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

Ranjib · Mar 31, 2018

binay said:
Thanks

Did you run that command ? I just cross checked the timer feature on 1.4 , and it worked as expected . The UI bug was a hiccup though. I’ll fix that in next release

Jonathan Troutt · Apr 1, 2018

This is an awesome project and one that I will be building. Especially interested in controlling my black box. I currently have one of the viparspectra's 165w over a 40 breeder. I am going to be purchasing a second one very soon and eventually moving everything over to a 75 gal. Thank you to whoever it needs to go to for all their hard work on this! I get to feed two addictions at once. Reef keeping and DIY'ing.....

Which version of the Pi is needed.

Ranjib · Apr 1, 2018

Jonathan Troutt said:
This is an awesome project and one that I will be building. Especially interested in controlling my black box. I currently have one of the viparspectra's 165w over a 40 breeder. I am going to be purchasing a second one very soon and eventually moving everything over to a 75 gal. Thank you to whoever it needs to go to for all their hard work on this! I get to feed two addictions at once. Reef keeping and DIY'ing.....

Which version of the Pi is needed.

How many channels you need to control independently , if it’s two or less just a pi zero, if more, get a pi zero and pca9685 breakout board

Ranjib · Apr 1, 2018

Jonathan Troutt said:
This is an awesome project and one that I will be building. Especially interested in controlling my black box. I currently have one of the viparspectra's 165w over a 40 breeder. I am going to be purchasing a second one very soon and eventually moving everything over to a 75 gal. Thank you to whoever it needs to go to for all their hard work on this! I get to feed two addictions at once. Reef keeping and DIY'ing.....

Which version of the Pi is needed.

And thank you for the kind words

Jonathan Troutt · Apr 1, 2018

Ranjib said:
How many channels you need to control independently , if it’s two or less just a pi zero, if more, get a pi zero and pca9685 breakout board

Well I am going to eventually have 2 of the 165w boxes. That being said I don't see why I couldn't control both blue channel and both white channels together. I am also going to want to be controller my Fuge light with it so I will get the PCA9685. You recommend the Pi Zero over the Pi 3?

Ranjib said:
And thank you for the kind words

Of course man credit goes where credit is due. I love DIY'ing electronics I don't have enough knowledge to do something like this from the ground up though. I am an electronics repair technician by day and have some jedi soldering skills. Micro, BGA reflow and reballs, PCB repair, all that fun stuff.

Jonathan Troutt · Apr 1, 2018

Also what about screen choices. Are using one of the smaller touchscreen displays?

Ranjib · Apr 1, 2018

Still very busy with the maker faire builds, and upgrading my 1.0 builds . Last week I finished the all in one controller (details are couple of pages before in this thread ), this week it was power controller with hdmi connector and three temperature probe (remember 2.0 aims to support multiple temperature sensors) . This build will be used to 2.0 code that’s going through development right now

This is the first time I am ussing sainsmart recommended wiring to connect to relay, which is basically gating each gpio with a npn transistor. I don’t know if this is required, but it’s probably a good practice. Also, since this build will have the AC 110V components separate (connected via an hdmi cable ) I think the current draw will be higher and the npn ransistor will pay off.
Close up of the npn crcuit (each transistor represent one gpio input)

Since my last build , I am not tying out this pattern of stacking pi on top of proto board (gikfun) . Pi itself is connected to a adafruit perma proto board. Together this gives me a stackable configuration, with solid core jumper wires as connecting mediums
Here is the perma proto board wiring

Perma proto board is then stacked on proto board

Proto board is fixed on the housing (uxcell project box) with nylon m3 screw and nuts and standoff’s (amazon has them for 5$)

Hdmi connector is not yet hooked up(will do that as part of the other build invoking relay and ac receptacles ). Notice there are three Audio connectors for temperature sensors, they are all connected to a single one wire bus/gpio 4 with 4.7k pull-up ), this is what I’ll need to test the 2.0 feature
End result m

Ranjib · Apr 1, 2018

Jonathan Troutt said:
Also what about screen choices. Are using one of the smaller touchscreen displays?

I don’t use any screen any more, I realized it never really like manipulating my controller through the official touch screen, I always use phone or laptop or tablet to connect to them. But reef-pi provides vandal web ui, which you should be able to use from official pi touch screen or any other monitor/keyboard attached to it, no special thing needed , it’s just another boring website

Ranjib · Apr 1, 2018

Jonathan Troutt said:
Well I am going to eventually have 2 of the 165w boxes. That being said I don't see why I couldn't control both blue channel and both white channels together. I am also going to want to be controller my Fuge light with it so I will get the PCA9685. You recommend the Pi Zero over the Pi 3?

Of course man credit goes where credit is due. I love DIY'ing electronics I don't have enough knowledge to do something like this from the ground up though. I am an electronics repair technician by day and have some jedi soldering skills. Micro, BGA reflow and reballs, PCB repair, all that fun stuff.

I prefer pi zero because it’s cheap , smaller and takes less power. Unless you are planning to take photo etc , go with pi zero. It’s less powerful and pi 3 , but reef-pi will run just fine (since it’s written in go , takes very less memeory and cpu).

Jonathan Troutt · Apr 1, 2018

Awesome! Looks great man. I am going to get stuff ordered!

Ranjib · Apr 1, 2018

Jonathan Troutt said:
Well I am going to eventually have 2 of the 165w boxes. That being said I don't see why I couldn't control both blue channel and both white channels together. I am also going to want to be controller my Fuge light with it so I will get the PCA9685. You recommend the Pi Zero over the Pi 3?

Of course man credit goes where credit is due. I love DIY'ing electronics I don't have enough knowledge to do something like this from the ground up though. I am an electronics repair technician by day and have some jedi soldering skills. Micro, BGA reflow and reballs, PCB repair, all that fun stuff.

We could definitely use some pcb help. Validating the circuits etc. documenting the black box controller build also will help everyone greatly.

Jonathan Troutt · Apr 1, 2018

I will be more than willing to help where i can.

denierlexiese · Apr 1, 2018

Jonathan Troutt said:
Awesome! Looks great man. I am going to get stuff ordered!

If you feel uncomfortable soldering you can get a soldered pi zero w for $15. Soldered my first one this weekend, wasn't so bad after a few practices runs on project boards. Also the other issue with the raspberry pi zero is i had no way to connect a keyboard and mouse to it initially. I had to buy a $5 hub with a micro connector. OTG cable didn't work because it covers the power cable. Also bear in mind that you will need a "micro" hdmi cable initially to view the output. For all these reasons you might want to consider the raspberry pi 3 instead - it's definetly snappier if you don't mind the size. If you already have these items or think you can source them cheap then the pi zero w makes a lot of sense. I'm actually blown away by what the pi zero can do for its size.

For the black boxes, I got them sunset and sunrising correctly over an empty tank this weekend i believe. I had to redo circuits for some reason. I don't know why. I had to power the whites and blues on the same light from the two different fan lines [power sources]. If I didn't i would get flickering at low levels, and the blue and white channels couldn't be controller separately, whichever was dimmed lower, the other channel would dim to that lower level. I don't know why the integrated circuit wouldn't work correctly together. If it runs well for the next few days I'll post pictures.

denierlexiese · Apr 1, 2018

Jonathan Troutt said:
Awesome! Looks great man. I am going to get stuff ordered!

To start we might want to consider recommending the temperature build first. For a beginner it seems like the easiest. If someone is as unfamiliar with electronics as i was when i started.

Jonathan Troutt · Apr 1, 2018

Not at unfamiliar with electronics. But thanks for the thought.

MaccaPopEye · Apr 2, 2018

First layer going down :D (pic was mirrored so that the writing reads properly).

The power board is broken up into 4 pieces (Power sockets top, power sockets bottom, relay housing top, relay housing bottom). Each piece will take between 10-16hrs to print and I think I only have enough filament to print 3 of them atm, but I have more already on the way! Once I have printed a whole power board I will upload the STL and F360 files for anyone who may want to use them.