Electronics New fish lever switch

I was wandering around wondering in an electronics store today, and found a new, even better switch  for my fish activated lever on my demand fish feeder.

It looks like this.

The one on the left is what Im using now, and I had to glue some tubing on it so that it looked more like the one on the right.

The one on the right already looks absurd without my having to glue anything to it at all.

I have no idea why someone would need an inch long press button switch.

Unless they were using it as a fish lever.





I mentioned to the owner that the switches could be triggered with sideways pressure.

He didnt know that.

It seems the manufacturer didnt intend it, and it is just a pleasantly useful side affect of the manufacturing process. .





120 Things in 20 years - Getting ever close to filling up my brain with new facts about electronics and absurdly long new fish lever switches for my aquaponics demand feeder.

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Electronics Aquaponics Demand feeder lever

Probably the most difficult single thing to deal with in making my demand feeder has been working out the lever.

But as usual I called upon chance to solve it for me.

Thanks chance.

For some reason I remembered playing with a switch I bought when I was making the first version of this demand feeder. The switch was one that is a button, and turns on then off again after you lift your finger.

Its sideways click seemed nice to the touch.

The one pictured (centre front) is the same, but is on an old circuit board. I cant find my original version.



Its quite long for a momentary switch.


The interesting thing about these particular, particularly long momentary switches, is they they do their switching thing if you tilt the button to the side rather than just press it. I just tested this one and it works.

They also work if you press it, but its the sideways switchyness that interests me. It should be perfect as the lever the fish hit, because they can hit it from any direction and it should trigger.




Now all I need to do is figure out which brand they are, and if they all work like that. It might be the case that only some of them do this. It might be a manufacturing error rather than a feature.

Perhaps manufacturing error is too harsh.

Perhaps manufacturing  tolerance would be better.

Either way, I might be able to use it.



120 Things in 20 years - As luck might have it, for the next few days, you might find me in electronics stores with a multimeter, trying to find a switch for my electronic, aquaponics demand feeder lever.

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Handmade fishing lures Mold making Prototyping plastic

I just discovered my new favourite substance.

Its even better than PVC.

Maybe it is PVC.

I dont know.

I was in my local electronics store checking switches, and was sold some of this stuff.

Its plastic that you can warm up and shape.

You need to get it to around 65 degrees c before it melts into itself.

Once hot, you can shape it into anything you can think of.

Pictured here is a bit I squeezed.

It retains fine detail like fingerprints, and when dry, it sets white like the beads again.

It sets to a strong plastic with a little flex, a lot like a soft drink (soda) bottle cap.




My first use was to make a very specific battery pack that didnt exist as far as I could tell.  Its great to work with, and totally recyclable. You just drop it back into hot water, and it re-melts.

I would guess you have around a minute to work with where you can press two bits together and they form one. And perhaps another minute where you can still shape it, but pressing two bits together wouldnt quite become one.

If you need more time to work it, you just put whatever youve half made back into hot water and it softens again.

Very cool stuff that I think Im going to need to buy in bulk.



120 Things in 20 years is excited about making handmade fishing lures, and just general prototyping  In reality, I have no idea what Ill do with it, but its exciting just knowing about it. Im easily excited.

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Electronics Aquaponics Demand feeder fish lever build

I spent some time in an electronics store testing long buttoned momentary switches.

They all seem to work when you tilt the button to the side as well as when you press the button normally. Perhaps they are designed to work that way after all.

Thanks button maker.

I had a bit of a breakthrough with the entire lever, and not just the switch part. I found this fishing float had a white plastic bit that almost fit over the momentary switchs button.

Thats the switch lower right.

The white plastic thing was hollow, but needed a slight enlargement with a hand held drill.

The button went in with a snug fit, and the white thing was really their just to give me some surface area glue onto.

The new lever incorporated a second fishing float as the stem, and as a nice bulb for the fish to hit.

The float stem has a bit of flex to it, so it should be forgiving if a fish hits it hard.

It looked lie this when built.

I glued it in place with super glue, and held it while it dried with what to me looks like a naked chicken with a fist for a head.

So now my device looks like this.

It also works.

I turned it on, and while I was putting a cover over the fish tank, the bigger of my two fish hit the lever and got a feed.

I did have the camera running, but the video was too dark to post, but the switch and lever worked perfectly.

I count this as a success!











120 Things in 20 years suggests you never try to take your electronic aquaponics demand feeder on a plane with you, unless you feel like explaining it for a few hours.

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Thinking Local knowledge

When I was in Papua New Guinea - Madang in particular (I think) Mum found some locals that were willing to let us borrow their canoe for a dollar or two per day. I was quite young at the time, and remember being scared when I could see the bottom, but completely relaxed when I couldnt.

That has baffled me for many years until I experienced a recent fishing trip near Port Pirie (South Australia). The clear waters brought on a vivid memory of the Medang canoe trips. The problem I was having was a fear of heights.The water was so clear, that I felt I was going to fall the thirty feet to the bottom.

Not such a strong sensation when witnessed as a grownup, but as a little kid, it was enough to scare.

The point of this is to introduce a story that will be wrapped up much more quickly than he introduction.

I nabbed a cowrie as a result of spending every day I could snorkelling. (sorry nature). It was a real treasure to me, and I was desperate to take it home to South Australia. It was only a few days before our departure date, and I had no idea how to get the now dead snail out of its home in time for a trip through customs.

A local kid offered a solution.

Juts let it sit next to an ants nest for a bit.

It worked a treat.

The moral...

Have a problem that needs solving?

Ask a kid.

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Aquaponics Over Flow

I wandered out to my system last night, and had what is commonly known as an HSM.

It must stand for Holy Ship Moment.

One of my grow beds was flooded, and there didnt seem to be any reason why.

This is the scene a few minutes after the pump was switched off.

There was water on the floor, and the pump was sucking in small air bubble through the little tornado that had formed in the shallow water over the pump inlet.

I couldnt figure out what was going on, so did a search of the system.

I found this blockage in the stand pipe.

It was stuck really well, but eventually to hammer it out with a length of dowel and a hammer.

The culprit, shown here, was a small piece of scoria.

This growbeds media is scoria.

I also found bird droppings. Im guessing a blackbird was in there throwing things around and looking for worms.

I do actually have an over flow pipe, added when I first built the little system, but the input flow from my bigger pump is much greater these days, so the little pipe wasnt up to the task.

Even so, its a good thing it was there because I think it saved the day by delaying the disaster until I discovered it.

Ill upgrade the pipe to cope with the new greater flow, and Ive put a PVC cap over the media guard so that particular issue cant happen again.





120 Things in 20 years think the last thing an aquaponics system needs is excitement when it comes to overflows.

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Electronics Breadboard multimeter adapter

For some time now Ive been looking for a convenient way to probe around my breadboard with my multimeter. It can be a little tricky, because the probes are too thick to get into the little holes on the breadboard.


I had a bit of an idea today.

I came up with this...

Its a stereo headphone jack with a long length of header pin (sturdy wire used as a plug) soldered to the legs.

I added some insulation in the form of heatshrink, and...

TaDah!

The 120 Things in 20 years multimeter breadboard adapter.

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