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

[ScottBrew]

I was going to go with a pi raspberry display connected to the pi but figured why, when I can just use a tablet and can put it anywhere and this is half price of the raspberry 7 inch display and can do a lot more, something's with raspberry are good, some not so and can be pricey

I agree, the pi screen is cool but pricey. The tablet is awesome! I didn't go out of my way to hook up the monitor, back of tank is in my wife's office, monitor was already hanging on the wall. A 12' HDMI cable and a keyboard with touchpad and I was set. I think I now have the most common ways of hooking up to it covered, physical monitor, ssh, browser and VNC.

 

[ScottBrew]

One more round of baster, brushing with butter and I think we are golden :)

Nice bird! We're a few hours ahead here in Florida. Finished cooking, eaten, dishes are running in the dishwasher and older daughter just ran off to the mall.

 

[ScottBrew]

I had ordered this BLDC driver to test out my icecap 1K and jebao, but never got the time, and with wavemaker punted on 3.0 , I decided not to spend time on this till 2.0 is out.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D9B6J78/
Im glad you all are testing out. Whatever comes up, we'll be useful for all of us.

Added to my cart in case of failure on other 2 counts.

 

[ScottBrew]

I'm working on and designing my own relay board since being enlightened about the weak max current of a raspberry pi. I'm designing my first set of boards to support 4 relays, and 4 dosing pumps (nema 17) figure you could connect 2 boards to a pi to get 8 and 8 easily. Can I get an idea of how many pumps and and relays are needed for an average reef setup.

Supply the relay board with 5vdc direct from the power supply instead of through the pi and you shouldn't have an issue. I'm running 12 relays, 8 solid states for 120vac control of pumps, wavemakers and heater and 3 of the 4 channel for 24vdc for on/off of lights strips. Solid states don't work for DC voltage so those are standard relays. I still need to add more for control of quarantine tank. On my 8 channel I have 2 main pumps, 2 wavemakers, skimmer, heater, UV and SW mixing drum pump.

 

[Diamond1]

Meanwhile....it’s getting ready , may be another 40 min. Side dishes are all done ,

Aaah dinner with the blue lit glow of actinic lighting!! Doesn't get much better.

 

[Ranjib]

Aaah dinner with the blue lit glow of actinic lighting!! Doesn't get much better.

Tanks got a combo of reef chilli + reef roids + LRS.

 

[Erica-Renee]

Mine is running on a 32" monitor, HAH, top that! Just kidding, great idea!!!

Mine is connected to our hdmi splitter . so I can view it on any screen in our house.. Sorry..

Every room every tv even a few paces with no tv yet has hdmi and cat 6 .....

 

[Mwdsonny]

Supply the relay board with 5vdc direct from the power supply instead of through the pi and you shouldn't have an issue. I'm running 12 relays, 8 solid states for 120vac control of pumps, wavemakers and heater and 3 of the 4 channel for 24vdc for on/off of lights strips. Solid states don't work for DC voltage so those are standard relays. I still need to add more for control of quarantine tank. On my 8 channel I have 2 main pumps, 2 wavemakers, skimmer, heater, UV and SW mixing drum pump.

im gonna use 12 volt relays so I can use the same power supply that will run the dosing pumps. I'm designing it to use transistors to cut the relays on from the 12 volt power supply

 

[LionHeart2017]

Mine is connected to our hdmi splitter . so I can view it on any screen in our house.. Sorry..

Every room every tv even a few paces with no tv yet has hdmi and cat 6 .....

But do the tv's have touch screen for control of reef-pi, the tablet does [emoji13]

 

[LionHeart2017]

Is there a reef-pi wallpaper I can use?

 

[pickupman66]

So I know the jebao are 24v DC powered. They have a single signal wire to them. When we were working with the archon we used the analog 0-10v ports to signal to the DCI which married this signal to the jebao power and converted it to a 5v. I cannot remember if it was pwm or analog but I believe it was pwm. I need to just gut up and open my DCI so I can see the electronics inside it. Hopefully this weekend I'll do this. I desoldered the wires from the jebao controller it just patched the 24 straight thru (gnd and +) to the pump on the board.

 

[Soulreefer]

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.

Thank you for your time and energy, May you always be healthy, happy, and have intelligent children, in return for this hard work. Greetings, one hobby for all here.:cool:

 

[Ranjib]

I'm working on and designing my own relay board since being enlightened about the weak max current of a raspberry pi. I'm designing my first set of boards to support 4 relays, and 4 dosing pumps (nema 17) figure you could connect 2 boards to a pi to get 8 and 8 easily. Can I get an idea of how many pumps and and relays are needed for an average reef setup.

It varies wildly depending upon the setup. What I can recommend is thinking of three different setups, pico (under 5g), nano (under 40g) or standard (under 160g). The board @theatrus is working on , targets pico setups, and has support for 8 outlets , which is sufficient for my two pico tanks . I’ll prefer 12 for nano and 16 for standard . I’m not sure for nano and standard they all need to be under same unit .

 

[That Crusso Kid]

Supply the relay board with 5vdc direct from the power supply instead of through the pi and you shouldn't have an issue. I'm running 12 relays, 8 solid states for 120vac control of pumps, wavemakers and heater and 3 of the 4 channel for 24vdc for on/off of lights strips. Solid states don't work for DC voltage so those are standard relays. I still need to add more for control of quarantine tank. On my 8 channel I have 2 main pumps, 2 wavemakers, skimmer, heater, UV and SW mixing drum pump.

Nice! Can you throw up some pics for us to see?

 

[Erica-Renee]

But do the tv's have touch screen for control of reef-pi, the tablet does [emoji13]

Nope
But my Microsoft Surface ,Dell Venue both do and both have Drawing capability.. I use them for work. The Dell mostly as it has a Military Grade Case..

 

[LionHeart2017]

Is there a reef-pi wallpaper I can use?

I did this for now[emoji2]

 

[Fish Fan]

Hi guys! Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm planning a build that I hope to be controlled by Reef-Pi, and one of my final considerations is circulation, but I have a question. What kinds of circulation pumps can Reef-Pi control? I know Reef-Pi can turn on and off basically any "regular" pump or powerhead that plugs into 120ac, but can Reef-Pi work with any of the controllable pumps/wavemakers or any other options? What are some of the popular circulation pumps and setups you folks who use Reef-Pi are running? I'd appreciate any help or recommendations, I have a 40 gallon tank I'm hoping to setup soon, and I want to make sure anything I purchase will be as "Reef-Pi compatible" as possible.

Thanks for your help!

-FishFan

 

[ScottBrew]

Nice! Can you throw up some pics for us to see?

If you mean pics of my reef-pi build, here ya go https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/scottbrews-reef-pi.497789/

 

[pickupman66]

Hi guys! Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm planning a build that I hope to be controlled by Reef-Pi, and one of my final considerations is circulation, but I have a question. What kinds of circulation pumps can Reef-Pi control? I know Reef-Pi can turn on and off basically any "regular" pump or powerhead that plugs into 120ac, but can Reef-Pi work with any of the controllable pumps/wavemakers or any other options? What are some of the popular circulation pumps and setups you folks who use Reef-Pi are running? I'd appreciate any help or recommendations, I have a 40 gallon tank I'm hoping to setup soon, and I want to make sure anything I purchase will be as "Reef-Pi compatible" as possible.

Thanks for your help!

-FishFan

As of today, it cannot do anything like the controllers for the pumps do. Just on and off. It is in the works.

 

[That Crusso Kid]

If you mean pics of my reef-pi build, here ya go https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/scottbrews-reef-pi.497789/

As they say there is no such thing as a dumb question; is the 24v mounted to the back side of the aluminum mounting plate?

BTW - I followed along with your build and, when the time comes, was thinking of going the same route.