Updated Ebb Controller

More to come ! I'm off to rebuild the real thing !

Subscribed. Looking forward to the rest of the pictures. Any chance of a parts list and where-to-get-em too? I'm working on a new E&F system for my second harvest and wanted to save the $289 of a new control bucket!!

+rep for your work so far!

Oh, btw -- the only real problem to a DIY multiflow controller is the part that turns OFF the drain pump while its on the fill cycle and the fill pump is ON. With just one timer and the floats, both pumps would run at the same time. Or, two timers set opposite of each other (which is just weird anyway). How'd you overcome this using a digital timer to boot?

Several Company's and DIY Posts have all developed their controller with 1 timer. It must not be a problem. Hopefully others will pop in and help us with these questions.

My understanding is there's always water in the controller to accommodate both pumps running at the same time.

When I finish I'll offer a final part list and a link where to purchase them.

Most corporate made and sold units have a 5 post SPDT timer which allows the second unit to turn off while the fill pump is on. This setup unfortunately required usage of that ugly analog timer. Looking forward to seeing your work!

Kitty

You seem to know quite a bit. Thank you for the advice. I'm looking into this now and I'm sure there'is an answer once I better understand the process. Thank you for pointing this out. I have to adjust my wiring to accomplish this.

From what I understand you remove a pin from the timer to activate the fill pump for 15 min. When the 15 min are up the fill turns off and the return stays activated until the floats deactivate the pump. Correct ???

I can accomplish this with some minor wiring changes.

I've told you about all I know, sorry I cant be more worthwhile.....

On normal ebb & flow controller buckets, they have two pumps. One in the reservoir feeding the control bucket, and the pump in the control bucket pumping water to the reservoir.

When the timer pin to start FILLING the control buckets from the res pump turns ON, the pump in the control bucket is "disabled" so it cant automatically empty the water as its filling. Otherwise, you'll have both pumps on and not much water getting to the plants which negates the whole purpose.

The analog timer setup has 5 posts to it, which allows one to disable the other.

A standard wall digital timer (or analog timer) would work to turn on a pump when you want, but there'd be nothing to turn OFF the controller pump.

There's two workarounds for this that I could come up with, neither which I really like to allow me to just use regular floats and a digital timer:

1.) Use a stronger pump in the reservoir and a weaker pump in the control bucket. That way it fills faster than it CAN drain. You'd really have to play around with the GPH of each pump to find one that works just right, probably something like a 1:2 drain to fill speed ratio would do the trick. As long as these fill the buckets just as fast as when the drain pump is off (and if its pumping less than it takes in, it should!), then this system is a cute bandaid.

2.) Use TWO timers in reverse. When timer #1 turns on the reservoir pump, timer #2 turns off power to the control bucket pump for 15 minutes. Basically, two timers with opposite settings.

3.) (Unsure if this is possible, because I havent finished my research on this) -- A sprinkler timer that sends power to pumps and has multiple stations. Hell, if the timer had 8 stations it could program you could program 4 control buckets with one timer too! There may be one off the shelf that would work, or I could build my own and program it on the computer and save it to a chip in Arduino format for about $100. But reprogramming it would require a laptop and programming each time to change schedules, something I'd have to expand and waste more time on.

What'cha think?

From another thread:

"I finally got mine done. Had alot of other things to do as well. I went through hell trying to get that TA4079 timer, everybody was backordered. Then I started thinking, all I really needed was the double throw.

So I used a normal digital timer connected to a third relay. the relay is the same relay used for the switches. I couldnt find a SPDT at the local radio shack, so I just used one side, no biggie. I made a plug and wired #7 & 8 to the timer. That will control the relay. Everything that gets plugged to the relay side of the Diehl timer, gets wired to the third relay. I dont have it here, but one terminal is always hot, the other two get switched when the timer shuts on and off.

Diehl timer 35-60 with shipping.

Digital timer with relay $18"

That's a great suggestion...

I also have an idea I will be working on today.

I redesigned my layout board for ease of use. I'll post more photos soon.

Looks like I scared ya off.

Not really. I've temporarily put this project on hold.

I realized I was missing some critical parts. I probably should build it first as intended before I try to recreate the wheel....

Any idea how to build a controller bucket with TM619-2 Timer. Ive tried following both aqua hubs and Ogres plans to a T and it definitely doesn't work. Its the exact same timer used in the Multi Flow bucket system commercially available so it know it is possible to make it work. Does anybody have plans to build that exact same system? I have all the parts to assemble 4 of them! Im afraid i may have to buy one to copy it. PLEASE HELP