Boy, did I screw up today.

[Mantid]

not to change to topic of the thread, but whats wrong with your pup?

[Ummfish]

Ugh. I'm not sure anyone is completely sure, really. He suddenly crashed, and they discovered underlying diabetes, kidney infections, and pancreatitus. None of which he had at his last checkup (and he's only 6). His blood glucose was so high that it actually interfered with his ability for his cells to uptake glucose, thus starving his brain of energy and causing neurological symptoms that looked like he'd had a stroke. Additionally, his blood phosphate was so low that it was interfering with the ATP reactions inside his cells and caused his cells to start exploding (literally) and leaking the fluid inside the cells out into his blood stream, which led to symptoms like blood leaking from his mucus membranes. But nobody's really sure whether he had infections that went out of control and kicked off his diabetes or whether his diabetes was the reason he was so susceptible to the infections.

At my vet, they had him hooked to every single peristaltic pump they owned. He's still on about six medications (oral now, fortunately).

Oddly enough, aside from continuing to care for his diabetes, he should now make a full recovery (since they seem to have averted any large-scale kidney damage). Crazy that the body systems can get that out of whack that they are completely unable to self-regulate and then a swift kick (by an internist with a whole bunch of chemicals) can get it all restarted again.

[Mantid]

wow that's scary stuff. Hope you can get it all under control. sounds like he's doing a little better now!?

[thejrc]

hrmm Andy,

On the PLC side if you want I can help you out with a PIC or Arduino based setup as I tend to ... well play from time to time in that realm.... We can pick up Arduino based rigs for fairly cheap and the programming is cake... the PIC is a touch more complex but I've got a ton of chips here and there.... easiest way to think about it is... well... a computer!!

[Ummfish]

Well, but wouldn't programming up a computer chip be _way_ too complicated? Especially as I do have an ATO unit? I do appreciate you guys, Joe and Stu, but I don't want to put you guys out, either.

My new protocol (hoses get moved to the middle of the room instead of being left hanging on the tank and no other business while water is flowing out of the filter) seems to be working well so far.

[Ummfish]

And yeah, Chad, he's doing much better. Napping in a sunbeam right now, in fact.

[thejrc]

he he Andy... I live for this crap.... I cant speak for Stu

Chad over at MASM has a fairly elaborate rig he built as well using some cheap SCADA (supervisory control and data aquisition) parts. It's not as complex as many think, especially with a lot of the new technologies out there and of course many have the hobbyist in mind. Arduino is probably one of the best to start with as the programming is pretty close to plain english and the thing can do some very very elaborate stuff.

one of these days andy..... you will come to the dork side...

[Ummfish]

You know, silly as I am--wrote the website code in a text-only program just to see if I could do it--I just don't trust the aqua controllers for some reason. Maybe it's the fact that my aqua controller has never once given me the correct temperature. (And yes, I did calibrate it.)