A bit more progress, had a few things to do so it's been slower than I wished. I made a complete hash of fitting the solenoid valve, I managed to not only fit it backwards but also the wrong way round so the box lid would have to face the wall. After some head scratching, I had another go! The valve is a spare part from a washing machine and costs less than a fiver, but does run on mains voltage so has to be used with great care.
I fitted it inside a ip66 container which means it is certified to remain waterproof when used outside. Its a simple case of connecting a washing machine hose as the input and a hose to the pond as the output. Control is via the two spade contacts. Ive fitted everything inside mains conduit, including the pipes so it's safe and quite neat.
All the mains devices are now terminated with plugs which go into a distribution board inside an ip50 box (the lower number is because the water proof rating is different mainly due to the large cable entry hole). The pump, ultraviolet, air pump, pond lights and water valve can now all be remote controlled. There is enough room inside the box for my raspberry Pi, power supply and possibly an arduino.
Tomorrow's job will be to get the Pi to control these remote control sockets via a 433mhz transmitter, then I can think about how the web interface can run. Ive ordered a temperature sensor, which runs on from a single gpio line, and an Ultrasonic Sensor which I can get to measure the water level, it needs two gpio lines.
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