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Muttley000's Apex DIY Break Out Board


Muttley000
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I was going to put this in my Apex thread but decided to have it stand alone so it will be easier for someone to look up.  I am cheap and poor reguardless of what @cheap reefer has told you!  I have determined that if I had to go out and buy all this stuff I would save less than 10 bucks.  Since I scrounged all of it but the cable (that I bought long enough to get 2 bobs out of) from the box of crap I should have pitched long ago at work, I'm saving a little!

First I got an 8 pin mini din cable as shown here.  If you hunt around long enough, I believe you may find computer equipment that has a cord that could be recycled for this

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i cut it open and stripped the wires

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Used a meter and some trial and error to find out that the colors for the pins are as follows:

Bare wire is a shield and not used, I am cutting it out

Black is pin 1 and is input 1

Brown is pin 2 and is input 2

Red is pin 3 and is input 3 

Orange is pin 4 and is input 4

Yellow is pin 5 and is input 5

Green is pin 6 and is input 6

Blue is pin 7 and is not used

Purplr is pin 8 and is the common wire for all the inputs

I verified everything with fusion, but be patient here if you do this project.  Even though the Apex reads inputs immediately, fusion only updates around every 30 seconds, so it doesn't pop onto the page right away

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I should finish this today and get more pictures up!

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2 hours ago, crimsonvice said:

So I am kinda dumb when it comes to electrical components, but can you explain how this will work. 

Sure. The Apex can detect contact closures as inputs. So if a float switch was connected to common, and the input wire is connected to the other side of the switch, when the switch closes power will flow through and the Apex will detect it. You could also use a pressure switch, push button, or similar device.  Does that make sense?  Then in the programming you can evaluate the inputs to make decisions like turning an ATO pump on. 

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  • 8 months later...

Made another one of these today, not because I was out of inputs, but because of physical location.  I used input 6 as a verification the cable is plugged in, and put my skimmer locker full switch and ATO container low switch on the new block.  Also added a RODI high switch to the original, as well as a selector witch to manually turn my mixing pump on and off. 

 

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  • 1 year later...
36 minutes ago, Sevitz5 said:

Very cool. I’m trying to figure out different ways to use a BOB..... my current one just does floats for ATO and lights on cabinet door switches. When I move everything over to the bigger tank this summer, I want to add more techy/ geek things lol

My guess is 90 percent of BOB inputs are hooked to floats out there.  I added a selector switch to turn on my mixing station pump.  Always keeping an ear out for other ideas how to use the inputs!

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