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

[Ranjib]

I know about those dongles. Im looking at getting a better pi for future proofing my reef-pi. I already have other designs for the pi zero ;)
Now that I have proven out my reef-pi as reliable, there is a kid down the street whos getting into aquariums. His mom doesn't have alot of money. Seeing as how he could get into alot worse things than a good hobby I am gonna do my permanent "Cadillac" reef -pi build and can donate my spare parts to help him get a reef pi going.

Thats very nice of you @Bigtrout

 

[Bigtrout]

Thats very nice of you @Bigtrout

Just reminds me of.myself at that age. Id scrounge money and ride my bike 5 miles to a mom and pop fish store to buy fish for my 20 gallon setup. The old guy that owned it would throw in extra fish sometimes, or give me equipment when he upgraded stuff in the store. Made a lifelong aquarist out of me...im just paying it forward!

It doesnt hurt that I can justify new stuff to the Mrs. easier this way...so win win!

 

[Ranjib]

Thanks @Bigtrout @Michael Lane and all the rest, this got it going! I have one running now with short wires for an ambient sensor, now I need to put together two more for duplicate tank water sensors!
For those who are curious, my plan is:
have probe 1 control the heaters between 26-27c
have probe 2 alert if the temperature is outside 25-28
have probe 3 alert if the (ambient) temperature is outside 10-30c (for now, I may fine tune that later)

a feature I'd love for reef-pi (I'd be happy to look at writing the code if people are willing), is to have an alert on a difference between two sensors. I think the UI would need a combobox to say which sensor to compare to (or 'none'), and a 'alert when difference is more than X' text box and possibly a 'when difference is more than Y, trigger macro A' (so you can make sure the heater is off while in this weird place).

I like where you going with this, but instead of being very specific with temp sensor and difference, what I would like instead is to have a generic mechanism to combine data from multiple sensors and then take action/alert based on it. Lets keep discussing, once we have something concrete, I'll get rolling on coding, post 3.0

 

[Michael Lane]

Hey @Michael Lane which pin is data and which is power? I see ground, that's easy enough. is the middle pin data and the 'other side' power or vice versa? the wires for my probe are identified as data, power, and ground, but I'm not sure based on your drawing (cause I'm too ignorant)...is 3v3 the power supply to the probe and 1w is the data?

That is correct. 1 wire is the data pin and 3v3 is the power pin.

 

[adityaduggal]

Thanks for trying reef-pi. I'm glad to hear that it's useful for saltwater and freshwater tanks! I'm sure Ranjib will jump in, but here's my take on it.

1. You can control multiple heaters with a single temperature probe by adding multiple probes in the UI, but choosing the same sensor. You may need to stagger the check frequency when doing this. reef-pi v2 doesn't have hysteresis, so if you set the heater threshold to 25, the heater will turn on whenever the temperature is less than 25 and turn off as soon as it exceeds 25. reef-pi 3 is adding hysteresis, which will allow you to do as described.

2. We're still working through some significant changes in lighting (and anything PWM related). The API supports saving multiple profiles and switching between them, but it is not implemented in the UI yet. We're working to get as much of this in and tested before the final release.

I've really enjoyed helping with reef-pi, and it's been a pleasure working with the other devs. We have a set up guide at https://reef-pi.github.io/additional-documentation/development/. We also have a slack channel for dev conversation. I'd love to see more hands on the project if you would be interested.

The error you are seeing is probably a side effect of upgrading to 3.0. It introduces some significant changes and is not backward compatible with 2.0. Ranjib introduced some db commands, so you may be able to fix it, but it's probably easier to delete reef-pi.db and reconfigure.

Hi Michael,

Thanks alot for the detailed information, basically I knew that I was taking a big risk in terms of bugs when I upgraded my reef-pi to v3.0 and as expected I bumped into errrors.

I know v3.0 has a lot many new features like:

• Saving the profiles for my PWM since as I said I have made my own LED lights using the normal LED strips in India, I wanted this feature badly as I wanted to save profiles like for Independence Day I could showcase my aquarium with country flag (@Ranjib might relate with Indian flag)
• Activating macros is also another feature I wanted badly.
• Honestly I am a newbie in everything an hence I wanted to continue with my planted tank and hence reverted back to v2.5 'coz the level of automation in v2.5 is more than sufficient for any starter and maybe an expert in Planted freshwater tank since AFAIK the level of upkeep need in reef is much higher than freshwater.
• Also your suggestion for adding 2 temperature probes for 1 is well understood and I never expected as I thought there might be a validation in the same and hence did not even tried it. But after your suggestion did try and created 2 temp asset for a single probe and found it to be very handy anyhow before your suggestion i had done one major HACK (JUGAAD in India) I had plugged both the heaters on 1 OUTLET so my problem was resolved with one physical hack.

BTW, I am starting my planted tank after about 5 years and this time around I want to manke a sucesss and thanks to the team at reef2reef and especially @Ranjib and all the people associated that this time I think I would be able to successfully establish a planted freshwater tank and who knows after thie success of this I might want to upgrade to reef tank since @tranjib's tutorials are very detailed and I might well be induced into setting up a reef tank in time to come.

Once again from the bottom of my heat I would like to thank the team at reef2reef and ranjib (I owe to a bear whenever to come to delhi do ping me on my number, honestly I am so very grateful for this.)

 

[Ranjib]

Hi Michael,

Thanks alot for the detailed information, basically I knew that I was taking a big risk in terms of bugs when I upgraded my reef-pi to v3.0 and as expected I bumped into errrors.

I know v3.0 has a lot many new features like:

• Saving the profiles for my PWM since as I said I have made my own LED lights using the normal LED strips in India, I wanted this feature badly as I wanted to save profiles like for Independence Day I could showcase my aquarium with country flag (@Ranjib might relate with Indian flag)
• Activating macros is also another feature I wanted badly.
• Honestly I am a newbie in everything an hence I wanted to continue with my planted tank and hence reverted back to v2.5 'coz the level of automation in v2.5 is more than sufficient for any starter and maybe an expert in Planted freshwater tank since AFAIK the level of upkeep need in reef is much higher than freshwater.
• Also your suggestion for adding 2 temperature probes for 1 is well understood and I never expected as I thought there might be a validation in the same and hence did not even tried it. But after your suggestion did try and created 2 temp asset for a single probe and found it to be very handy anyhow before your suggestion i had done one major HACK (JUGAAD in India) I had plugged both the heaters on 1 OUTLET so my problem was resolved with one physical hack.

BTW, I am starting my planted tank after about 5 years and this time around I want to manke a sucesss and thanks to the team at reef2reef and especially @Ranjib and all the people associated that this time I think I would be able to successfully establish a planted freshwater tank and who knows after thie success of this I might want to upgrade to reef tank since @tranjib's tutorials are very detailed and I might well be induced into setting up a reef tank in time to come.

Once again from the bottom of my heat I would like to thank the team at reef2reef and ranjib (I owe to a bear whenever to come to delhi do ping me on my number, honestly I am so very grateful for this.)

Delhi reminds me lots of good food :-) .
UI support for profiles is the only thing left. Next 3.0 release candidate should have it

 

[Ranjib]

Hi Michael,

Thanks alot for the detailed information, basically I knew that I was taking a big risk in terms of bugs when I upgraded my reef-pi to v3.0 and as expected I bumped into errrors.

I know v3.0 has a lot many new features like:

• Saving the profiles for my PWM since as I said I have made my own LED lights using the normal LED strips in India, I wanted this feature badly as I wanted to save profiles like for Independence Day I could showcase my aquarium with country flag (@Ranjib might relate with Indian flag)
• Activating macros is also another feature I wanted badly.
• Honestly I am a newbie in everything an hence I wanted to continue with my planted tank and hence reverted back to v2.5 'coz the level of automation in v2.5 is more than sufficient for any starter and maybe an expert in Planted freshwater tank since AFAIK the level of upkeep need in reef is much higher than freshwater.
• Also your suggestion for adding 2 temperature probes for 1 is well understood and I never expected as I thought there might be a validation in the same and hence did not even tried it. But after your suggestion did try and created 2 temp asset for a single probe and found it to be very handy anyhow before your suggestion i had done one major HACK (JUGAAD in India) I had plugged both the heaters on 1 OUTLET so my problem was resolved with one physical hack.

BTW, I am starting my planted tank after about 5 years and this time around I want to manke a sucesss and thanks to the team at reef2reef and especially @Ranjib and all the people associated that this time I think I would be able to successfully establish a planted freshwater tank and who knows after thie success of this I might want to upgrade to reef tank since @tranjib's tutorials are very detailed and I might well be induced into setting up a reef tank in time to come.

Once again from the bottom of my heat I would like to thank the team at reef2reef and ranjib (I owe to a bear whenever to come to delhi do ping me on my number, honestly I am so very grateful for this.)

And thank you so much for the kind words. Humility and kindness is a community ethos here in Reef2reef. This means a lot for all the reef-pi contributors who keep this project alive

 

[Ranjib]

nack for diy, keeps the mind awake ;)

Been thinking to provide some docs with other parts, like 8ch relais board instead of your box in the guides (can't use that in EU) and setting up LDD drivers with diy CREE leds. I use the meanwell for leds and a computer psu to get 3,3V , 5V and 12V needed for PWM and equipment.
1 meanwell 24v could be used to power all wavemakers, controlled by wavemaker profiles in reef-pi fyi
#thinkingbigdiybuilds - will post soon on instagram

MQTT broker and launcher is mostly done for reef-pi, as in the basics are there to get all data from reef-pi and timeserie data from prometheus, run macro and timers (i'll open an issue, if there isn't any, as UI doesn't reflect running or not in 3.0 Beta)
Not sure if i need to cover getting json from db and parsing that for users that don't want anything like grafana, but i can integrate that fairly easy as next to do.

Are you using the mqtt stuff for anything ?

Usage data can be obtained using curl against the api endpoints

 

[adityaduggal]

Well I forgot to ask is there a specific way to upgrade from v2.5 to v3.0 since last time I installed v3.0 over v2.5 I had met with errors since I know there are many changes in the database and hence I would like to know what is the safest way to upgrade from v2.5 to v3.0, I was searching for wiki on github on the same but could not find one.

 

[Des Westcott]

Just noticed a glitch in the Matrix. It might be related to the temp probe issues in 3.0, maybe not.

I set up a temp probe and it was working. I then went to set up Temp Control, which worked. I as the control temp was low, it turned the heater on as it should. I then decided I shouldn't be leaving it on during testing, so I disabled the sensor. Reef-pi disabled the sensor in Temp Control, but left the heater in the on position.

Surely it would be safer to turn the heater off? ie have the item controlled by a control system default to off if major changes are made to the control system?

 

[Alaa]

hi, was testing the ATO and noticed that the ATO usage graphs are monitoring the control pump usage and not related to the float switch status, as the graph doesn't update if i set the control pump to none while the float switch is on.
this will not send alerts if there is outlet failure at the level of the relay for example, is it possible to set the graphs to monitor the float switch status and not the control pump, thanks for all the support.

 

[Des Westcott]

I've also noticed in 3.0 that I can't delete Inlets or Outlets from the connectors page. Clicking the red X does nothing.

 

[dmolavi]

Well I forgot to ask is there a specific way to upgrade from v2.5 to v3.0 since last time I installed v3.0 over v2.5 I had met with errors since I know there are many changes in the database and hence I would like to know what is the safest way to upgrade from v2.5 to v3.0, I was searching for wiki on github on the same but could not find one.

IIRC, there is no direct upgrade path that will maintain your configuration. I think I had to create a fresh install and re-create my setup.

 

[sfgabe]

hi, was testing the ATO and noticed that the ATO usage graphs are monitoring the control pump usage and not related to the float switch status, as the graph doesn't update if i set the control pump to none while the float switch is on.
this will not send alerts if there is outlet failure at the level of the relay for example, is it possible to set the graphs to monitor the float switch status and not the control pump, thanks for all the support.

I would also like to see this. At the moment I have a dummy control pump set on a pin that is not used, so I can get alerts about it.

 

[burningbaal]

I'm going to do some more investigating tonight, but I'm having trouble with the temperature probes. I got it all set so they work, I set them up (one ambient, two in tank), and it all seems okay, showing charts in celcius, and one of them controlling the heater outlet...seems great.
Then an hour or so later, I stop getting data from them and the dropdown to pick a sensor is an empty list. It seems repeatable that when I reboot (or hard power cycle) the pi, then I can reconfigure them and everything's okay again...until it's not.

any ideas?
pi4 2GB, ML 'goby' hat, running reef-pi 2.5, ADJ power strip and three amazon temp sensors soldered to ML's JST connectors.

 

[Des Westcott]

I'm going to do some more investigating tonight, but I'm having trouble with the temperature probes. I got it all set so they work, I set them up (one ambient, two in tank), and it all seems okay, showing charts in celcius, and one of them controlling the heater outlet...seems great.
Then an hour or so later, I stop getting data from them and the dropdown to pick a sensor is an empty list. It seems repeatable that when I reboot (or hard power cycle) the pi, then I can reconfigure them and everything's okay again...until it's not.

any ideas?
pi4 2GB, ML 'goby' hat, running reef-pi 2.5, ADJ power strip and three amazon temp sensors soldered to ML's JST connectors.

There is an issue with 3.0 Beta with the temp probes. Mine are doing the same and others have reported the same. They are working on the problem.

 

[burningbaal]

There is an issue with 3.0 Beta with the temp probes. Mine are doing the same and others have reported the same. They are working on the problem.

I'm on 2.5, but when I got settled back in after the kid's bedtime tonight, I find that it's apparently okay... huh?
I swear last night it was not okay (showing no sensors available, etc) and all day, I saw in adafruit.io there was no telemetry coming in. There's still no telemetry, but the server is showing temp data when I look directly...weird...not sure what to make of it.

 

[Alaa]

I would also like to see this. At the moment I have a dummy control pump set on a pin that is not used, so I can get alerts about it.

That would be fine if i use one FS but i actually need 4
1 high-low FS for ATO
2 one fir return pump safety
3 one for ATO reservoir water level
4 last one for a DIY overflow box monitoring and secondary pump activation
I was planning one keeping the actual control for the original setups that are working fine and use reef pi for monitoring and alert functions

 

[Ranjib]

I'm going to do some more investigating tonight, but I'm having trouble with the temperature probes. I got it all set so they work, I set them up (one ambient, two in tank), and it all seems okay, showing charts in celcius, and one of them controlling the heater outlet...seems great.
Then an hour or so later, I stop getting data from them and the dropdown to pick a sensor is an empty list. It seems repeatable that when I reboot (or hard power cycle) the pi, then I can reconfigure them and everything's okay again...until it's not.

any ideas?
pi4 2GB, ML 'goby' hat, running reef-pi 2.5, ADJ power strip and three amazon temp sensors soldered to ML's JST connectors.

The temperature sensor is visible in the raspbian? If its not detected underneath, reer-pi will not show it,

 

[Ranjib]

There is an issue with 3.0 Beta with the temp probes. Mine are doing the same and others have reported the same. They are working on the problem.

I recall 3-4 instances, but only one was a bug that i can recall related to the current reading in UI not up to date. The missing sensor thing i could not reproduce. couple the reported ones were complicated by sensor interference due to some other device , one of the led light, one bad heater. I am thinking about what the best way to address this, susceptibility on the sensor side, but nothing from software perspective