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

[Ranjib]

I tried reloading reefpi and turning off then back on temp subsystem and turning off and on temp controller function. Nothing has fixed it

However! I just found a fix that confirms this to be a bug IMO. I have to set a chiller threshold value for the heater function to work even though I don’t have a chiller. To do this, I have to change the chiller control to a relay and the chiller threshold was no longer grayed out. I set a value then changed the chiller control back to “none”. The heater is now working as expected

It is important to me to have reliable temperature function. In fact, ever since my raspberry pi running reefpi died a few months ago (with reefpi being my only real temperature control mechanism as my heater had a terrible temp sensor built in), I feel strongly that multiple layers of backup for temp control are important.

You are absolutely right, and we cant have this type of logic bugs in temperature or even ato control. I am looking into this.

 

[Ranjib]

Way too much tech stuff
My zoa island (acan is being slowly decimated) ...

One of my acro frag, slowly taking grips... go on buddy.. you can do this!

This acro, was glued on top of a purple stylophora colony..

 

[b4tn]

I need more SPS. Those look amazing. What camera and lense are you using?

I got my pi3 B+ in and killed the SD card. Was running the updates on Raspbian so I could get VNC and reef pi set up to play around with and look at features and the update locked up. I did a reboot and and it won’t boot from or re format the SD card. I suspect that my 12 watt iPhone power supply that was causing low voltage warnings did it. Just ordered a decent 2.5 amp power supply and a new SD card and will try again in a couple days.

 

[janos]

Hi to all,any news from 2.0 releases?

 

[Ranjib]

I need more SPS. Those look amazing. What camera and lense are you using?

I got my pi3 B+ in and killed the SD card. Was running the updates on Raspbian so I could get VNC and reef pi set up to play around with and look at features and the update locked up. I did a reboot and and it won’t boot from or re format the SD card. I suspect that my 12 watt iPhone power supply that was causing low voltage warnings did it. Just ordered a decent 2.5 amp power supply and a new SD card and will try again in a couple days.

I am using Nikon D5300 with Tokina 100mm macro lens. I was not able to shot decent pictures till recently, after @Zekth helped me with some settings those are:

• No flow (stop return, power head etc)
• Use tripod or something to fix camera.
• Shoot in raw mode.
• ISO 100
• Aperture priority mode
• While manually focusing, zoom in at maximum level to ensure focus is as good as possible

I am using Raw Therapee on Macbook to fix the white balance and standard mac image preview software to crop it

 

[Ranjib]

Hi to all,any news from 2.0 releases?

Right before thanksgiving, we are still doing a lot of UI improvements, particularly around input validation and mobile (responsive designs). I am also in the middle of writing up all the guides at Adafruit (there will be total 8 guides, I have three published already, five more to go). Last but not the least I am also doing field testing, we cant have a single logic bug going in public release (like the one @sector9 reported). That's a big NO, and a deal breaker, I'll happily delay the release if things are not error-free (we can have UI, or other non-critical issues).

 

[b4tn]

I am using Nikon D5300 with Tokina 100mm macro lens. I was not able to shot decent pictures till recently, after @Zekth helped me with some settings those are:
No flow (stop return, power head etc)
Use tripod or something to fix camera.
Shoot in raw mode.
ISO 100
Aperture priority mode
While manually focusing, zoom in at maximum level to ensure focus is as good as possible
I am using Raw Therapee on Macbook to fix the white balance and standard mac image preview software to crop it

Awesome, one of these days I will get a macro lense. For now I am using a 75-300mm lense and stand 4 ft back from the tank. I can get decent shots but not like those. I will mess around with some of those settings.

 

[Ranjib]

Awesome, one of these days I will get a macro lense. For now I am using a 75-300mm lense and stand 4 ft back from the tank. I can get decent shots but not like those. I will mess around with some of those settings.

Are you shooting in raw? If not go for it and post process for fixing the white balance /temperature, these pics will look much nicer

 

[speedstar]

Does anyone have the circuit for the Gravity IR water sensor? The link from the main page is not working for me.

Also I am just building this all out have not yet even loaded the software, can you tell me is there general GPI that can be assigned to outlet relays?

Thanks

 

[wykat]

Does anyone have the circuit for the Gravity IR water sensor? The link from the main page is not working for me.

Also I am just building this all out have not yet even loaded the software, can you tell me is there general GPI that can be assigned to outlet relays?

Thanks

Do you mean this sensor (without the board)?:

I can't find the original design so quickly, but I do have the schematics for it.

basically it's the ATO#2 schematic.

 

[speedstar]

Do you mean this sensor (without the board)?:

I can't find the original design so quickly, but I do have the schematics for it.

basically it's the ATO#2 schematic.

That is the one, I do have the board and it mentioned following a schematic from a site that no longer linked to connect to the Pi

 

[wykat]

That is the one, I do have the board and it mentioned following a schematic from a site that no longer linked to connect to the Pi

Maybe this will help then: https://www.dfrobot.com/wiki/index.php/Liquid_Level_Sensor-FS-IR02_SKU:_SEN0205
It's for Arduino, but basically you just need +5V plus GND and connect OUT to any of the Raspberry GPIO ports. The link shows all the connections of the board.

 

[b4tn]

Do you mean this sensor (without the board)?:

I can't find the original design so quickly, but I do have the schematics for it.

basically it's the ATO#2 schematic.

Trying to understand this schematic because minus ATO #2 and the second ULN2803 ( I only need 8 outputs) its exactly what I am looking to build. I see and understand the Motor driver for the dosers and the relay outputs. But where is the LM2596? What is J8 on the top right and why do the PWM outputs go to it?

Also...
Can anyone link me to the PH monitoring circuit and board?

 

[wykat]

Trying to understand this schematic because minus ATO #2 and the second ULN2803 ( I only need 8 outputs) its exactly what I am looking to build. I see and understand the Motor driver for the dosers and the relay outputs. But where is the LM2596? What is J8 on the top right and why do the PWM outputs go to it?

I'm not using the LM2596 (yet), I power the RP Pi (5V) and Reef-PI_HAT separately with 12V. I've bought components to integrate the LM2596 on the Reef-PI_HAT, but first I have to understand why the Reef-PI_PWM module is not working as expected. With the Reef-PI software I got very strange behavior in the user interface, when I started to control the PWM module directly (Python) it did seem to work however (think it's related to the used NPN transisors). Have ordered an oscilloscope to measure what comes out of the PCA9683 chip. Also 'recycled' an old oscilloscope, but not sure if that one still works (>30 years old).

J8 is an 'I2C' bus with 5 and 12V to connect to other boards. That's were I'm having some problems now, the I2C bus communicates with the PWM chip, but I don't get the expected output voltages (0-10V) yet.

 

[Ranjib]

Does anyone have the circuit for the Gravity IR water sensor? The link from the main page is not working for me.

Also I am just building this all out have not yet even loaded the software, can you tell me is there general GPI that can be assigned to outlet relays?

Thanks

https://learn.adafruit.com/reef-pi-installation-and-configuration?view=all
https://learn.adafruit.com/reef-pi-power-controller
https://learn.adafruit.com/reef-pi-guide-3-temperature-controller

The ATO controller guide will be published this week,
This should give you some idea about GPIO https://reef-pi.github.io/general-guides/electronics/

let us know if you have any other question,

 

[b4tn]

I'm not using the LM2596 (yet), I power the RP Pi (5V) and Reef-PI_HAT separately with 12V. I've bought components to integrate the LM2596 on the Reef-PI_HAT, but first I have to understand why the Reef-PI_PWM module is not working as expected. With the Reef-PI software I got very strange behavior in the user interface, when I started to control the PWM module directly (Python) it did seem to work however (think it's related to the used NPN transisors). Have ordered an oscilloscope to measure what comes out of the PCA9683 chip. Also 'recycled' an old oscilloscope, but not sure if that one still works (>30 years old).

J8 is an 'I2C' bus with 5 and 12V to connect to other boards. That's were I'm having some problems now, the I2C bus communicates with the PWM chip, but I don't get the expected output voltages (0-10V) yet.

Ahh ok, that makes sense. I have not read a schematic since High school lol so I am a bit rusty.

 

[Ranjib]

I'm not using the LM2596 (yet), I power the RP Pi (5V) and Reef-PI_HAT separately with 12V. I've bought components to integrate the LM2596 on the Reef-PI_HAT, but first I have to understand why the Reef-PI_PWM module is not working as expected. With the Reef-PI software I got very strange behavior in the user interface, when I started to control the PWM module directly (Python) it did seem to work however (think it's related to the used NPN transisors). Have ordered an oscilloscope to measure what comes out of the PCA9683 chip. Also 'recycled' an old oscilloscope, but not sure if that one still works (>30 years old).

J8 is an 'I2C' bus with 5 and 12V to connect to other boards. That's were I'm having some problems now, the I2C bus communicates with the PWM chip, but I don't get the expected output voltages (0-10V) yet.

can you explain bit more on whats not working on the pwm side, I'd love to know and help anyway I can

 

[Ranjib]

Trying to understand this schematic because minus ATO #2 and the second ULN2803 ( I only need 8 outputs) its exactly what I am looking to build. I see and understand the Motor driver for the dosers and the relay outputs. But where is the LM2596? What is J8 on the top right and why do the PWM outputs go to it?

Also...
Can anyone link me to the PH monitoring circuit and board?

LM2596 is used to convert 12V to 5V (when powering builds with 12V supply, you'll need one of these to get 5V for pi) or 12V to 10V (for 10V pwm generation).

reef-pi uses atlas scientific ph kit (ezo circuit) . I'll publish the guide sometime later this month, but till then you can use the ezo datasheet to connect to pi, its dead simple (standard i2c wiring)

 

[speedstar]

https://learn.adafruit.com/reef-pi-installation-and-configuration?view=all
https://learn.adafruit.com/reef-pi-power-controller
https://learn.adafruit.com/reef-pi-guide-3-temperature-controller

The ATO controller guide will be published this week,
This should give you some idea about GPIO https://reef-pi.github.io/general-guides/electronics/

let us know if you have any other question,

Thanks for the links, I have read through about 190 pages up to the PH sensor but didn't take good notes or save out links. I was asking about general GPI as I don't plan on using the water sensor for a direct ATO, but rather a backup to the float switch on my cheaper tunze nano ATO, basically just want to cut power to it if water reaches the sensor that I will install above the float. I dose Kalk in my top off so really want to keep it on two different systems to account for a single failure of either.

 

[wykat]

can you explain bit more on whats not working on the pwm side, I'd love to know and help anyway I can

I first wanted to solve my own problem(s), but I can give you my memory and maybe somebody can do the same with a PCA9685 module:

When I added the ports in 'Configuration/Connectors', Reef-PI suddenly didn't accept the input ports anymore. I think after I entered the 7th port, the 8th port was set back to 7th (duplicate). Also the sequence started to get strange:
Jacks
p0
0
pca9685
p8
8
pca9685
p9
9
pca9685
p10
10
pca9685
p11
11
pca9685
p12
12
pca9685
p13
13
pca9685
p14
14
pca9685
p15
15
pca9685
p1
1
pca9685
p2
2
pca9685
p3
3
pca9685
p4
4
pca9685
p5
5
pca9685
p6
6
pca9685
p7
7
pca9685

So I had to enter an existing port number and then edit it to become the correct one.

In Lightning I discovered that the ports/channels were completely messed up, so I deleted most of them, but couldn't get a signal on channel 0, nor port 0/7/8/15. That's when I changed to directly control the PCA9685 directly via Python. This seemed to work, but couldn't get a clear picture with a multimeter. Need to understand this first.

At the other hand it would be interesting to know when people use the PCA9685 module, what happens if they add more then 8 outputs. Somehow this looked very strange to me. I'm also not clear about the meaning of 'channel'

Thanks for your support, but as mentioned I don't want to create doubt's until I've discovered why my PWM module doesn't work. Needs some time as I'm missing the equipment at the moment.