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

[brandon clow]

I do like those moles microfit , I want to say thats what I used for my PCA as I had some 3 rows sitting around. I think they came from a lever lock setup on one of my tri core modules (similar to bosch high pole connectors). I use the Deutsch DT series for all of my outside of the box connections where I think water is a hazard. I have had some water ingress issues with my Bosch bulkheads though and will be utilizing a bunch of deutsch hdp connectors I have laying around. My only gripe is that you can smash pins, even with the keyways...i have done this on harnessing that I don't always have a clear view of but they sure do get a lot of wires through, with a high current option if needed. I am always looking for robust, small, and not tedious to crimp (<talking about tyco here) connectors to experiment with. I will have to look at moles more often!

 

[elysics]

So, i don't know whether this is a known bug or not, but everytime i shutdown and turn back on or restart reef-pi (3.4), the temperature graph goes haywire, where current readings overlap with the readings of the last two hours. The normal graph stops at 11:34 and then it alternates between the data from 11:34 to 13:31 and the data from 13:34 to 15:32, with the behaviour stopping at 15:32. It happened several times now, everytime i restart reef-pi, though i do not know whether the overlap is always two hours, i seem to remember it being for longer before.

 

[lmm1967]

:(

Raspberry Pi Zero - latest versions of raspbian as well as reef-pi - michael lane hat.

After upgrade I have no temp sensor - is this a known issue?

 

[lmm1967]

:(

Raspberry Pi Zero - latest versions of raspbian as well as reef-pi - michael lane hat.

After upgrade I have no temp sensor - is this a known issue?

Think I found my issue - somehow I wiped out i2c being enabled.

 

[stefanm]

Help please, after 15 days I got my lights back up and running (most of them) I had the same issue last night which has repeated tonight, they'll not dim down fully on the slider bar on my royal blue channel it's showing 43, the slider is very close to zero, the other channel I'm running Vero 10 cob seems to be off, the blue light maybe making it appear to be on.

Any advice please?

I'm using the interval setting, first and last positions are set to zero, it worked well before.

 

[Schreiber]

Help please, after 15 days I got my lights back up and running (most of them) I had the same issue last night which has repeated tonight, they'll not dim down fully on the slider bar on my royal blue channel it's showing 43, the slider is very close to zero, the other channel I'm running Vero 10 cob seems to be off, the blue light maybe making it appear to be on.

Any advice please?

I'm using the interval setting, first and last positions are set to zero, it worked well before.

When you say you got them back up & running, what exactly was the issue that made them "not running"? Have you changed the wiring on any connectors? I know I saw some weirdness with sliders not dimming all the way a while back I realized was caused by switching ground & one of the PWM outputs.

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

Help please, after 15 days I got my lights back up and running (most of them) I had the same issue last night which has repeated tonight, they'll not dim down fully on the slider bar on my royal blue channel it's showing 43, the slider is very close to zero, the other channel I'm running Vero 10 cob seems to be off, the blue light maybe making it appear to be on.

Any advice please?

I'm using the interval setting, first and last positions are set to zero, it worked well before.

Check your pwm wire. When I’ve had this problem I found a broken wire or that I plugged it in backwards. You might need to trace down the issue with a multimeter.

 

[Michael Lane]

So, i don't know whether this is a known bug or not, but everytime i shutdown and turn back on or restart reef-pi (3.4), the temperature graph goes haywire, where current readings overlap with the readings of the last two hours. The normal graph stops at 11:34 and then it alternates between the data from 11:34 to 13:31 and the data from 13:34 to 15:32, with the behaviour stopping at 15:32. It happened several times now, everytime i restart reef-pi, though i do not know whether the overlap is always two hours, i seem to remember it being for longer before.

I've occasionally noticed the ordering of values on the charts sometimes being incorrect. I don't think we have an issue for it yet.

 

[Ranjib]

I've occasionally noticed the ordering of values on the charts sometimes being incorrect. I don't think we have an issue for it yet.

Till recent versions of reef-pi, there was a bug that we didnt store the year' part of the timestamp in usage data. as a result usage values of same months/days of different years will overlap and cause confusion. This was fixed in last release. I m not sure if this is the same bug, but thats something to be aware of.

 

[Ranjib]

Think I found my issue - somehow I wiped out i2c being enabled.

Keep us posted. I just got my pi 4 and gonna start testing with Raspberry OS soon.

 

[lmm1967]

Keep us posted. I just got my pi 4 and gonna start testing with Raspberry OS soon.

This was for sure me & my fault.

I will update with how I do with a pi 4 and the robo-tank as I have one of those on the way.

I'm bad add doing detailed write ups but I will tell you that I am replacing every piece of GHL & Apex on all my tanks with either stand alone solutions (ATO for instance) or Reef-Pi setups.

 

[stefanm]

When you say you got them back up & running, what exactly was the issue that made them "not running"? Have you changed the wiring on any connectors? I know I saw some weirdness with sliders not dimming all the way a while back I realized was caused by switching ground & one of the PWM outputs.

It doesn't seem to be that, I had wired everything properly and tested before putting back on the tank. I had initially taken the pi offline to test a new audio DAC, it wasn't working properly on the pi 4, the manufacturer wanted me to check on a pi3 and report back, somehow when I put the pi back on the tank my Arduino stormx clone fried along with its PCA 9685, even the reef pi's PCA 9685 stopped working at the same time. The replacement Arduino came after 10 days, only then I discovered the PCA 9685's were not working, the replacement was put onto to reef pi and lights were back working (5 mean well ldd's had also failed, only 3 were ok), in the mean time I decided to change the l293d motor drivers to l298's my order was out to be delivered so I took the pi offline and prepared to swap out, only one l298 was in the packet, so back went the l293 boards, one channel was faulty and irritating me (fault on the IC) so back on the tank and lights working without issue. The new board came after 4 days, I prepared it and waited until the Mrs went to her parents house for the weekend, done the swap all tested no problems, next morning back on the tank and no lights, no power on the mean well PSU, removed only the PSU, strangely the fuse on the plug had blown (I use UK plugs with fuses where possible) swapped out the fuse, BANG! the PSU stopped working, the replacement ordered came on Sunday, 12 days without lights, earlier I had the t5's as a back up for emergencies, now the ballasts don't work either.

So that's the story, this all started in June, previously my diy chiller conked off in feb, rusted to bits the replacement 2nd AC unit had a faulty compressor, didn't realise this until the hot summer which runs from late march to early June, this was also during lockdown so couldn't swap out the compressor, I got that done last month. Needless to say the tank is quite pi55*d right now.

Back to the dimming, I'll try it from another pin, it's only one channel, the other in use works properly, I've got some replacement LDD drivers on the way, once they arrive I'll check the circuit again.

What I wants to know is there anyway I can refresh the installation of reef pi?
Maybe go back to an earlier version and then back again?

I'd like to rule that out, some other things are acting weird on the pi, I'm thinking something may have become corrupt
@Ranjib maybe you can advise?

 

[Ranjib]

It doesn't seem to be that, I had wired everything properly and tested before putting back on the tank. I had initially taken the pi offline to test a new audio DAC, it wasn't working properly on the pi 4, the manufacturer wanted me to check on a pi3 and report back, somehow when I put the pi back on the tank my Arduino stormx clone fried along with its PCA 9685, even the reef pi's PCA 9685 stopped working at the same time. The replacement Arduino came after 10 days, only then I discovered the PCA 9685's were not working, the replacement was put onto to reef pi and lights were back working (5 mean well ldd's had also failed, only 3 were ok), in the mean time I decided to change the l293d motor drivers to l298's my order was out to be delivered so I took the pi offline and prepared to swap out, only one l298 was in the packet, so back went the l293 boards, one channel was faulty and irritating me (fault on the IC) so back on the tank and lights working without issue. The new board came after 4 days, I prepared it and waited until the Mrs went to her parents house for the weekend, done the swap all tested no problems, next morning back on the tank and no lights, no power on the mean well PSU, removed only the PSU, strangely the fuse on the plug had blown (I use UK plugs with fuses where possible) swapped out the fuse, BANG! the PSU stopped working, the replacement ordered came on Sunday, 12 days without lights, earlier I had the t5's as a back up for emergencies, now the ballasts don't work either.

So that's the story, this all started in June, previously my diy chiller conked off in feb, rusted to bits the replacement 2nd AC unit had a faulty compressor, didn't realise this until the hot summer which runs from late march to early June, this was also during lockdown so couldn't swap out the compressor, I got that done last month. Needless to say the tank is quite pi55*d right now.

Back to the dimming, I'll try it from another pin, it's only one channel, the other in use works properly, I've got some replacement LDD drivers on the way, once they arrive I'll check the circuit again.

What I wants to know is there anyway I can refresh the installation of reef pi?
Maybe go back to an earlier version and then back again?

I'd like to rule that out, some other things are acting weird on the pi, I'm thinking something may have become corrupt
@Ranjib maybe you can advise?

You should be able to go back to earlier version. I am assuming you mean just the software version and not data / state of the system (how the controller was at a given point in time In past ). For that you need to take a backup or copy of the reef-pi.db file

 

[Ranjib]

I am running reef-pi 3.4 on raspberry pi 4 since last night . So far so good. I know some of you have encountered issue, if any of you who have encountered pi 4 or raspberry pi os (new version and name of raspbian ) , please let me know the details. My initial guess was kernel version change is causing gpio detection bug, leading to outlet/inlet not working. So far this has not happened , with pi 4 , raspberry pi os and reef-pi 3.4

 

[bishoptf]

I think I have asked before but wondering what everyone is using for PH probes, is there one that is more reliable etc? Need to add one to my setup and wondering which one is the one to purchase.

Thanks :)

 

[Bigtrout]

Thank you reef-pi... alerts and weird temp graph let me catch a failed heater in 30 mins!!!

Aquarium heaters all stink. Ive bought crap ones, "good" ones and have had them all fail. Except for one...my trusty old(20 years old) renniesance brand 200w made in Italy. Its been a dependable backup when (more brands than I can count) other supposedly "good" heaters fail.

Can anyone recommend a good, NON glass 300 watt heater??

 

[bishoptf]

Thank you reef-pi... alerts and weird temp graph let me catch a failed heater in 30 mins!!!

Aquarium heaters all stink. Ive bought crap ones, "good" ones and have had them all fail. Except for one...my trusty old(20 years old) renniesance brand 200w made in Italy. Its been a dependable backup when (more brands than I can count) other supposedly "good" heaters fail.

Can anyone recommend a good, NON glass 300 watt heater??

These are supposed to be really good - https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/titanium-heater-element-bulk-reef-supply.html , they do need a controller since they do not have one internally. I think they are rebranded Schego heaters and are supposed to be about the best you can do, from what I read. I am running aqueon pro heaters and even some of the cheap aqueon pre-set heaters, I do tend to run undersized and run multiple vs one large one.

Although I tend to agree that all heaters are a crap shoot, they all seem to have issues.

:)

 

[Bigtrout]

These are supposed to be really good - https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/titanium-heater-element-bulk-reef-supply.html , they do need a controller since they do not have one internally. I think they are rebranded Schego heaters and are supposed to be about the best you can do, from what I read. I am running aqueon pro heaters and even some of the cheap aqueon pre-set heaters, I do tend to run undersized and run multiple vs one large one.

:)

Part of the redundancy I like is having the heater with a thermostat, and reef pi as the failsafe.

It was an aqueon pro that just died! At least it failed off and my temp dropped instead of cooking fish. Id return it for warranty(lifetime) but the proof of purchase was lost.

Looks like they are now made in china and new ones dont have the quality of the older ones that were supposed to be a great heater.

Uggh

 

[bishoptf]

Part of the redundancy I like is having the heater with a thermostat, and reef pi as the failsafe.

It was an aqueon pro that just died! At least it failed off and my temp dropped instead of cooking fish. Id return it for warranty(lifetime) but the proof of purchase was lost.

Looks like they are now made in china and new ones dont have the quality of the older ones that were supposed to be a great heater.

Uggh

Yeah I have one of the newer ones but I do not like it as well as the older units, the other one folks seem to like are the Finnex ones. They all appear to have issues, none of them appear to be as reliable as we would like them so its pick your poison and have a fail safe.

:)

 

[Bigtrout]

Yeah I have one of the newer ones but I do not like it as well as the older units, the other one folks seem to like are the Finnex ones. They all appear to have issues, none of them appear to be as reliable as we would like them so its pick your poison and have a fail safe.

:)

Theres my million dollar invention...a quality aquarium heater!!!