My Reef pi build - Well, my Viparspectra PWM light controller :D

[Eugene233]

with all do respect my apologies im really new to this site and i am having some difficulty navigating and post in the right section. can i make this simple and just get a raspberry pi3 and call it a day? all i am trying to do is control this viparspectra because i dropped the remote into the salt water and it stopped working and navigating the onboard computer drives me to the point of insanity. and thank you for the input.

 

[Des Westcott]

with all do respect my apologies im really new to this site and i am having some difficulty navigating and post in the right section. can i make this simple and just get a raspberry pi3 and call it a day? all i am trying to do is control this viparspectra because i dropped the remote into the salt water and it stopped working and navigating the onboard computer drives me to the point of insanity. and thank you for the input.

No problem at all Bru. I understand your feeling on navigating around the forum.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/r...troller-based-on-raspberry-pi.289256/page-792 Is the main development thread. Post any general reef-pi questions there. Particularly relating to this issue.

From what I understand, if you use a Pi4 on Pi OS as it comes downloaded it works just fine. The problem only starts when you update it. If I'm understanding everything correctly.

I use a Pi3B on Ver 3.3.1 and am having not problems.

 

[robsworld78]

@Des Westcott is correct, if you reformat your SD card, reinstall Raspberry Pi OS using Raspberry Pi Imager but don't run the update for the OS you should be good. Of course this is only necessary if you can't access the connectors tab in reef-pi. If it says something went wrong this is the cause.

 

[Eugene233]

ok and again imm really sorry for the ignorance,
if i reinstall the pi os not update it should work
now, it working means that i dont have to enable dev mode to be able to access the jacks and so forth, or you still need enable it for it to work? \
now from what i remember i had it working one time i was able to switch off the equipment tab but what my issue was, when i added a jack i couldnt read a pwm signal from the pi useing my volt meter but when i did comand line it worked
, just trying to be clear on what should and shouldnt be working.

 

[robsworld78]

ok and again imm really sorry for the ignorance,
if i reinstall the pi os not update it should work
now, it working means that i dont have to enable dev mode to be able to access the jacks and so forth, or you still need enable it for it to work? \
now from what i remember i had it working one time i was able to switch off the equipment tab but what my issue was, when i added a jack i couldnt read a pwm signal from the pi useing my volt meter but when i did comand line it worked
, just trying to be clear on what should and shouldnt be working.

I'm not really sure what your problem is, if you can't load the "connectors" tab the problem is the OS update. If you can access the connectors tab I'm not sure. You mentioned you added a jack so I don't think it's an update OS issue. Dev mode should be turned off, that's used when they do testing during development.

Here's a bunch of manuals that may help, try searching through them to do what you need.

Manuals - Google Drive

drive.google.com

 

[Eugene233]

hey, sorry for the late reply. i ended up finally upgrading to my dream tank, 100 gallon acrylic, lost a few fish on the way. my media reactor broken, ugh dont we all just love the hobby. lol.
i finally had some time to sit down and try out some of the recommendation and so far what i am getting is after the install of reef-pi i start it up log in and this is what i get under the connections tab

Something went wrong.
TypeError: Cannot read property 'analog-input' of null
in t in div in div in div in div in div in t in Connect(t) in div in div in t in div in t in t in div in div in div in div in t in Connect(t) in t in a

• Documentation |
• Wed Sep 2 08:38:57,
• running 3.0,
• since 27 seconds ago |
• IP 192.168.1.72 |
• Errors(0)

im not sure what this means or if there is any easy fix for it
if it requires heavy programming and not just a few lines to be replaced, i rather order a pi3.
im not a programmer but from what i understand the reef-pi is not communicating to the pi4 hardware correctly, if there is even a path for the reef-pi to communicate through to the gpio's and whats not.
please advise that way i can either order a new pi3 or fix this issue.
for the record i have researched this issue and i get python programming information which is like kinda french and Korean to me. i see it i hear it but for the life of me i cant make sense of it. from what i understand i would need to take some kinda series python programming classes to understand what is going on. like i have said i am doing my best to understand but this is a little above my knowledge.

 

[robsworld78]

hey, sorry for the late reply. i ended up finally upgrading to my dream tank, 100 gallon acrylic, lost a few fish on the way. my media reactor broken, ugh dont we all just love the hobby. lol.
i finally had some time to sit down and try out some of the recommendation and so far what i am getting is after the install of reef-pi i start it up log in and this is what i get under the connections tab

Something went wrong.
TypeError: Cannot read property 'analog-input' of null
in t in div in div in div in div in div in t in Connect(t) in div in div in t in div in t in t in div in div in div in div in t in Connect(t) in t in a

• Documentation |
• Wed Sep 2 08:38:57,
• running 3.0,
• since 27 seconds ago |
• IP 192.168.1.72 |
• Errors(0)

im not sure what this means or if there is any easy fix for it
if it requires heavy programming and not just a few lines to be replaced, i rather order a pi3.
im not a programmer but from what i understand the reef-pi is not communicating to the pi4 hardware correctly, if there is even a path for the reef-pi to communicate through to the gpio's and whats not.
please advise that way i can either order a new pi3 or fix this issue.
for the record i have researched this issue and i get python programming information which is like kinda french and Korean to me. i see it i hear it but for the life of me i cant make sense of it. from what i understand i would need to take some kinda series python programming classes to understand what is going on. like i have said i am doing my best to understand but this is a little above my knowledge.

That error is related to Pi4, you'll have to reformat the SD card are reinstall.

Install Raspberry Pi OS using Raspberry Pi Imager, when you're done don't run these commands as they will update the OS and will cause this issue.

sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get upgrade -y

There's nothing you can do to fix this, the update broke a library being used but a patch will be available soon. This isn't a problem with a Pi3 so that would get your running for sure.

 

[Eugene233]

for conversation sake i had some time to kill so i went a head and found the oldest version of rasbian for the pi 4 and got it installed up and running and i have been able to get the on and off switch to work again so i know the reef pi is communicating with the pi but i still cant seem to get a pwm signle out of the pi to control anything. any input would help

 

[robsworld78]

for conversation sake i had some time to kill so i went a head and found the oldest version of rasbian for the pi 4 and got it installed up and running and i have been able to get the on and off switch to work again so i know the reef pi is communicating with the pi but i still cant seem to get a pwm signle out of the pi to control anything. any input would help

Did you add this line to the bottom of the config.txt file on SD card?

dtoverlay=pwm-2chan

Also make sure you add the PWM pins as Jacks in connectors.

If you need more help start a thread, this is someones build thread.

 

[Eugene233]

Tbh, I thought I started one but no luck on much help I will try to add the line and if nothing happens I will start a new thread

 

[Reef_Engineer]

Hey did you end up figuring this out?

I did not I purchased hydras and a larger tank. But I might be doing this as a side project after I get the parts. Will keep everyone posted and start a thread if I do!

 

[Reef_Engineer]

I did not I purchased hydras and a larger tank. But I might be doing this as a side project after I get the parts. Will keep everyone posted and start a thread if I do!

So i did get this to work but i had to build a custom circuitry. I wound up not liking the look and upgraded to Radion G5's if you continue with the build i can assist if needed.

 

[Savampyre]

Hi everyone, hate to resurrect an old post, but figured this would be the best place to also post this issue besides the main reef-pi thread. I have a Viparspectra T300 that I am trying to control with reef-pi. I made a very similar circuit to the OP of this thread, but for the life of me cannot get PWM to work from the Pi. I've tried using an earlier piOS release, same for reef-pi (v4.0 vs 4.1), but still no luck.
In /sys/class/pwm I noticed that while files are there, the error shown appears when trying to view any of the txt files.

The voltmeter pic shows voltage from pi-ground to PWM for both ch0 and ch1, the voltage remained the same regardless of where I moved the slider in reef-pi.

One thing that is slightly different from the OP is that the T300 uses a spliced cable internally to control 2 drivers for the blue channel vs one single driver. I'm not sure if that would make a difference or not as the issue appears with both channels. I did verify all features worked on the T300 prior to splicing in the Pi.

 

[diver22]

great thread guys, I have 3 viparspectra lamps, how would I wire them in ? do i need a setup for each or can I just add all 3 lamps to channel 1 and channel 2 on the same channel relay module ?

 

[avar2005]

Sorry to drag up an old thread, has anyone tried this with the 165W Phlizon BB?

From my understanding, most of the black boxes are clones of each other, with maybe slightly different LEDs.

 

[Ranjib]

Sorry to drag up an old thread, has anyone tried this with the 165W Phlizon BB?

From my understanding, most of the black boxes are clones of each other, with maybe slightly different LEDs.

controllable black box LED?

reef pi with a pca9685 module and i used 3 Philzon black boxes from amazon. took 5 minutes a light to modify. Each switch is labeled ground constant and pwn run the ground back to the reefpi and run the pwn to the pca9685 and you can control blues and whites separately. no problems with shutting...

www.reef2reef.com

please start a separate thread if you want to discuss this and keep this one for the op. I have used none of these hence can’t comment on those builds. But I recall folks able to make use of both philzon and vioerspectra

 

[avar2005]

controllable black box LED?

reef pi with a pca9685 module and i used 3 Philzon black boxes from amazon. took 5 minutes a light to modify. Each switch is labeled ground constant and pwn run the ground back to the reefpi and run the pwn to the pca9685 and you can control blues and whites separately. no problems with shutting...

www.reef2reef.com

please start a separate thread if you want to discuss this and keep this one for the op. I have used none of these hence can’t comment on those builds. But I recall folks able to make use of both philzon and vioerspectra

My apologies will do. Thanks!