KISS is best. Mechanical switches are traditionally used for bilge pumps.
And traditionally, they fail due to the harsh environment. Besides, I'm a
gadgeteer at heart. I even used a PIC 12F629 to control the anchor light on
the boat, based on a light-dependent resistor. I could have used two
transistors (in fact, the old I am replacing DID have two transistors), but
the PIC was more fun. And it let me do something different - the anchor
light sends a "L" (the boat's name is Lady Di) in Morse code every minute
so I can find the boat at night in a crowded anchorage.

Just because there are a lot of cheaper, easier, and better solutions than
using a PIC isn't an excuse for not using one :)


At 11:23 AM 4/22/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>I was helping a friend build a turtle-tank in Miami recently, and as much
>as I
>wanted to push a nice electronic, possibly-PIC-based solution, we found that
>the simpler, faster and more cost-effective solution was to use a mechanical
>level switch (like the one in a toilet-tank, but smaller) from one of the
>pump/aquarium places.  Being mass-produced, they are very low-cost.
>
>I just didn't have the selling points to get him onto anything electronic.
>:-(
>

Larry Bradley
Orleans (Ottawa), Ontario, CANADA

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