reef-pi :: An opensource reef tank controller based on Raspberry Pi.

[Brad Cox]

I believe you still have to have a hdmi to seup the reefpi after you get it booted?

 

[Cary]

Monitor does not have an hdmi input ?

I don't think it does but willcheck..thanks

 

[Cary]

It is my understanding that my Linux laptop can run "screen" not sure of the name right now and be used as a monitor and keyboard for the pi

 

[Aaron Smith]

From our experience, 10v pwm almost always work where 0-10 v analog is expected. Last time we checked one of the commercial controller using oscillioscope it was generating 10v pwm and then passed it through a LPF.
That said, it should be possible to generate o-10v analog signal as well using a DAC, its just I didnt encounter the need for it. If someone hits this roadblock, we can revisit

Super interesting that you scoped a controller and it was pwm with a low pass filter. I know reef angel is configurable between 5v pwm 10v pwm and 10v analog. Apex uses 10v analog.

 

[Cary]

This stuff is waaaaay over my head. The electronics are what worries me...though I will be documenting the procedure as I go to help any others . We can add it to fill out the build and general guides

 

[Aaron Smith]

This stuff is waaaaay over my head. The electronics are what worries me...though I will be documenting the procedure as I go to help any others . We can add it to fill out the build and general guides

Don't be intimidated by the lingo. Ranjib has done all the hard work, only thing left is assembly[emoji41]

You can see from my posts early on that I had no prior pi experience and I have had reef-pi running for quite some time now. I am glad to see more people jumping in. [emoji3]

 

[Ranjib]

N

I believe you still have to have a hdmi to seup the reefpi after you get it booted?

nope. Just USB ttl cable will do. In fact with no display or console connection will boot as well

 

[Cary]

I am more at home with the software than the electronics and components. Look forward to learning it

 

[Ranjib]

This stuff is waaaaay over my head. The electronics are what worries me...though I will be documenting the procedure as I go to help any others . We can add it to fill out the build and general guides

Don't worry, it may not be a smooth experience, since this is diy and the project is relatively young. But you won't fail. And these steps will get easier as time passes

 

[Aaron Smith]

I will say that anyone not comfortable with 120volt wiring should ask questions or find a friend who is an electrician to look things over. Wiring the low voltage pi connections pose no safety concern, but 120 can ultimately burn the place down or cause harm to you or others. Ok I'm done preaching my trade[emoji846]

 

[Ranjib]

I am more at home with the software than the electronics and components. Look forward to learning it

I learned electronics couple of years back. I am more familiar with software and biology (job is in software, and education in biology) , the whole openhardware movement and forums like this made electronics/IoT approachable for me

 

[Cary]

Yep I studied marine biology but write technical manuals...I can do just about anything that has something written down and just needs filling out. I think the wiring diagram in the power controller is straight forward but surely check with you all and check with a dvm before I light myself up...thanks all

 

[Brad Cox]

Wow! Glad to jump in this too.


Now i gotta figure out how my leds are wired. Looks like the bluefish controller will make both 0-5v and 0-10volts.

 

[Aaron Smith]

Wow! Glad to jump in this too.


Now i gotta figure out how my leds are wired. Looks like the bluefish controller will make both 0-5v and 0-10volts.

Post a pic of the driver. Both open and closed it will be helpful for seeing what you have and will also be good documentation for the thread.[emoji41]

 

[Brad Cox]

Post a pic of the driver. Both open and closed it will be helpful for seeing what you have and will also be good documentation for the thread.[emoji41]

Well these are marsaqua led black boxes. They were converted to the bluefish controller. I bought them used so i havent opened them up yet.

 

[Ranjib]

I got most of the core code refactoring done. reef-pi codebase is now fairly modular. Theres lot more to be done., but that can be on-going effort, at least the biggest code sphaggettis are gone. I was able to write unit tests for most of the logic, here a screen shot of the coverage:

Equipments, lighting channels all are dynamic again. i.e we should be able to add/remove equipment using ui . This used to be the case in the beginning , but later I had removed it to make the overall usage simple, and geared for only a pico tank with 4 equipments. .right before maker faire. We have learned a lot since then. Equipments have to be dynamic, UI driven, it can be configuration based. Its just silly that we have to edit a config file to add a new equipment . So, thats fixed now.
I have also added UI testing. From now on, each module will have at least a single end to end testing.

If you are interested to watch it in action, heres a screen capture:



Just to reiterate. I am planning for a 1.0 release of reef-pi before /around X-mas, and I have a few basic goals for that:
1) Get reef-pi controller software refactored with clear API (1.0 API will be supported 1 year. 4 year LTS)
2) Get handful of core modules (lights, equipments, temperature, ato ...) tested, documented (build guide)
3) Reduce the pain around setting up reef-pi (have sane defaults, let everything be configurable from UI).

I am pretty confident of getting to 1, it will positively impact 3 as well. Getting the build guides in shape will be some major work

 

[Cary]

Congrats Ranjib. You must never sleep. I will help with the build guides and offer my suggestions immediately after I get the ttl cable.

 

[Brad Cox]

Awesome! Me too!

 

[Cary]

Just looked at one of the last commits of Ranjibs code that was just committed. Of course I don't understand it, but noticed he includes tooltips. Very cool.
This made me wonder if we needed a glossary of terms. Things like cron, commit, pull, etc., are common in software work but not in everyday life. I would be happy to begin this if anyone thinks it might be useful.

Ranjib, what do you think? This would not be more work for you, except to review it and load it on github. Maybe we can even define the components..okay, not a real glossary, but something that explains terms and components most people are not familiar with.

 

[leahfiish]

Just looked at one of the last commits of Ranjibs code that was just committed. Of course I don't understand it, but noticed he includes tooltips. Very cool.
This made me wonder if we needed a glossary of terms. Things like cron, commit, pull, etc., are common in software work but not in everyday life. I would be happy to begin this if anyone thinks it might be useful.

Ranjib, what do you think? This would not be more work for you, except to review it and load it on github. Maybe we can even define the components..okay, not a real glossary, but something that explains terms and components most people are not familiar with.

That would be so, so helpful to me because I have no idea what most of these words are and it just feels like a huge barrier to entry.