Before I move on...

[Hugo_Fish]

That sounds strange. Might be useful info for @Ranjib

Did you try that „reverse“ checkbox on the Jack(s) as well ?

I was only having issues with that one .. the color was working fine. but I did reverse it and it seems to be working now.

 

[Hugo_Fish]

@Sral , Are you using a telemetry server? I believe this will be my next step. I am assuming this is just for graphing and saving data from reefPi and not controlling? I just set up my tank and would like to have a small screen beside the tank showing the data. But I am unsure if I do this will it auto launch? Like if I have a power outage and when it comes back on will it auto launch to the graphs, or will I have to launch the graphs myself? What I am reading from the guide the server will launch automatically but I am unsure about the UI.

 

[Hugo_Fish]

Adding more Temp probes is just adding each set of wires to the correct pin on the PCA9685 Correct?

 

[Sral]

@Sral , Are you using a telemetry server? I believe this will be my next step. I am assuming this is just for graphing and saving data from reefPi and not controlling? I just set up my tank and would like to have a small screen beside the tank showing the data. But I am unsure if I do this will it auto launch? Like if I have a power outage and when it comes back on will it auto launch to the graphs, or will I have to launch the graphs myself? What I am reading from the guide the server will launch automatically but I am unsure about the UI.

Not personally, no.
As far as I understand a Telemetry server based on Prometheus and Grafana is just for visualization, right @Ranjib ?

There were however other people using somethign like a Home-Assistant setup that could do both graphing and control, If I recall correctly.

A telemetry server is a lot more CPU and memory intensive. As far as I have heard it wont run on a Pi Zero. Ranjib has recommended a regular x86 miniPC system at least (He is running his with Linux I think). You might get away with running one dedicated PI 4 or higher, but I don't know how well that would work, if at all.

How were you plammimg on running a display ? Meaning, what computer architecture and what interface, e.g. ReefPi on WebBrowser, Custom display or Grafana ?
The only such thing I have seen was "Kivy Reef", but that would run from a PI 3 or 4 that runs ReefPi in parallel as well, if I recall correctly. That, or or Home Assistant system.

 

[Sral]

Adding more Temp probes is just adding each set of wires to the correct pin on the PCA9685 Correct?

No, the PCA9685 can't read temperature probes, it only sends out PWM signals.

You can connect several DS18B20 temperature sensors to the same pin on the pi, although there is the problem that if one sensor fails, it might block the other form transmitting.

You can also connect your second DS18B20 temperature sensor to another pin on the PI and wire it identically to the first one (VCC to 3.3V, GND and the signal to a Pin on the PI, pulled up to 3.3V with a 3.7k resistor). You would have to adapt the PIs config in a file though, I'll try to find the post where somebody explained it (I think it was @robsworld78 )

 

[Hugo_Fish]

Not personally, no.
As far as I understand a Telemetry server based on Prometheus and Grafana is just for visualization, right @Ranjib ?

There were however other people using somethign like a Home-Assistant setup that could do both graphing and control, If I recall correctly.

A telemetry server is a lot more CPU and memory intensive. As far as I have heard it wont run on a Pi Zero. Ranjib has recommended a regular x86 miniPC system at least (He is running his with Linux I think). You might get away with running one dedicated PI 4 or higher, but I don't know how well that would work, if at all.

How were you plammimg on running a display ? Meaning, what computer architecture and what interface, e.g. ReefPi on WebBrowser, Custom display or Grafana ?
The only such thing I have seen was "Kivy Reef", but that would run from a PI 3 or 4 that runs ReefPi in parallel as well, if I recall correctly. That, or or Home Assistant systei

I was thinking about one of them Portable monitors.

 

[Sral]

I was thinking about one of them Portable monitors.

That means what exactly ? Do you have a link to a specific product or thread ?

 

[Hugo_Fish]

That means what exactly ? Do you have a link to a specific product or thread ?

I was going to get a mini PC x86 base and get a portable monitor like these

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=portable...rtable+monitor+small,aps,103&ref=nb_sb_noss_1



at a glance I see there are 7-inch Monitors meant for Raspberry Pis that have a HDMI port... don't know if I have to have a Pi attached but I believe I could find something small.

 

[ColoredRock]

I have run Prometheus and Grafana on a pi 4.. it does tend to run a little warm.. the bigger issue seemed to be data storage on the SD card... lots of writes.. seamed like that was my issue... had it booted to an external usb drive which worked better. Im back to just using the pi for data for now but will go back to it eventually but on a separate data server that I am using for other purposes.

 

[Hugo_Fish]

yeah, I wasn't planning on using a Pi for it. I was reading that the workload is to much for the Pi.

 

[Hugo_Fish]

@Sral or really anyone... I was looking around online about how to add a second probe. I think I found a way.. but I want to ask to make sure...

I was thinking about adding the probe to "GPIO16" and adding this line to the config file

"dtoverlay=w1-gpio,gpiopin=16"


... If I am correct, could I add the "gpionpin=16" to the original line or will I have to add a second line?

 

[Sral]

@Sral or really anyone... I was looking around online about how to add a second probe. I think I found a way.. but I want to ask to make sure...

I was thinking about adding the probe to "GPIO16" and adding this line to the config file

"dtoverlay=w1-gpio,gpiopin=16"


... If I am correct, could I add the "gpionpin=16" to the original line or will I have to add a second line?

As mentionend before, you can add them to the same pin, as I have done here:

Although, if you have the pins to spare, just use a second pin. THanks for the code, thatw ay I was able to find @robsworld78 's post I mentioned earlier, here

So you can just add a second line with the other pin:

dtoverlay=w1-gpio,gpiopin=4
dtoverlay=w1-gpio,gpiopin=16

that would enable OneWire on pins 4 and 16

 

[Hugo_Fish]

As mentionend before, you can add them to the same pin, as I have done here:

Although, if you have the pins to spare, just use a second pin. THanks for the code, thatw ay I was able to find @robsworld78 's post I mentioned earlier, here

So you can just add a second line with the other pin:

dtoverlay=w1-gpio,gpiopin=4
dtoverlay=w1-gpio,gpiopin=16

that would enable OneWire on pins 4 and 16

I remember you stating that. I was trying to find a way so I could not put them in parallel as you stated there's a problem where if one stops working it will case the other not to work. Thank you for confirming I was right! .



Next question:

I figured out that I2C is a bus.. as such I can Daisy chain the PH mod to the PCA9685. but I am confused how I can add the dosing mod to the same board? I am trying to use the same board for everything, if there is a way.

 

[Hugo_Fish]

sorry I need too edit I can Daisy chain the PCA9685 and the PH mod to the PI
Something like this.. I'm assuming I can do this as the pins are the same on both sides..

... I want to use one PI so I will only have to remember 1 IP address.. unless there is a way to connect 2 pis to the same IP address. not asking that correctly, hope it makes sense..

 

[Sral]

sorry I need too edit I can Daisy chain the PCA9685 and the PH mod to the PI
Something like this.. I'm assuming I can do this as the pins are the same on both sides..

... I want to use one PI so I will only have to remember 1 IP address.. unless there is a way to connect 2 pis to the same IP address. not asking that correctly, hope it makes sense..

That works, yes. Just watch out that you solder it right, otherwise a bad contact in the chain will compromise the network/bus.

 

[Hugo_Fish]

That works, yes. Just watch out that you solder it right, otherwise a bad contact in the chain will compromise the network/bus.

sweet! ill look at starting the PH Mod soon .. just need to figure out about the dosing pump..

 

[Sral]

sweet! ill look at starting the PH Mod soon .. just need to figure out about the dosing pump..

Oh, right, forgot about that, sry.

How many pumps do you want ? I’ll have to caution though, the PCA9685 does sometimes not react to a change. That’s why I personally run my pumps with GPIOs and only dimm with PWM.
There might be a software solution to negate those risks with the PCA9685 at some point.

The two PWM channels on the PI are reliable though.

 

[Hugo_Fish]

I really need to research more into PCA9685.. Im not quite understand fully what it is... when looking at the Guide on Adafruit it doesn't use a PCA9685 it uses some of the same pins as the power bar.

 

[Sral]

I really need to research more into PCA9685.. Im not quite understand fully what it is... when looking at the Guide on Adafruit it doesn't use a PCA9685 it uses some of the same pins as the power bar.

Right, sry. It is basically 16 pins that do the same as pins 18 and 19 on the PI that are used in the dosing module. They put out a rectangular voltage wave that oscillates between 0V and nominal output voltage. Depending on the setting it will stay between 0% to 100% of the time of one period on the output voltage. That’s called PWM or a PWM signal.

With the PI, nominal output Voltage is always 3.3V, with the PCA9685 it is the VCC that you connect.

 

[Hugo_Fish]

mmmm what do you mean by "PCA9685 does sometimes not react to a change"