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

[Ranjib]

Just checked my other pi running a straight PCA9685 board, does raspberry pi make any assumptions about address?
The other one detects i2c @ 40 & 70, this one is 60 & 70.

yes it does :0-/

 

[Jean-Pierre Renaud]

Hey Ranjib !

it's been a really long time since i check this place, i have been running Reef-PI for a very long time with 0 issues
i just updated to latest version and WOW it looks better now lol
i see the Macro tab, so i have a plan now...

i want to do an automatic Water change macro,

the top level sensor is my current ATO sensor, i just bought 2 more and 2 other 12V pump DC

my plan is :

When i use my macro, i need to disable ATO ( that part is easy)
then the punp in my sump activate and it emptys tank water into a bucket until the LOW level sensor gets activated, that stops the tank pump
then fresh saltwater is pump back into the sump until it reaches the TOP level sensor that stops the pump.

Then ATO is turned back on.

Question, can i use only one sensor for ATO and TOP level for auto water change or this will give me trouble and i should use a third sensor ?

 

[Ranjib]

Hey Ranjib !

it's been a really long time since i check this place, i have been running Reef-PI for a very long time with 0 issues
i just updated to latest version and WOW it looks better now lol
i see the Macro tab, so i have a plan now...

i want to do an automatic Water change macro,

the top level sensor is my current ATO sensor, i just bought 2 more and 2 other 12V pump DC

my plan is :

When i use my macro, i need to disable ATO ( that part is easy)
then the punp in my sump activate and it emptys tank water into a bucket until the LOW level sensor gets activated, that stops the tank pump
then fresh saltwater is pump back into the sump until it reaches the TOP level sensor that stops the pump.

Then ATO is turned back on.

Question, can i use only one sensor for ATO and TOP level for auto water change or this will give me trouble and i should use a third sensor ?

I think it’s ok. I don’t see anything wrong with this. Remember macro are new in 2.0 so test your setup. You should be able to use the same inlet in two different ato configured with different equipment and use the macro to selectively turn on/off individual ato (one of which is auto water change )

 

[Ranjib]

The new ui is the great work done by @Michael Lane and @Zekth

 

[rushbattle]

Hey Ranjib !

it's been a really long time since i check this place, i have been running Reef-PI for a very long time with 0 issues
i just updated to latest version and WOW it looks better now lol
i see the Macro tab, so i have a plan now...

i want to do an automatic Water change macro,

the top level sensor is my current ATO sensor, i just bought 2 more and 2 other 12V pump DC

my plan is :

When i use my macro, i need to disable ATO ( that part is easy)
then the punp in my sump activate and it emptys tank water into a bucket until the LOW level sensor gets activated, that stops the tank pump
then fresh saltwater is pump back into the sump until it reaches the TOP level sensor that stops the pump.

Then ATO is turned back on.

Question, can i use only one sensor for ATO and TOP level for auto water change or this will give me trouble and i should use a third sensor ?

My concern with the above would be with using sensors that are completely submerged for level control impacting salinity. If you clean them often it wouldn't be much of a worry, but I would be afraid I would forget to clean it and then it would pump my sump dry. I don't know about how reef-pi handles it, but I wouldn't be much concerned with using the ATO and TOP level sensor as the same. I would implement a backup in both cases though!

I was thinking of trying a setup where two peristaltic pumps run simultaneously. One is pumping new water into the return pump section, while the other removes water from the section just before the return pump. If you ran for 5 minutes or less that would almost eliminate crossover between water added and water removed unless you had very high turnover through the sump. One could do that multiple times a day. I thought getting peristaltics with steppers calibrated would be easier and more reliable than level sensors that sit completely submerged would be over the long run.

Or you could do a hybrid:
Turn off ATO system.
Pull water from sump with calibrated peristaltic pump if care how much water gets changed. Or another for a set period of time if you don't care that much and have room in the return pump chamber for a little bit of variation in the amount removed.
Run any kind of preferred pump to fill sump back up with makeup water.
Once the ATO hybrid sensor sees water, then switch back to ATO behavior.

Any of that make any sense at all?

 

[Ryan115]

yes it does :0-/

Is that something that I can configure? According to the documentation the addresses for this board only range from 60-80

 

[Ranjib]

Is that something that I can configure? According to the documentation the addresses for this board only range from 60-80

not right now. This will require some code changes,

 

[LionHeart2017]

My concern with the above would be with using sensors that are completely submerged for level control impacting salinity. If you clean them often it wouldn't be much of a worry, but I would be afraid I would forget to clean it and then it would pump my sump dry. I don't know about how reef-pi handles it, but I wouldn't be much concerned with using the ATO and TOP level sensor as the same. I would implement a backup in both cases though!

I was thinking of trying a setup where two peristaltic pumps run simultaneously. One is pumping new water into the return pump section, while the other removes water from the section just before the return pump. If you ran for 5 minutes or less that would almost eliminate crossover between water added and water removed unless you had very high turnover through the sump. One could do that multiple times a day. I thought getting peristaltics with steppers calibrated would be easier and more reliable than level sensors that sit completely submerged would be over the long run.

Or you could do a hybrid:
Turn off ATO system.
Pull water from sump with calibrated peristaltic pump if care how much water gets changed. Or another for a set period of time if you don't care that much and have room in the return pump chamber for a little bit of variation in the amount removed.
Run any kind of preferred pump to fill sump back up with makeup water.
Once the ATO hybrid sensor sees water, then switch back to ATO behavior.

Any of that make any sense at all?

Have you considered the dual shaft nema stepper motors for water changing?

 

[Ranjib]

@Ryan115 I have sent a custom build for you, will make this (pca9685 configurable address) available via public release soon: https://github.com/reef-pi/reef-pi/pull/665

 

[rushbattle]

Have you considered the dual shaft nema stepper motors for water changing?

Yes. The only issue is relative volumes. It’s my preferred solution, but requires a calibration of salinity to compensate for any and all imbalance in volumes moved from/into the system. It’s easier to calibrate pump run time than the salinity of mixed makeup water, plus the additional compensation for the system as it changes.

 

[buddy.]

What connectors would be good for the temp probes? I have read some people are having trouble with the audio jacks?
An amazon link would be great :D

 

[wykat]

While testing my new Reef-PI_PWM board I'm running into some issues which I would like to share:

1) Don't know if it's written somewhere, but after enabling the PCA9685 in the configuration, I had to restart Reef-PI otherwise I get error 404 page not found (Maybe a note should be added on the configuration screen)

2) This is something I had before so therefor I'm watching closely while reinstalling:
I adding jacks 1 by 1 and then add a light 1 by 1 accordingly.
Adding jacks 0 to 8 went ok, but with number 9 it became strange:

The same happened in lights:

At the end it then looks like this:

The ports do work correctly according the numbers however, so it's not a failure but still strange because it starts at 9.

 

[Diamond1]

What connectors would be good for the temp probes? I have read some people are having trouble with the audio jacks?
An amazon link would be great :D

I like these
https://www.amazon.com/Connector-Au...363&sr=8-20&keywords=mini+xlr+connector+3+pin

 

[Ryan115]

While testing my new Reef-PI_PWM board I'm running into some issues which I would like to share:

1) Don't know if it's written somewhere, but after enabling the PCA9685 in the configuration, I had to restart Reef-PI otherwise I get error 404 page not found (Maybe a note should be added on the configuration screen)

2) This is something I had before so therefor I'm watching closely while reinstalling:
I adding jacks 1 by 1 and then add a light 1 by 1 accordingly.
Adding jacks 0 to 8 went ok, but with number 9 it became strange:

The same happened in lights:

At the end it then looks like this:

The ports do work correctly according the numbers however, so it's not a failure but still strange because it starts at 9.

Ditto here, mine did the same.
Only thing I can think of as to why it moves starting on number 9, is if it is not using the 0 index for display. So since that is now the 10th pin it is ordering them by 10,11...,1,2,3,...

 

[b4tn]

Need some advice. I am currently running doser control off the native PWM pins on the RPI. It seems like a waste but I am getting ready to add a PCA9685 to add just two more PWM channels to control two light channels. Optimally It would be nice to just use the PCA9685 for the dosers and the lights but I am concerned about the frequency. I know that for my light channel to work it needs to be 1000 Hz which means if I use the PWM on the PCA9685 the motors have to also be at 1000Hz. I have not run the actual doser motors yet but the fan and LED I was using for testing acted really funny when I set it to 1000, I put them back to 100 and they where fine. Is it best to keep them separate? Or will a standard 12volt motor act differently and be fine at a 1000Hz PWM frequency?

 

[Ranjib]

While testing my new Reef-PI_PWM board I'm running into some issues which I would like to share:

1) Don't know if it's written somewhere, but after enabling the PCA9685 in the configuration, I had to restart Reef-PI otherwise I get error 404 page not found (Maybe a note should be added on the configuration screen)

2) This is something I had before so therefor I'm watching closely while reinstalling:
I adding jacks 1 by 1 and then add a light 1 by 1 accordingly.
Adding jacks 0 to 8 went ok, but with number 9 it became strange:

The same happened in lights:

At the end it then looks like this:

The ports do work correctly according the numbers however, so it's not a failure but still strange because it starts at 9.

1) is as expected. Any changes under settings tab (including enable/disable pca9685) will require reef-pi to be restarted. This is by design
2) This seems like a UI issue. I'll try to reproduce it and push a fix.

 

[Ranjib]

Need some advice. I am currently running doser control off the native PWM pins on the RPI. It seems like a waste but I am getting ready to add a PCA9685 to add just two more PWM channels to control two light channels. Optimally It would be nice to just use the PCA9685 for the dosers and the lights but I am concerned about the frequency. I know that for my light channel to work it needs to be 1000 Hz which means if I use the PWM on the PCA9685 the motors have to also be at 1000Hz. I have not run the actual doser motors yet but the fan and LED I was using for testing acted really funny when I set it to 1000, I put them back to 100 and they where fine. Is it best to keep them separate? Or will a standard 12volt motor act differently and be fine at a 1000Hz PWM frequency?

Should be fine. I am more worried about the doser circuit causing voltage ripple in light circuit. Test it out and see what happens,

 

[wykat]

1) is as expected. Any changes under settings tab (including enable/disable pca9685) will require reef-pi to be restarted. This is by design
2) This seems like a UI issue. I'll try to reproduce it and push a fix.

never interned as complaint, just as my experience! Just hope that that my experience help others, just want to help

 

[Ranjib]

never interned as complaint, just as my experience! Just hope that that my experience help others, just want to help

Oh I completely understand :-) . Thank you for reporting these issues, you all help us getting better, squashing all the bugs. I dont feel bad or find any of this negative. You are right, this helps everyone. Definitely us, the devs :-) .

btw, did you notice my post on the hat thread?

 

[ReeferMadness88]

Hey Ranjib, the new version looks great. The only issue I'm getting is the dashboard will only populate columns and rows for numbers greater then 1o. If I try to increase it from the box by clicking my arrow up it resets back to 1 immediately upon clicking update. It also wont let me remove the one to change it to say 2 and 2. Any suggestions?