Fri Feb 22, 2013, 08:57 PM

X_Digger (13,127 posts)

Fun little project I threw together..

I'm in the middle of setting up a new fish tank and equipment room. In our old house, I had a couple of webcams and usb microscope cameras pointed at the tank. I made a page that the cameras are embedded in, and I also switch out different images in the page depending on the status (on/off) of different devices, pulled from the tank controller I use.

While the new tank is empty, I figured I'd add something to play with.

http://www.rowelab.com/fish/camera/ -- click 'spin the fish'

It's a phidgets SBC running debian, with a stepper motor controller and a stepper motor from an old printer.

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9 replies	Author	Time	Post
Fun little project I threw together.. (Original post)	X_Digger	Feb 2013	OP
This is cool. Is this eventually going to be pointed at the fish?	limpyhobbler	Feb 2013	#1
Yup!	X_Digger	Feb 2013	#2
Very cool.	limpyhobbler	Feb 2013	#3
truly awesome.	Phillip McCleod	Feb 23	#4
Python- it seemed to be the quickest to bring up.	X_Digger	Feb 23	#5
good choice imo	Phillip McCleod	Feb 25	#8
Well hacked, sir!	Recursion	Feb 23	#6
Hehe, thanks! Most of my tinkering involves my tank..	X_Digger	Feb 23	#7
We got bored, so...	X_Digger	Apr 4	#9

Response to X_Digger (Original post)

Fri Feb 22, 2013, 09:15 PM

limpyhobbler (6,681 posts)

1. This is cool. Is this eventually going to be pointed at the fish?

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Response to limpyhobbler (Reply #1)

Fri Feb 22, 2013, 09:18 PM

X_Digger (13,127 posts)

2. Yup!

Last edited Fri Feb 22, 2013, 09:20 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)

I'll fab up a bracket to put the cameras closer to the tank, so that you can pan around and look at the fish and corals.

I'll also set up the USB microscopes again, which will be pointed at the sand / water interface in the refugium (a place to grow and harvest macroalgae to export nitrates.) You see some interesting little critters with a biodiverse marine tank.

For scale, those hairy looking strings are bacteria.

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Response to X_Digger (Reply #2)

Fri Feb 22, 2013, 09:21 PM

limpyhobbler (6,681 posts)

3. Very cool.

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Response to X_Digger (Original post)

Sat Feb 23, 2013, 06:23 AM

Phillip McCleod (1,662 posts)

4. truly awesome.

what language did you choose to write in for the phidgets widget, out of curiosity?

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Response to Phillip McCleod (Reply #4)

Sat Feb 23, 2013, 10:18 AM

X_Digger (13,127 posts)

5. Python- it seemed to be the quickest to bring up.

I didn't do an application framework or anything, just plain old mod_cgi in apache.

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Response to X_Digger (Reply #5)

Mon Feb 25, 2013, 09:12 PM

Phillip McCleod (1,662 posts)

8. good choice imo

but then i'm partial to it.

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Response to X_Digger (Original post)

Sat Feb 23, 2013, 12:33 PM

Recursion (25,552 posts)

6. Well hacked, sir!

I raise a beer in your honor.

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Response to Recursion (Reply #6)

Sat Feb 23, 2013, 12:41 PM

X_Digger (13,127 posts)

7. Hehe, thanks! Most of my tinkering involves my tank..

Last edited Sat Feb 23, 2013, 12:49 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)

I wrote a tcl script to scrape the stats from my tank controller and they get pushed to the scrolling sign in my office..

And I made a service that others with tank controllers can use to generate signatures for forum posts..

eta: I eventually want to make a set of rails for the stepper motors, to move the camera itself up and down, left and right, rather than just having it pivot from the same fixed point.

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Response to X_Digger (Original post)

Thu Apr 4, 2013, 09:15 PM

X_Digger (13,127 posts)

9. We got bored, so...

.. there's something new in the tank to look at.

http://srv.rowelab.com/fish/camera/

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