electrical idiot builds a controller - a reef pi build

[Bigtrout]

Its even easier than that. I didnt mess with power supply...only the 4 pin connector. Every wire you need is already in that connector.
One pin is 15v from power supply.
One pin is ground from power supply.
One pin is return for white.
One pin is return for blue.
This works independently from the lights own switch...which will be in the off position. The beamswork timer works the same way, only no pwm..it just switches the blue and white on their own time schedules.

15v wire will split between both mosfet boards and go to Vin on each board
Ground will split between both as well and go to GND on each board
Return for white will be from one mosfet board Vout.
Return for blue from the other board Vout.

The 24 inch should be pretty bright on a small tank. A 20 gallon is 16 deep, according to some par readings a guy took over on plantedtank.net forums, it puts you around 70 par at the substrate, which is a great level for a starter planted tank. Its solid medium light level for a non co2 tank...and with pwm dimming you can dial it right in.

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

I'm excited!

 

[Bigtrout]

On the pwm end, the mosfet boards will have a wiring tail that comes with it...on Mikes board you need a prewired connector to match his board connector...splice the two and BINGO!

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

Can’t wait to say bingo!

I loaded reef pi onto the raspberry pi tonight but I ran into a problem. Everything went fine but I can’t reach the reef-pi ui through my browser. I loaded raspbian lite thinking I didn’t need the graphical interface but maybe this doesn’t have enough software to display reef-pi. I did check if reef-pi is running from the raspbian terminal window and it is.
I tried https://goblins.local and I tried 192.168.1.161 I even tried pinging the IP address and got nothing back.

Tomorrow I’ll start over with a full install of raspbian.

 

[Bigtrout]

Can’t wait to say bingo!

I loaded reef pi onto the raspberry pi tonight but I ran into a problem. Everything went fine but I can’t reach the reef-pi ui through my browser. I loaded raspbian lite thinking I didn’t need the graphical interface but maybe this doesn’t have enough software to display reef-pi. I did check if reef-pi is running from the raspbian terminal window and it is.
I tried https://goblins.local and I tried 192.168.1.161 I even tried pinging the IP address and got nothing back.

Tomorrow I’ll start over with a full install of raspbian.

Raspbian Lite is all you need
Dont use https the first time try http
The ip addy should get you there though

 

[Michael Lane]

Bigtrout's giving all the right advice and information. I don't have anything to add to the recent conversation, but I put the attached diagram together tonight, in case it is helpful. I'll also add it to my other documentation.

The only other clarification I can provide is that the pwm output from the pca9685 is 3.3v instead of 5v pwm. I don't think it makes a difference based on the mosfet board you linked since it works with either voltage.

 

[Bigtrout]

Bigtrout's giving all the right advice and information. I don't have anything to add to the recent conversation, but I put the attached diagram together tonight, in case it is helpful. I'll also add it to my other documentation.

The only other clarification I can provide is that the pwm output from the pca9685 is 3.3v instead of 5v pwm. I don't think it makes a difference based on the mosfet board you linked since it works with either voltage.

Yes, the linked boards work great at 3.3v, so no worries

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

That picture is really helpful Mike Lane!

PWM = 3.3V got it! Now I understand what P3V3 meant on the schematic.

SO the connection issue was just that the goblins were being feisty. Last night I couldn't open reef-pi on a browser. I also couldn't ssh to the pi or even ping it. All seemed fine on the pi. I checked the IP address and saw it on my router list. I had some left over feta, bell pepper, and onion pizza. I left it near the raspberry pi last night. (I heard goblins won't eat pepperoni this time of year). This morning all is working perfect. I got right in to reef-pi from my laptop, and I learned a valuable lesson. The reef-pi on my salt tank is housing trolls. They love pepperoni. The sweet water pi I am building is housing goblins. They love vegetarian pizza.

Now I am waiting on parts to keep building. and my wife has lots remodeling projects she wants me to do. ugh....

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

Once again I found my prophetic gene.

The light on my freshwater went out today. Just a few days after I got my new beamswork. The tank looks much better with the brighter light.

 

[ccombs]

I do a lot of semi-professional electrical engineering (of sorts)

Best quote of R2R by far!

 

[Bigtrout]

Once again I found my prophetic gene.

The light on my freshwater went out today. Just a few days after I got my new beamswork. The tank looks much better with the brighter light.

Yes, the DA 6500K and the DA FSPEC are great bang for the buck lights. With the pwm control from reef pi, they easily rival some of the best commercial freshwater leds out there.

Today is tank trimming day, I wish I could send you some of the jungle I tame every 2 weeks, I could give you some good starts of Vallisneria, Crypts and nice starter size Amazon sword. Alas being March, they would freeze and die during shipping.

The Vallisneria I have, I collected from the Allegheny River 5 years ago. It has survived being moved from a 30 gallon to 75 gallon setup, and a move from one house to another. The jungle of it all came from 2 plants that survived that house move.

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

That’s very kind of you to offer. But like you said with winter it’s just not possible. I’m not ready right now anyway. I need to replace the gravel first.

Two problems with the new light

1) scratches and stuff on the glass are much easier to see!

2) the fish are freaked out.

 

[Oscar1018]

Really nice

 

[Bigtrout]

That’s very kind of you to offer. But like you said with winter it’s just not possible. I’m not ready right now anyway. I need to replace the gravel first.

Two problems with the new light

1) scratches and stuff on the glass are much easier to see!

2) the fish are freaked out.

Wow what a difference!!

The fish will get used to the brightness...maybe it will jump start that plant into growing...until you get pwm control, you may want to watch the hours on the new light...lots of light with no plants to compete for nutrients= Algea Farm

I just ripped out enough Crypts and Vallisneria to stock your tank with plants twice over and it barely looks like I touched it.

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

.lots of light with no plants to compete for nutrients= Algea Farm

I just ripped out enough Crypts and Vallisneria to stock your tank with plants twice over and it barely looks like I touched it.

My pleco would be happy to have something to eat!

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

I really fought those stupid pin connectors last night.

First I tried 14 gauge solid wire. The Home Depot guy sold this to me for ac power. (I had planned 18 gauge). I had every color. The wire just split the housing pushing it in.

Next I found an old Mac charger cable and cut it open hoping to get 18 gauge. It was 16 gauge stranded but had all the right colors. I couldn’t get it to hold on the connector.

I checked my garage and found solid 16 gauge in red only. I skipped this.

My last try was 22 gauge. I have the right colors. It was difficult to get in the connector but it did hold. I think the wire is too small for power supply though. Then my wife wanted to watch her soap This is Us and I had to spend time with her.

... not much progress last night. It is a good thing those pin connectors come in huge packs. I would much rather solder than put these stupid things together.

What gauge wire do I need from the Meanwell power adapter to the reef-hat?

 

[Ranjib]

22 awg is rated for 6 amp, and should be enough to support at least 3 amp

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

So with confidence in the wire size I set out to finish the power supply. I tried 18 gauge with the pin connectors ... nope. But 20 gauge did the trick!!! I'm little better with the pin connectors but honestly I don't like them much. Even with it assembled they don't seem very secure.

I dialed in the power adapter to 5.03V on channel 1 and 11.90V channel 2. Connected it all up and it runs BUT...

The goblins are not happy and I can't connect via my laptop or phone. Just like the first night. Ping doesn't work in a terminal window and no other way to access. I'm not sure what is going on. I doubt it is reef-pi or pi-hat related. More likely a Raspbian thing. I'll keep going with the build. At the end if it doesn't resolve then I'll reload the software.

Here is a picture of the power circuit.

 

[Ranjib]

you see this green led on pi blinking? if its blinking it indicated that it has atleast booted ..

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

you see this green led on pi blinking? if its blinking it indicated that it has atleast booted ..

Yes it’s running. I connected by hdmi to a tv. I even checked that reef-pi was running. No problem there. It is some kind of connectivity issue. I see the raspberry pi on my WiFi server but I can’t ping it.