Water-station safety controller
Leak detection and automatic shutoff for the lab plumbing, with tests that prove the shutoff works before anything is trusted to it.
Sketch of the plan, not a photo. Not built yet.
What it is
A controller that watches for water where water should not be, and closes a valve when it finds some. Leak sensors on the floor and under the tanks, a shutoff valve on the supply, and a loud, obvious alarm.
The interesting part is the testing: a written routine for spilling water on purpose and checking the valve closes every time.
Why build it
A lab with tanks, pumps and electronics in the same room needs a boring, reliable answer to “what if it leaks at night?”
A safety device nobody has tested is a decoration. So the test plan is part of the build, not an afterthought.
The plan, step by step
This is the plan as it stands. Steps get rewritten as the build teaches us things.
- 01
List the ways it can leak
Walk the plumbing and write down every joint, tank and hose that could fail, and where the water would go.
- 02
Place the sensors
Put leak sensors where water would actually arrive first. Low points, under fittings, under tanks.
- 03
Choose a fail-safe valve
Decide what the valve does when power is lost. The default plan: closed.
- 04
Build the logic simple
Sensor wet, valve closed, alarm on. A manual reset. No clever modes in version one.
- 05
Write the test routine
Deliberate spills at each sensor, a power-cut test, and a schedule for repeating both.
- 06
Run the tests on camera
Film every test, including the ones that fail. Results go on this page once they exist.
Column tank aquaponics
A small acrylic column tank turned into a standalone mini aquaponics loop: tiny pump, clay-pebble basket on top, a pepper plant above, small fish and shrimp below.
The big tank window
A large aquarium set into the lab wall, with a flood-and-drain grow bed above it. The column tank, grown up.