Hi Everyone,

Project Goal: Feed my fish! Tidy up and get rid of conduit and wires running eveywhere!

Current Setup: I have 12 Fish Feeders powered by a DC motor, and I run all the wires run along the walls in conduit back to the controller. Each color represents one fish tank. ("1-4" feeder feed tank 1, "5-6" feeder feed tank 2, ect..) Only 1 feeder feeds at time (so I don't overload the controller), with each feed lasting 1-3 seconds, multiple times per day.

Current Equipment:
-Fish Feeders: 3-12VDC Motor (normally powered by 12VDC 500mA power brick)

-Timer/Controller: 7-12VDC Controller "OpenSprinkler DC + zone expander-24 total zones" (power up to 2amps per zone)



Plan:
-Purchase four 4channel 433mhz wireless transmitters / relay recievers.
-One 4channel relay reciever per fish tank. Relay reciever will be powered by a DC power brick and hook up to a coresponding feeder.
-Connect four 4channel wireless transmitters to the controller(opensprinkler) by soldering wires directly to the transmitter remote to control signals

Questions:
1) If I purchase four 4channel units (identical), is it possible to get 16 unique RF signals to power each relay individually?

2) Any product recommendations for this project? Or what should I look for? (I'm new to wireless RF relays)

Thanks for any advice!

 

Any product recommendations for this project?

Not at the moment. Is the controller in the same room as the fish tanks? Are there multiple rooms? I like your setup as is using the sprinkler controller. If you go wireless you would need to have the receiver in the same room as the tanks.
SG

 

I would say Yes as they will have matching transmitters and will be paired to each receiver.

 

Not at the moment. Is the controller in the same room as the fish tanks? Are there multiple rooms? I like your setup as is using the sprinkler controller. If you go wireless you would need to have the receiver in the same room as the tanks.
SG

Same Room, Why I was wondering if I could make each transmitter specific to each reciever (16 unique signals) Seems like it is possible. So ill give it a shot!

 

Your idea could work but there is a chance of inter-channel interference on the wireless transmitters / receiver group. It is likely that on each four channel device the transmitter sends 1 of 4 codes depending on which receiver relay is being commanded to operate. Say you have four 4 channel transmitters A,B,C,D and matching 4 channel receivers with relays 1-4 then it is likely you have four wireless bands each carrying encoded data for which relay will operate, for example Tx / Rx pair B relay 2.
Regarding alternatives there are many depending on whether or not you are into Arduinos, ESP8266 WiFi based controllers, Raspberry Pi etc. Such systems can easily do all you want to do in one box local to the fish tanks. An Arduino Mega and two 8 relay modules for example.

 

An Arduino Mega and two 8 relay modules for example.

Just curious? Why are you recommending an Arduino Mega? Seems like overkill...

 

Your idea could work but there is a chance of inter-channel interference on the wireless transmitters / receiver group. It is likely that on each four channel device the transmitter sends 1 of 4 codes depending on which receiver relay is being commanded to operate. Say you have four 4 channel transmitters A,B,C,D and matching 4 channel receivers with relays 1-4 then it is likely you have four wireless bands each carrying encoded data for which relay will operate, for example Tx / Rx pair B relay 2.
Regarding alternatives there are many depending on whether or not you are into Arduinos, ESP8266 WiFi based controllers, Raspberry Pi etc. Such systems can easily do all you want to do in one box local to the fish tanks. An Arduino Mega and two 8 relay modules for example.

Thanks for the input on inter-channel interference. Something I was afraid about. I'm very elementary with Arduinos, and a project this big might still be a bit out of my skill set. ESP8266 were ruled out for spotty wifi, and RF modules ended up being a little on the pricier side once I calculated how many adruinos, sensors, relays I would need.

Progress update:
I decided to get a 15 channel transmitter and 15 individual relays for this project. Basic schematic of wiring one feeder attached! So far everything seems to be working as planned! Thanks yall.