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

[Ranjib]

This is my reef-pi 3.0 pico tank. Ato uses WiFi outlet driver peristaltic pump

It’s funny :-) , the 2.0 controller is right next to it :-) and controls the 3.0 controller. I am still conflicted whether I should get rid of the 2.0 completely or keep it or consume it’s functionlity (adj powerstrip control ) in 3.0

 

[PHopkins]

Is there any way in the Reef Pi software, in lights, to change the intervals in auto to 1 Hour intervals instead of 2 hour? It would be nice to ramp down between 8pm and 9pm vs 8 to 10

 

[L0stmykeys]

I agree with PHopkins on that expand it to even maybe pull from to table would be awesome i was watching brs macna 2019 on my drive home today and they discussed alot about seasons and how apex handles them..... seems like in our case instead of fixed increments an ability to ramp up and down with some seasonal changes would be ideal?

on a side note i now have 3 philzon black boxes working on a PCA9685 along with 1 lux bird black box flawlessly!!!!

head up on the luxbird slightly different from my philzons they are 0-10v but the luxbird is 0-3.3v i used the max line in the settings at 65 which gave me a reading for 3.2v am i correct for doing that? is there any adverse issues im not seeing?

 

[Michael Lane]

@Michael Lane i need couple of ph boards, you plan to restock them any time soon ?

I have parts on the way and hope to be able to build a few more in the next week or so.

 

[Michael Lane]

From what I understand, PR802 might provide the functionality to define arbitrary times for the lights. I don't think it's exposed via the API or UI yet, but I'm looking forward to that feature, so I'm pretty sure it will get in the 3.0 release.

 

[PHopkins]

From what I understand, PR802 might provide the functionality to define arbitrary times for the lights. I don't think it's exposed via the API or UI yet, but I'm looking forward to that feature, so I'm pretty sure it will get in the 3.0 release.

That would be outstanding.

 

[ambientaquatics.adam]

I am using ato like this. It’s been working for two weeks now. But I am still concerned about connection related issues . In case of doser though , I think it’s safer

Thank you for your response, to clarify a little I already built the doser in the adafruit guide. I was wondering where to add the temperature and pH circuits to my existing perma-proto hat.

 

[Ranjib]

Thank you for your response, to clarify a little I already built the doser in the adafruit guide. I was wondering where to add the temperature and pH circuits to my existing perma-proto hat.

follow the temperature controller guide to use GPIO 4 for temperature sensor. I think you have enough space in the hat to solder the 4.7K resistor, if not, solder it against the female audio jack (connector) and just solder the male header pins on the perma proto board. For pH you need two i2c pins (sda. scl), 5v and GND. Same like temp sensor, just solder male header pins on those locations and then use female-female jumper cable to connect the ph board with the hat. Start a thread if you need further assistance. It will be easier to track that way

 

[Ranjib]

Is there any way in the Reef Pi software, in lights, to change the intervals in auto to 1 Hour intervals instead of 2 hour? It would be nice to ramp down between 8pm and 9pm vs 8 to 10

Not currently . 3.0 will let you do this.

 

[Ranjib]

I agree with PHopkins on that expand it to even maybe pull from to table would be awesome i was watching brs macna 2019 on my drive home today and they discussed alot about seasons and how apex handles them..... seems like in our case instead of fixed increments an ability to ramp up and down with some seasonal changes would be ideal?

on a side note i now have 3 philzon black boxes working on a PCA9685 along with 1 lux bird black box flawlessly!!!!

head up on the luxbird slightly different from my philzons they are 0-10v but the luxbird is 0-3.3v i used the max line in the settings at 65 which gave me a reading for 3.2v am i correct for doing that? is there any adverse issues im not seeing?

With 3.0 release I’m trying to do lunar cycle etc. I don’t know total how many modes we may have, but at least once the basic pieces are there we can keep adding new profile types incrementally .
I have no clue about the lights :-(, never used them.

 

[Ranjib]

Some pics from biocube 29.
Ricordia is gorgeous as usual ,

Blondes are multiplying slowly at the back. So is bubble algae

Red dragon is growing in full glory . I am relieved that I’ll have ample frags for testing the pico with reef-pi 3.

There’s this no name acro that can grow lesser light and flow , I plan to start testing with these or some green slimer frags .

 

[Trodrigues]

That would be right if I bought a single board, but no one actually does that :). PCBs can be had at stupidly low prices these days, so the PCB in about 10-20 volume is around $5. The board is very low tech comparatively (6/6 traces, 2 layer, etc). This doesn't count parts (ballpark $20-45, depending on pH or other bells and whistles in single board quantities - pricing gets much better even if you go to Qty 20-50) assembly - I'll post the details of that in a bit. I usually do very-low volume assembly in house, and have used a few contract manufacturers in the past.

 

[PHopkins]

Not currently . 3.0 will let you do this.

Awesome, good to know

 

[brandon clow]

Anyone run into issues with Etcher killing SD cards? Pulled my ASUS Tinker Boards out last night to setup some mini servers to host a database that I'm going to try to tie in to my application and when I went to boot them it seemed that the previously flashed SD cards had somehow got boot sector errors. Went and reflashed them with Etcher with their latest Tinker OS Debian release and ended up getting consistent flash failures. Tried another SD with the same error. Also, ran into an issue where the micro SD would get into a 'locked' state even though I was using a USB adapter to flash them rather than an SD card adapter that contains the silly little lock toggle. Solution to that was to move from one USB port to another, though the flashing process seemed to have messed with the SD cards state. These micro SD's are maybe over a year old and were stored in the Tinker Boards that I had stored in ESD bags when they were not in use.

Thoughts on issues?

I am currently having an issue with the 1.5.56 build doing buster or even older builds. It instantly fails or says multiple images are corrupt, even known working images I have. Bought a two pack of new cards to make sure it wasn't due to some old cards I was using with no resolve. I ended up using an alternative with success.

 

[L0stmykeys]

just for a reference for others trying to do the black box method everything seems to be fine with mine so far philzon boxes have been up and running with reefpi since the end of june and the luxbird is on day 2 everything working as it should as far as i can tell. Only thing different was the max setting within reefpi being set to 65 percent instead of the 100 i used for the philzon but this was because they required 3.3v for 100 percent simple wiring for these 2 units for anyone that is considering it simple add the PCA9685 and cut the ground and pwm line in the light and your rolling!

 

[sfgabe]

I am currently having an issue with the 1.5.56 build doing buster or even older builds. It instantly fails or says multiple images are corrupt, even known working images I have. Bought a two pack of new cards to make sure it wasn't due to some old cards I was using with no resolve. I ended up using an alternative with success.

I'm also having a problem on Buster (mine is with 3.0) on a Pi Zero build. It's a clean install and I've tried 2 cards. Both have worked ok, am able to setup config etc, but then it get into a cycle where it works for 5 minutes to an hour or two (random) and then reboots. No errors that I can see in the logs. I'm trying to troubleshoot but reading through some of the forums, it seems like Buster is not particularly stable, especially on older / smaller pi's. I'm going to downgrade this weekend and see if that fixes it.

 

[Ranjib]

I'm also having a problem on Buster (mine is with 3.0) on a Pi Zero build. It's a clean install and I've tried 2 cards. Both have worked ok, am able to setup config etc, but then it get into a cycle where it works for 5 minutes to an hour or two (random) and then reboots. No errors that I can see in the logs. I'm trying to troubleshoot but reading through some of the forums, it seems like Buster is not particularly stable, especially on older / smaller pi's. I'm going to downgrade this weekend and see if that fixes it.

wow.. thats good to know . I have couple of new builds running on buster. So far no hiccups. But its only two weeks.

 

[sfgabe]

wow.. thats good to know . I have couple of new builds running on buster. So far no hiccups. But its only two weeks.

Are you running any on Pi Zeros?

 

[Ranjib]

Are you running any on Pi Zeros?

Yes. One of them. Actually I had three buster based build running (all in testing phase, against the garage tank). Two are pi 3. The pi zero one i just took offline for some rework.I think I'll have the telemetry data (prometheus/grafana), if theres any obvious performance/system issue it should be visible on those metrics. I can see stretch and buster based build performance.. from app layer to low level syscalls.

 

[PHopkins]

I am glad that this is working for you. I have been toying around with the idea of modifying the circuit to add a channel cutoff utilizing the 3rd wire from the dimmer to the driver. I have the 32" basic and I wired all of the power into a single plug so that I can control the unit from a single relay. However since the channels will not dim to 0, I would like another way to turn them off individually without using extra relays/plugs.
Also, here is a fritzing diagram of the circuit to help others.

I would have to look at it again, but since you are essentially shorting the output of the 10v to GND through the NPN, I think you would have issues trying to run it through a single 10V regulator. I want to mock this up now though.



Am I missing something on how these have shorted out for other people?
If the VDC is on the tip conductor of the jack, there should be no way for it to hit any other conductor. The other two conductors are the data pin and GND. What am I missing?

I am currently trying to run a RB light with a MarsAqua. The mars has to run on Active High, where the RB with this circuit has to run on Active Low? Is there a mod to this circuit that allows me to run them on the same lighting channel without them being opposite of each other?