🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Dec29.222452.16068@ntg.com> dplatt@ntg.com (Dave Platt) writes:
>>serial link.  Some more work will have to be done to determine the optimal
>>protocol for the link and so on.  Most probably have to develop an entirely
>>new one.
>>
>>There is obviously still quite a bit of design to do here, but this is just
>>a start.  Any other ideas would be appreciated. ;)
>
>Kids these days got _no_ sense of proportion.
>
>Why, in the old days, we didn't fiddle around with any of this
>microcontroller nonsense.  We just glued a couple of 1" copper pipes in
>the corners of the aquarium, clamped wires to them, and put them in
>series with the motor power wire.  When the water level dropped below
>the ends of the pipes, the current was cut off and the pump stopped.
>A handful or two of salt in the water make it plenty conductive, and the
>free chlorine electrolyzing off of the electrodes got rid of all that
>algae.  Simple, crude, brute-force... and we liked it!

urinal/toilet water level detector anyone?

of course the physics student approach would probably involve a laser
(a few jillion megawatts worth of ruby or something :-)
shone through the water to a detector on the other end of the tank.
water disperses beam => no detection, no water => detection!

and pretty sparkly effects on the gravel too!

   -ken, the fish is not dead, it's pining for the fjords...

ps: i dont suppose floating the pump itself with a short power cord
    and then when the level drops the cord unplugs... :-)
-- 
   - Ken Dykes, Thinkage Ltd., Kitchener, Ontario, Canada    [43.47N 80.52W]
         kgdykes@thinkage.on.ca   postmaster@thinkage.com   thinkage!kgdykes
         harley-request@thinkage.on.ca             kgdykes@math.uwaterloo.ca