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

[Ranjib]

Timer question.. How do you set up just a simple on off timer per day? Leave the day of month blank?

edit: nope that doesnt work..

Maybe I'm missing the idea of the timer section?

Use * to denote "every". Power controller build has a section on timer, check if that is useful: https://reef-pi.github.io/build-guides/power
/
Here is an example of running skimmer only in day time:

Where "* 10:0:0" is short form for "Every day of the month : 10th hour : 0 th minute: 0 th second"
Let me know if you have any question,

 

[Gareth elliott]

Apex optical sensor color coding.

Red -
Black +
Green ground for data
White data

Order for dfrobot sensor input from left (says Dfrobot side)

Red
Black
Green
White

Longer cable than default cable allows easier placement.

 

[Ranjib]

Apex optical sensor color coding.

Red -
Black +
Green ground for data
White data

Order for dfrobot sensor input from left (says Dfrobot side)

Red
Black
Green
White

Longer cable than default cable allows easier placement.

This worked for you? Or just asking?

 

[Gareth elliott]

This worked for you? Or just asking?

This worked! Lol

Id recommend an rj45 connection for this, easier to wire than an audio jack.

 

[dburg30]

Use * to denote "every". Power controller build has a section on timer, check if that is useful: https://reef-pi.github.io/build-guides/power
/
Here is an example of running skimmer only in day time:

Where "* 10:0:0" is short form for "Every day of the month : 10th hour : 0 th minute: 0 th second"J
Let me know if you have any question,

Perfect.. Does the * work for other also? ie: hours?

edit: nevermind, see the article you linked, yes it does.. thanks for the link

 

[Ranjib]

Perfect.. Does the * work for other also? ie: hours?

edit: nevermind, see the article you linked, yes it does.. thanks for the link

yes, * works for all the fields. Cron syntax/grammer allows *, range (0-3) , sub-intervals (*/15) etc... many fancy things.. I have not documented all, but one can go nuts :-) . I worry about supporting edge cases or making it just hard to understand whats going on .. so kept the examples at their simplest form.
I do want to improve the user experience here. Like specifically ability to specify time span and on/off sequence in a single job. Currently, we have to define at least two timer jobs for individual equipment, at least. One to turn on, another one to turn off. I think it will be more intuitive to declare both actions and the time span instead in a single timer job. Like turn skimmer on at 6 am and turn off after 12 hours, everyday.

 

[Ranjib]

This worked! Lol

Id recommend an rj45 connection for this, easier to wire than an audio jack.

I want to do my next builds with rj11 or rj45 connection. rj45 feels too much since we dont really need so many pins, while rj11 panel mount female connectors are hard to find.

Any suggestions?

 

[Gareth elliott]

I want to do my next builds with rj11 or rj45 connection. rj45 feels too much since we dont really need so many pins, while rj11 panel mount female connectors are hard to find.

Any suggestions?

I got the rj11’s off amazon.
Both are easy and intuitive to wire. So even if dont need that many pins, dont have to worry about miswiring them like audio jacks. I also have cats, snap in connections help a lot.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Since i already have the pi3 i figured id use it.

I need the lpf though for my black boxes.

Didnt someone in here get a built converter? Hows it working?


Btw
Merry Christmas!

Regarding the black box light. When i opened it up, none of my parts were ul listed. I felt uncontrollable adding complexity to it. Priced new power supplies and changing the drivers to meanwells, just wasnt worth the price for amount of work. Was my reason for not going for ramping. I might use this for my refugium light and just use reef-pi outlets and timer function. Your black box might have better internals than mine being sb reeflights.

 

[Brad Cox]

Regarding the black box light. When i opened it up, none of my parts were ul listed. I felt uncontrollable adding complexity to it. Priced new power supplies and changing the drivers to meanwells, just wasnt worth the price for amount of work. Was my reason for not going for ramping. I might use this for my refugium light and just use reef-pi outlets and timer function. Your black box might have better internals than mine being sb reeflights.

Na im using marsaqua leds. Im sure none of them are ul listed.
I dont want to sink a pile of money into kessils just yet. Im buying bitcoin miners currently.

 

[Sam Rowe]

What power adapter you are using to power pi and rest of the circuit?

ReefPi is running on a 1.5A power plug that came with a nest thermostat.
the 12v power for the kessil is just a 2a 12v power brick.

 

[Sam Rowe]

I know exactly what you are talking about. Did you set a minimum threshold for the channel that controls kessil intensity ? If not set it up. Unfortunately the ui does not have support for that in 1.0, and you have to use the api. Here is doc and example : https://reef-pi.github.io/additional-documentation/api/
Use the get light api to obtain light settings in and save it in a Json file, and then edit the minimum threshold for the intensity channel to 14 and the update the light settings using Update light api
If this all sound hard, than wait for few hours, I have these two things fixed in code already (I.e ui support for minimum threshold ) and I’ll cut a 1.1 release tonight , you can use that

Will look into this later as currently away for christmas with family. or will install 1.1 whichever comes first :)

 

[MaccaPopEye]

Looks like Vertex wanted to make a ReefPi too :p They have made up a nice looking housing for it, kind of like a sneak peak for what a 3D printed ReefPi could look like :)

https://reefbuilders.com/2017/10/19...er-crack-at-the-ultimate-aquarium-controller/

 

[Ranjib]

Looks like Vertex wanted to make a ReefPi too :p They have made up a nice looking housing for it, kind of like a sneak peak for what a 3D printed ReefPi could look like :)

https://reefbuilders.com/2017/10/19...er-crack-at-the-ultimate-aquarium-controller/

Yeah, I just noticed this from another thread in r2r.
The whole thing will cost 800$ with the touchscreen display, and 650$ without.
My current BoM is maxed at 400$, for three separate controllers together...Cant wait to see how 2018 goes for reef-pi. I have lined up things. I am already pretty stoked to see my 1.0 build in action

 

[Ranjib]

Reposting this from the other r2r thread. 1.0 AIO build is doing well. I am running the temperature and ATO under monitoring only mode, will start enabling the equipment controls (ATO pump, heater/fan) later this week.
Final build (can notice the ATO breakout board in the bottom middle)

Wall mounted

Dashboard

My heater is doing a surprisingly well job of keeping the temp at 78, I doubt the temperature controller will kick in unless i set the heater to higher temperature.

 

[DaveMorris]

I am converting a 130g tank into a dart frog vivarium. I have been wanting to learn about Arduino and Raspberry Pi systems for a long time and this thread has given me a great idea to learn how to do things with the Pi. I am going to use what you have illustrated here and then modify it slightly to make a "Frog-Pi". While it is not a reef tank, many of the same parameters need to be tracked and controlled and I am sure that using Reef-Pi as a starting point will help me come up with a great controller for my Dart Frog environment. I will try to post what I am doing here as I go. Hopefully you guys won't mind my inevitable questions that I will have. Thanks for this thread and all of the contributions. It is such a great learning tool.

 

[Ranjib]

I am converting a 130g tank into a dart frog vivarium. I have been wanting to learn about Arduino and Raspberry Pi systems for a long time and this thread has given me a great idea to learn how to do things with the Pi. I am going to use what you have illustrated here and then modify it slightly to make a "Frog-Pi". While it is not a reef tank, many of the same parameters need to be tracked and controlled and I am sure that using Reef-Pi as a starting point will help me come up with a great controller for my Dart Frog environment. I will try to post what I am doing here as I go. Hopefully you guys won't mind my inevitable questions that I will have. Thanks for this thread and all of the contributions. It is such a great learning tool.

Not at all. Let me know if I can be of any help.
I can add support for humidity/temperature sensor in reef-pi if you want? I was planning to do that for some of my terrariums. (yes i am using reef-pi in couple of non-reef tank related use cases :-) )
I wanted the ambient temperature and humidity sensor support for understanding how room temperature/humidity affects water evaporation and tank temperature. It's not the most important thing from reef tank perspective, but its a good feature to have, and its not super hard to do from software/electronics side of things.

 

[Kampo]

any easy way for the controller to control a cooling fan for lights based on a temp sensor?

 

[Ranjib]

any easy way for the controller to control a cooling fan for lights based on a temp sensor?

It should be possible. reef-pi the software itself is not aware where the temperature probe is or what the actual cooling device is. Which means you can place the ds18b20 sensor on the light fixture and set appropriate temperature threshold (i am assuming it will be lot higher than 78F).. and declare the fan as cooling device. You have to wire the light fixtur's fan as through a relay, and declare corresponding outlet/equipment

 

[MaccaPopEye]

Reposting this from the other r2r thread. 1.0 AIO build is doing well. I am running the temperature and ATO under monitoring only mode, will start enabling the equipment controls (ATO pump, heater/fan) later this week.
Final build (can notice the ATO breakout board in the bottom middle)

Wall mounted

My heater is doing a surprisingly well job of keeping the temp at 78, I doubt the temperature controller will kick in unless i set the heater to higher temperature.

Looking awesome Ranjib!

I've finally started on mine so I am sure I will have more and more questions as I make slow progress :)

Once I received the panel mount plugs I realised that I wouldn't have room for them with the components on the inside being raised up on stand offs. So I had to bulk up the lid of the enclosure to raise the plugs.

First screw 2 pieces of 12mm ply to the lid and then use a flush trim bit to smooth it out.

I have also marked out where the panel mount plugs are going to go. The top row is larger "universal" plugs as I have some equipment with US style plugs and the bottom two rows have enough room between them to fit "wall wart" style plugs so that both of the bottom two rows can have wall wart plugs if needed.

And finally I have started to lay out the components and put in stand off screws.

Originally I was planning on having a 4x socket power bar below the relays however it didn't fit so I will just have to teach myself another way to wire it all up safely.

I was also going to use a 4xUSB wall wart (the middle board on the right) to power the Pi and the relays, however I have now ordered a few LM2596 boards and plan to use those instead. If I power them with a single 15V, 2A supply how many LM2596 boards will I need to put in to handle the 2x relays, Pi 3, dimming for 3x Mars Aqua lights and ATO? Will one stepped down to 5v and one stepped down to 10v be able to handle it all?

In the pic the bread board is on the top but I will have it all up the other way so the bread board is on the bottom of the enclosure so nothing can fall out of it easily.

Yeah, I just noticed this from another thread in r2r.
The whole thing will cost 800$ with the touchscreen display, and 650$ without.
My current BoM is maxed at 400$, for three separate controllers together...Cant wait to see how 2018 goes for reef-pi. I have lined up things. I am already pretty stoked to see my 1.0 build in action

I'm excited mate! You have done such awesome work in such a short time already so I can't wait to see what else you have in store :)