Can you give the prototype to Paul and I will pick it up from him tomorrow on my way home from work?
no problem. just ask Paul to remind me so i dont forget. all you will need to do is remove the floats from your current rack and replace them with the new floats. if you like the new one better than the old one just bring me the old one at the next meeting please so i can salvage it for parts. pm me if you have any questions with the new ATO.
ok hopefully i can learn what i need to do tonight, ill be there around 6:45… see yall soon
was fun, confusing, but fun… i get the mechanics, just not how to make it work on my tank, a well ill just do daily water adds… for now. great demo though…
Sorry I wasn’t able to make the meeting this week. I ended up purchasing some fish that were being overnighted to me on Monday (pics in my new post) and I simply had too much to do in preparation for their arrival. I really would like to hear about the ideas that were discussed for any Auto Top Off systems. I don’t use any currently and have three tanks that require daily attention. I’d be all about another DIY project!
Pm, daddy… he has some set up on his couple tanks that he was talking about… it was confusing for me, lol, but it seems he had a really good idea…
sorry about that. i try my best to keep things simple but i know it doesnt always come out that way.
in the future, please feel free to ask me to explain things better if you are confused. the demo was geared towards people that have little or no knowledge about ATOs and im disappointed that things were confusing for you.
shawn, ellen’s coming over to get it tomorrow, and i agree with marching. confusing. a solenoid needs electricity, right? well how is that connected or wired? the box is regular receptacle? where does the hole for the connection come from? the whole timer thing lost me. floats come from what store? the floats also need electricity, right? lots of confusion. i just could not follow.
that’s why i originally asked if there was a chance you’d be selling them.
Ya, we can tell you what we want, you do your electronical madness, and then we pay you… sound good lol… you lost me at selinoid, and when you talked about the ATO inside the box, but ya it was informational… i would just need to hear it more, because i was still thinking about the beginning at the end… but ya it was good… makes me wonder what the first presentation was like… it was still a good job though.
if i couldnt explain it well in person with props, i doubt that i can make it any clearer in a post. im a little reluctant to release to many details on a public forum regarding my intellectual property because i have been taken advantage of in the past. Also, the demo was geared more towards an explanation of an ATO and why they are important and less at the DIY possiblities. The current build is probably more than most people would want to get invovled with since it invoves soldering and circuit design. Not that its complicated by any stretch of the imagination but it might be overwhelming for someone with out any realted experience to build. My first demo was geared more towards instructing people how to build one themselves and so i used simple to use electrical and mechanical components that could be found locally. The upside is that i believe it makes the project more approachable but the downside is its much more expensive than the current build. To make a comparison the “guts” of the first ATO would cost me in the range of $20 where as the “guts” for the new build will likely cost less than a dollar when purchased in bulk. The floats are the most expensive component costing me about $6 for two. When i get some time i want to either find a lower cost source or possible engineering a low coast replacement myself. Ive got a few ideas but need to do a little more homework. anyways, im temporarily holding off on buidling any of these for anyone for a couple of reasons. ive discussed a couple of ideas with some of the officers for making these available to club members as well as others in the hobby. i know a company that can produced custom CNC’d electronic boxes with screenprinted art at a very low cost. this would give the ATO a more professional manufactured look, a smaller footprint, and more bells and whistles like status LED indicators. the idea i am proposing is to have these made(and possible other niche components in the future) and sell them as a club exclusive. I would want all of the profit to be divided between the club and non-profit animal conservation programs. I believe something along this line could do several thigns. It will fill the clubs coffers to fund exciting new events and programs, bring traffic through the DRC and make a name for ourselves, provide a hi-quality ATO at 1/2 the price of an entry level commerical ATO, and most importantly it would allow us to give to good causes in a substantial way. Im not naive and i know that there are some hurdles and thats why i want to wait for elections to be over so that i can either get things started myself as president with my fellow officers, or work with the new president and officers to see what we can come up with as a collective. I will have definitive information within a month or so either way. In the worse case scenario i would simply organize a pre-paid group buy for anyone that is interested and do a one time build at cost. I dont mind donating my labor but i can only do it as a one time deal because its much less labor intensive to make a bunch at one time instead of here and there. Either way, i would urge everyone to hold off getting one before then becuase i can guarentee that through the club(with profit going to the club and conservation) the pricepoint will be at or around $50, not over, and if we do a DIY grade group build the pricepoint will be about 1/3 to 1/2 of that. Not to mention that i also intend to support these at at least the club level if they are purchased through the club for as long as im involved with the club meaning that if it stops working i will fix or replace it for free as long as its not from abuse or neglect. So stay tuned!
Dam Shawn
How long did it take you to type that? >LOL<probably not long enough or my grammar/spelling and overall coherecny would be better ;D i guess im a little long winded and trying to make up for the month or so!
Yeah I know you were jones in to do some typing.ahh that was good, sounds good… that would be cool if you were to finalize that, would def bring traffic to the club…