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

[Schreiber]

Is there a good write-up anywhere on setting up a float sensor? I've seen a few posts from @Bzar on the topic that had some useful info, but nothing in one place.

Edit, never mind, found what I wanted! Here it is, for anyone else looking to implement a failsafe:

This is the circuit for a mechanical switch.

 

[Schreiber]

Does anyone else have issues with their optical sensors retaining a drop of water on the tip? Mine still reads as submerged until I wipe it off, which is pretty much useless :confused:

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Does anyone else have issues with their optical sensors retaining a drop of water on the tip? Mine still reads as submerged until I wipe it off, which is pretty much useless :confused:

No, at least not yet; but I picked up a capacitance water level sensor just in case it starts being an issue.

 

[Ranjib]

Does anyone else have issues with their optical sensors retaining a drop of water on the tip? Mine still reads as submerged until I wipe it off, which is pretty much useless :confused:

I have encountered this once or twice when the sensor is not mounted in right angle. Frankly , I don’t see much advantage of using optical sensor over float switches, and planning to recommend float switch going forward from 3.0 onwards . The price difference is significant

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

@Ranjib have you tried the capacitance sensors? Mounted to the outside the tank so I would think there's little to no maintenance and the only failure point is if the sensor actually dies.

After playing round with optical and capacitance sensors over the last week, Im thinking about using capacitance sensor for the "low" and optical for "high" incase the low sensor fails and ATO starts over filling.

 

[Bigtrout]

I have encountered this once or twice when the sensor is not mounted in right angle. Frankly , I don’t see much advantage of using optical sensor over float switches, and planning to recommend float switch going forward from 3.0 onwards . The price difference is significant

I have to interject here. I have dealt with industrial controls my whole career. I am all for new technology, but in industrial settings guess what liquid sensors are used 95 percent of the time? Float switches, they are simple reliable and cheap. Other type sensors are still relegated to special use cases and are rather expensive and offer little benefit over simple float switches.
I think that for the average user, float switches are the way to go. So i agree with @Ranjib here.

 

[Ranjib]

I have to interject here. I have dealt with industrial controls my whole career. I am all for new technology, but in industrial settings guess what liquid sensors are used 95 percent of the time? Float switches, they are simple reliable and cheap. Other type sensors are still relegated to special use cases and are rather expensive and offer little benefit over simple float switches.
I think that for the average user, float switches are the way to go. So i agree with @Ranjib here.

Duly noted sir. Your insights are of immense value for this project. Thank you

 

[Ranjib]

@Ranjib have you tried the capacitance sensors? Mounted to the outside the tank so I would think there's little to no maintenance and the only failure point is if the sensor actually dies.

After playing round with optical and capacitance sensors over the last week, Im thinking about using capacitance sensor for the "low" and optical for "high" incase the low sensor fails and ATO starts over filling.

Not yet. I would love to play with them, you have a link for the specific sensor ? Preferably from amazon

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Not yet. I would love to play with them, you have a link for the specific sensor ? Preferably from amazon

This is what I have from DFROBOT:

Revolutionary Non-contact Liquid Level Sensor for Arduino

Explore the innovative non-contact liquid level sensor for Arduino with cutting-edge XKC-Y25-T12V chip. Perfect for hazardous environments.

www.dfrobot.com

They have similar on amazon:
Amazon product

Definetly not as cheap as float sensors, but I suppose it's hard to beat those as pretty much $2 a pop.

PS. One from DFROBOT comes with a breakout board that has a push-button sensitivity adjustment (3 levels).

 

[Bigtrout]

This is what I have from DFROBOT:

Revolutionary Non-contact Liquid Level Sensor for Arduino

Explore the innovative non-contact liquid level sensor for Arduino with cutting-edge XKC-Y25-T12V chip. Perfect for hazardous environments.

www.dfrobot.com

They have similar on amazon:
Amazon product

Definetly not as cheap as float sensors, but I suppose it's hard to beat those as pretty much $2 a pop.

PS. One from DFROBOT comes with a breakout board that has a push-button sensitivity adjustment (3 levels).

Could be interesting to play with with the advantage of no water contact! Maybe ill toss one into my next amazon order and check it out.

 

[Ranjib]

Hive mind,
Thanksgiving is approaching and I am planning out reef-pi 3.0 final release. Lot has been done since last thanksgiving and I want freeze new feature development and spend the rest of the time from now on to fix the UI, sort out the bugs and updating documentations. Basically focus on stabilizing and polishing whatever we have built as of now. Sadly, I have to pause the development of clustering feature, its not coming in 3.0. I have some code for it, but still lot needs to be done, and I think it risky to focus on those bits with such shorter time frame for final release.

Following is the final list of features I am planning fold in for 3.0 release.

- Hardware Abstraction layer . pH board driver, Pico base board driver, Kasa smart outlet with energy monitoring driver
- Ability to control equipment with pH reading
- Ability to trigger macros using timers
- One and two point calibration across pH and temperature sensors
- Custom PWM profiles for light and wavemakers (lunar cycle, sine curves, fine grained 15 min interval linear profiles etc)
- Ability to send notification to multiple email addresses
- Ability to use PCA9685 for outlet controls
- Prometheus integration, for more sophisticated metrics retention and charts/dashboards
- Internationalization (french, german, chinese, spanish and several other languages)

Other than the above mentioned software features, this year I'll also be releasing non-electronic, mechanical component designs. Namely,
- 3D printable designs for all standard enclosures (single module and all in ones)
- 3D printable designs for peristaltic pumps
- 3D printable designs for various contraptions, like float switch holder, submersible pump brackets, media cabs for HOB filters etc
I dont know how extensive the coverage will be. But expect most main features (ato, temperature, power, ph, light etc) will be available as both single module as well as AIO mode, and probably with pi zero as well as pi 3A+ or pi 3 B. I have already release 70% of these. I'll consolidate and improve them in the coming days, till the final release.

Last but not the least, documentation. I plan to amend the adafruit tutorials with new things. In most cases I'll include multiple alternatives. But how expansive they will be Im not sure, as they take quite some time. But I think its ok if I add the alternate bits after release, and just update the guides to 3.0 screenshots/steps by the time of release.

Let me know yours thoughts.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Hive mind,
Thanksgiving is approaching and I am planning out reef-pi 3.0 final release. Lot has been done since last thanksgiving and I want freeze new feature development and spend the rest of the time from now on to fix the UI, sort out the bugs and updating documentations. Basically focus on stabilizing and polishing whatever we have built as of now. Sadly, I have to pause the development of clustering feature, its not coming in 3.0. I have some code for it, but still lot needs to be done, and I think it risky to focus on those bits with such shorter time frame for final release.

Following is the final list of features I am planning fold in for 3.0 release.

- Hardware Abstraction layer . pH board driver, Pico base board driver, Kasa smart outlet with energy monitoring driver
- Ability to control equipment with pH reading
- Ability to trigger macros using timers
- One and two point calibration across pH and temperature sensors
- Custom PWM profiles for light and wavemakers (lunar cycle, sine curves, fine grained 15 min interval linear profiles etc)
- Ability to send notification to multiple email addresses
- Ability to use PCA9685 for outlet controls
- Prometheus integration, for more sophisticated metrics retention and charts/dashboards
- Internationalization (french, german, chinese, spanish and several other languages)

Other than the above mentioned software features, this year I'll also be releasing non-electronic, mechanical component designs. Namely,
- 3D printable designs for all standard enclosures (single module and all in ones)
- 3D printable designs for peristaltic pumps
- 3D printable designs for various contraptions, like float switch holder, submersible pump brackets, media cabs for HOB filters etc
I dont know how extensive the coverage will be. But expect most main features (ato, temperature, power, ph, light etc) will be available as both single module as well as AIO mode, and probably with pi zero as well as pi 3A+ or pi 3 B. I have already release 70% of these. I'll consolidate and improve them in the coming days, till the final release.

Last but not the least, documentation. I plan to amend the adafruit tutorials with new things. In most cases I'll include multiple alternatives. But how expansive they will be Im not sure, as they take quite some time. But I think its ok if I add the alternate bits after release, and just update the guides to 3.0 screenshots/steps by the time of release.

Let me know yours thoughts.

Solid! Can't wait.

 

[Bigtrout]

Hive mind,
Thanksgiving is approaching and I am planning out reef-pi 3.0 final release. Lot has been done since last thanksgiving and I want freeze new feature development and spend the rest of the time from now on to fix the UI, sort out the bugs and updating documentations. Basically focus on stabilizing and polishing whatever we have built as of now. Sadly, I have to pause the development of clustering feature, its not coming in 3.0. I have some code for it, but still lot needs to be done, and I think it risky to focus on those bits with such shorter time frame for final release.

Following is the final list of features I am planning fold in for 3.0 release.

- Hardware Abstraction layer . pH board driver, Pico base board driver, Kasa smart outlet with energy monitoring driver
- Ability to control equipment with pH reading
- Ability to trigger macros using timers
- One and two point calibration across pH and temperature sensors
- Custom PWM profiles for light and wavemakers (lunar cycle, sine curves, fine grained 15 min interval linear profiles etc)
- Ability to send notification to multiple email addresses
- Ability to use PCA9685 for outlet controls
- Prometheus integration, for more sophisticated metrics retention and charts/dashboards
- Internationalization (french, german, chinese, spanish and several other languages)

Other than the above mentioned software features, this year I'll also be releasing non-electronic, mechanical component designs. Namely,
- 3D printable designs for all standard enclosures (single module and all in ones)
- 3D printable designs for peristaltic pumps
- 3D printable designs for various contraptions, like float switch holder, submersible pump brackets, media cabs for HOB filters etc
I dont know how extensive the coverage will be. But expect most main features (ato, temperature, power, ph, light etc) will be available as both single module as well as AIO mode, and probably with pi zero as well as pi 3A+ or pi 3 B. I have already release 70% of these. I'll consolidate and improve them in the coming days, till the final release.

Last but not the least, documentation. I plan to amend the adafruit tutorials with new things. In most cases I'll include multiple alternatives. But how expansive they will be Im not sure, as they take quite some time. But I think its ok if I add the alternate bits after release, and just update the guides to 3.0 screenshots/steps by the time of release.

Let me know yours thoughts.

Sounds like a great plan.
I cant help code, but i now have a spare pi zero to play with, and am good at testing and troubleshooting, if you need someone to help test things out, I can assist with that.
I want to get into the prometheus end as well so I could also help there.

 

[bala murugan 00500]

Hive mind,
Thanksgiving is approaching and I am planning out reef-pi 3.0 final release. Lot has been done since last thanksgiving and I want freeze new feature development and spend the rest of the time from now on to fix the UI, sort out the bugs and updating documentations. Basically focus on stabilizing and polishing whatever we have built as of now. Sadly, I have to pause the development of clustering feature, its not coming in 3.0. I have some code for it, but still lot needs to be done, and I think it risky to focus on those bits with such shorter time frame for final release.

Following is the final list of features I am planning fold in for 3.0 release.

- Hardware Abstraction layer . pH board driver, Pico base board driver, Kasa smart outlet with energy monitoring driver
- Ability to control equipment with pH reading
- Ability to trigger macros using timers
- One and two point calibration across pH and temperature sensors
- Custom PWM profiles for light and wavemakers (lunar cycle, sine curves, fine grained 15 min interval linear profiles etc)
- Ability to send notification to multiple email addresses
- Ability to use PCA9685 for outlet controls
- Prometheus integration, for more sophisticated metrics retention and charts/dashboards
- Internationalization (french, german, chinese, spanish and several other languages)

Other than the above mentioned software features, this year I'll also be releasing non-electronic, mechanical component designs. Namely,
- 3D printable designs for all standard enclosures (single module and all in ones)
- 3D printable designs for peristaltic pumps
- 3D printable designs for various contraptions, like float switch holder, submersible pump brackets, media cabs for HOB filters etc
I dont know how extensive the coverage will be. But expect most main features (ato, temperature, power, ph, light etc) will be available as both single module as well as AIO mode, and probably with pi zero as well as pi 3A+ or pi 3 B. I have already release 70% of these. I'll consolidate and improve them in the coming days, till the final release.

Last but not the least, documentation. I plan to amend the adafruit tutorials with new things. In most cases I'll include multiple alternatives. But how expansive they will be Im not sure, as they take quite some time. But I think its ok if I add the alternate bits after release, and just update the guides to 3.0 screenshots/steps by the time of release.

Let me know yours thoughts.

WOW ... really cool .. I'm waiting for 3.0

IN 3.0 can I expect a time delay function for equipment.

 

[janos]

Hi to all would like to know could or should i measure any volt or ma from the PCA9685 signal line? Try to test some diy led light but could not get to work.One driver Meanwell ELN-60-48D not working because i need 0-10v analog signal to control.The second what i try is regular Luxdrive 03021-D-I-1000,somehow not working with my PCA9685 connected the signal line from the PCA9685 to the driver CTL 0-5v input but i got no any power from the signal line. Thank you for your time

 

[bala murugan 00500]

Hi to all would like to know could or should i measure any volt or ma from the PCA9685 signal line? Try to test some diy led light but could not get to work.One driver Meanwell ELN-60-48D not working because i need 0-10v analog signal to control.The second what i try is regular Luxdrive 03021-D-I-1000,somehow not working with my PCA9685 connected the signal line from the PCA9685 to the driver CTL 0-5v input but i got no any power from the signal line. Thank you for your time

first .... make sure you enabled PCA9685 option in reef pi > configuration > Settings > enable PCA9685
and in light option get it to 100% then test the voltage in the PCA9685 PWM signal ...

 

[buddy.]

@Ranjib I have been running 2.2 for a long time now. I just upgraded to 2.5 and now my LEDs will not dim all the way to off. I then installed 2.4 and still could not dim to off. I installed 2.3 and this time i could dim to off.
Im using a PCA9685. Is there any change from 2.3 to 2.4 that you think would be causing this?

 

[bala murugan 00500]

@Ranjib I have been running 2.2 for a long time now. I just upgraded to 2.5 and now my LEDs will not dim all the way to off. I then installed 2.4 and still could not dim to off. I installed 2.3 and this time i could dim to off.
Im using a PCA9685. Is there any change from 2.3 to 2.4 that you think would be causing this?

I'm also facing this problem ... there is the bug .... I think it will be solved in 3.0 release

 

[buddy.]

Those spikes look similar to what i was getting when i had the wonky power supply throwing interference.

@Ranjib means the data is getting corrupted occasionally. This could be from loose wiring, or some type of interference. Check and double check the wiring. Also check the routing of your sensor wiring. Keep it away from any AC wiring or motor/pump wires.

I swapped out the power supply and routed the probe as far from any other wires as I could. So far there has been 0 errors!

 

[janos]

Thank you [B]bala murugan 00500[/B] now is working,what i need to do is downgrade to 2.5 from 3.0 and now is working.Thank you