Week 4

3d Prints

Key findings & issues:

Whilst running tests on our system, our sensors were rarely upright as dip them into the water.
- This is detrimental to our set-up especially since this will cause the water levels read off by the float sensor to be inaccurate.
- Hence, we decided to implement a Sensor Housing which will aid us in keeping our sensors upright and make our set-up more reliable.
The Clean Tank Sensor Hub helps facilitate easy removal of the clean & waste water tanks without the need to dismantle the electronics.
LCD housing allows us to more easily fixate the LCD onto the fish tank.

Siphon Effect diagram

Key issues & findings:

Whilst we were testing our system, we found that the siphon effect occurs and water is continuously pumped out of the fish tank into the waste-water tank even after the water pump has been switched off.
- This is because, when the pump turns on and fills up the water pipe, the pipe cannot be emptied out as by doing so it will be creating a vacuum
  - Since water travels from a region of higher pressure to lower pressure this vacuum will not be able to exist and water will not be able to ‘separate’ and empty out the pipe
- As such, water will continuously flow out until the pressure at the start of the pipe = pressure at the end of the pipe
To prevent this ‘siphon effect’, we must ensure that pressure at the end of the pipe is always greater than the pressure at the start of the pipe.
- This allows for water to stop flowing when the pump is turned off and no external force allows for water to flow.
- To achieve this, we must place the waste water tank at a higher position than the fish tank.