Aqua Controller via Raspberry PI

zemuss · Jan 23, 2015

Shoot i might just have to restart my netduino project too.

Sangheili · Jan 23, 2015

If the language was Python or C# I may contribute. Not a big fan of suffering through C/C++ though :xd:

zemuss · Jan 23, 2015

Sandheili Python is native to Raspberry but majority of the code out there for the probes are already written in C++. C# adoption is very scarce right now but i am sure we could write in C# as the Raspberry will compile it.

wolfenstein87 · Jan 23, 2015

I don't think it would matter what we code in just as long as the website can read the data produced from the probes.

wolfenstein87 · Jan 24, 2015

zemuss, PM me your email address.

saltyphish · Jan 24, 2015

following

zemuss · Jan 27, 2015

Actually just read a thread that said to use C++ or C#.. I wonder if revhtree would mind if we made this a R2R Controller?

wolfenstein87 · Jan 27, 2015

I had seen the probes that Atlas Scientific provided and thought that they may be the way to go seeing that they have a probe and board to control the probe, down side is they are little costly. Then like you said, use a PCB board that they connect to for management. One thing I am noticing is that the chips they provide are just the brains and don't provide any way to connect the probe, so we'd still need to wire up a BNC connector somewheres.

I suggested the small LCD screen just for simple awareness like that it is still booting up, that way you didn't need to connect a monitor just to see if it was still booting.

zemuss · Jan 27, 2015

I am going to assume a LCD will be optional.

Lets hammer down the Required and optional parts tonight.

I will be purchasing a Raspberry Pi soon so I have a device to code against.

zemuss · Jan 29, 2015

Sorry been busy lately but I should be able to get to this on the weekend. Sorry for the delays.

wolfenstein87 · Jan 29, 2015

No biggie, I'm just waiting for pay day and your recommendation for hardware.

Ace25 · Jan 29, 2015

Curious as to what advantages this could have over using the arduino platform? I use a Raspberry Pi for my media center and an arduino (Reef Angel) for my tank controllers. I briefly looked into using a Raspberry for a controller when they first came out, but at the time there was not a lot of things to add on to it like there was with arduino. Hopefully that has changed.

Tagging along and wishing you success!

zemuss · Feb 3, 2015

Ace the ability of a bigger interface for one. Also the ability not to have to program to a LCD screen.

I also believe the Rasberry's have larger memory capacity which is an avantage and i can program in a language I am use to C#.

zemuss · Feb 3, 2015

I also sent feed back to wolfstien with my thoughts on the technical list he has.. I want to start off small and build this over time.
revhtree wanna make this a reef2reef controller?

wolfenstein87 · Feb 3, 2015

And they just released a new Pi with even more memory and faster proc...

I'm cool with starting with some basic functionality and improving upon it slowly.

redfishbluefish · Feb 3, 2015

Ace25 said:
Curious as to what advantages this could have over using the arduino platform? I use a Raspberry Pi for my media center and an arduino (Reef Angel) for my tank controllers. I briefly looked into using a Raspberry for a controller when they first came out, but at the time there was not a lot of things to add on to it like there was with arduino. Hopefully that has changed.

Tagging along and wishing you success!

Funny you bring this up. My future son-in-law stopped by yesterday (Engineering student at Stevens), and we talked about Raspberry Pi controllers. I showed him in detail what I would be interested in doing with a DIY controller. His comment was that it certainly could be done with Raspberry, but that Arduino would be the way to go. There was no need for all that processing capabiliy when you wish to do simple things.

For those of you going ahead with this, please Google Raspberry Pi aquarium controllers. A whole bunch of what you're talking about has already been done. No need to re-invent the wheel.

I'll be tagging along as well, even though I'm a dinosaur that learned programming using punch cards (Fortran and Basic).

zemuss · Feb 3, 2015

redfish that is my plan..

zemuss · Feb 3, 2015

redfish that is my plan.. 

Wolf your talking about the B2?

Ace25 · Feb 3, 2015

zemuss said:
Ace the ability of a bigger interface for one. Also the ability not to have to program to a LCD screen.

I also believe the Rasberry's have larger memory capacity which is an avantage and i can program in a language I am use to C#.

The only time I used the LCD interface on an Arduino was when I turned it on for the first time. I have the Wifi module so I can control my arduino/tank from my iPod Touch, my smart TV, my toaster with linux installed via Python, ect. LOL.

I agree there is more processing power and memory with Raspberry Pi, but with the latest arduino board I can't think of any more things I would want it to do for me as an aquarium controller and I haven't even touched half the memory. The first arduino boards I tried I was always running into memory limitations, but that hasn't been the case for a couple years now.

Again, I do wish anyone trying this success. These are the types of projects I find fun. Key word for me is ' fun' where I have money to burn. If I was trying to be budget conscious and make a product I would like to market, then cost does matter, but more importantly than cost to most of us reefkeepers is stability, and this is the biggest issue I have with Pi vs Arduino. Sure, Pi can run an OS, which for a media center is great, but for a tank controller, that is a lot of overhead to worry about interfering with critical tasks, OS crashes, memory leaks, etc. Pi doesn't have any ability for Real Time and Analog either, both I use on Arduino. They are both great products, but do very different things.

In short, this is how I look at the two when deciding which to use for a project.
Arduino = Hardware control - If I want hardware to do things easily and reliably, I use an arduino.
Pi = Software control / multitasking - If I want to setup a web server, IP camera, media center, security system, etc for my home, Raspberry Pi is the winner, but I wouldn't let the Pi even handle my auto top offs I would be that worried about it.

zemuss · Feb 3, 2015

Ace i don't want to learn another language. From what I read the PI can compile many languages and C++ or C# is accepted... So I will use that.. Do you see an issue with this logic?