AquaPi - An open-souce Aquarium Controller

[robinm]

Interesting, I've been working on something very similar I wanted to achieve a distributed system that could simple be extended by adding new capable devices. To keep things as open as possible I opted for MQTT as a messaging protocol and Node Red to handle integration of devices and dashboarding. I have a working PH sensor using the EZO ph board and an ESP8266 as the requirements for the PH sensor are minimal. I also wanted a highly accurate peristaltic pump capable of continuous duty. It's ESP32 based with a stepper for accuracy and is currently accurate to 0.05 ml. I haven't gotten around to building a case for it yet but the essentials are there and working. I'll spend some time looking through what you've done as it seems our thinking / requirements are very similar.

 

[TheFalseReality]

Interesting, I've been working on something very similar I wanted to achieve a distributed system that could simple be extended by adding new capable devices. To keep things as open as possible I opted for MQTT as a messaging protocol and Node Red to handle integration of devices and dashboarding. I have a working PH sensor using the EZO ph board and an ESP8266 as the requirements for the PH sensor are minimal. I also wanted a highly accurate peristaltic pump capable of continuous duty. It's ESP32 based with a stepper for accuracy and is currently accurate to 0.05 ml. I haven't gotten around to building a case for it yet but the essentials are there and working. I'll spend some time looking through what you've done as it seems our thinking / requirements are very similar.

look into Atlas Scientific peristaltic pump. Using EZO board and commands. I added the code to my AquaPi project and been using two for daily water changes. Using ESPHome for communication with Home Assistant, but can use the web server as well. Also using blueprints for easy programming for users.
Let me know what you think!

 

[Lukes Saltwater Tank]

This is really cool, I have just finished making my own conversion for my Evergrow Reef Led and one thing that was always sort of obvious is that reef-pi looks very dated and isnt that user friendly.
I made sure to document everything this time so if anyone wants to copy me its all well documented on video, Done projects before and then forgot exactly how I did things months after and thats annoying!

Would it be able to comunicate via i2c to a PCA9685 board to create the PWM signals for each channel of the light?
Is this server based? meaning can i use the app when im out and about to check on the tank or do i need to be connected localy to the same network?

Here is a link to what ive just finished, would be cool to see if the same could be done with your hardware!

 

[TheFalseReality]

This is really cool, I have just finished making my own conversion for my Evergrow Reef Led and one thing that was always sort of obvious is that reef-pi looks very dated and isnt that user friendly.
I made sure to document everything this time so if anyone wants to copy me its all well documented on video, Done projects before and then forgot exactly how I did things months after and thats annoying!

Would it be able to comunicate via i2c to a PCA9685 board to create the PWM signals for each channel of the light?
Is this server based? meaning can i use the app when im out and about to check on the tank or do i need to be connected localy to the same network?

Here is a link to what ive just finished, would be cool to see if the same could be done with your hardware!

Neat! I'll take a look. If the AquaPi is paired with Home Assistant (HA), it can be accessed remotely if the HA instance is set up for https, via HA cloud (easy) or DuckDNS (advanced). AquaPi uses ESPHome api to communicate with HA, but could also be used via MQTT (which I don't currently have setup since the api is better). It communicated with the probes via I2C. The RGB LED via I2C, I just haven't yet purchased it to start testing. I think I finished my testing phase for the pumps, so I want to get this started asap, which may end up using the pumps as well to pull samples, not sure yet how to implement....
For actual aquarium lights, each brand has their own api and app, and I just find it easier to use whatever they use, I don't think I'll be able to get into an api to control aquarium lights via HA, but that would be amazing! I seen some people do it with Aqua Illumination lights but it stalled.

 

[TheFalseReality]

This is really cool, I have just finished making my own conversion for my Evergrow Reef Led and one thing that was always sort of obvious is that reef-pi looks very dated and isnt that user friendly.
I made sure to document everything this time so if anyone wants to copy me its all well documented on video, Done projects before and then forgot exactly how I did things months after and thats annoying!

Would it be able to comunicate via i2c to a PCA9685 board to create the PWM signals for each channel of the light?
Is this server based? meaning can i use the app when im out and about to check on the tank or do i need to be connected localy to the same network?

Here is a link to what ive just finished, would be cool to see if the same could be done with your hardware!

I like what you did in the video! Very advance stuff! One of my clients actually have that same light! It would be nice to be able to communicate with some of these lights via the RPi Bluetooth and control them from that, but I do not know how to do that.

 

[Wolfw28]

true, I'm gonna take a look. I also think my next project is to get a RGB 'reader' to be able to auto test parameters and toxins!

AS7341 Spectral Color Sensor​

Been thinking about using something like this for making an automatic water tester.

 

[TheFalseReality]

AS7341 Spectral Color Sensor​

Been thinking about using something like this for making an automatic water tester.

yea, i've been looking at the Apex Trident to see how it actually works. i wanna make something like it but more

 

[yury88]

Hi, yesterday I tried to dig into HA first time. I'm thinking to switch from reef-pi(RIP).
I was able to setup it, but as I understand I installed just "core" version that are luck of a lot of feature and kinda useless.
I saw option to install OS, but it's looks kinda harsh, I don't want to totally sacrifice my raspberry pi just to run one application. I have other stuff to run on it like github builder etc.

Can someone explain - is it ok to run HA in kvm/proxmox aarch64 virtual machine to get all benefits of platform?

 

[TheFalseReality]

Hi, yesterday I tried to dig into HA first time. I'm thinking to switch from reef-pi(RIP).
I was able to setup it, but as I understand I installed just "core" version that are luck of a lot of feature and kinda useless.
I saw option to install OS, but it's looks kinda harsh, I don't want to totally sacrifice my raspberry pi just to run one application. I have other stuff to run on it like github builder etc.

Can someone explain - is it ok to run HA in kvm/proxmox aarch64 virtual machine to get all benefits of platform?

Use OS if you can, recommend to have it on an RPi 4 or above. There are a lot of 'Add-ons' you can use, essentially just docker containers. Or if you have another computer, set up a VM, it can be a little tricky to get going though, OS is the best option.

 

[yury88]

Use OS if you can, recommend to have it on an RPi 4 or above. There are a lot of 'Add-ons' you can use, essentially just docker containers. Or if you have another computer, set up a VM, it can be a little tricky to get going though, OS is the best option.

I dont like idea to install it on raspberry pi host. Raspberry can run other stuff same time, but HA OS is very limited OS.

I tried VMware x86 VM today. Looks fully functional for me. All features like add-on etc available.
I will try to install arm64 VM on raspberry on weekend, hope it will work fine.

 

[TheFalseReality]

I dont like idea to install it on raspberry pi host. Raspberry can run other stuff same time, but HA OS is very limited OS.

I tried VMware x86 VM today. Looks fully functional for me. All features like add-on etc available.
I will try to install arm64 VM on raspberry on weekend, hope it will work fine.

I've used VM once, had a lot more fixable issues that I'd like, plus the performance was about the same, plus I had a few extra RPis sitting around, so I went back to using one just for HA, and I use my extra AMD PC for docker containers, and to offload my NVR for my cameras to feed back in HA.