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

[hhaase]

Just as a thought, if the lights are power-cycling at midnight due to that interval.....

Is the reefpi on the same power circuit as the lights? If you're cycling all your lights at the same time, it could be causing a voltage dip on the AC power circuit, and causing the pi to reset.

-Hans

 

[Bigtrout]

Just as a thought, if the lights are power-cycling at midnight due to that interval.....

Is the reefpi on the same power circuit as the lights? If you're cycling all your lights at the same time, it could be causing a voltage dip on the AC power circuit, and causing the pi to reset.

-Hans

Thanks for the input but no, my lights are on seperate 15v 8A power supplies. I have a 5v@3amp meanwell for the pi and ML hat another meanwell for the relay boards and other externals The pi only provides the pwm signal. The reboot is driver related and it shows that in the logs.

 

[hhaase]

Found a small issue with my own today. The LM7805 regulators do work fine, but require heat-sinking at the required wattage, gets too hot without it. Not a big deal but something to plan for. Since I don't have any heat-sinks around right now for that size part, I dropped in a similar sized switcher regulator from EzSbc, in this case their PSU-2-5. They make some great little switchers in a tiny package.

Back to having fun again.

 

[Bigtrout]

Found a small issue with my own today. The LM7805 regulators do work fine, but require heat-sinking at the required wattage, gets too hot without it. Not a big deal but something to plan for. Since I don't have any heat-sinks around right now for that size part, I dropped in a similar sized switcher regulator from EzSbc, in this case their PSU-2-5. They make some great little switchers in a tiny package.

Back to having fun again.

The old school linear regulators actually make very clean power in a step down situation. The only problem is wasted power which ends up as heat.
I just use a small meanwell rs unit for each voltage id need. The rs-15-5 is 3amps at 5 volts and is only 2"x2"x1". Clean power and the rs-15-12 is the same footprint for your 12v.

 

[hhaase]

The meanwell stuff is great, but I just find it so bulky. That's one reason my go-to for higher amperage is the EzSbc stuff at 3.3v or 5v. They have a line of regulators from 1A to 3A designed to drop-in replace TO-220 sized regulators. Though I'm not a fan of their TO-3 sized stuff, I've found the voltage doesn't meet spec a lot of the time with some of that style.

But yeah, the clean power of linears is definitely nice. It's shame so many are getting discontinued, but at the same time portable stuff can't deal with the low efficiency, high heat, and heavy heatsinks needed for larger draw.

 

[Bigtrout]

While i work on the fix, i was also thinking this profile can be written more tersely,

@Ranjib
Just a bit of info if this helps.
I rewrote the profile similar to above and NO CRASH and REBOOT. So the bug shows when interval is 00:00:00 to 23:59:59 but sett similar to above it worked out fine.

 

[Blaxkin]

Hello again

Any ideas what i can do with my camera ?
Its an original raspberry cam.

 

[Ranjib]

@Ranjib
Just a bit of info if this helps.
I rewrote the profile similar to above and NO CRASH and REBOOT. So the bug shows when interval is 00:00:00 to 23:59:59 but sett similar to above it worked out fine.

Yup. But it’s still a bug. I’ve been able to reproduce it, I’ll get it fixed soon.

 

[Ranjib]

Hello again

Any ideas what i can do with my camera ?
Its an original raspberry cam.

Take periodic photos and upload them in google drive.

It’s not very good solution and I have not used it in a while. It takes significant amount of computing resources and the actual controller function can be at risk. I just found the 30$ security cameras (like Wyze) to be lit better at this.

That said, it’s not cool to have bugs like this, I’ll test and fix it . Thank you for reporting this. Is this happening on 3.0 ?

 

[Ranjib]

Found a small issue with my own today. The LM7805 regulators do work fine, but require heat-sinking at the required wattage, gets too hot without it. Not a big deal but something to plan for. Since I don't have any heat-sinks around right now for that size part, I dropped in a similar sized switcher regulator from EzSbc, in this case their PSU-2-5. They make some great little switchers in a tiny package.

Back to having fun again.

Nice. I’m trying out ubec buck converter in my new builds, they are bit pricy but renowned for their superior quality and provides decent emd protection

 

[Zippyfear]

Take periodic photos and upload them in google drive.

It’s not very good solution and I have not used it in a while. It takes significant amount of computing resources and the actual controller function can be at risk. I just found the 30$ security cameras (like Wyze) to be lit better at this.

That said, it’s not cool to have bugs like this, I’ll test and fix it . Thank you for reporting this. Is this happening on 3.0 ?

agreed. I just picked up these.

Amazon product

They have magnetic bases, and are very slim attached to the side of the tank. so they actually are just about perfect. - They were recently on Black Friday sale - 2 for $45!

Please excuse the messy Reef-Pi - it's currently undergoing reconstruction with new circuits into a new case.

 

[Blaxkin]

agreed. I just picked up these.

Amazon product

They have magnetic bases, and are very slim attached to the side of the tank. so they actually are just about perfect. - They were recently on Black Friday sale - 2 for $45!

Please excuse the messy Reef-Pi - it's currently undergoing reconstruction with new circuits into a new case.

Thanks for the tip :-) now i ordered one of the yi cam :)

 

[Blaxkin]

Take periodic photos and upload them in google drive.

It’s not very good solution and I have not used it in a while. It takes significant amount of computing resources and the actual controller function can be at risk. I just found the 30$ security cameras (like Wyze) to be lit better at this.

That said, it’s not cool to have bugs like this, I’ll test and fix it . Thank you for reporting this. Is this happening on 3.0 ?

Yes it happens in 3.0

 

[Blaxkin]

And now is see after the change for an extra power supply and an 3300uf capacitor i also has peaks. Not so much but the graph is invisible after 1 peak.

I cant coding :-( but is there a simple way in code to ignore 85 and 127 values ?

 

[Ranjib]

And now is see after the change for an extra power supply and an 3300uf capacitor i also has peaks. Not so much but the graph is invisible after 1 peak.

I cant coding :-( but is there a simple way in code to ignore 85 and 127 values ?

Nothing yet. But you can use the reef-pi db command to do some surgery against the database and remove those values (replace ID with the specific id for your temperature sensor)

sudo systemctl stop reef-pi.service
sudo reef-pi db show temperature_usage <ID> > usage.json
# edit the json file and remove the bogus values
cat usage.json | sudo reef-pi db update temperature_usage <ID>
sudo systemctl start reef-pi.service

you can get the id of temperature sensors/controllers like this:

sudo reef-pi db list temperature

 

[hhaase]

The next version of my hat is close to being locked-down for ordering. Still developmental at this stage, but I'm comfortable/confident enough to start adding more features now. I'll keep adding stuff as my understanding gets stronger of how things work. Next round is a big layout change, which should be more enclosure friendly. I'm not quite ready to start releasing things into github yet for these but I'll again be offering up leftovers for cost when I've tested these out.

It may be a bit aggressive of me to do this big a change so soon, given how little I've tested, but I'm already doing a board order this weekend, and I can piggy-back this revision in and save a lot on shipping.

1: Adding spots for dual Atlanta Scientific probe modules, including an isolation circuit on-board.
2: Making the 4-pin headers both compatible for temp probe circuits.
3: Aligning the Pi-Zero so it can mount on top, and all connectors other than power face the same direction.
4: Moving all the resistors to surface mount, as this is already getting crowded quickly, and I have plans still.

 

[Ranjib]

The next version of my hat is close to being locked-down for ordering. Still developmental at this stage, but I'm comfortable/confident enough to start adding more features now. I'll keep adding stuff as my understanding gets stronger of how things work. Next round is a big layout change, which should be more enclosure friendly. I'm not quite ready to start releasing things into github yet for these but I'll again be offering up leftovers for cost when I've tested these out.

It may be a bit aggressive of me to do this big a change so soon, given how little I've tested, but I'm already doing a board order this weekend, and I can piggy-back this revision in and save a lot on shipping.

1: Adding spots for dual Atlanta Scientific probe modules, including an isolation circuit on-board.
2: Making the 4-pin headers both compatible for temp probe circuits.
3: Aligning the Pi-Zero so it can mount on top, and all connectors other than power face the same direction.
4: Moving all the resistors to surface mount, as this is already getting crowded quickly, and I have plans still.

i love seeing these iterative improvements. Curious why atlas scientific board over reef-pi ph board. Purdon me if yuu have already answered.

 

[hhaase]

doesn’t the reef-pi ph board use an atlas module? I was using the guide linked on page 1 of this thread. Or was there a different version I didn’t see? I’ve only got this in cad so far, easy to change still.

I’m still learning the system and I’m not familiar at all with the coding side, so I’m trying to stick with known-supported hardware.

 

[Ranjib]

doesn’t the reef-pi ph board use an atlas module? I was using the guide linked on page 1 of this thread. Or was there a different version I didn’t see? I’ve only got this in cad so far, easy to change still.

I’m still learning the system and I’m not familiar at all with the coding side, so I’m trying to stick with known-supported hardware.

Till reef-pi 2.0 atlas scientific ezo board was the only way to get ph readings. Post 2.0, @Roberto_b designed and graciously contributed a opensource ph board https://github.com/reef-pi/ph-board for reef-pi project. In US there are couple of folks who assemble it. @Michael Lane has it in his tindie store. 3.0 has built in support for this and I intend to update the adafruit guides with that board instead. EZO board support will still be there, but reef-pi ph board will be the official recommendation / present in standard documentations. Its lot cheaper and opensource, I think this is the right thing to do, as long as supply chain is present

 

[hhaase]

Ahhh, now I see it, and yes I think I'll restructure around that schematic in its place. Very clean schematic, easy to read. The good part is I'm already using an isolation circuit based around the same ADM3260 chip, so a lot of the work is already in place. And I don't think it will affect my footprint at all for the PCB.

My reasoning for two probe modules was one Ph and one ORP. So I'll just plan it out that way from the start.