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

[DWKDiver]

have you tried switching to manual mode by clicking the button that says auto and dragging the slider to 0? It won't delete your config, if you switch back to auto that will still be there

I tried that. I got a message in German I think, not the selected English language. it also errors with message about invalid times and will not switch back to auto. Had to delete and redo light, switch is what I want to avoid.

 

[bishoptf]

Well it appears a couple of my outlets in my dj strip are worn out, not the relay but the outlet itself. The receptacle connectors are not holding the plug tight at all so I want to replace a couple of them. Was wondering if anyone has used any of them in the past found a decent replacement, looked on Amazon but reviews are hit and miss. The part number on the outlet is SS-6B and here is what they look like

@robsworld78 or anyone that has used some decent replacements let me know, thanks.

 

[robsworld78]

Well it appears a couple of my outlets in my dj strip are worn out, not the relay but the outlet itself. The receptacle connectors are not holding the plug tight at all so I want to replace a couple of them. Was wondering if anyone has used any of them in the past found a decent replacement, looked on Amazon but reviews are hit and miss. The part number on the outlet is SS-6B and here is what they look like

@robsworld78 or anyone that has used some decent replacements let me know, thanks.

Looks like that's the socket on ebay, at one point I used them, if I remember you have to be quick with the soldering iron which isn't really possible or they deform internally and get lose. The last few years I've been getting the one's below, I believe it will fit nicely but it does look like there's no room for error, only difference I know is the small divider between the ground is taller and straight, these are better quality too.

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/562-738W-X2-01

 

[bishoptf]

Looks like that's the socket on ebay, at one point I used them, if I remember you have to be quick with the soldering iron which isn't really possible or they deform internally and get lose. The last few years I've been getting the one's below, I believe it will fit nicely but it does look like there's no room for error, only difference I know is the small divider between the ground is taller and straight, these are better quality too.

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/562-738W-X2-01

Yup I ended up ordering some similar from Digikey, they had a bunch on Amazon but weren't oem but knockoffs. The mouser/digikey are UL listed and should be much better. Understand about the heat, I think I have gotten better that I think I can do it, what stinks is how to take it apart, solid copper hard to remove one in the middle, will have to think about that one. My plan is to tin the heck of the tabs and then apply it to the copper, hopefully I can get it to work, we will see.

Thanks for the information...

 

[robsworld78]

Yup I ended up ordering some similar from Digikey, they had a bunch on Amazon but weren't oem but knockoffs. The mouser/digikey are UL listed and should be much better. Understand about the heat, I think I have gotten better that I think I can do it, what stinks is how to take it apart, solid copper hard to remove one in the middle, will have to think about that one. My plan is to tin the heck of the tabs and then apply it to the copper, hopefully I can get it to work, we will see.

Thanks for the information...

Yeah Digikey has the same one, these are more heat resistant, would take a lot to melt them. Solder also sticks to these tabs easy, don't need to tin them. Some batches of universal outlets I need to file the tabs before solder will stick, a real pain.

 

[bishoptf]

Yeah Digikey has the same one, these are more heat resistant, would take a lot to melt them. Solder also sticks to these tabs easy, don't need to tin them. Some batches of universal outlets I need to file the tabs before solder will stick, a real pain.

These are the ones that I ordered - https://www.digikey.com/en/products...1Se7ee4cXxM0ElwXZDMZ23x4R03S2hhmjN37cds7jmOEy, I actually had the others up on mouser but digikey shipping is a lot quicker and figured they were about the same...I guess I will find out.

 

[robsworld78]

These are the ones that I ordered - https://www.digikey.com/en/products...1Se7ee4cXxM0ElwXZDMZ23x4R03S2hhmjN37cds7jmOEy, I actually had the others up on mouser but digikey shipping is a lot quicker and figured they were about the same...I guess I will find out.

I haven't seen that one, looking at the datasheet there is a slight difference in size, probably no datasheet for the SS-B6.

 

[bishoptf]

Here is my new blue tux cruising around the tank...

Still need to get the new PH module up and working just haven't had any time, need to print out a PH holder, I have the PH meter just need to put it together...

 

[bishoptf]

I haven't seen that one, looking at the datasheet there is a slight difference in size, probably no datasheet for the SS-B6.

Yeah I hope it will fit, to lazy to take measurements of the one I pulled out...I always have a dremel, lol.

 

[GaryE]

Yeah I hope it will fit, to lazy to take measurements of the one I pulled out...I always have a dremel, lol.

I use something like this when removing hard to remove solder joints:

Low Melt DeSolder Wire, Low-Temp SMD De-Soldering Removes Chip Quick & Easy

SMD removal with LowMelt Desolder Wire removes chip quick and easy less than 150°C. SMD Rework.

www.zeph.com

It stays "liquid" longer to give you a bit more work time. I usually use a "solder sucker" first to remove as much of the existing solder and then apply a bit of this stuff and can work the parts apart without hacking it to bits

 

[bishoptf]

So I went an bought a used Kessil a160we for my nano coral QT frag tank without a controller and starting to think about adding to reef-pi. Since its a coral only tank the controller is not really needed, not doing sunrise/sunset now but may want to do it. Trying to think how I can tie that into mike lanes pi hat and looking at the ADA fruit lighting controller page - https://learn.adafruit.com/reef-pi-lighting-controller/overview since its 10v pwm I would need to do something for the 2 channels in a break out box with some resistors and transistors like @ranjob called out, but wondering if anyone already has something made up or done something similar in the past. I looked at @theatrus blueacro page and he has something for going to Apex but didn't see anything else that may help. Basically I would feed pwm and ground from my existing hat and then convert that to 10v pwm to go to the Apex.

Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions will poke around and see if I find anything.

Update I think I have my head wrapped around how I would do this, will see if I can fritz something and see what folks think, trying to do something in a small pkg, maybe dead bug it with heat shrink, or put it in my enclosure...I actually have some NPN transistors on hand so I have everything to make it work.

 

[bishoptf]

I can follow the fritz diagram but I am hoping someone can explain how its working, 10v is inbound and then goes through 1k resistor which then goes to the collector and outputs 10v pwm but just not sure I follow how that is working. The blue lines are the 10v pwm output, 5v pwm from the reef-pi hat goes through a 10k resistor to the base pin, just not sure how that is switching the 10v input. Prolly a dumb question just trying to understand how it works.

 

[elysics]

I can follow the fritz diagram but I am hoping someone can explain how its working, 10v is inbound and then goes through 1k resistor which then goes to the collector and outputs 10v pwm but just not sure I follow how that is working. The blue lines are the 10v pwm output, 5v pwm from the reef-pi hat goes through a 10k resistor to the base pin, just not sure how that is switching the 10v input. Prolly a dumb question just trying to understand how it works.

In not super correct but maybe easy to understand terms, if the signal line goes high, the transistor becomes conductive and the 10V vanishes into the ground, and because of the 1k resistor the 10V line can't fight the ground (which would be a short). The result is that the output line is at 0V while the signal is high. If the signal line goes low, the connection to ground is cut and the 10V line becomes strong enough again to pull the output high to 10V

A side effect is that this inverts the signal, i.e. if input signal is high then output signal is low and vice versa.

 

[dmsc2fs]

Hey folks. I have 2 questions. One simple and one I don't know if the answer can be fleshed out as easily.

1. I think I read a post around thread 800 or so that indicated a Raspi 2 would not work for Reef-pi. Is this accurate? As far as I know the resources for a go based web server can't be very resource intensive? Is their a limitation?

1a. if a R-pi 2 can be used from a performance perspective any reason why it wouldn't work in a robo-tank? The pinout on the header should be the same from a 2 to a 3. It should mate without issues?

2. Has anyone setup a reverse proxy with nginx as a frontend to extend reef-pi to the internet? I have the proxy working but I am struggling with reef-pi giving me an invalid credentails when I try to authenticate. This error is only from the proxy and not direct to reef-pi.

 

[bishoptf]

Hey folks. I have 2 questions. One simple and one I don't know if the answer can be fleshed out as easily.

1. I think I read a post around thread 800 or so that indicated a Raspi 2 would not work for Reef-pi. Is this accurate? As far as I know the resources for a go based web server can't be very resource intensive? Is their a limitation?

1a. if a R-pi 2 can be used from a performance perspective any reason why it wouldn't work in a robo-tank? The pinout on the header should be the same from a 2 to a 3. It should mate without issues?

2. Has anyone setup a reverse proxy with nginx as a frontend to extend reef-pi to the internet? I have the proxy working but I am struggling with reef-pi giving me an invalid credentails when I try to authenticate. This error is only from the proxy and not direct to reef-pi.

1. According to @Ranjib original adafruit page - https://learn.adafruit.com/reef-pi-installation-and-configuration/parts Pi Zero, 2, 3 any Pi B+ will work.

1a. For robotank questions I would ask @robsworld78 he will know for sure...

2. I would not do a rp or anything like that I would look into Tailscale - https://tailscale.com/ what I came across in these threads and I run my own VPN but its really easy to setup and secure to boot, highly recommend it. Played with it this weekend and took maybe 10min to get it working on the rpi and my phone. If you want to roll your own then nebula would be what I would look into but for most purposes Tailscale should work easily and securely for you.

 

[dmsc2fs]

1. According to @Ranjib original adafruit page - https://learn.adafruit.com/reef-pi-installation-and-configuration/parts Pi Zero, 2, 3 any Pi B+ will work.

1a. For robotank questions I would ask @robsworld78 he will know for sure...

2. I would not do a rp or anything like that I would look into Tailscale - https://tailscale.com/ what I came across in these threads and I run my own VPN but its really easy to setup and secure to boot, highly recommend it. Played with it this weekend and took maybe 10min to get it working on the rpi and my phone. If you want to roll your own then nebula would be what I would look into but for most purposes Tailscale should work easily and securely for you.

Thanks for the feedback. I’ll take a peak at tailscale but if I go down a vpn route I’ll go OpenVPN and stick with something I’m familiar with. I was hoping to stay away from a vpn solution.

 

[bishoptf]

Thanks for the feedback. I’ll take a peak at tailscale but if I go down a vpn route I’ll go OpenVPN and stick with something I’m familiar with. I was hoping to stay away from a vpn solution.

Trust me its not anything like a traditional vpn solution, take a look and I think you will like what you see..

 

[Ranjib]

Hey folks. I have 2 questions. One simple and one I don't know if the answer can be fleshed out as easily.

1. I think I read a post around thread 800 or so that indicated a Raspi 2 would not work for Reef-pi. Is this accurate? As far as I know the resources for a go based web server can't be very resource intensive? Is their a limitation?

1a. if a R-pi 2 can be used from a performance perspective any reason why it wouldn't work in a robo-tank? The pinout on the header should be the same from a 2 to a 3. It should mate without issues?

2. Has anyone setup a reverse proxy with nginx as a frontend to extend reef-pi to the internet? I have the proxy working but I am struggling with reef-pi giving me an invalid credentails when I try to authenticate. This error is only from the proxy and not direct to reef-pi.

rpi 2 should work just fine. 26 pin models wont work. anything Model B (40 pin), including pi zeor, 2 , 3, 4 should all work. robotank should be fine as well

i have not tried nginx based reverse proxy (curious why you need it. reef-pi can do https out of the box). but i would suggest go slow, start with no auth, http only reef-pi setup for nginx. start a thread and share your nginx config we can discuss it separately.

 

[robsworld78]

Hey folks. I have 2 questions. One simple and one I don't know if the answer can be fleshed out as easily.

1. I think I read a post around thread 800 or so that indicated a Raspi 2 would not work for Reef-pi. Is this accurate? As far as I know the resources for a go based web server can't be very resource intensive? Is their a limitation?

1a. if a R-pi 2 can be used from a performance perspective any reason why it wouldn't work in a robo-tank? The pinout on the header should be the same from a 2 to a 3. It should mate without issues?

2. Has anyone setup a reverse proxy with nginx as a frontend to extend reef-pi to the internet? I have the proxy working but I am struggling with reef-pi giving me an invalid credentails when I try to authenticate. This error is only from the proxy and not direct to reef-pi.

Yeah any Pi that has the 40 pin header will work with Robo-Tank.

 

[dmsc2fs]

i have not tried nginx based reverse proxy (curious why you need it. reef-pi can do https out of the box). but i would suggest go slow, start with no auth, http only reef-pi setup for nginx. start a thread and share your nginx config we can discuss it separately.

I had thought about going with no authentication @ reef-pi. I will probably move to that and verify the process works and try and move back to adding in authentication.

The reasoning for using nginx as a reverse proxy is to enable me to have control/access of two reef-pi's from a single location. I.E. only one hole in my firewall. I am authenticating against nginx before having access to the reef-pi I am testing so removing the authentication @ reef-pi could be acceptable. Someone trying something nefarious on my local lan is no different than walking over to the tank and pulling a cord from the wall. I don't have any guns, gates or guards on prem.