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

bishoptf · Mar 30, 2022

So talking about skinny powerstrip version, I am attempting to make a copy of a DJ powerstrip, not with a PCB but just an off the shelf relay strip and outlets and was poking around the inside of a dj powerstrip and noticed a couple of things. They state on the strip that its rated for 15amps total but that one plug will also support 15amps. The cheap 5v relay strip that I purchased the relays are rated for 10amp max. No big deal but when I was poking around the inside of the DJ I noticed all of the wiring was 16ga which from my understanding only supports 10amps. Just something to keep in mind, probably not an issue from most of what we run but really surprised to see 16ga wire being used in the strip, I then noticed that the power cord on the strip was also 16ga, lol.

GaryE · Mar 30, 2022

Tom Bishop said:
So talking about skinny powerstrip version, I am attempting to make a copy of a DJ powerstrip, not with a PCB but just an off the shelf relay strip and outlets and was poking around the inside of a dj powerstrip and noticed a couple of things. They state on the strip that its rated for 15amps total but that one plug will also support 15amps. The cheap 5v relay strip that I purchased the relays are rated for 10amp max. No big deal but when I was poking around the inside of the DJ I noticed all of the wiring was 16ga which from my understanding only supports 10amps. Just something to keep in mind, probably not an issue from most of what we run but really surprised to see 16ga wire being used in the strip, I then noticed that the power cord on the strip was also 16ga, lol.

When I first setup my system, I did that with a crappy $20 harbor freight 48" power strip and a bunch of relays.. It all failed about 6 months in. And after all was said and done, didn't really save anything..

bishoptf · Mar 30, 2022

GaryE said:
When I first setup my system, I did that will a crappy $20 harbor freight 48" power strip and a bunch of relays.. It all failed about 6 months in. And after all was said and done, didn't really save anything..

Yeah not really planning on running with it, will be used for testing, also give me something to see if I can figure out the 3d design. If I wanted to make something more production worthy I would do what @robsworld78 has but lay it out in a long strip vs the block, thats the right idea just want long and skinny vs short and stubby.

robsworld78 · Apr 1, 2022

Tom Bishop said:
Now if I could just convince him to come out with a long powerstrip version...

Maybe one day I'll look at it again, I have been asked a few times about it. The reason I have it this way is so there's lots of room between outlets for AC adapters, never cool when you can't use a plug due to one of them. It also gets harder for a shipping box.

bishoptf · Apr 1, 2022

robsworld78 said:
Maybe one day I'll look at it again, I have been asked a few times about it. The reason I have it this way is so there's lots of room between outlets for AC adapters, never cool when you can't use a plug due to one of them. It also gets harder for a shipping box.

Yeah understand it causes all kinds of issues, having to make the enclosure 2-piece and glue together since my 3d print bed is not big enough...wait this may be a good reason to get a bigger 3d printer...hmmmm

Vnomus · Apr 1, 2022

Now that I've got the mechanical part of the rollermat done, I'm thinking it would be great if it could be controlled/monitored by the reef-pi. I guess it would require tying it into the GPIO pins. Basically I just want to monitor when it activates and for how long. In case of a malfunction (float stuck open=doesn't activate for some period, or float stuck closed = keeps running) and maybe be able to calculate the fleece consumption rate (time to change the roll).

So would any of the existing drivers support that, or is that something I'd need to code? (I code C#/.Net by day, no Go exp but I suppose I can try something new).....

bishoptf · Apr 2, 2022

Vnomus said:
Now that I've got the mechanical part of the rollermat done, I'm thinking it would be great if it could be controlled/monitored by the reef-pi. I guess it would require tying it into the GPIO pins. Basically I just want to monitor when it activates and for how long. In case of a malfunction (float stuck open=doesn't activate for some period, or float stuck closed = keeps running) and maybe be able to calculate the fleece consumption rate (time to change the roll).

So would any of the existing drivers support that, or is that something I'd need to code? (I code C#/.Net by day, no Go exp but I suppose I can try something new).....

I assume its power via an outlet, something easy at least to monitor some aspects would be to plug it into a Kasa TP-link power strip outlet that has energy monitoring capability. You can then create an analong PH input and monitor the electricity usage. You can then create thresholds etc based on the usage, something easy to do and provides some data, here are screenshots for my return pump.

Looks nicer in grafana:

That also shows you where the pump was turned off and back on, also have it send me a text when that happens etc, I do the same thing for the water level in my ATO storage bin, just something to think about.

Ranjib · Apr 2, 2022

Vnomus said:
Now that I've got the mechanical part of the rollermat done, I'm thinking it would be great if it could be controlled/monitored by the reef-pi. I guess it would require tying it into the GPIO pins. Basically I just want to monitor when it activates and for how long. In case of a malfunction (float stuck open=doesn't activate for some period, or float stuck closed = keeps running) and maybe be able to calculate the fleece consumption rate (time to change the roll).

So would any of the existing drivers support that, or is that something I'd need to code? (I code C#/.Net by day, no Go exp but I suppose I can try something new).....

Why not control it as an ATO? if i understand correctly , the float switch inside the roller mat filter is the one controls when to run the dc motor to roll the fleece.

Vnomus · Apr 3, 2022

Tom/Ranjib, thanks for the advice. Just waiting on some stepdown converters now. I have a bunch of TP-Link plugs but they don't seem to offer any native load-based control/rules, just monitoring. Am I missing some Kasa-native functionality? Looks like a Sonoff S31 flashed with Tasmota could but that seems a bit over complicated for my needs.

Vnomus · Apr 4, 2022

Vnomus said:
Tom/Ranjib, thanks for the advice. Just waiting on some stepdown converters now. I have a bunch of TP-Link plugs but they don't seem to offer any native load-based control/rules, just monitoring. Am I missing some Kasa-native functionality? Looks like a Sonoff S31 flashed with Tasmota could but that seems a bit over complicated for my needs.

Ok, got the converters and wire it up to GPIO17. However, when I add it in as Input, the ATO driver seems to be setup to poll which is problematic as I could easily miss an event. Is there any way to set it as a pure trigger?

Ranjib · Apr 5, 2022

Vnomus said:
Ok, got the converters and wire it up to GPIO17. However, when I add it in as Input, the ATO driver seems to be setup to poll which is problematic as I could easily miss an event. Is there any way to set it as a pure trigger?

No. right now reef-pi everywhere uses poll based sensor reading. You can use API to trigger on demand.

bishoptf · Apr 5, 2022

So @robsworld78 @GaryE @Schreiber @Ranjib or anyone else that can let me know if this logic is flawed. I have been slowly working on a DIY relay so I could test some one of the portions of the @Michael Lane reefpi hats. He had a 10 pin section that could drive 5v relays so I made one up and its working but I wanted to use a 9 pin cable, much easier to find vs 10 pin. Basically he has 8pins for gpio and one for gnd and one for 5v which makes 10, but do I need to extend ground from the reef-pi or for the relay unit could I use the ground connection in the relay box? If I can use the ground in the box for the relay unit then I would be left with 9pins, similar to the dj-8 connection which funny doesnt have ground either. I am thinking I can just use the ground in the box but thought I would ask.

Wiring has been a pain and still think there has to be a better way to mount and get access but here is what I have come up with, keep in mind its a work in progress and I would make changes to the 3d stuff but this is what I have at the moment, 2 sections since it's longer than my 3d bed, need a larger printer

If anyone is interested in more details let me know, 7 outlets are wired NO and one is wired NC. Like I said there are things I would change in the 3d model but at 8hr to print a side its good enough, lol.

Let me know what you guys think about the ground and if I am off base, thanks.

GaryE · Apr 5, 2022

Mine uses 8 pins on the DB9 for data and 1 for 5v, then I used the shield for ground..

Just gotta make sure that your serial cable is shielded, most quality serial cables should be.

GaryE · Apr 5, 2022

I've made a lot of progress on my Arduino temp sensor / Kasa outlet controller. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/arduino-temperature-control.900668/#post-10043007

Have a peek at my thread. I still have a couple issues with the web UI, so I would welcome any assistance from someone who actually knows C++.

bishoptf · Apr 5, 2022

Here is something that I would like to see after a power outage I would like certain components to be delayed to start up. I would like to be able to specify items that should turn back immediately and then items that I would like to be delayed. My overflow and drain takes longer than it probably should to clear the air from the lines so I would like to delay ATO turn on and the skimmer on reboot for a set time period, really I'd like the ability to specify which components should be delayed on a rpi power-up.

Looking at trying to do somethin via cron but thought I would throw that out there, probably not the only one that mike like to have that ability.

robsworld78 · Apr 6, 2022

Tom Bishop said:
So @robsworld78 @GaryE @Schreiber @Ranjib or anyone else that can let me know if this logic is flawed. I have been slowly working on a DIY relay so I could test some one of the portions of the @Michael Lane reefpi hats. He had a 10 pin section that could drive 5v relays so I made one up and its working but I wanted to use a 9 pin cable, much easier to find vs 10 pin. Basically he has 8pins for gpio and one for gnd and one for 5v which makes 10, but do I need to extend ground from the reef-pi or for the relay unit could I use the ground connection in the relay box? If I can use the ground in the box for the relay unit then I would be left with 9pins, similar to the dj-8 connection which funny doesnt have ground either. I am thinking I can just use the ground in the box but thought I would ask.

Wiring has been a pain and still think there has to be a better way to mount and get access but here is what I have come up with, keep in mind its a work in progress and I would make changes to the 3d stuff but this is what I have at the moment, 2 sections since it's longer than my 3d bed, need a larger printer

If anyone is interested in more details let me know, 7 outlets are wired NO and one is wired NC. Like I said there are things I would change in the 3d model but at 8hr to print a side its good enough, lol.

Let me know what you guys think about the ground and if I am off base, thanks.

Looks good, you will need to connect the ground as it's required to complete the circuit, like @GaryE mentioned you can use the shield for ground, I think most cables are end to end.

bishoptf · Apr 6, 2022

robsworld78 said:
Looks good, you will need to connect the ground as it's required to complete the circuit, like @GaryE mentioned you can use the shield for ground, I think most cables are end to end.

Understand but my question is can I use the ground in the powerstrip enclosure vs bringing the ground from the rpi. What I noticed is on his dj powerstrip connection he did not bring a ground over, just the 8 gpio connectors and the one 12v connection, the rlay board in the DJ strip uses the ground in the enclosure and I was going to do the same thing. I tested it with a meter and ground from the rpi is ground at the relay board, so I think I am good.

GaryE · Apr 6, 2022

Tom Bishop said:
Understand but my question is can I use the ground in the powerstrip enclosure vs bringing the ground from the rpi. What I noticed is on his dj powerstrip connection he did not bring a ground over, just the 8 gpio connectors and the one 12v connection, the rlay board in the DJ strip uses the ground in the enclosure and I was going to do the same thing. I tested it with a meter and ground from the rpi is ground at the relay board, so I think I am good.

I think you can, but I'm not sure you should. That could introduce other issues, like noise.

GaryE · Apr 6, 2022

I'm having a strange issue with one of my tank heaters.. No recent changes to anything in the setup, but for some reason this heater doesn't want to control my temp any more. you can see the threshold is 78 and yet the tank is happily heating right up to 80.... my poor fish don't know what to think.