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

[pdisner]

@Ranjib @Erica-Renee

Here's a site that might help with gleaning some ideas...

https://printedreefingsolutions.com

I’ve been thinking about the Very same thing, but for some other projects as well that my wife wants me to do for her and I don’t know really where to begin. She makes miniatures like dollhouses and stuff but wants to make shadow-boxes with animation, lighting and wirelss control. But I digress...

 

[Ranjib]

Can you uncheck the "upload to gDrive" checkbox, and hit update. Then click on Take photo and see what pops up in reef-pi log.

 

[Ranjib]

@Ranjib @Erica-Renee

Here's a site that might help with gleaning some ideas...

https://printedreefingsolutions.com

these are opensource ? like 3d files are available?

 

[Ranjib]

Ok I’ve already installed my camera and have been using with an so called motion eyeos and then a sample instruction program I found and it works. What settings are you referring to. Here’s a couple more screen shots. Raspistill is just the command which I’m super familiar with how it all works with Reef Pi.
What should I purchase to get started besides a temp probe? I can’t really afford the whole ph setup yet as it’s looking like that will be very expensive. Is there a more extensive shopping list than what I’ve seen in Adafruit?

the very first post in the thread has a some details about reef-pi, this includes a link to an amazon list. That list is an exhastive collection of everything required to build all modules. Adafruit guides should be sufficient for individual builds. Do you see anything missing there? If so, its a error and I should be updating those guides.

 

[pdisner]

the very first post in the thread has a some details about reef-pi, this includes a link to an amazon list. That list is an exhastive collection of everything required to build all modules. Adafruit guides should be sufficient for individual builds. Do you see anything missing there? If so, its a error and I should be updating those guides.

Amazon guide is much more extensive than the Adafruit, yes and gave me some idea of cost. The peristaltic pumps are cheaper than i thought. I think I may start with that and see the build guide for it.ive installed the above items regarding the camera. I would get more use out of a stream vs a still capture if that is possible, kinda like Apex Fusion if you’re familiar. Another cool feature they have is the ability to enter and graph water test results. It’s super handy comparison tool. I’ll have to do a little more reading but i am ready to move forward with the camera.

 

[pdisner]

I’ve installed motion

 

[b4tn]

Does this make sense? I just went ahead and created a new doser diagram in fritzing. I'll use this for the upcoming guide as well

Is there a reason for for your pin selection in this design? I know that pins 18 and 19 are for PWM. But I noticed you used CE0. For mine just for convienience of location I was going to use 13, 16, 20, and 21 and of course 18 and 19. Are any of these reserved for anything?

If I understand correctly though once SPI is disabled the pins labeled MISO, MOSI, CLK, CE0, and CE1 can also be used as a regular GPIO correct?

 

[Erica-Renee]

these are opensource ? like 3d files are available?

This looks like someone who is printing parts for sale.Nothing at all wrong with that but most of those items you can download the file on thingiverse and print yourself.

 

[That Crusso Kid]

these are opensource ? like 3d files are available?

@Ranjib - I do not know if they are open source.

 

[Erica-Renee]

@Ranjib - I do not know if they are open source.

ALMOST all of the items listed for sale on that link are available on thigiverse . I think the guy with the site should either give you the option to download the file for free or pay him to print it.. Morally anyway.. Legally he is doing nothing wrong .

To me it would be like me building a Reef-pi hardware and selling it to individuals but @Ranjib getting no compensation from it.. Anyway sorry .
this is prob not the right thread for this kind of conversation.....And i might need to put more thought into this.

 

[MaccaPopEye]

Yes please, and tag it with #reef-pi

i think on there we might be able to create a reef-pi community.. i will check into this tomorrow.. I am right now working on design for my water level probes

Please do, if everyone uploads their designs under the reef-pi tag it will be really easy to find them, as Erica said it might be good to also create a reef-pi group/community there. I have uploaded my designs with the tags:
reef-pi, reef_tank, reef, raspberry_pi, marine_aquarium, fish_tank, fish & aquariums

these are opensource ? like 3d files are available?

His designs aren't available, he prints them himself and then sells the physical items, it's more geared at people who don't have a printer as the designs themselves are fairly simple (although nice).

There is heaps of free designs on thingiverese though, that is definitely the main site that I use to share my designs and is also the place to look for designs or inspiration.

 

[MaccaPopEye]

ALMOST all of the items listed for sale on that link are available on thigiverse . I think the guy with the site should either give you the option to download the file for free or pay him to print it.. Morally anyway.. Legally he is doing nothing wrong .

To me it would be like me building a Reef-pi hardware and selling it to individuals but @Ranjib getting no compensation from it.. Anyway sorry .
this is prob not the right thread for this kind of conversation.....And i might need to put more thought into this.

The way I think of it is if they are available from thingiverse for free, then there is no need for him to allow you to download the plans as they are already out there and readily available, but if he took the designs he should defs credit the designer.

But I think the things on thingiverse might be copies of his designs (as I said above, they are all fairly simple) :)

 

[Erica-Renee]

Please do, if everyone uploads their designs under the reef-pi tag it will be really easy to find them, as Erica said it might be good to also create a reef-pi group/community there. I have uploaded my designs with the tags:
reef-pi, reef_tank, reef, raspberry_pi, marine_aquarium, fish_tank, fish & aquariums


His designs aren't available, he prints them himself and then sells the physical items, it's more geared at people who don't have a printer as the designs themselves are fairly simple (although nice).

There is heaps of free designs on thingiverese though, that is definitely the main site that I use to share my designs and is also the place to look for designs or inspiration.

I found you on there and following you . If you wish i can create a group or community on there .

 

[MaccaPopEye]

I found you on there and following you . If you wish i can create a group or community on there .

I actually only just did some reading to find out exactly what thingiverese groups are haha, it appears that they are just a way to have conversations about a topic, so in that case I think it would be better to just keep those contained on R2R. I thought they were another way to group designs together, but it looks like the tag function does that best.

After looking at it if we all tag our designs with #reef-pi a kind of community will automatically be there (for anyone that searches for it) :)

 

[sfgabe]

Yes please, and tag it with #reef-pi

Ok, @Ranjib & @Erica-Renee , etc... I've added the enclosure files to thingiverse here:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3222619

If you look at my other designs there's some float switch brackets, etc. that may also come in handy. My printer has a max build size of 120mm so top and bottom are split in half. If anyone has a larger printer they'll probably want to merge the two pieces in whatever slicer they're using.

 

[sfgabe]

I actually only just did some reading to find out exactly what thingiverese groups are haha, it appears that they are just a way to have conversations about a topic, so in that case I think it would be better to just keep those contained on R2R. I thought they were another way to group designs together, but it looks like the tag function does that best.

I didn't see a reef-pi group so I just created one (before I saw this post lol).

https://www.thingiverse.com/groups/reef-pi

It might be good just to have a place for members to see what others are printing, and to keep the 3d print specific chatter away from the build chatter. Anyway, join in if you're on thingiverse!

 

[pdisner]

Can you uncheck the "upload to gDrive" checkbox, and hit update. Then click on Take photo and see what pops up in reef-pi log.

I’ve disabled the gmail check box as I wanted me to. Here’s the pic of the errors and pics of my settings tab. What all should I be checking or not? I was gonna go thru your docs today to figure all of it out. Motion looks pretty involved to set up. Ive installed using sudo apt-get, but from there it’s a little confusing. I’ll have to really go thru the documentation. Is there a quicker start version,? Haha, I’m anxious to get to the good stuff. I’ve decided I want I build a 5 channel doser, ATO, multiple temp, ph, physical outlet control, camera, test result graphing. I have Hydra LEDs, have you found a way to control proprietary stuff?

 

[sfgabe]

Ok I’ve already installed my camera and have been using with an so called motion eyeos and then a sample instruction program I found and it works.

Just a word of warning - "Motion" "MotionEye" and "MotionEyeOS" are three different systems which build on eachother and are developed by the same person (ccrisan on github). It took me a lot of confusing trial and error to figure out which was which, and which I could use in different scenarios.

- "MotionEyeOS" is basically a plug and play model, as the name implies, it's a full operating system made as a standalone. It works great as is but really can't be modified other than the standard config options and it can't be run alongside another OS.
- "MotionEye" needs to be installed on top of an OS like Raspbian
- "Motion" is the building block for both of those (and I think is what @Ranjib is using for reef-pi)

I have a Raspberry Pi Zero W with MotionEyeOS watching my tank - for placement reasons it was easier to have this separate from the reef-pi box. It would be great to be able to add this as a feed to reef-pi. It might even save some coding hassle to have a modified version of MotionEye running in the background of reef-pi as a default camera option.

MotionEye / OS makes this feed available at:
http://IP_ADDRESS:8765/picture/1/current/?_username=USERNAME&_signature=SIGNATURE_STRING

I'm not sure about the specifics since i haven't looked at the reef-pi code much but it should be fairly straightforward to drop that into a reef-pi container as a feed.

 

[Ranjib]

Is there a reason for for your pin selection in this design? I know that pins 18 and 19 are for PWM. But I noticed you used CE0. For mine just for convienience of location I was going to use 13, 16, 20, and 21 and of course 18 and 19. Are any of these reserved for anything?

If I understand correctly though once SPI is disabled the pins labeled MISO, MOSI, CLK, CE0, and CE1 can also be used as a regular GPIO correct?

Theres is no reason other than that I has plenty of options, since this build is only about two dosing pumps, any for GPIO would work. I dont mind using the SPIO pins since its not being used in reef-pi

 

[Ranjib]

ALMOST all of the items listed for sale on that link are available on thigiverse . I think the guy with the site should either give you the option to download the file for free or pay him to print it.. Morally anyway.. Legally he is doing nothing wrong .

To me it would be like me building a Reef-pi hardware and selling it to individuals but @Ranjib getting no compensation from it.. Anyway sorry .
this is prob not the right thread for this kind of conversation.....And i might need to put more thought into this.

I am not looking for any compensation as such, but being opensource is philosophically more aligned with what we do. It has significant repercussion in the long term, it means we are free to change those design, derive and modify from it. It allows us build the 3d designs in same fashion as the software.
On this topic, reef-pi is opensource and licensed under Apache/BSD3 caluse. Which means not only its opensource (free and code is available) it is also safe to use/modify for commercial use and vendors (unlike some stricter opensource license, which enforces due credit to authors, like GPL). So, we should not have any problem with anyone using , selling or building things based on reef-pi. But for us, the core reef-pi community to integrate things in this ecosystem, they should be opensource, at least that's preferred. I personally think this will allow local manufacturing and modification of the components, which in turn should drive down prices and allow alternatives, much more robust supply chain.