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

[ahnuts72]

Just noticed an interest anomaly. Twice over the last couple of weeks, I have had my ATO reservoir run dry and the pump run constantly for a couple of hours. The first time I didn't have alerts enabled, so I enabled them if the ATO ran for more than 600 seconds. The second time it happened and I didn't recieve a single alert despite the ATO running for a few hours at night. I was a bit busy and didn't follow up and check anything besides that the Alerts tickbox was enabled and the time (600 seconds) was correct.

ThEN....... two nights ago, I suddenly started getting "ATO Usage high" alerts. I went and checked and the ATO wasn't running. I kept getting alerts all night at the 10 per hour limit that I had set. Every hour on the hour. I disabled the alert function in my ATO and continued to get them despite it being disabled and despite the ATO not running. This continued for about 12 hours then stopped.

The only thing that I can think of is that I didn't reload reef-pi after I added the alert??? Not sure, but thought I'd mention the occurrence.

I am having the same problem.
No matter how i set it up.
No matter what my times are enable alert,disable on alert,notify on alert I will get no alerts and it will not disable the pump no matter how it is set it just keeps chugging right along.
Ive also reloaded restarted and nothing will make the alerts or disable setting work.

 

[Des Westcott]

I am having the same problem.
No matter how i set it up.
No matter what my times are enable alert,disable on alert,notify on alert I will get no alerts and it will not disable the pump no matter how it is set it just keeps chugging right along.

Have you tried a "Reload"?

Configuration > Admin > Reload > OK

 

[ahnuts72]

Have you tried a "Reload"?

Configuration > Admin > Reload > OK

Yes i have reloaded and completely restarted reef-pi nothing makes it work.
To check I set my check time to 1 second and set disable time to 5 seconds and removed enough water from tank to make sure it ran for more than 5 seconds pulled the sensor out of the water to turn the pump on and it never triggered never alerted never shut the pump off.
I let the pump run for 1 minute before i turned it off before it overflowed the tank cause it was not gonna shut off by itself.
I'm waiting on another relay to cut power to my pump when a second sensor is tripped to keep from over flowing the tank but if my ato container runs dry like u my pump will just keep on running and it specifically said to not run dry or it will damage the pump.

 

[Des Westcott]

Yes i have reloaded and completely restarted reef-pi nothing makes it work.
To check I set my check time to 1 second and set disable time to 5 seconds and removed enough water from tank to make sure it ran for more than 5 seconds and it never triggered never alerted never shut the pump off.
I let the pump run for 1 minute before i turned it off before it overflowed the tank cause it was not gonna shut off by itself.

@Ranjib @Michael Lane

As a test, I have just set my ATO to alert after 20 seconds use and I'm getting alerts. I set it to disable and it disabled.

As a second test I changed the alert time because my usage had obviously changed and troggered float switch to run ATO Pump. It didn't trigger alert or disable. Tried another 3 times and didn't work any of them. I think there is a bug here.

Definitely worked the first time, but not again since.

 

[Des Westcott]

I think it is somehow related to no of alerts you allow in an hour. Mine is set to 10 (default) I changed the alert time from the 390 seconds (240 in my first test - the one that worked) to 15 seconds in preparation of the time about to tick over form 14H59 to 15H00 and as the hour ticked over, I got the following message :-
Elevated ATO usage. Current usage of ATO pump (240) is for sensor 'Normal ATO' above acceptable value (15)

As at now (15H08) my actual usage is still sitting at 0

Now I'm triggering the float switch manually for more than 15 seconds to see if I get a result. Seems like it disabled the ATO. Cannot get it to repeat the action though.

 

[ahnuts72]

I think it is somehow related to no of alerts you allow in an hour. Mine is set to 10 (default) I changed the alert time from the 390 seconds (240 in my first test - the one that worked) to 15 seconds in preparation of the time about to tick over form 14H59 to 15H00 and as the hour ticked over, I got the following message :-
Elevated ATO usage. Current usage of ATO pump (240) is for sensor 'Normal ATO' above acceptable value (15)

As at now (15H08) my actual usage is still sitting at 0

Now I'm triggering the float switch manually for more than 15 seconds to see if I get a result. Seems like it disabled the ATO. Cannot get it to repeat the action though.

Yeah I tried again and no matter what I set alert time to the pump will just run on and on till i put the sensor back in the water.

 

[Des Westcott]

I've just reset alert time again and ran and got nothing (after 16H00). No alert or disable

 

[Bigtrout]

@Ranjib posts coral pics to lighten the mood in this thread.
I have some neat news. A pair of angelfish successfully spawned and hatched eggs in my community tank! Dont know what to do. Let them be and nature take its course or try to move them to the empty section of the sump.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

Haha that's kinda awesome.

 

[Halo_003]

Hey guys, are any of you using a Pi Zero wireless exclusively to control only lighting? I have one sitting around and I was thinking it could be cool to put it to use but only to control LEDs.

 

[That Crusso Kid]

Hey guys, are any of you using a Pi Zero wireless exclusively to control only lighting? I have one sitting around and I was thinking it could be cool to put it to use but only to control LEDs.

I believe @Bigtrout uses a Pi Zero to control his lights. However, he uses the same Pi Zero to control a number of other things too.

 

[drbogger]

How do I clear all graph data?

 

[Des Westcott]

ATO issue - It seems that reef-pi gets to the limit of alerts in an hour and then when the clock resets at the top of the hour it sends out alerts from the previous hour that weren't sent. Since my last post, I have been recieving 10 alerts every hour, on the hour, but they are comparing previous usage to current alert usage limit.

I don't have the ATO Disable on Alert , because I want my ATO to keep working.

 

[Bigtrout]

Hey guys, are any of you using a Pi Zero wireless exclusively to control only lighting? I have one sitting around and I was thinking it could be cool to put it to use but only to control LEDs.

I use a pi zero w to control it all...4 pwm channels for lights, 3 temp sensors, 2 of those running heaters, 6 other equipment outlets, ph probe(2 when I tested a board for @Michael Lane and macros. I also send feeds to adafruit. The zero doesnt even break a sweat.
Memory runs at 8 percent used and cpu rarely even goes to 1 percent.

 

[Halo_003]

I use a pi zero w to control it all...4 pwm channels for lights, 3 temp sensors, 2 of those running heaters, 6 other equipment outlets, ph probe(2 when I tested a board for @Michael Lane and macros. I also send feeds to adafruit. The zero doesnt even break a sweat.
Memory runs at 8 percent used and cpu rarely even goes to 1 percent.

Thanks! I'm looking at using it to control 4-8 channels of lights, fan, and temp sensors. The reason I asked is I'd like to have the light completely separate from anything else.

 

[Ranjib]

@Ranjib @Michael Lane

As a test, I have just set my ATO to alert after 20 seconds use and I'm getting alerts. I set it to disable and it disabled.

As a second test I changed the alert time because my usage had obviously changed and troggered float switch to run ATO Pump. It didn't trigger alert or disable. Tried another 3 times and didn't work any of them. I think there is a bug here.

Definitely worked the first time, but not again since.

Yes.. it has to be a bug if its reproducible. Can you share the details like check period and alert threshold for the scenarios where its not working consistently? We discussed this earlier and I was not able to reproduce it with my setup. I was using 5s check period.

 

[LongBeachReefer562]

Hi @Ranjib - I'm having trouble getting my PH probe set up and was wondering if you had any idea as to what I'm doing wrong.

I'm using Michael Lanes reefpi gobi hat with a PI zero. As for PH I'm using Atlas's carrier board and PH module.

I got it set to i2c (blue light) but when I go to the PH tab and hit the add (+) button, there is nothing showing in the Analog Input dropdown.

Any idea?

Also I have o errors but this shows up when I first load the page, I think it's because I dont have anything configured on myy dashboard yet. {"error":"stats for id: '1' not found"} | HTTP 404

 

[drbogger]

How do I clear all graph data?

 

[ahnuts72]

Yes.. it has to be a bug if its reproducible. Can you share the details like check period and alert threshold for the scenarios where its not working consistently? We discussed this earlier and I was not able to reproduce it with my setup. I was using 5s check period.

Here's mine @Ranjib
No matter how i set it up it wont disable the pump and i get no notifications at all but i get them for temp errors and the test notification so I know I'm setup right to get them.

 

[ntableman]

randomly stumbled upon this because I am trying to generate a 0-10v apex like control from my system to manage the speed of my pumps. I am slowly getting rid of ecotech stuff because it is so closed. So a new pump on the way takes apex style 0-10v. Anyway...

Here is my setup...in case it helps anyone who wants to DIY it. I'll get around to putting the code and detail on GitHub.

It measures the main parameters, watches the sump level, pump details and other instrumentations so I can start and stop things as needed.

For example, I have a process on the RPi in Node-red that turn on and off the heaters. But I have a second process on the Ubuntu system that watches this information as a backup process. All of these are on UPS. I recognize this is a bit extreme :) but...don't judge! HAHAHA!

My favorite part is how I can control everything in HomeKit, so when I go to the basement to check on something I can turn things on and off on my phone.

Also, since this is mostly mediated by MQTT I can create synthetic devices. For example, I have a device called "do swap" and that turns off the pump, stops the heaters, and a bunch of other things and then turns on an evacuation pump for 15 min. Then turns on a pump to put saltwater back into the sump. But it only does this if the swap salt is close to the same SG/pH/Temp as the tank.

Once you instrument...you can do lots of stuff!

If anyone is interested I can detail out the sensors and wiring and other things.

My goal is to make this easier on the next person! So ask away...