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

[Ranjib]

Do you have the watchdog based on reef-pi running or are you clearing it in a systemd timer? It may be useful to fully integrate this into reef-pi. Happy to noodle through this one, since I also want to ship the hard power off watchdog that’s on the Pico board.

I used the hardware watchdog , pretty much this : https://www.switchdoc.com/2014/11/reliable-projects-using-internal-watchdog-timer-raspberry-pi/
Except I use system to enable instead of chkconfig (I think they do the same internally )

 

[KevinDodge]

Has anyone extended the length of the Photoelectric Water Sensor cord? The sensor looks really interesting but its cord is super short. I am hoping to extend it up to 4-6 feet but am unsure on the best parts to do it with. My initial thought are to cut the cord between the sensor and its board and install some sort of 4 pin jack. Thoughts?

 

[Ranjib]

On the development side, slowly getting back to ph board support after the flu. The ph driver code in reef-pi now works exactly same as Roberto ‘s example code (value to value match) and integrated from low level driver to reef-pi ui. It still needs some math fixes (values are still shown up as raw analog voltage reading , which needs to be converted to ph) and calibration etc. but I was able to do a hardware based preliminary testing. Without any probe attached it reads 32767 and with the probe attached and the test probe (american marine pin point) in storage solution its 20116. In ph 7.0 buffer it read as -485. All these readings were observed via reef-pi UI, ph chart. I am not sure the values make sense, except its same as the example code of Roberto, and they changed as I change the probe. This is good enough for me to proceed to next level testing where that I need for conversion and calibration work and I am not very confident on the probe
anyway. So here is a build in progress, it will house a Pi 2 (i have lots of older pi, and I thought why not, I should test these older model anyway, since reef-pi should work just fine, and I know at least a dozen of builds that are running these, so I might have one build each with pi 2 and model B). Anyway, here is the initial version, this build will house two temperature probe and ph probe. ph probe is backed by ph board. I am yet to finish the wiring/circuit. Only enclosure fabrication is done. But once completed (tomorrow likely) I'll be able to test the ph board as well as the american marine probe against my atlas scientific ezo circuit/probe based build.

 

[theatrus]

I used the hardware watchdog , pretty much this : https://www.switchdoc.com/2014/11/reliable-projects-using-internal-watchdog-timer-raspberry-pi/
Except I use system to enable instead of chkconfig (I think they do the same internally )

Objections if I contribute a driver to do the reset in the reef-pi software? I’ll add support for the SMC while I’m at it :)

 

[theatrus]

On the development side, slowly getting back to ph board support after the flu. The ph driver code in reef-pi now works exactly same as Roberto ‘s example code (value to value match) and integrated from low level driver to reef-pi ui. It still needs some math fixes (values are still shown up as raw analog voltage reading , which needs to be converted to ph) and calibration etc. but I was able to do a hardware based preliminary testing. Without any probe attached it reads 32767 and with the probe attached and the test probe (american marine pin point) in storage solution its 20116. In ph 7.0 buffer it read as -485. All these readings were observed via reef-pi UI, ph chart. I am not sure the values make sense, except its same as the example code of Roberto, and they changed as I change the probe. This is good enough for me to proceed to next level testing where that I need for conversion and calibration work and I am not very confident on the

Excellent. I’ll test drive the integrated driver on the Pico then. While the scaling is different the output is also voltage.

 

[Ranjib]

Objections if I contribute a driver to do the reset in the reef-pi software? I’ll add support for the SMC while I’m at it :)

I am not sure I understand what you are saying, but you know I wont object to things that are useful :0)

 

[theatrus]

I am not sure I understand what you are saying, but you know I wont object to things that are useful :0)

Right now the watchdog is being reset by the watchdog daemon. Ideally we probably reset it inside reef-pi, as we care if the system enters some state where that refuses to run with the caveat that you need to disable it if you shut down reef-pi or else your system reboots :)

 

[Ranjib]

Right now the watchdog is being reset by the watchdog daemon. Ideally we probably reset it inside reef-pi, as we care if the system enters some state where that refuses to run with the caveat that you need to disable it if you shut down reef-pi or else your system reboots :)

Ah.. got it, you mean instead of watchdog userspace daemon , reef-pi should update the counter. And as a side effect, we have to always run reef-pi.
I dont think this is a good idea, there are many cases where reef-pi will not run on pi, and thats as expected (upgrade/reloads etc). On the other hand I am not seeing the benefit (other than being easy, and less user configuration) of doing this work on reef-pi end.

 

[stefanm]

I was trying to complete my build yesterday, I touched the stereo jack for the temperature probes and got shocks, at first I thought it was a pokey piece of solder.

Then I used an electrical tester, every point on the relay module and the l293d including the grounds showed voltage.

Is this normal or do I have a problem?
Everything is more or less working properly.

 

[theatrus]

Ah.. got it, you mean instead of watchdog userspace daemon , reef-pi should update the counter. And as a side effect, we have to always run reef-pi.
I dont think this is a good idea, there are many cases where reef-pi will not run on pi, and thats as expected (upgrade/reloads etc). On the other hand I am not seeing the benefit (other than being easy, and less user configuration) of doing this work on reef-pi end.

Correct, you can’t use a 1s watchdog realistically. But it’s a single purpose device, the reset loop should be done by the highest supervisory level if at all possible.

 

[Ranjib]

I was trying to complete my build yesterday, I touched the stereo jack for the temperature probes and got shocks, at first I thought it was a pokey piece of solder.

Then I used an electrical tester, every point on the relay module and the l293d including the grounds showed voltage.

Is this normal or do I have a problem?
Everything is more or less working properly.

not sure . This is an AC tester? I have not used this on any of my circuits. Whats multimeter reading, if you have one.

 

[stefanm]

not sure . This is an AC tester? I have not used this on any of my circuits. Whats multimeter reading, if you have one.

Yes its An AC tester, multimeter reads 0,5 or 12 volts plus whatever the pwm or signal voltages are, all working fine except 1 doser and 1 relay. The shocks were minor, just irritating. Though I was under the impression that these low voltage circuits wouldn't give a noticeable electric shock, the PSU's are 5 volt 2 amp to the pi, 5 volt also 2 amp to the 5v on the l293d modules and the relay module, 12volt 6.3 amps to the l293d module, total of 3 PSU's.

 

[Ranjib]

Yes its An AC tester, multimeter reads 0,5 or 12 volts plus whatever the pwm or signal voltages are, all working fine except 1 doser and 1 relay. The shocks were minor, just irritating. Though I was under the impression that these low voltage circuits wouldn't give a noticeable electric shock, the PSU's are 5 volt 2 amp to the pi, 5 volt also 2 amp to the 5v on the l293d modules and the relay module, 12volt 6.3 amps to the l293d module, total of 3 PSU's.

You should not experience any shocks :-/ . I touch 12v power chords with bare hands and with no issues. May be there is a short or something else I’m missing

 

[Ranjib]

Has anyone extended the length of the Photoelectric Water Sensor cord? The sensor looks really interesting but its cord is super short. I am hoping to extend it up to 4-6 feet but am unsure on the best parts to do it with. My initial thought are to cut the cord between the sensor and its board and install some sort of 4 pin jack. Thoughts?

I have used this with success https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00Z...vel+sensor&dpPl=1&dpID=51YQweu7MmL&ref=plSrch There May be other vendors as well

 

[stefanm]

You should not experience any shocks :-/ . I touch 12v power chords with bare hands and with no issues. May be there is a short or something else I’m missing

I get the feeling one or two of the PSU's maybe faulty, I'll swap them out, maybe get a single 5 volt 2.5 amp to power the pi and the other 5 volt boards, I already have a brand new 12 volt PSU.

 

[4dtough]

Has anyone extended the length of the Photoelectric Water Sensor cord? The sensor looks really interesting but its cord is super short. I am hoping to extend it up to 4-6 feet but am unsure on the best parts to do it with. My initial thought are to cut the cord between the sensor and its board and install some sort of 4 pin jack. Thoughts?

I extended mine between the plug and sensor with telephone wire, soldered and heatshrink. I've had no problems

 

[Zekth]

Any chance you could share what did get written for documentation of API v2? I'm seeing some API v1 endpoints returning 404 though the module is enabled (and running).
Thanks

Interesting note. I'll push an enhancement about this. Maybe add some swagger spec to the project.

 

[pickupman66]

@Tom Bishop

Here is the memory this am.

From reading though the logs, I simply cannot see what went wrong. the system just stopped logging at Feb 3 17:46:38 when it went to run the scheduled temperature check. after that, the log shows the hard reboot that I did. im sort of at a loss here because the GPIO that control each outlet just maintained their states. Temp and water level was within spec so after this point, they just stayed off. However the GPIO that were signaling the other power devices stayed on. if Rasbian was down, these normally cut off (at lease when i reboot via the gui), so it appears it just went into a state of crash whereas i believe Rasbian had just completely locked up.

 

[Bigtrout]

I get the feeling one or two of the PSU's maybe faulty, I'll swap them out, maybe get a single 5 volt 2.5 amp to power the pi and the other 5 volt boards, I already have a brand new 12 volt PSU.

There is no way 12v and 5 volts should shock you. Be careful you may have 120v floating around somehow.
Check your power supply wiring. Are they wall warts or enclosed supplies?
Check that your 120v hot and neutral are not swapped, which could bring your entire case to 120v if the hot is grounded by mistake. Do you have a wiring picture we can look at?

 

[bishoptf]

@Tom Bishop

Here is the memory this am.

From reading though the logs, I simply cannot see what went wrong. the system just stopped logging at Feb 3 17:46:38 when it went to run the scheduled temperature check. after that, the log shows the hard reboot that I did. im sort of at a loss here because the GPIO that control each outlet just maintained their states. Temp and water level was within spec so after this point, they just stayed off. However the GPIO that were signaling the other power devices stayed on. if Rasbian was down, these normally cut off (at lease when i reboot via the gui), so it appears it just went into a state of crash whereas i believe Rasbian had just completely locked up.

Disk space looks fine, it did lock up I believe at the OS level, Ranjib mentioned watchdog, and I agree need to enable something that if the OS hangs you are notified. Will think about this and see what the easiest yet reliable solution.

Let's get someore data points, what Linux raspbian version do you have installed and when was the last time you did OS updates?

Do a uname -a at the command prompt and report back.