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

[pickupman66]

HELP. been a while. I just re-installed the latest version and need to setup heater. it now asks for Hystersis but I cannot get anything I input to work. what is the Proper formatting for Hystersis???

 

[Michael Lane]

HELP. been a while. I just re-installed the latest version and need to setup heater. it now asks for Hystersis but I cannot get anything I input to work. what is the Proper formatting for Hystersis???

Hysteresis is how much wiggle room or dead band you want in the control. I use 0.2 since I'm running fahrenheit. Heater is set to 79.1, Chiller is at 80.0, and hysteresis is 0.2.

 

[Des Westcott]

You should be able to

How do we, or is there a way to make a macro/timer repeat itself? For example I want to turn an equipment on for 5 seconds, turn off for 120 seconds, on for 5 seconds, off for 120 seconds, and do that for 5 hours. Is there a way to do that with macro's and timers? I see in dosers there's duration and what not, but can't figure how to get it working outside dosing. I can't seem to make it work :/

You should be able to do that in timers. Check out options in Cron jobs cheat sheets

 

[Bzar]

You should be able to

You should be able to do that in timers. Check out options in Cron jobs cheat sheets

thanks....think I got it now. For anyone interested to use this timer repeat.
(1) make a macro to turn something on for however long you want. I needed 5 seconds to turn a motor on. Macro turns on a relay outlet that the motor is plugged into and waits 5 seconds, then turns off.
(2) Make a timer that triggers the macro instead of equipment. My timer has a range for the hours of 16-22 so it should run from 4:00pm to 10:00pm. Then it has a repeat for the minutes of */10 so it runs the 5 second macro once every 10 minutes.

Seems to work so far

This page was very helpful... https://reef-pi.github.io/build-guides/power/

 

[pickupman66]

Hysteresis is how much wiggle room or dead band you want in the control. I use 0.2 since I'm running fahrenheit. Heater is set to 79.1, Chiller is at 80.0, and hysteresis is 0.2.

That is my understanding of it. Back in 2018 i advocated on it in this thread.

thanks, Discovered I had to put in a Chiller temperature. Ugh. I dont own a chiller.

 

[b4tn]

For dosing. I’m using cheap jaebo dosers and may have come across the need to dose less than 1 ml. My pumps are calibrated so that 1 second at 85% duty cycle gets me 1 ml. Is it safe to say that if I run 42% duty cycle I should get close to .5ml?

 

[Urtoo]

Good evening,
I just reloaded version 3.0 tonight.
I have my HS300 working correctly! This is huge and such a great add.
I added my lighting 9685 driver and set to pin 13,14, I am using ML hat for Reef-Pi. Testing the voltage on the audio connector I am using is showing 0-3.3 volts, I thought it is supposed to be between 0-10v.
When trying to setup Telemetry, I am getting
21:03:57 ERROR: Failed to delete. Error: 535 5.7.8 Username and Password not accepted. Learn more at
Dec 22 21:03:57 ReefPi65g reef-pi[613]: 5.7.8 https://support.google.com/mail/?p=BadCredentials l39sm7477429ywk.36 - gsmtp

I have confirmed the password is correctly typed in and can login to my gmail account with the same password.
Anyone seen this?

 

[Urtoo]

Heh, clicked the HTTPS and can no longer access with the browser, when using https:// or :443.

Bugger

 

[Michael Lane]

Good evening,
I just reloaded version 3.0 tonight.
I have my HS300 working correctly! This is huge and such a great add.
I added my lighting 9685 driver and set to pin 13,14, I am using ML hat for Reef-Pi. Testing the voltage on the audio connector I am using is showing 0-3.3 volts, I thought it is supposed to be between 0-10v.
When trying to setup Telemetry, I am getting
21:03:57 ERROR: Failed to delete. Error: 535 5.7.8 Username and Password not accepted. Learn more at
Dec 22 21:03:57 ReefPi65g reef-pi[613]: 5.7.8 https://support.google.com/mail/?p=BadCredentials l39sm7477429ywk.36 - gsmtp

I have confirmed the password is correctly typed in and can login to my gmail account with the same password.
Anyone seen this?

I don't have an answer for telemetry, but the PWM output on that board is expected to be 3.3v. If you are using my Mars Aqua adapter, then that board is responsible for converting the 3.3v PWM to 10v analog.

 

[Urtoo]

I will be using your Adapter for my lights. Plan on getting that up and running tomorrow.

 

[BenB]

Heh, clicked the HTTPS and can no longer access with the browser, when using https:// or :443.

Bugger

Try https://XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:80

 

[hhaase]

Because interference can be so difficult to track down, we need to take a methodical approach to identify what we are dealing with.

So my first questions are:
What type of ballasts are the MH lights using?
Is it electronic or electromagnetic(more likely)?

Are the lights themselves grounded and shielded properly?

From what I read so far the lights cause issues when they turn on. Once the metal halide lamps are warmed up to full brightness does the interference go away?

I know that electronic ballasts made in china tend to bypass FCC testing and cause problems in commercial applications.

This may be a bit technical for most but here is a good article on the subject:

Grow Light RFI Kits - Palomar Engineers®

Grow Light RFI Kit for Digital Ballast To suppress interference to neighbors and nearby electronic devices, we suggest a RFI-BALLAST kit with 1 ring filter on the AC input and another on the ballast lamp output side for each grow light ballast used. (e.g. 20 ballasts = 20 RFI-BALLAST kits...

palomar-engineers.com

Lighting ballasts are a constant source of RF noise. Unfortunately, the nature of a DIY system like this is going to make things a bit more problematic since every reef-pi and lighting installation is different.

There is also such a wide variety of MH/T5 lighting systems out there. Electronic and magnetic ballasts work at wildly different frequency ranges. Everybody installs them a bit differently, and I doubt that there is much attention given to grounding paths, shielding, or isolation by many reef owners.... mainly because it hasn't been an issue traditionally, and also because our installations are so far outside the industry norm for that type of lighting. Do people usually install MH/T5's with a functioning chassis ground on the ballast? That's the first thing I'd look at to be honest.

So would it be best to take the path of eliminating the source of the noise, which many people aren't familiar with? Or would it be better to try and shield/isolate the Pi from the noise? But even shielding could be tricky until it's identified if the noise is coming in through the lines, or over the air.

-Hans

 

[Urtoo]

Ok, instead of troubleshooting the HTTPS, I simply reloaded the database to scratch and rebuilt. Its great for me to do, this way I can solidify my knowledge of this setup.
2nd time rebuilding went a lot smoother.
The only thing I am having an issue with is setting up Telemetry. "Please set a valid password." I have verified the password is good logging into my gmail account, something is amiss on my interface saving the password. Googling that now.
In about 2 hours, I will be working on adding the PWM module from ML for the Mars aqua box, but installing it into the SB Reef light basic. Pictures will be uploaded on my work then,

 

[Urtoo]

To correct the telemetry issue, I needed to enable a settig in my Gmail account:

Receiving texts like a fiend now.

 

[Urtoo]

Noticed that the HS300 does not show status when it changes. Is there a way to enable this so i can see the change on the dashboard or equipment pane?

 

[marekd1]

Hello,

I am looking for a guide on how to hookup the Reef-Pi to Node Red. Can someone point me to the right direction please.

Thanks you in advance.

 

[Alaa]

Hi, i need help figuring how to power @Michael Lane Hat to work with 2 sets of 8 (5V) relay switch
i will be providing separate power to the relay boards and using VCC signal from reef pi (or Hat in this case).
the first set is easy as i will use the 8 GPIO breakout pins and the positive line with them
the second set will be connected to the other GPIO pins connected through ULN2803, this is originally designed to receive 12 V for 12V relays, i have seen others saying to connect 5 volt instead of the 12v to power the ULN2803
i need clarification to this step
do i connect positive and negative to the 12V or since ill be powering the relays from a separate power source i can use the VCC from the first breakout set to signal the second relays
I'm upgrading my original setup to use ML HAT and it was designed to work with separate power supply for the relays as i feel it will keep the load low on reef pi. in the original setup i connected 2 5V from Pi to VCC of relay board and it worked great

thanks for your help

 

[Urtoo]

i need clarification to this step
do i connect positive and negative to the 12V or since ill be powering the relays from a separate power source i can use the VCC from the first breakout set to signal the second relays
thanks for your help

Can you make a drawing showing what you are asking?
I am confused on the wording.

 

[marekd1]

Hi, i need help figuring how to power @Michael Lane Hat to work with 2 sets of 8 (5V) relay switch
i will be providing separate power to the relay boards and using VCC signal from reef pi (or Hat in this case).
the first set is easy as i will use the 8 GPIO breakout pins and the positive line with them
the second set will be connected to the other GPIO pins connected through ULN2803, this is originally designed to receive 12 V for 12V relays, i have seen others saying to connect 5 volt instead of the 12v to power the ULN2803
i need clarification to this step
do i connect positive and negative to the 12V or since ill be powering the relays from a separate power source i can use the VCC from the first breakout set to signal the second relays
I'm upgrading my original setup to use ML HAT and it was designed to work with separate power supply for the relays as i feel it will keep the load low on reef pi. in the original setup i connected 2 5V from Pi to VCC of relay board and it worked great

thanks for your help

If you want to control devices (i.e. relay boards at higher voltage) you will need to power the ULN2803 at the same voltage as the control voltage. So in short the ULN2803 needs to be at 12V. You will need to connect the grounds from both power sources together. So 12V GDN and 5V GDN need to be connected together.

Both 12V devices can share the same power source

hope this helps

 

[raketemensch]

@Michael Lane Do you have a thread where you'd prefer people ask questions rather than this beast?

Does the goby hat *require* its own power source? I'm not clear on that, I know it *can* use one, but am not sure if it's necessary.

I wired up a temp probe this morning, enabled temperature in 3.0, rebooted, but the Sesnor list remains empty, so I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. I plugged in the hat, wired up a ds18b20 (all colors to like wires) and plugged the probe into the hat.