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

[MBellavance]

I did not work... below is the result

Thanks for taking the time!

 

[Ranjib]

I did not work... below is the result

Thanks for taking the time!

No worries, sorry for your trouble.
This is definitely related to wrong binary. You can confirm this by running

/usr/bin/reef-pi  -version

and it should fail. I am testing the package on an older pi2 (i had lying around) , I'll report back if I made any discovery. Meanwhile, try running the pizer0 package, (not sure even that will work, ideally the pi 3 binary should work)

BTW, Can you share some more details about your pi setup? Its pi 2. And running latest raspbian?

 

[MBellavance]

Hi! Did not work... I have a pi2 running on Stretch Don't take too much time. I just ordered a pi3 :) should be here in a day or two. In the mean time I will try pizer0 and let you know!

Thanks again for your help!

 

[MBellavance]

Update pizer0 is running... Assume I was screwed when I bought that PI a few years ago... Very sorry for your loss of time...
Since a have a few days to wait for the pi3 to come in, can I work with pizer0 for now?
Still cannot get anything on the browser...

 

[Ranjib]

Update pizer0 is running... Assume I was screwed when I bought that PI a few years ago... Very sorry for your loss of time...
Since a have a few days to wait for the pi3 to come in, can I work with pizer0 for now?
Still cannot get anything on the browser...

Yes :-) I like pi zero more than pi 3, it small, takes less power and 10$ . You can use everything that reef-pi provides , with pi zero.

I would just advice disabling the gui in pi zero. It takes lots of cpu/memory. You can do it either by installing raspbian lite or by disabling the gui systemd target in normal raspbian (after you have set up everything)
http://ask.xmodulo.com/disable-desktop-gui-raspberry-pi.html

 

[MBellavance]

Yes :) I like pi zero more than pi 3, it small, takes less power and 10$ . You can use everything that reef-pi provides , with pi zero.

I would just advice disabling the gui in pi zero. It takes lots of cpu/memory. You can do it either by installing raspbian lite or by disabling the gui systemd target in normal raspbian (after you have set up everything)
http://ask.xmodulo.com/disable-desktop-gui-raspberry-pi.html

Thanks ! I should have ordered that one instead of pi3 :-)
Now I have the pi0 version running on a pi B+ (sorry it was not a pi2, this is why the pi3.deb was not working...)

How can I connect to reef-pi in the browser? Nothing is stated about this in the instruction

Thanks !!!

 

[Ranjib]

just type the ip of pi zero in your brower.

 

[Kampo]

whats the process to upgrade reef-pi since i'm on 1.0.

also still trying to trouble shoot the pwm or atleast brainstorm the issue, did you recall what PWM frequency it runs at?

 

[Ryan115]

whats the process to upgrade reef-pi since i'm on 1.0.

also still trying to trouble shoot the pwm or atleast brainstorm the issue, did you recall what PWM frequency it runs at?

For upgrade, I have always just installed the new version on top of the old...

sudo dpkg -i reef-pi-1.1-pi3.deb

If you want to uninstall completely and reinstall...

sudo apt-get remove reef-pi --purge
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/reef-pi/reef-pi.db

Beware that this will delete all outlets, timers, telemetry, pins etc... that are in the .db file.

Last time I tested PWM was ~540Hz. I believe Ranjib saw something similar on his.

 

[Kampo]

For upgrade, I have always just installed the new version on top of the old...

sudo dpkg -i reef-pi-1.1-pi3.deb

If you want to uninstall completely and reinstall...

sudo apt-get remove reef-pi --purge
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/reef-pi/reef-pi.db

Beware that this will delete all outlets, timers, telemetry, pins etc... that are in the .db file.

Last time I tested PWM was ~540Hz. I believe Ranjib saw something similar on his.

do i have to kill the service first? or can i just log in via putty download the new version and install right over and reboot?

 

[MBellavance]

just type the ip of pi zero in your brower.

Oh que oui!!!! I got my lights running via pwm!

Thank you so much!!! This thing is amazing!

 

[Ryan115]

do i have to kill the service first? or can i just log in via putty download the new version and install right over and reboot?

In the past I haven't killed it. Not sure if there is a good reason to kill it first though.

 

[Ranjib]

In the past I haven't killed it. Not sure if there is a good reason to kill it first though.

uninstaller itself will do that for you.

 

[Biokabe]

I have a hardware question, it's possible it's answered somewhere in here, but with so many replies the search feature doesn't work fantastically well. =)

My initial reefPi setup will be used to control my lights - eventually I'll add some controllable outlets and a temperature sensor, but we're starting off with just the light. I have the PCA9685 board and a pi3. I'm using Meanwell LDD drivers (some of the 700 mA variety, some of the 1000 mA variety), set up on their own board (this one), with power to the LEDs coming from an independent power supply (this one). In searching through various forum threads related to the PCA9685 board, some people state that it needs to be powered with its own 5v power supply, but since most people are saying that in the context of controlling servos, I'm not sure if that applies. Do I need to give that board its own power supply, or will the signal (3.3v, I believe) coming from the pi3 be sufficient for the PWM signal for dimming the drivers?

 

[Ranjib]

I have a hardware question, it's possible it's answered somewhere in here, but with so many replies the search feature doesn't work fantastically well. =)

My initial reefPi setup will be used to control my lights - eventually I'll add some controllable outlets and a temperature sensor, but we're starting off with just the light. I have the PCA9685 board and a pi3. I'm using Meanwell LDD drivers (some of the 700 mA variety, some of the 1000 mA variety), set up on their own board (this one), with power to the LEDs coming from an independent power supply (this one). In searching through various forum threads related to the PCA9685 board, some people state that it needs to be powered with its own 5v power supply, but since most people are saying that in the context of controlling servos, I'm not sure if that applies. Do I need to give that board its own power supply, or will the signal (3.3v, I believe) coming from the pi3 be sufficient for the PWM signal for dimming the drivers?

You are right, you dont need a separate power supply for the pca9685 board.

I do not use any dedicated 5v power supply for the pca9685 board, since it only provides the 5v pwm signal, and theres a dedicated power supply even for the final 10v pwm (for my kessil builds) or anything else. The normal 5v vcc connection (not 3.3v), from pi works fine for me. I recommend using a beefy 2.5A 5v wall wart to power the pi.

 

[Ranjib]

Oh que oui!!!! I got my lights running via pwm!

Thank you so much!!! This thing is amazing!

Photo :-) ?

 

[Ranjib]

For upgrade, I have always just installed the new version on top of the old...

sudo dpkg -i reef-pi-1.1-pi3.deb

If you want to uninstall completely and reinstall...

sudo apt-get remove reef-pi --purge
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/reef-pi/reef-pi.db

Beware that this will delete all outlets, timers, telemetry, pins etc... that are in the .db file.

Last time I tested PWM was ~540Hz. I believe Ranjib saw something similar on his.

https://github.com/kidoman/embd/blob/master/controller/pca9685/pca9685.go#L24
490HZ. Currently,reef-pi does not allow changing the pwm frequency from UI/API. We can of course revisit that

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

Hey Ranjib, I haven't seen this thread since October and it's still going like crazy. That's really awesome. I see you've made a lot of headway. Very nice!

 

[Ranjib]

Been busy with my kid and enjoying the holidays, while reef-pi 1.0 build are powering through... i made couple of observations.
1) After the 1.1 release none of my build (I have 3 ) showed any issues in terms of kessil controls, water level detection or temperature monitoring.
2) I lost wifi/internet connectivity with one of my controller, and could not connect to it over ssh. I think its due to comcast network interruption sometime during weekdays. Though I could not access the pi, all my kessil lights were working as expected, with proper dawn to dusk effect. So, I knew reef-pi and the pi itself is working as expected.
My builds, the AIO:

And the kessil controller,

In the AIO build I can atleast see if the chips are on or off (green led), in the kessil controller, I have literally no clue :-( . Poor design from my side.


This brought up an interesting problem, without the ssh access or any sort of display /keyboard attached, if I loose internet connectivity, I have no way to safely shutdown the pi/controller. The only option is to do hard reboot (i.e. remove and reattach the power plug). This is just bad, since a hard reboot often time crashed the sd card.
So, I was thinking of a set of new features, to at least mitigate some of these serious issues. I believe other users, are also going to experience this, (unless they have a display/keyboard attached to controller). Following were my requirements
- reef-pi build should have at least one physical button to safely shutdown the controller, for maintenance or emergency situation. This should work, even if reef-pi software is crashed.
- It will be nice to have a cheap Led screen or some indicator light to show some key information. Things like IP, or current state (like temperature etc.)
- Have a frugal way to fix the network connectivity issue. i.e. expect network to go down time to time, and deal with it.

Meanwhile, I wanted to start working on the 2.0 features, and for that I need a development controller build that i can use to test 2.0 feature (cheap)..So, here is the reef-pi cheapster build :)

Its a tupperware with an arcade button and an led screen, powered by pi zero and with 3 temperature controller connectors.

I used this to develop a physical interface for reef-pi. This physical interface at minimum can shutdown Raspberry pi safely (when pressed for 3 seconds), it can also show the IP of the Pi (if pressed for a small time period, smaller than 3 seconds). We can use this basic setup to test and develop a host of common use cases (such as show summary information, like temperature, ph or restart network etc)

I also deployed couple of new systemd unit files, these are particular configurations that tells Raspberry Pi to restart wifi network every night. Note, this will not impact reef-pi's features, but will help recovering lost network connections. Since deploying this setting, i have no issue with my existing builds loosing connections permanently. I am still developing the physical interface, I think we can still debate on the appropriate LED screen and number of buttons, and the bare minimal features it should support. But this is a good start.

Here is a little demo, the screen initially shows "R2R", when clicked summarily, it prints IP (10.0.0.19, with each part shown in separate screen with blink i), and when clicked with a long pause, it executes the shutdown sequence and powers down pi (blinking "PWR")

 

[Kampo]

I have a hardware question, it's possible it's answered somewhere in here, but with so many replies the search feature doesn't work fantastically well. =)

My initial reefPi setup will be used to control my lights - eventually I'll add some controllable outlets and a temperature sensor, but we're starting off with just the light. I have the PCA9685 board and a pi3. I'm using Meanwell LDD drivers (some of the 700 mA variety, some of the 1000 mA variety), set up on their own board (this one), with power to the LEDs coming from an independent power supply (this one). In searching through various forum threads related to the PCA9685 board, some people state that it needs to be powered with its own 5v power supply, but since most people are saying that in the context of controlling servos, I'm not sure if that applies. Do I need to give that board its own power supply, or will the signal (3.3v, I believe) coming from the pi3 be sufficient for the PWM signal for dimming the drivers?

My build a page or 2 back uses ldd drivers. The way I have mine wired up is I have a main PSU of 48v. Then I have a 2amp buck converter with a microusb power out I found powering the pi itself. Then pi hooked to the pca9685. And the ldd drivers pwm line going to the pca9685 out pins. I didn't use a board like you are getting I just saved money and got the wired ldds, not as neat of wireing though.

Separate power supplies I think would work but you need to share the ground somewhere or I don't think it would work.