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

[jcmental]

A rogue Liam’s clove inside my zoa island

I love Zoa’s I’ve been toying with the idea of selling off my sps, lps and just filling the tank with zoa’s

 

[Twocorns]

Can a Raspberry Pi 2 be used with this project? Or only Pi 3?

 

[jcmental]

I’m slowly watching my tank fade to darkness, something that was never possible before Reef-Pi. This feature alone has made the whole project worthwhile. A massive thumbs up to Ranjib, my tank actually looks likes it’s fading out through the evening, not some hard flash from whites to blues. I can’t stop looking at the tank:D:D

How low can you get your leds to go? Mine seem to stay at a certain brightness but no lower then I have to turn them off using a relay.

 

[ThorEp]

Will reef-pi work with gpio expansion boards?

I am working on a pi hat that you put onto the raspberry pi 3 with everything you need on it. Connections for relay, ato,temp everything in one small bundle

 

[Ryan115]

How low can you get your leds to go? Mine seem to stay at a certain brightness but no lower then I have to turn them off using a relay.

That is typical for LED drivers, few LED drivers can dim down to very low percentages. 5-10% seems somewhat typical for low end drivers. Not even all meanwell drivers can get below 5%.
Here is the dimming specs on the ELN from meanwell.

 

[Ranjib]

Can a Raspberry Pi 2 be used with this project? Or only Pi 3?

Yes

 

[Ranjib]

Will reef-pi work with gpio expansion boards?

I am working on a pi hat that you put onto the raspberry pi 3 with everything you need on it. Connections for relay, ato,temp everything in one small bundle

Depends on how he setup. Can you elaborate what you are made tying to do? It will be easier to understand if you explain the entire setup instead of individual questions

 

[Jean-Pierre Renaud]

what would i need to lookup to make a WATER CHANGE button ?

this would need to :
stop ATO
activate the dirty water pump for determined time,
use the ATO switch to stop the the new salt water return pump when it reaches the switch
go back to normal operation

 

[jcmental]

Well total disaster today. It started out with me blowing the crap out of my new 7" touch screen. so thats in the bin now.
and I cant get my head around my lights. Their are 4 control wires going to each driver box in my Viparspectras light. I was going to have them so they each had there own PWM supply and a relay to turn them off n on, Now I can do it with one channel but when I come to do the other it's on permanently unless I set the min to 0 and the light slider to 0 other wise it will only go so low but wont switch off using the relay.
My problem is from what I can tell their stand alone controllers so unless there's something linking them through the LED configuration I cant see why they wont each take a separate control
I've wasted a full day on it now and beginning to think whats the point.

 

[Ranjib]

what would i need to lookup to make a WATER CHANGE button ?

this would need to :
stop ATO
activate the dirty water pump for determined time,
use the ATO switch to stop the the new salt water return pump when it reaches the switch
go back to normal operation

Use the api to write a script . Till I add some kinda programmable interface , reef-pi can’t execute a set of predefined tasks by itself

 

[Gareth elliott]

what would i need to lookup to make a WATER CHANGE button ?

this would need to :
stop ATO
activate the dirty water pump for determined time,
use the ATO switch to stop the the new salt water return pump when it reaches the switch
go back to normal operation

I personally would not use reef pi to do this till it has more robust safety features. 1 Optical sensor can fail or salt or object blocks light path.

On my freshwater(next to window made easier) i have a switches hard wired to do semi automatic wc.

Turns pump on in the tank water goes out the window. Turn off. I then flip switch for pump in the mixing tank (ro and seachem equilibrium) i turn off when full. One way valves in the lines stop siphon from on/off.

 

[Ranjib]

Well total disaster today. It started out with me blowing the crap out of my new 7" touch screen. so thats in the bin now.
and I cant get my head around my lights. Their are 4 control wires going to each driver box in my Viparspectras light. I was going to have them so they each had there own PWM supply and a relay to turn them off n on, Now I can do it with on channel but when I come to do the other it's on permanently unless I set the min to 0 and the light slider to 0 other wise it will only go so low but wont switch off using the relay.
My problem is from what I can tell their stand alone controllers so unless there's something linking them through the LED configuration I cant see why they wont each take a separate control
I've wasted a full day on it now and beginning to think whats the point.

I am not sure I fully understand what you are saying , but sorry about the frustration. How the touchscreen got screwed ? I think we’ll figure out what’s going on with the viparspectra circuit eventually, sometime all it needs is a break and reattempt

 

[Ranjib]

I personally would not use reef pi to do this till it has more robust safety features. 1 Optical sensor can fail or salt or object blocks light path.

On my freshwater(next to window made easier) i have a switches hard wired to do semi automatic wc.

Turns pump on in the tank water goes out the window. Turn off. I then flip switch for pump in the mixing tank (ro and seachem equilibrium) i turn off when full. One way valves in the lines stop siphon from on/off.

I find automatic water changes not very useful. I do so many things during water changes, including blasting the rocks/nukes/crannies, siphoning water from specific places etc. to me that’s the only time I do some maintenance, including any unwanted algae /coral removal etc

 

[Gareth elliott]

I find automatic water changes not very useful. I do so many things during water changes, including blasting the rocks/nukes/crannies, siphoning water from specific places etc. to me that’s the only time I do some maintenance, including any unwanted algae /coral removal etc

My system is just so i dont carry buckets lol. Hardwood floors. I do the same still keep a python handy if i need to trim plants or vacuum sand.

 

[jcmental]

I am not sure I fully understand what you are saying , but sorry about the frustration. How the touchscreen got screwed ? I think we’ll figure out what’s going on with the viparspectra circuit eventually, sometime all it needs is a break and reattempt

I got the screen rez to work on it had to add a bit of code, but then like a prat I plugged the 5v Supply into it then the HDMI and a usb from the RBP thinking that the touch screen needed the usb to work, I didnt know because there were no instructions with it not to use a 5v supply as well as a USB.

And for my lights I'm thinking of making my own LED lights I've already altered the Vipar lights and swapped out 15 whites 2 reds and 2 greens for indigo, UV and deep purple.
I'm wondering if I may have put one in with to polarity wrong and thats whats causing the lights to work strangely, I do have a very dim UV led on the board that may be the culprit. I will look some other time I'm going to chill for now and have a sulk because I'm an idiot. How do you blow something up on only 5v!

 

[jcmental]

Ok quick question before I go to bed. The problem I’ve discribed in the posts above. And me mentioning may be I put an led in back to front. Well could the same be true if one burnt out? I noticed it was a bit dimmer than the others could this have been shorting my on off circuit?

 

[Ryan115]

Ok quick question before I go to bed. The problem I’ve discribed in the posts above. And me mentioning may be I put an led in back to front. Well could the same be true if one burnt out? I noticed it was a bit dimmer than the others could this have been shorting my on off circuit?

I wouldnt think so. If the LED was in backwards, it would function just like a regular diode and not let any power flow through (think about diodes like a one-way or check valve). If it was shorting out to the board it would likely pull so much power through that string that they would all let the smoke out.
Do you have any diagrams of how you are trying to wire it?

 

[Ranjib]

I tested out rpi based pwm yesterday, turns out that the generated pwm is for 3.3v . It worked flawlessly in terms of duty cycle/frequency etc. But 3.3 v pwm means I cant use it for driving l293d based motors (for doser), l293d expects 5v pwm input.

I am happy with the rpi based pwm implementation, its performant and works as expected. But 3.3 v pwm means I have rethink the electronics, probably a power mosfet or tip120 to drive stepper/kessil etc.

 

[Fish Fan]

Hey, Ranjib!

I just purchased an IM Nuvo Fusion 10 gallon AIO, and I’d like Reef-Pi to control as many things on it as possible. I am looking for a suggestion on a circulation pump/powerhead for this tank, that would work well with reef-Pi. What circ pump would you recommend for an IM Fusion 10 and reef-pi? For this build, I’m thinking easier going softies and maybe some LPS, nothing terribly demanding.

Thank you in advance for your help!

-FF

 

[Ranjib]

Hey, Ranjib!

I just purchased an IM Nuvo Fusion 10 gallon AIO, and I’d like Reef-Pi to control as many things on it as possible. I am looking for a suggestion on a circulation pump/powerhead for this tank, that would work well with reef-Pi. What circ pump would you recommend for an IM Fusion 10 and reef-pi? For this build, I’m thinking easier going softies and maybe some LPS, nothing terribly demanding.

Thank you in advance for your help!

-FF

If you are going with mostly softies and some easy lps then I doubt I need additional power heads. Currently I am testing with jebao power heads and I think we’ll get all the electronics and software sorted in a month or two.

If you do consider adding a power head, wait for some time, you can add it couple of months layet.
I think both jebao or mp10 will look bulky on an im10, but they are good and both comes with its own controller that you can use as fallback.

I would also think about the hydor pico , and control it using timers