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

[sector9]

The dosing sub-system is nearing completion...

Awesome! Any idea what a parts list would be like for the dosing system?

 

[Ranjib]

Awesome! Any idea what a parts list would be like for the dosing system?

Pca9685 , same ic as lighting, if you have one already that would do, one channel for each dosing pump. This will be providing the pwm (variable speed) source. Next you'll need a transistor (tip120 or a power mosfet or l293d) to covert 5v pwm into your dosing pump specific voltage/amp. I am using the peristaltic pumps from adafruit, which are 12v, i plan to doing the first set of testing with l293d.

 

[Ranjib]

Pca9685 , same ic as lighting, if you have one already that would do, one channel for each dosing pump. This will be providing the pwm (variable speed) source. Next you'll need a transistor (tip120 or a power mosfet or l293d) to covert 5v pwm into your dosing pump specific voltage/amp. I am using the peristaltic pumps from adafruit, which are 12v, i plan to doing the first set of testing with l293d.

i am not mentioning pi and other common stuff, that are required for the basic reef-pi (sd card, power adaptors etc)

 

[Ranjib]

I have been reading about the availability of two hardware pwm pins with raspberry pi , in recent raspbian release. This is very interesting development for reef-pi.

The processor that powers raspberry pi (bcm2xxx) always had two hardware timers, which in fab power hardware backed pwm (dc voltage dimming ). But this was not exposed by the raspbian kernel, due to lack of available drivers. This changed recently, and now those two timer pins and correspond pwm drivers are available for raspberry pi users , in latest raspbian release (the official raspberry pi operating system). This means we don’t need a dedicated pwm driver like pca9685 for pwm as long as all we need is two channels ( like kessil controller or two pump dosing system). This will reduce the build cost of those controller by 12$ , and also sumplify the circuit.

I am currently working on the reef-pi support for this feature, it will likely involve some major code changes internally, as user needs to be able to tell reef-pi whether they are using raspberry pi pin or pca9685 pin for powering light/doser etc. I also have to make sure that this does not impact existing installations. I hope to release this support by 1.4 or 1.5 release.

All in all I think this is a very good news :-)
Opensource for the win :-)

 

[ReeferMadness88]

Hey, this looks like an awesome project that I’m going to undertake shortly! Thank you so much Ranjib for making this available. I do apologize if this was asked and answered in one of the 150 forum pages but is there anyway reef-Pi can control Chinese black box LEDs? specifically the Viparspectra 165W ones. Can’t wait to start my build, thanks again for the support and the creativity with this project!

 

[cooltowncorals]

The dosing pump set up looks sweet! Getting set up to build powerbar and temp controller but this will be my first add on!

 

[Ryan115]

Hey, this looks like an awesome project that I’m going to undertake shortly! Thank you so much Ranjib for making this available. I do apologize if this was asked and answered in one of the 150 forum pages but is there anyway reef-Pi can control Chinese black box LEDs? specifically the Viparspectra 165W ones. Can’t wait to start my build, thanks again for the support and the creativity with this project!

Short answer...probably.
I am not sure exactly which dimmer circuit is in the Viparspectra, but very likely it is something like this
https://www.dhgate.com/product/dimmers-replacement-for-chinese-black-box/257420958.html
That circuit outputs a 0-10V dimming signal, but others have had success replacing it with 10V pwm.
I have a SbReeflight BB, and I am just about finished on a plug and play replacement circuit that will take the PWM from reef-pi and output the analog signal. This will require no cutting of internal wires, just unplug one dimming circuit and plug in this one. However you may need different plugs for yours.
Here is the circuit for this, it is soldered up, I just need to test the output now.

Otherwise there are some off the shelf modules that you can get, like this one
https://www.amazon.com/MagiDeal-Digital-Analog-Tranformer-Converter/dp/B00UIZKYAS

 

[ReeferMadness88]

Short answer...probably.
I am not sure exactly which dimmer circuit is in the Viparspectra, but very likely it is something like this
https://www.dhgate.com/product/dimmers-replacement-for-chinese-black-box/257420958.html
That circuit outputs a 0-10V dimming signal, but others have had success replacing it with 10V pwm.
I have a SbReeflight BB, and I am just about finished on a plug and play replacement circuit that will take the PWM from reef-pi and output the analog signal. This will require no cutting of internal wires, just unplug one dimming circuit and plug in this one. However you may need different plugs for yours.
Here is the circuit for this, it is soldered up, I just need to test the output now.

Otherwise there are some off the shelf modules that you can get, like this one
https://www.amazon.com/MagiDeal-Digital-Analog-Tranformer-Converter/dp/B00UIZKYAS

That is awesome! Thank you so much for the information, what a great community.

 

[Ranjib]

Short answer...probably.
I am not sure exactly which dimmer circuit is in the Viparspectra, but very likely it is something like this
https://www.dhgate.com/product/dimmers-replacement-for-chinese-black-box/257420958.html
That circuit outputs a 0-10V dimming signal, but others have had success replacing it with 10V pwm.
I have a SbReeflight BB, and I am just about finished on a plug and play replacement circuit that will take the PWM from reef-pi and output the analog signal. This will require no cutting of internal wires, just unplug one dimming circuit and plug in this one. However you may need different plugs for yours.
Here is the circuit for this, it is soldered up, I just need to test the output now.

Otherwise there are some off the shelf modules that you can get, like this one
https://www.amazon.com/MagiDeal-Digital-Analog-Tranformer-Converter/dp/B00UIZKYAS

Thank you @Ryan115

 

[Ranjib]

I am thinking about wave maker module for the upcoming release. This is one of the features slated for 2.0 milestone. After doing some research, I have learned that the koralia 12v dc pumps are not really dc powered, they instead take AC power. This is a bummer, as I was hoping to use DC pwm technique for the wave making.
I am now looking at jebao or tunze pumps for the hardware side of things. I'll do some more research before finalizing on one of these.

On the software side, I am thinking of couple of things

1. Introduce a new API/UI to allow users define arbitrary speed profile over a fixed time span. For example, user can opt for 10 points each with a specific speed value and a fixed time duration within each point. reef-pi will use this profile to set dc voltage using pwm and then repeat it. One can build a 5 or 15 minute long profiles with this feature
2. Provide a three of four pre-defined popular wave maker profile that users can choose from drop down menu. They will be implemented using the same technique as mentioned above

Thoughts? suggestions?

 

[jcmental]

Hi
Need a bit of help / advice. I followed your instructions on downloading and installing the reef pi program and I've checked the service is running and it gives me an up time ...ect but I cant find how to access it, all your tutorial says if you access it with your browser. which browser please?
p.s totally new to pi only got it tonight.

 

[Ranjib]

Hi
Need a bit of help / advice. I followed your instructions on downloading and installing the reef pi program and I've checked the service is running and it gives me an up time ...ect but I cant find how to access it, all your tutorial says if you access it with your browser. which browser please?
p.s totally new to pi only got it tonight.

You can access it from any device (laptop or phone) connected to the same network. If the browser is running on the pi itself type http://localhost as address , if the browser is running the n a different device (say phone) type IP of the raspberry pi as address

 

[Ranjib]

Hi
Need a bit of help / advice. I followed your instructions on downloading and installing the reef pi program and I've checked the service is running and it gives me an up time ...ect but I cant find how to access it, all your tutorial says if you access it with your browser. which browser please?
p.s totally new to pi only got it tonight.

You can access it from any device (laptop or phone) connected to the same network. If the browser is running on the pi itself type http://localhost as address , if the browser is running the n a different device (say phone) type IP of the raspberry pi as address

 

[Ranjib]

Hi
Need a bit of help / advice. I followed your instructions on downloading and installing the reef pi program and I've checked the service is running and it gives me an up time ...ect but I cant find how to access it, all your tutorial says if you access it with your browser. which browser please?
p.s totally new to pi only got it tonight.

You can access it from any device (laptop or phone) connected to the same network. If the browser is running on the pi itself type http://localhost as address , if the browser is running the n a different device (say phone) type IP of the raspberry pi as address

 

[TMB]

Hello @jcmental , you access Reef-Pi by typing the IP address of the Raspberry into your web browser address bar. This is the IP that your router assigned to the PI when you connected it to your network. You can actually do this by opening chromium in the pi itself, or by using another device that is currently connected to the same network as your Raspberry-Pi.

Welcome to the Reef-Pi club!!

HTH

TMB

 

[TMB]

You can access it from any device (laptop or phone) connected to the same network. If the browser is running on the pi itself type http://localhost as address , if the browser is running the n a different device (say phone) type IP of the raspberry pi as address

@Ranjib , you beat me to it!!

 

[jcmental]

Well that worked kind of, wants a user and password now put pi in for the user but wont accept my set password?

Thanks for the welcom btw
you will be sick of me soon ;-)

 

[Ranjib]

Well that worked kind of, wants a user and password now put pi in for the user but wont accept my set password?

Thanks for the welcom btw
you will be sick of me soon ;-)

Default username and password is both set as reef-pi

 

[Ranjib]

Well that worked kind of, wants a user and password now put pi in for the user but wont accept my set password?

Thanks for the welcom btw
you will be sick of me soon ;-)

Default username and password is both set as reef-pi

 

[Ryan115]

@Ranjib , you beat me to it!!

3 Times! Ranjib is on the ball.