESP.OTA_enable();
  myESP.OTA_setPassword(otaPassword);
  myESP.OTA_setHostnameWithVersion(hostnameStr);
  myESP.OTA_begin();
  myESP.addSubscription(CtrlTopic);
  myESP.begin();
  myESP.setMQTTCallback(callback);
  NTP.begin("***.***.***.***", timeZone, true);
  NTP.setInterval(3600);
  Serial.print("Got NTP time: ");
  Serial.println(NTP.getTimeDateString(NTP.getLastNTPSync())); 
  pinMode(LightPin, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(LightPin, LOW);
  pinMode(PumpPin, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(PumpPin, LOW);
  pinMode(BubblesPin, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(BubblesPin, LOW);
  myChrono.restart();  
  Serial.println("Initialization Finished.");
  delay(100);
  
}

void loop(){
  myESP.loop();  //run the loop() method as often as possible - this keeps the network services running
  time_t t = now();
  ActHr = hour();
  ActMin = minute();
  ActDay = weekday();
  if (myChrono.hasPassed(3,true)){
    if (ActHr == 21 && ActMin == 45){
      if (BubblesSts == false && ActDay != 7){
        BubblesSts = true;  
      }
      if (LightSts == true){
        LightSts = false;  
      }
      if (PumpSts == false){
        PumpSts = true;  
      }
    }
    if (ActHr == 06 && ActMin == 00){
      if (LightSts == false){
        LightSts = true;  
      }
      if (PumpSts == false){
        PumpSts = true;  
      }
    }
    if (ActHr == 07 && ActMin == 00){
      if (BubblesSts == true){
        BubblesSts = false;
      }  
    }
    switch (BubblesSts){
      case false:
        digitalWrite(BubblesPin, LOW);
        break;
      case true:
        digitalWrite(BubblesPin, HIGH);
        break;
    }
    switch (LightSts){
      case false:
        digitalWrite(LightPin, LOW);
        break;
      case true:
        digitalWrite(LightPin, HIGH);
        break;
    }
    switch (PumpSts){
      case false:
        digitalWrite(PumpPin, LOW);
        break;
      case true:
        digitalWrite(PumpPin, HIGH);     
        break;
    }
  }
  delay(10);
  yield();
}

Credits

Robert Allan

6 projects • 14 followers

Maker of things.... some get completed....

Contact

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Fishtank Controller Upgrade