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

[Ranjib]

So glad I found this! Have spent the last few hours reading the entire thread. Very nice work. I have been using the PI in an animated Christmas light display for years. I've even created PCB's for the hobby and had them mass produced for both power distribution and Picaps for lights. This is right up my alley. The only part I've never spent time learning is the UI coding and this is the part I'm the most picky about. I would like to have a dark display with easy to read temp, PH, etc. My ideal setup would be a tablet mounted beside the tank that I can easily read and easily put into feed mode etc. I saw a few UI tweaks and talks of an IOS app a few times but was wondering if anyone had ever got a darker icon looking UI setup and working?

Below is some of the stuff I've done in the past with the pi...

thank you for the kind words.
I can definitely look at possible customizations on the UI side, I dont think it will be hard to support a configurable themes.

We can surely use your help with reviewing the electronics (I always feel we need some extra capacitors/resistors :-) ) and PCB designs. There are couple of folks who are already chiming in, so a broader collaboration with them will be awesome :-)

Let us know if you need any help with the build,

 

[jcmental]

can you share some screenshots ?

I will do once I've worked out how to do it in Rasberryian, is it the same as on a windows keyboard? i.e ctrl print screen then ctrl v to paste it into a folder?

If you can post some pictures of the inside of the BB and of the dimmer circuit, we may be able to work out what some is doing.

Also, it may not matter much for yours, but here is the updated circuit for the other BBs.
Hopefully I can modify my perma-proto tomorrow and get it tested out.

Ok Thanks Ryan, I will take some pictures this weekend and post here. I work long hours so will be the only time I can get round to it.

Do you have the PCA9685 connected? reef-pi is expecting that when setting the pin numbers.
After you connectors are configured, it should be something like this...

Nothing connected yet Ryan, I think part of my problem is, I've read so many posts about permissions and bad installs that I'm paranoid I haven't done my install right. I run a health check but to be honest I dont understand what it's telling me, all I know is it doesn't say anything about errors but alot about skipping functions

Guys a big THANKS for trying to help me, I'm not going to give up, just bear with me because I know some of the questions I'm going to ask will sound pretty dumb every now and then.

 

[jcmental]

So glad I found this! Have spent the last few hours reading the entire thread. Very nice work. I have been using the PI in an animated Christmas light display for years. I've even created PCB's for the hobby and had them mass produced for both power distribution and Picaps for lights. This is right up my alley. The only part I've never spent time learning is the UI coding and this is the part I'm the most picky about. I would like to have a dark display with easy to read temp, PH, etc. My ideal setup would be a tablet mounted beside the tank that I can easily read and easily put into feed mode etc. I saw a few UI tweaks and talks of an IOS app a few times but was wondering if anyone had ever got a darker icon looking UI setup and working?

Below is some of the stuff I've done in the past with the pi...

WoW! just watched that video, dude thats amazing, it must have taken you ages to set up.

 

[Ranjib]

This thread is kinda history of what all happened during reef-pi development :0-) , so dont be too concerend with them. Follow the guides instead and ask questions when you are stuck. The "skipping" dialogues are normal, since you have not configured adafruit.io integration, reef-pi is just logging that its skipping telemetry data emission. I might remove that in next release, to make things easier

 

[Ranjib]

By the way, @alphab3ts00p has made couple of very helpful video on reef-pi builds, I should have recommended that as well,


and

 

[jcmental]

Now I know that Reef pi is a web based program, but is there any way of connecting to it with a laptop with out it having to connect to a net work?
The reason I ask is I have free time at work and a laptop that as you can see in on the net, but what I cant do is add my pi to the network or connect to it in any way. I could connect to my raspberry using Bluetooth or a USB but not over the works network.
If there was a way to do this it would mean I could do all the setting up and build work in the electrical test bay at work rather than in my front room at home.

 

[jcmental]

Now I know that Reef pi is a web based program, but is there any way of connecting to it with a laptop with out it having to connect to a net work?
The reason I ask is I have free time at work and a laptop that as you can see in on the net, but what I cant do is add my pi to the network or connect to it in any way. I could connect to my raspberry using Bluetooth or a USB but not over the works network.
If there was a way to do this it would mean I could do all the setting up and build work in the electrical test bay at work rather than in my front room at home.

UP date:
Ok I now know that local host is the actual pi and not going through a network. So scratch that ↑ question.

 

[Ranjib]

UP date:
Ok I now know that local host is the actual pi and not going through a network. So scratch that ↑ question.

Yay :-)

 

[Ranjib]

Good morning hive minds.
I have cut a new release (1.3) of reef-pi, key points in this release are

• Dosing sub system: reef-pi now has a fully functional dosing sub-system. Users can declare individual dosing pumps via the ui, calibrate them and schedule them to dose periodically at a specific speed.
• Auto-update timer job: In 1.2 we have introduced the improved timer functionality, which allows turning on/off equipments after a certain period , and reminders (weekly water change , carbon change etc). This made the 0ld timer jobs unusable, and users had to remove the timer jobs before upgrading to 1.2. This is fixed now, 1.3 release onwards, reef-pi will automatically detect and update the timer jobs on start up.
• Improved unit test coverage: reef-pi now have significantly improved unit test coverage. I have added enough tests to increase the unit test coverage from 30% to 60%. reef-pi used to have pretty high test coverage, but as on going development happened, we regressed. This is fixed now.

Release builds can be found in usual location: https://github.com/reef-pi/reef-pi/releases/tag/1.3

thank you

 

[jcmental]

Good morning hive minds.
I have cut a new release (1.3) of reef-pi
Release builds can be found in usual location: https://github.com/reef-pi/reef-pi/releases/tag/1.3

thank you

Sweet.
When you do updates is there anything the user has to do before installing the new version?
Or can you just type in the command and let the pi get on with it?

wget -c https://github.com/reef-pi/reef-pi/releases/download/1.3/reef-pi-1.3-pi3.deb
sudo dpkg -i reef-pi-1.3-pi3.deb

 

[Ranjib]

https://reef-pi.github.io/additional-documentation/upgrade/

 

[MaccaPopEye]

If you can post some pictures of the inside of the BB and of the dimmer circuit, we may be able to work out what some is doing.
Also, it may not matter much for yours, but here is the updated circuit for the other BBs.
Hopefully I can modify my perma-proto tomorrow and get it tested out.

Hey Ryan, That circuit sounds awesome and I've seen you post about it a few times now. I am pretty sure my BB is similar to yours so it should work with my BB but as a complete noob I'm not quite sure how to read/build that circuit myself.

Would you be able to share some pics of yours or try and explain it for an absolute beginner? (if you haven't already).

And do you have/could you make a Fritzing diagram or something that shows how to build it on a bread board?

Cheers,

Macca

 

[jcmental]

If you can post some pictures of the inside of the BB and of the dimmer circuit, we may be able to work out what some is doing.

Also, it may not matter much for yours, but here is the updated circuit for the other BBs.
Hopefully I can modify my perma-proto tomorrow and get it tested out.

Ok then as promised here are some pictures of my Vipersoecta lights.
Just a bit of back ground. They have 1 240v supply the timer for both channels is built into the screen on the front controlled by the lil black knob or a remote control.

 

[jcmental]

Also not sure if you can tell but 2 of the wires from the power box supply 1 of the fans.

 

[Ryan115]

Hey Ryan, That circuit sounds awesome and I've seen you post about it a few times now. I am pretty sure my BB is similar to yours so it should work with my BB but as a complete noob I'm not quite sure how to read/build that circuit myself.

Would you be able to share some pics of yours or try and explain it for an absolute beginner? (if you haven't already).

And do you have/could you make a Fritzing diagram or something that shows how to build it on a bread board?

Cheers,

Macca

Yea, I have been posting about this for quite a while, and really have not been able to work on it much. Ranjib puts me to shame with how much he gets done.
But as of today, the circuit is finally outputting 0-10V! Well a few mV-9.9V. I tested it running off of the PCA9685, and connected to my DMM. Hopefully this weekend I can actually implement it in the light fixture. Before that I need to assemble the second board, and find cable and connectors to run to the light.
I dont feel that the fritzing breadboard really explains it well as the components all block what you are trying to see. So hopefully this explains it a bit better. Let me know if anything is un-clear. I dont care for the layout, and would much prefer a printed board, but for perma-proto I can live with it.

 

[Ryan115]

Ok then as promised here are some pictures of my Vipersoecta lights.
Just a bit of back ground. They have 1 240v supply the timer for both channels is built into the screen on the front controlled by the lil black knob or a remote control.

I can't find anything on that control board, but it looks like the driver is PWM dimmable. So yours may be easier.
http://www.welitpower.com/en/index.php?case=archive&act=show&aid=186
So power is going from wall to each dimmer, power then to control board which is turning driver output off/on and dimming.

Do you have any test equipment to see what the control board is putting out?
You may be able to keep the power switch wires from control board to drivers and pull dimming wires to interface with pi, but hard to say from here.

 

[Ranjib]

Yea, I have been posting about this for quite a while, and really have not been able to work on it much. Ranjib puts me to shame with how much he gets done.
But as of today, the circuit is finally outputting 0-10V! Well a few mV-9.9V. I tested it running off of the PCA9685, and connected to my DMM. Hopefully this weekend I can actually implement it in the light fixture. Before that I need to assemble the second board, and find cable and connectors to run to the light.
I dont feel that the fritzing breadboard really explains it well as the components all block what you are trying to see. So hopefully this explains it a bit better. Let me know if anything is un-clear. I dont care for the layout, and would much prefer a printed board, but for perma-proto I can live with it.

I love looking at your schematics man. They look so much nicer than mine . Thanks for sharing them with rest of us.

 

[jcmental]

I can't find anything on that control board, but it looks like the driver is PWM dimmable. So yours may be easier.
http://www.welitpower.com/en/index.php?case=archive&act=show&aid=186
So power is going from wall to each dimmer, power then to control board which is turning driver output off/on and dimming.

Do you have any test equipment to see what the control board is putting out?
You may be able to keep the power switch wires from control board to drivers and pull dimming wires to interface with pi, but hard to say from here.

I have a multi meter :-) but thats about it.
I was thinking along the lines of keeping the light intact and fitting 2 jack plugs to the back and linking that to the PCA9685, if I can find and brake into the PWM wires that would make it an easy job.
I'm assuming that if I run the channel at 100% I can find out if it's using 0-5V or 0- something else V, then try 50% and see what the meter says I'm guessing if it's a PWM supply it will give an odd reading on the multi meter, not sure if it will help me though.
are all LED dimming systems PWM or can they do it using a resistor or something?
I will strip it again tomorrow and see if I can get some readings.
I was a bit concerned about the unit output voltage 55 - 85V, is that just because the LED's are in series?

 

[jcmental]

Just looking at the board, Can PWM be done 0-12V ? See red circles.

 

[Ranjib]

Just looking at the board, Can PWM be done 0-12V ? See red circles.

You can use multimeter to test pwm . The readings will reflect duty cycle. In 50% it will be 2.5 volt, straight from pca9785. Check out the lighting controller build guide, it has details about using common npn transistors to convert it to 10 (or 12) volt pwm.