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

[stefanm]

Help!

I've got this relay board that's been running on my pi for over a year, earlier I had powered down the pi (whilst trouble shooting something else, I also cut the power to everything else, it was just two simple fixes that took a few minutes to fix, anyway sorted the issues which were just the doser gpio wired not having good contact in the Wego connectors.

I powered up and now the relay board isn't switching on, there's 5v to the board and the grounds are tied.

Anything specific I can test or should look for?

 

[Ranjib]

HI, is there any way to monitor salinity with the reef-pi? Does anyone know a probe that would work this it at all? I'm in Australia so will need to be available here or be able to be shipped. Hubby is a programmer so can help with getting it set up for me. I've been searching and can't find the information so I would be super grateful for any help.

Not yet. The Ezo ph driver That’s in reef -pi should work with atlas scientific salinity probe (EC) as well, but we have never tried it. Because of high cost, maintenance and Low importance (if ato is setup, salinity should not change ) I have never prioritized salinity measurement

 

[rmilyard]

I ordered my Deluxe Robo-Tank yesterday. What Ph probe should I pickup? Also anything else suggested?

 

[ChrisNH]

The one thing a salinity probe might help with is a slow leak. I observed my salinity going down very slightly every day. Found that one of my unions needed to be tightened. The leak was slow enough that it was not noticeable but in a small system it was enough to have an impact. Or my testing sucked and it was a coincidence, either way I fixed it :)

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

Hello,
Just had a major reef pi issue @Ranjib I have my doser working on my tank with 2 part. I just work up this moring and the doser #8 was stuck on and had drained more than half my calcium into the tank. I am not sure how to fix this from happening again but that is 100% unacceptable. I had to pull the power from reef pi and force a restart to clear the issue. I am currently doing water changes as I dont think a 600 ppm calcium is ok for my tank.

I am also running this doser from reef pi. I have had a couple of failures (failed off for me). I tracked my issue to the uln2803 chip. please keep us informed of what you find.

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

I ordered my Deluxe Robo-Tank yesterday. What Ph probe should I pickup? Also anything else suggested?

I haven’t seen many negative ph probe posts. It seems they all work good. I have two Milwaukee probes. I have no complaints.
Milwaukee Instruments MA913B/3 pH Probe Double Junction with Kcl Gel Filled, Bnc Amazon product ASIN B00C2DVAWU

 

[AquaRaider44]

I am also running this doser from reef pi. I have had a couple of failures (failed off for me). I tracked my issue to the uln2803 chip. please keep us informed of what you find.

I tested it and it ended up being the reef pi. I have the latest boards that I helped to revise with @Michael Lane and no shorting or issues occurred. The last board i did have the ULN fail however but all failed off. I know this was a reef pi issue beacuse as soon as i restarted reef pi it fixed the issue and the doser was off and everything has worked fine ever since.

 

[rmilyard]

I haven’t seen many negative ph probe posts. It seems they all work good. I have two Milwaukee probes. I have no complaints.
Milwaukee Instruments MA913B/3 pH Probe Double Junction with Kcl Gel Filled, Bnc Amazon product ASIN B00C2DVAWU

This is one I ordered from Amazon.

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

I tested it and it ended up being the reef pi. I have the latest boards that I helped to revise with @Michael Lane and no shorting or issues occurred. The last board i did have the ULN fail however but all failed off. I know this was a reef pi issue beacuse as soon as i restarted reef pi it fixed the issue and the doser was off and everything has worked fine ever since.

Okay seems to be a different failure mode. I’m still interested in what the root cause is. I have the same setup as you for the dosers.

 

[AquaRaider44]

Okay seems to be a different failure mode. I’m still interested in what the root cause is. I have the same setup as you for the dosers.

Yep I'm interested as well wish I knew but nobody seems to know

 

[robsworld78]

This is not any sensor based that the pump can make the pump run arbitrarily, hence doser does not have ato like “disable after specific run time “ type feature .
i went through the code , but could not find anything suspicious. I’ll need some insights (logs , details of any other things happened during that time etc) to understand if I’m this is a software or hardware issue , and if it was happened during normal operation or something special was occurring (update or some other non reef-pi stuff )

To cover software maybe the pin assigned to a dosing pump could always be switching off when it's not on?

 

[stefanm]

Help!

I've got this relay board that's been running on my pi for over a year, earlier I had powered down the pi (whilst trouble shooting something else, I also cut the power to everything else, it was just two simple fixes that took a few minutes to fix, anyway sorted the issues which were just the doser gpio wired not having good contact in the Wego connectors.

I powered up and now the relay board isn't switching on, there's 5v to the board and the grounds are tied.

Anything specific I can test or should look for?

Can anyone advise on this please?

Maybe the power led has blown, if so can I just short it?

 

[robsworld78]

Can anyone advise on this please?

Maybe the power led has blown, if so can I just short it?

I was going to respond to this but not sure what to think, sounds like a bad connection. Did you try following the power going into the relay module?

 

[stefanm]

I was going to respond to this but not sure what to think, sounds like a bad connection. Did you try following the power going into the relay module?

I've got power going in, I was just thinking maybe the ground wire is loose, as it's tied to another PSU and possibly that's why I'm getting 5v, I'll need to check that.

 

[robsworld78]

I've got power going in, I was just thinking maybe the ground wire is loose, as it's tied to another PSU and possibly that's why I'm getting 5v, I'll need to check that.

Yeah try checking the grounds, if there's no common ground they won't switch. Can't really imagine it just stopped working. Use continuity meter with it unplugged to make sure everything is connected.

 

[stefanm]

Yeah try checking the grounds, if there's no common ground they won't switch. Can't really imagine it just stopped working. Use continuity meter with it unplugged to make sure everything is connected.

I've removed the power bar, checked continuity and no problems found, connected 5v to it and the LEDs briefly lit up for a few milliseconds, I don't think the main pwr lit, I'll try again in a few minutes as I'm waiting for the capacitance to discharge, doesn't look good.

 

[stefanm]

I've removed the power bar, checked continuity and no problems found, connected 5v to it and the LEDs briefly lit up for a few milliseconds, I don't think the main pwr lit, I'll try again in a few minutes as I'm waiting for the capacitance to discharge, doesn't look good.

The board seems dead, I couldn't replicate the momentary power on...

I have another relay module, not sure if it works though, the board is active low will that work on reef pi @Ranjib ?

 

[Ranjib]

I tested it and it ended up being the reef pi. I have the latest boards that I helped to revise with @Michael Lane and no shorting or issues occurred. The last board i did have the ULN fail however but all failed off. I know this was a reef pi issue beacuse as soon as i restarted reef pi it fixed the issue and the doser was off and everything has worked fine ever since.

Got it. Any chance you can get logs for the pi during that time? `journalctl -since <start> -until <end>` ? Im suspecting something on pi made it hang/stuck. Logs might have some details.

Theres couple of things we can do proactively, including a RTC module (to ensure time is synced correctly), and hardware watchdog setup (that will restart reef-pi./pi when it gets hung), but without diagnosing the exact problem, im not confident this will solve the issue.

 

[bishoptf]

I purchased a pinpoint ph probe and so far it hasn't been a smooth process. I purchased some calibration mix and then learned that I should probably use better stuff so I purchased some pinpoint calibration fluid which is supposed to be accurate but my results are not what I would expect. Here is a screenshot of what mine looks like, using the PH module from @Michael Lane added as a generic PH board driver. It may just be a bad probe but I would not think I would see big swings like this:

Anyone have any suggestions let me know, thanks. :)

 

[trustychords]

I purchased a pinpoint ph probe and so far it hasn't been a smooth process. I purchased some calibration mix and then learned that I should probably use better stuff so I purchased some pinpoint calibration fluid which is supposed to be accurate but my results are not what I would expect. Here is a screenshot of what mine looks like, using the PH module from @Michael Lane added as a generic PH board driver. It may just be a bad probe but I would not think I would see big swings like this:

Anyone have any suggestions let me know, thanks. :)

I was having a similar issue and it was because the female BNC connector was not allowing a good connection. Try lightly pushing or wiggling the male BNC connector to see if that gets the pH value to change. If it does, you don't have a good connection.

I thought it was the calibration fluid or the pH probe and replaced them both. That led me to the BNC connector. Once I got a new connector, the problem was solved.