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

[Sral]

Appreciate it, sorry for asking to be spoonfed!

Don't worry about it, that's what this thread is for and the reason why it is so long ^^

ReefPi is curently lacking a nice documentation for these kind of things, so don't blame yourself.

 

[Ranjib]

Don't worry about it, that's what this thread is for and the reason why it is so long ^^

ReefPi is curently lacking a nice documentation for these kind of things, so don't blame yourself.

Exactly, and not just documentation , many other things. Hence the. Community support is so critical. It’s absolutely awesome that we are honest about these aspects (being diy, there’s lot of rough edges, it’s constantly changing and that the supporting things like docs are not up to the standard )

 

[Lingwendil]

Hmmmmm,

So, just to confirm- My goal here is a PWM control lighting controller that can also switch fans on and off. I figure one of those arduino/raspberry pi marketed relay boards to switch 12 volts DC would work for the fan supply, running off of a GPIO pin. I then would also like to have two, maybe four channels of PWM control to dim Meanwell LDD drivers from zero to 100%, and then dim back down to zero at the end of the night. This differs from how kessil does the controls if I'm not mistaken, as I will be ramping intensity up and down specifically to each channel, rather than color and intensity separately? I am not seeing much documented for how these levels are set.

Maybe I just need to set one up and start playing with it?

So looks like a PCA9685 board (which i already have), and a relay break out will work? then I just need to mount it all up in a box? I can handle all the DC voltages just fine with separate modules.

For the relays, I have a few of these modules-
Amazon product


My current setup has an Arduino controlling a PCA9685 board, and I think 4 channels of PWM control, and a cable snaked from one central tank and box all the way around the room to another tank, so running two fixtures. It'll be nice to have no wires running to tank number three in the other room once i set it up.



What's the minimum size SD card that Reef-pi needs?

 

[bishoptf]

Hmmmmm,

So, just to confirm- My goal here is a PWM control lighting controller that can also switch fans on and off. I figure one of those arduino/raspberry pi marketed relay boards to switch 12 volts DC would work for the fan supply, running off of a GPIO pin. I then would also like to have two, maybe four channels of PWM control to dim Meanwell LDD drivers from zero to 100%, and then dim back down to zero at the end of the night. This differs from how kessil does the controls if I'm not mistaken, as I will be ramping intensity up and down specifically to each channel, rather than color and intensity separately? I am not seeing much documented for how these levels are set.

Maybe I just need to set one up and start playing with it?

So looks like a PCA9685 board (which i already have), and a relay break out will work? then I just need to mount it all up in a box? I can handle all the DC voltages just fine with separate modules.

For the relays, I have a few of these modules-
Amazon product


My current setup has an Arduino controlling a PCA9685 board, and I think 4 channels of PWM control, and a cable snaked from one central tank and box all the way around the room to another tank, so running two fixtures. It'll be nice to have no wires running to tank number three in the other room once i set it up.



What's the minimum size SD card that Reef-pi needs?

Raspbian and reef-pi do not need much space but most of the cards have increased in size these days, I just get whatever is the cheapest. One thing I would recommend is to purchase an SD card that is stated for high endurance, I've had much better luck with them vs the standard cards, high endurance usually are for dash cameras etc, but they seem to last much longer, IMHO...

Here is the size for a newly installed unit:
bishop@testpi:~ $ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 29G 4.4G 24G 16% /
devtmpfs 86M 0 86M 0% /dev
tmpfs 214M 0 214M 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 86M 652K 85M 1% /run
tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
/dev/mmcblk0p1 253M 50M 203M 20% /boot
tmpfs 43M 0 43M 0% /run/user/1001

Only using 4.4g, but again I usually get whatever size is the cheapest, these days its usually 32g or higher...

 

[Lingwendil]

I have a few 128GB cards that I don't use that came with the Pi's ( got a bunch free a while back), do you think these would be fine? If I'm not mistaken these are the SD cards I have-
Amazon product

With some luck I may be able to put this together fully with parts I already have :)

 

[bishoptf]

I have a few 128GB cards that I don't use that came with the Pi's ( got a bunch free a while back), do you think these would be fine? If I'm not mistaken these are the SD cards I have-
Amazon product

With some luck I may be able to put this together fully with parts I already have :)

They will work for sure but once you get to a point where you are going into production so to speak I would get a high endurance card for sure....ask me how i know, lol.

 

[Tyberzann]

I am interested in setting up a PI in my tank, if for nothing else to track temps and to make sure the heaters don't cook the tank, however, I am struggling to find a UK equivalent for the power controller section.

Anyone from the UK or Europe had any luck with this?

 

[bishoptf]

I am interested in setting up a PI in my tank, if for nothing else to track temps and to make sure the heaters don't cook the tank, however, I am struggling to find a UK equivalent for the power controller section.

Anyone from the UK or Europe had any luck with this?

Check with robotank, I think he may have options for non us mains, but not sure...otherwise you would have to roll your own. Keep in mind, the Kasa TP-link stuff also is an option, not sure if they have a UK version or not but see if they do something like this - https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/smart-plug/kp303/

Thats a wireless unit, but I know the US equivalents are working, I use them but you would need to verify they are working with reef-pi

 

[bishoptf]

I have a few 128GB cards that I don't use that came with the Pi's ( got a bunch free a while back), do you think these would be fine? If I'm not mistaken these are the SD cards I have-
Amazon product

With some luck I may be able to put this together fully with parts I already have :)

Oh and for getting things loaded on the card @robsworld78 robotank has a good guide with a load script that will do all the heavy lifting, can be found here - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t9majBpGlqKacDjkyEZ1HQNWsTRo3woZ/

When you run the script and it asks if you are configuring for robotank select no and that will set up a non robotank installation, I use it all the time.

 

[Tyberzann]

Check with robotank, I think he may have options for non us mains, but not sure...otherwise you would have to roll your own. Keep in mind, the Kasa TP-link stuff also is an option, not sure if they have a UK version or not but see if they do something like this - https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/smart-plug/kp303/

Thanks for the quick reply, tp-link do a UK version of that smart plug, however, I'm not sure how I'd config it to do the same power control as the reef pi does using a WIFI connection.

 

[bishoptf]

Thanks for the quick reply, tp-link do a UK version of that smart plug, however, I'm not sure how I'd config it to do the same power control as the reef pi does using a WIFI connection.

Its covered in the guides, you add it as a driver and give it the ip address and thats how it connects to it..

here is the driver section:

Then you add the connectors then outlets, I think most if not all of that stuff is covered in the guides...

looks like robotank lets you order eu outlets for his power modules - https://www.robo-tank.ca/reef-pi-Pl...o-Tank-120v-240v-AC-Power-Bar-Fully-Assembled

 

[Tyberzann]

hmm , I must be reading the wrong guides as I haven't come across anything relating to WIFI control in the power controller section yet.

 

[bishoptf]

hmm , I must be reading the wrong guides as I haven't come across anything relating to WIFI control in the power controller section yet.

Came in in version 3 of reef-pi, has been around for some time.... https://github.com/reef-pi/reef-pi/releases/tag/3.0

• Smart outlets & powerstrip support. (TPlink-HS110, HS103, HS300), with current monitoring capabilities

You may want to look through all the release notes information, lots of capabilities etc are highlighted: https://github.com/reef-pi/reef-pi/releases

 

[Tyberzann]

Jeez, ok so much more than i realised, gives me some more stuff to read through.

Thanks very much!

 

[ColoredRock]

Jeez, ok so much more than i realised, gives me some more stuff to read through.

Thanks very much!

Lots of information out there and it can be overwhelming for me.. but that the good part about it being open source.. you can pretty much work out any problem that you want to solve..vs having to go into a ecosystem were they may have limited solutions. Would have been alot easier for me to go of the shelf.. but I looked at it a a great way to learn something else.

 

[eggi55]

good morning
It's a great project
reef-pi 6.0
runs so far
but I can't start reef-pi first
sudo systemctl start reef-pi.service
so far good as soon as i restart the raspi i have to restart the service to be able to start reef-pi so i have
sudo systemctl enable reef-pi.service
additionally entered.
I restart the Raspi and Reef-Pi
only started when I enter the reef-pi service I can't turn on the service with enable
and one more question
Can you already control a flow pump in reef-pi that I have is operated with 6 V via an external module for simulating the wave pattern

 

[eggi55]

Hi
so my controller is now ready here are a few pictures
I hang it behind my aquarium because there is no space in the base cabinet

 

[Sral]

Hi
so my controller is now ready here are a few pictures
I hang it behind my aquarium because there is no space in the base cabinet

Looks nice !
what kind of display and connection are you using ? I’m guessing a Pi3 or higher with an actual screen from the looks of it ?

With all those cables I hope you have a GFCI (?) switch on that Setup. Might be a good idea, especially when using a ground probe.

About the wavemaker:
A 0-6V signal is easy through PWM, e.g. the lights tab. Although currently there is no profile yet that changes the outputs fast enough for a wave pattern, I guess.
If you really want that you could either make an external service that tells ReefPi a new setting every few seconds or so, or use an external oscillator that does this in hardware with a turnable resistor to set the wave frequency.
What pattern would a wavemaker need ?
On-Off every few seconds, a ramp-up and down, a sinusoid ?

 

[eggi55]

Looks nice !
what kind of display and connection are you using ? I’m guessing a Pi3 or higher with an actual screen from the looks of it ?

With all those cables I hope you have a GFCI (?) switch on that Setup. Might be a good idea, especially when using a ground probe.

About the wavemaker:
A 0-6V signal is easy through PWM, e.g. the lights tab. Although currently there is no profile yet that changes the outputs fast enough for a wave pattern, I guess.
If you really want that you could either make an external service that tells ReefPi a new setting every few seconds or so, or use an external oscillator that does this in hardware with a turnable resistor to set the wave frequency.
What pattern would a wavemaker need ?
On-Off every few seconds, a ramp-up and down, a sinusoid ?

Thanks
the whole thing is via an FI
secured and is hung behind at the edge and with the flow pump your suggestion sounds very good I read it at the beginning of the forum. I'm only on page 400
had i forgotten use a raspi and go through vnc

 

[Sral]

Quick question, since now two users have asked for this: a way to use a Raspberry Pi as a Hardware extension for a ReefPi on an x86 platform.

@Ranjib Couldn't we implement a driver that interfaces with the http-API of a ReefPi instance running on that Raspberry Pi ? Slight overkill on the software, but that might be the quickest solution to let a Raspberry Pi function as a hardware extension for an x86 platform.