lmm1967
Well-Known Member
Roughly 5 years ago I started messing with the idea of using Arduinos to do some tank control / automation. I was successful to the stage of being able to detect temp & control relays. No big deal, pretty easy etc.
Same thing with other stuff - controlling relays / outlets with timers, based on other measurements etc. What I never did get to the point of is successfully utilizing I2C or 1Wire or something - on arduino platform so I could do all the individual things I had accomplished - but at the same time and on the same hardware.
I even used an arduino to run a servo
My frustration led to to take the easy (for me) route and just go out and purchase a controller package. I liked reefkeeper as it was based on an open source platform - but, the stuff was just too hard to find and purchase locally so i went with the big orange stuff. It worked - and has worked pretty well for several years. I have a ton of modules running 4 salt tanks and a water mixing setup. But - there are a few minor limitations which are really big things to me (not going to go down that path as it serves no purpose - suffice it to say I want my data and I want it where I can put it and do whatever I want with it).
Recently I've delved into GHL - converted 2 tanks over to GHL - have several modules etc - and then I ran into a few issues with undocumented limitations that will never be addressed - again, maybe minor things to many people - but the limitation I ran in to, the ridiculousness of their support (umm - I paid you guys, remember? I'm allowed to tell you when something sucks and ask questions you don't like to answer) and the fact that I was going to spend yet another $1 - $2k before I was done made me pause on that path.
I've lurked at all the reef-pi threads throughout the last couple years and eagerly watched the progress - always being impressed with the tight nit community working together towards a common goal with no ulterior motives.
I've decided to just control my own destiny and if something isn't doing what I want - I can either fix it or blame myself.
So far I have:
- read a ton of course, both here and several of the instructional sites (github, adafruit, other peoples web blogs etc)
- I already have a few RPi boards - but I did dedicate a 4 (just as my testing platform and who knows what else eventually) as well as 2 Pi Zero Ws (haven't actually plugged these in yet - hopefully in the next day or so I'll get them base configured).
- Ordered a small stores worth of stuff I know I'll need (controllable power strips, temp sensors, hats, posts, box, connectors blah blah)
- Reef-Pi up and running and controlling an HS300 - manually controlling it so far - but it's doing something!
Ultimately I anticipate Reef-Pi will be running all tanks and I'll sell off a bunch of the "other" things - I very well may hang on to the testing/dosing pieces from GHL as I really like that functionality.
Same thing with other stuff - controlling relays / outlets with timers, based on other measurements etc. What I never did get to the point of is successfully utilizing I2C or 1Wire or something - on arduino platform so I could do all the individual things I had accomplished - but at the same time and on the same hardware.
I even used an arduino to run a servo
My frustration led to to take the easy (for me) route and just go out and purchase a controller package. I liked reefkeeper as it was based on an open source platform - but, the stuff was just too hard to find and purchase locally so i went with the big orange stuff. It worked - and has worked pretty well for several years. I have a ton of modules running 4 salt tanks and a water mixing setup. But - there are a few minor limitations which are really big things to me (not going to go down that path as it serves no purpose - suffice it to say I want my data and I want it where I can put it and do whatever I want with it).
Recently I've delved into GHL - converted 2 tanks over to GHL - have several modules etc - and then I ran into a few issues with undocumented limitations that will never be addressed - again, maybe minor things to many people - but the limitation I ran in to, the ridiculousness of their support (umm - I paid you guys, remember? I'm allowed to tell you when something sucks and ask questions you don't like to answer) and the fact that I was going to spend yet another $1 - $2k before I was done made me pause on that path.
I've lurked at all the reef-pi threads throughout the last couple years and eagerly watched the progress - always being impressed with the tight nit community working together towards a common goal with no ulterior motives.
I've decided to just control my own destiny and if something isn't doing what I want - I can either fix it or blame myself.
So far I have:
- read a ton of course, both here and several of the instructional sites (github, adafruit, other peoples web blogs etc)
- I already have a few RPi boards - but I did dedicate a 4 (just as my testing platform and who knows what else eventually) as well as 2 Pi Zero Ws (haven't actually plugged these in yet - hopefully in the next day or so I'll get them base configured).
- Ordered a small stores worth of stuff I know I'll need (controllable power strips, temp sensors, hats, posts, box, connectors blah blah)
- Reef-Pi up and running and controlling an HS300 - manually controlling it so far - but it's doing something!
Ultimately I anticipate Reef-Pi will be running all tanks and I'll sell off a bunch of the "other" things - I very well may hang on to the testing/dosing pieces from GHL as I really like that functionality.
. Super nice to see new builds. Thank you for considering reef-pi, and let us know if you need any help or have any question.
