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

[Marc Kruithof]

Hi, Back again.
Did not do much due to circumstances, but have my schematics build up and working now.

 

[Ranjib]

Hi, Back again.
Did not do much due to circumstances, but have my schematics build up and working now.

Very nice. You find ribbon cable easier to deal with than directly attaching the pi using female header ? I always by passed the ribbon cables.
None the less, its looking good.
So, you are using triacs instead of relays for AC controls ?

 

[Marc Kruithof]

You can use old IDE cables for the pi 3. You only have to check if that one pin in the connector is not blocked. Besides, stacking is easy, just add a connector to the ribbon cable, I do use triacs. Check my schematic and pcb on an earlyer post. I use a opto coupler (triac version with zero crossing) with a power triac.

 

[ludnix]

Have you guys seen these etape liquid level sensors before? I am in the planning stages of my reefpi build and thought this might be really useful for monitoring my sump level. I use two float switches currently but I think having information about how high the water level actually is could inform what is wrong from a distance.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/463

 

[Ranjib]

Have you guys seen these etape liquid level sensors before? I am in the planning stages of my reefpi build and thought this might be really useful for monitoring my sump level. I use two float switches currently but I think having information about how high the water level actually is could inform what is wrong from a distance.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/463

Yess :-) . In fact the early version of reef-pi (known as reefer , that time ) used those etape based sensors. What I learned was that salt creep can cause trouble but they are very good for monitoring ato reservoir water level. Being spi based sensor , these involve one additional wire per sensor. They are also bit expensive . Lastly, on the software side I was not using the level information for any practical purpose other than a Boolean cutoff . Which is why I went with photo electric sensor at the end.

But I do think they are awesome, and we just have to come up with a nifty use for them. This is in my mind, for 3.0 release , along side some other really advance sensors and image processing based algorithms

 

[Kramden]

Sorry to butt in. I have been following for a few weeks. I am having trouble with v1.5. Version 1.4 works great and I can revert to that. I am running an 8 channel mechanical relay board and a ds18b20 on a Pi3 B and temp control is perfect. Version 1.5 won't start. I get an error in the journal that i2c won't initialize and there is no /dev/i2c-1 file or directory. I have deleted the db. I have ordered a PCA9685 but its still on the boat from China. Any thoughts?

 

[Ranjib]

Sorry to butt in. I have been following for a few weeks. I am having trouble with v1.5. Version 1.4 works great and I can revert to that. I am running an 8 channel mechanical relay board and a ds18b20 on a Pi3 B and temp control is perfect. Version 1.5 won't start. I get an error in the journal that i2c won't initialize and there is no /dev/i2c-1 file or directory. I have deleted the db. I have ordered a PCA9685 but its still on the boat from China. Any thoughts?

Please revert back to 1.4. From the error it looks like rpi i2c driver is trying to get loaded (not pca9685 related, this is something I introduced recently.). the only easy workaround i can recommend is to enable i2c using raspi-config . Can you share some details of your setup, is that all you have wire up (relay and temperature probe)? I'll try to reproduce this tomorrow.

 

[Erica-Renee]

Please revert back to 1.4. From the error it looks like rpi i2c driver is trying to get loaded (not pca9685 related, this is something I introduced recently.). the only easy workaround i can recommend is to enable i2c using raspi-config . Can you share some details of your setup, is that all you have wire up (relay and temperature probe)? I'll try to reproduce this tomorrow.

I have 8 channel relay board temp float switch (non optical) and ds18b temp probe and not having any issues.

Also the strip level sensor would be kewl to monitor things like Dosing canisters . If it can be protected from those chemicals..

I am now working on Lighting. I think i have to grab some tutorials on pwm because Its not going well so far...

will share what i have in some images sometime very soon i hope

 

[jcmental]

So much better :)

Then put probe in it. Might help

Lol I think thats a good idea, I may even make a tube with a small hole in the bottom so the wave effect will be slowed even more. Wow I love you guys you just bring out all the good ideas in me. xxx

 

[Ranjib]

Sorry to butt in. I have been following for a few weeks. I am having trouble with v1.5. Version 1.4 works great and I can revert to that. I am running an 8 channel mechanical relay board and a ds18b20 on a Pi3 B and temp control is perfect. Version 1.5 won't start. I get an error in the journal that i2c won't initialize and there is no /dev/i2c-1 file or directory. I have deleted the db. I have ordered a PCA9685 but its still on the boat from China. Any thoughts?

Hey, I just crosschecked things on my side. I believe your issue will go away if you just enable i2c. You can follow the steps here: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit...c#installing-kernel-support-with-raspi-config

This was introduced recently, in 1.5 release

 

[Kramden]

That was it. The command lsmod showed the module loaded so I assumed it was ok. Raspi-config didn't help. I had to manually add it to /etc/modules to get it to work. Thank you for this project. I'm looking forward to the ph build guide. Thank you again.

 

[Ranjib]

That was it. The command lsmod showed the module loaded so I assumed it was ok. Raspi-config didn't help. I had to manually add it to /etc/modules to get it to work. Thank you for this project. I'm looking forward to the ph build guide. Thank you again.

Thats very strange. raspi-config should persist the changes, i dont know why it didnt work, but I'll definitely look into this. It is the recommended way of configuring Pi, and something that I have little control over. But I am pretty sure if theres a bug I'll be able to spot it (strace foo), if I do find a bug, i'll follow up with the originial developers.

 

[cheeseclock]

I'm going to finish the light fixture before I continue on with the controls. 256 holes drilled and the ledge for the glass made. I need to make something lightweight for the top to act as a manifold/fan mount/electrical enclosure. I had considered acrylic, but it's heavier than sheet aluminum.

 

[Kramden]

Very minor bug report-- maybe its a feature--Heater/Cooler graph on Dashboard does not resize per the settings on configuration page (tc).
Thanks

 

[Ranjib]

Very minor bug report-- maybe its a feature--Heater/Cooler graph on Dashboard does not resize per the settings on configuration page (tc).
Thanks

Thanks for testing out 1.5. I caught that bug soon after releasing. It’s already patched on master and will be out in 1.6 release
https://github.com/reef-pi/reef-pi/pull/338

 

[cheeseclock]

I'm waiting on some aluminum, so I soldered and crimped today.

 

[Ranjib]

Support for multiple temperature probes is almost done https://github.com/reef-pi/reef-pi/pull/342
I am hopeful that by maker faire (May 20th) we’ll have both multiple ato and temperature probe support released. I am also thinking to release this as 2.0-beta since this will break pretty much all ato and temperature related api and the existing configuration

 

[Erica-Renee]

Having issues (prob me being stupid
But is there a way to test that the PCA9685 board is working correctly...
Like voltage in and voltage out on say pin 0,1
I am going to work on hooking this up today to test .. I have not decided on leds I will use at this time . Just want to get it all working...

Question.. should the dc voltage or current change or very when testing with meter over pin 0 on pca9685 when adjusting the signal in the lighting control in reef-pi ?
If so i assume on the pi computer testing gpio pin 2,3 running reef-i ver 1.6 and selecting rpi under jacks pin 2,3 if pca9685 is selected it should be pin 0,1 or what ever pins being used in the pca9685 board . testing currant will adjusting slider will cause it to very... ?

if I am wrong from above please if you can provide me with some guidance
Thanks in advance
Erica

 

[James Golden]

The Arduino fade tutorial has a good example of how to hook up a led to a pwm pin on an Arduino. This should be almost exactly what you will need to test your pca9685 outputs.

 

[James Golden]

I am running in to this problem when I try to delete a relay that I have hooked up to the ato. I am running 1.5 and here is what happens when I do these steps
1. Add relay to connections in configuration update
2. Add connection to relay in equipment. Update
3. Go to ato and enable with sensor pin on 23. Update
4. Click on control and select outlet. In this case outlet 4. Update
5. Check operation. Working back wards. Sensor out of water shuts off relay sensor in water turns relay off.
Want to delete this thing so I do these steps
1. Go to ato and click on pump and select -
2. Turn off control. Update
3. Go to equipment and delete outlet 4. So far so good
All is gone and looking good
Go to add it back doing every thing in the above first 5 steps
And this is what happens