OP
OP
Hugo_Fish
Active Member
even better, PJs be jealous. lol my mother made them for me for Christmas.
Before I move on...
- Thread starter Hugo_Fish
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Sral
Valuable Member
Sry to hear, I had something similar and it’s quite the pain due to the limited debug options.
How did you test whether they were connected ? Are you sure you are using Pi Zero W versions ?
Might also be a power issue, if the power fluctuates during boot, the PI never fully boots and connects to the WiFi.
Might also be worthwhile to test a Raspbian OS with graphics and connect a screen. Once it’s booted up, connect the USB Hub with mouse and keyboard and have a look. As mentioned before, the Hub probably draws quite a bit of current, so it itself might interfere with power during the boot process. That’s why I would only connect it after booting.
Sral
Valuable Member
Wait , I think you can also SSH into the PI when it’s connected to your PC via USB. Not quite sure which USB Port should be used for that though …. It’s an option though. Gives you an interface to have a look at what might be the problem.
OP
OP
Hugo_Fish
Active Member
I can assume that the pi was powering on as the light was flickering like there was something going on. I actually tried to SSH with USB... but it never connected correctly. I believe it was something on my computers side then the pi. I will know by the time I wake up from my slumber.. got to love 3rd shift.
Side questions, Is it possible to use only 1 pi for both the PH mod and the Light mod as they both us I2C?
Sral
Valuable Member
Best of luck !
You can use both, that’s what I2C is made for. You just have to watch the possible interference on the data lines, so make them as short and as shielded as possible.
I2C is notorious for failing some of the time .
Personally I use shielded 1m USB cables with the shield connected to GND and they seem to work.
OP
OP
Hugo_Fish
Active Member
My next version of this will be a little different.. I am thinking about moving the LM2596 converts to there own box... Since mostly everything is 5v … besides the light, I am wondering if I can just use 1 LM2596 for the 5v side and another one for the 10v. As I am not really knowledgeable with this type of stuff I am unsure it will deliver enough power to everything? This would clean the enclosures and give me more space.. To be honest I wish I was good with 3D stuff.. as I can make my own custom one but I'm not, for right now. the problem with the enclosures I am using is space is tight.
Sral
Valuable Member
Should be fine. Most components don’t draw a lot of power. Most draw happens on the PI and the Relays, as I have looked up for my system here.
The LM2596 can supply 2A continuously without a heatsink, if I recall correctly.
The 10V one for the lamp is actually a bit of an overkill, since you only need very little current for that signal (about 10 mA per channel in the guide, which is already pretty inefficient).
So you might get away with using a linear 10V regulator (dropping your 12V to 10V) with a capacitor to buffer that 10V instead. The ones I saw on Mouser for example typically max out at 100mA, giving you enough for up to 10 channels.
OP
OP
Hugo_Fish
Active Member
Doesn't the kessil need the 10v? ... I wish I knew stuff like this as of right now I'm following the guide :/. Might need to invest into a book or something but I'm unsure what book to get that is good, and very easy to understand for some ADHD Neanderthal like me.
Sral
Valuable Member
Yes, but the kessil only needs the signal to be 10V, the lamp itself is powered by its own power supply. So that signal doesn't trasnmit any meaningful amount of power. Electrical power is voltage times current, so the current you need on the 10V is very low. Judging from my experience, probably below 1mA.
You can absolutely build it like the guide, it will work with the kessil no problem at all. I was just thinking that you could make it smaller, since the lighting mod doesn't need a whole LM2596 by itself and you were concerned about the space.
I can absolutely supply you with circuit drawings and pictures like in the guide if you are interested. Although I can also understand if you want to play it safe and stay with the guide
OP
OP
Hugo_Fish
Active Member
I would be more then happy ! For this version, I am playing it safe and fallowing the guide though I have made small changes. But I do want to make improvements and have an Idea of what I want to do for the next version. I would like to see what you would do to conserve space.Yes, but the kessil only needs the signal to be 10V, the lamp itself is powered by its own power supply. So that signal doesn't trasnmit any meaningful amount of power. Electrical power is voltage times current, so the current you need on the 10V is very low. Judging from my experience, probably below 1mA.
You can absolutely build it like the guide, it will work with the kessil no problem at all. I was just thinking that you could make it smaller, since the lighting mod doesn't need a whole LM2596 by itself and you were concerned about the space.
I can absolutely supply you with circuit drawings and pictures like in the guide if you are interested. Although I can also understand if you want to play it safe and stay with the guide
OP
OP
Hugo_Fish
Active Member
So, I have everything finished... but the issue I'm having now is that I can not control the Kessil.. When I do i2cdetect -y 1 I see that it is set up correctly. I am unsure at this point what I am doing wrong... could it be the Address and Frequency of the driver? I have it set up as the default address 64 and frequency 150..
Sral
Valuable Member
Address looks fine, if you have a breakout board with the standard address, which is very likely.
Frequency is a bit low though ... I think with the kessil you can go to the max frequency of 1500.
Is the status LED on the PDA9685 lit up ?
Do you use the correct pins on the PDA9685 ?
Do you have a multimeter at hand that you can test the voltage output on the PDA9685 output pins ?
They should go up to about 5V for 100% light intensity in the lights tab.
Also, standard IT-councel:
- Try rebooting
- try deleting all controls and the driver, reboot and set them up again in the following order:
----> set up driver
----> reload ReefPi (Admin Tab)
----> set up analog connectors on the correct pins
----> reload ReefPi (Admin Tab)
And then try setting up a manual light again.
Last edited:
Sral
Valuable Member
If you do not have a multimeter you can also try an LED across a PDA9685 pin and ramp it up to maybe 66%. Even 100% should be safe for the LED, it should get about 16mA. That should not fry an LED, but you never know, so use one that you are not attached to ^^
OP
OP
Hugo_Fish
Active Member
Sorry for the late response. I just woke up. I didn't think about using a multimeter.. So I checked the paths and noticed that the PWM on the PCA9685 does not have any voltage. Am I supposed to plug them in the PWN or the V+? as I have 5v coming from V+.
OP
OP
Hugo_Fish
Active Member
yeah I am at a lost I did take out the PCA 9685 and relook at my soldering, everything is solid. I took special care to look over the wiring and everything is correct. At this point, either the address and Feq are wrong, the pie isn't communicating with the PCA9685,.. or the PCA9685 is broken.. but I do not think it's broken as I get 5v on all of the V+ and I have a solid green light.
I did take out the PCA 9685 and relook at my soldering, everything is solid. I took special care to look over the wiring and everything is correct. At this point, either the address and Feq are wrong, the pie isn't communicating with the PCA9685,.. or the PCA9685 is broken.. but I do not think it's broken as I get 5v on all of the V+ and I have a solid green light.
OP
OP
Hugo_Fish
Active Member
1. the PCA9685 lights up
2. I tripled Check the pins
3. I used a Multimeter changed the light to manual and slid the intensity to %100 ... nothing
but I still get 5v on each of the v+ pinsDoes anyone know of a way to test to see if the PCA is burnt?
Sral
Valuable Member
The address looks exactly like it should. Hex40 for your circuit and Hex70 for the AllCall of all channels.
Strange though, you don’t actually need the V+ and it is not connected to anything except the V+ on the output pins. Therefore the green LED also should not light up, at least on the Adafruit version.
What you need is to supply 5V to the VCC pin of the board. That’s what powers the chip and the PWM output, as far as I know.
Regarding a test if your chip is burnt:
I have written a test script somewhere that reads out a value from the chip. If that’s returned, he should be functioning.
Found the post: here
OP
OP
Hugo_Fish
Active Member
Mmmm currently at work. When I'm at home I'll read the link :/ I bought like 2 others just in case. They are Cheap anyways.
OP
OP
Hugo_Fish
Active Member
Wait, with the pins on the right side of the PCA, the 5v needs to be on the VCC and not the V+? I did plug VCC on the 3v3 line of the pi and the Light on the PCA did glow brighter.
Similar threads
