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

[PaulJ2303]

Default hexidecimal code for PCA9685 is 0x40, in decimal that wil be 64.

Thanks Ben that worked :)
just for my own future reference how did you know the hex code for pca9685 is 40 / 64 ?

and something for @Michael Lane ... i'm afraid i've still got the dosing pump whine, tbh i wouldn't care but it stops the motors from turning at all.

edit:
just did a further test and all three pumps run fine at 100% .. i only get the whine at a percentage value.

 

[burningbaal]

i2c issue happens when i2c bus is not enabled. raspi-config is used to set it. Once done it does not need to tweaked till reimage.
The second issue is one wire/ temperature probe. Thats different than the i2c issue. Nothing physical changed?

ok, so I2C isn't related, darn. I was hoping I was getting close to root cause.
Nothing changes between working and not working. I don't have things tidy, so I suppose something might be flinching and causing an issue (like the voltage doohicky that powers the ADJ relays, which is just floating right now), but with everything just sitting there (3 lighting timers, ATO is on a timer for 5m every hour, that's about as interesting as it gets except when I raise the lights for feeding). It'll work for an hour or 5, then dies with these errors...weird, right?

 

[Ranjib]

Thanks Ben that worked :)
just for my own future reference how did you know the hex code for pca9685 is 40 / 64 ?

and something for @Michael Lane ... i'm afraid i've still got the dosing pump whine, tbh i wouldn't care but it stops the motors from turning at all.

edit:
just did a further test and all three pumps run fine at 100% .. i only get the whine at a percentage value.

40 is hexadecimal , translated to 4x16 + 0x16 =64 in decimal. the ui takes decimal number. I think we should improve the ui to support hexadecimal natively.

 

[BenB]

Thanks Ben that worked :)
just for my own future reference how did you know the hex code for pca9685 is 40 / 64 ?

and something for @Michael Lane ... i'm afraid i've still got the dosing pump whine, tbh i wouldn't care but it stops the motors from turning at all.

edit:
just did a further test and all three pumps run fine at 100% .. i only get the whine at a percentage value.

PCA9685 16-Channel 12 Bit I2C Bus PWM Driver - Wiki

wiki.sunfounder.cc

See : Adressing the boards

You can hook up to 62 pca9685s when you change the adress by connecting solderpoints on the board :-)

 

[PaulJ2303]

I think we should improve the ui to support hexadecimal natively.
[/QUOiys all@Ranjib you don't have to account for my abject stupidity

I think we should improve the ui to support hexadecimal natively.

It's all good @Ranjib you don't have to account for my abject stupidity

 

[hhaase]

Well, I had to sign up for a new forum due to this one. I've only had a chance to do a quick overview, but looks like this project is alive and kicking, and I'm ready to dig deeper.

I've got a background in electronics manufacturing, so hopefully I can contribute to the overall project as needed. I may have to finally figure out how to use github (always found it a really annoying file system to be honest).

Anyway, back to reading and trolling to see where things are, where I can help, and where I can pick up and start building one of these.

 

[PaulJ2303]

You can hook up to 62 pca9685s when you change the adress by connecting solderpoints on the board :)

thanks Ben ... every day's a school day. I'll check that out :)

 

[Bigtrout]

Thanks Ben that worked :)
just for my own future reference how did you know the hex code for pca9685 is 40 / 64 ?

and something for @Michael Lane ... i'm afraid i've still got the dosing pump whine, tbh i wouldn't care but it stops the motors from turning at all.

edit:
just did a further test and all three pumps run fine at 100% .. i only get the whine at a percentage value.

What frequency are you using...you may have to tweak that to get decent results

 

[BenB]

thanks Ben ... every day's a school day. I'll check that out :)

No wories, you can find a lot of info if you read trought the reef-pi tread, I can advice you doing the same, I myself started reading halfway and it helped me a lot. Secondly Google is your best friend! And of course you can always ask!

 

[ambientaquatics.adam]

Has any one experienced their pi crashing in the middle of dosing? I heard the pump kick on last night and about 2 minutes later it was still running. It dumped probably 200ml of vinegar but it's not a big deal since I currently dose close to 100ml. While it was running I could not access the local or vnc connection so I power cycled it and regained connection. Glad I was doing long term testing with a 250ml container and only vinegar but regardless I would like to find the root of the issue.

 

[Michael Lane]

Thanks Ben that worked :)
just for my own future reference how did you know the hex code for pca9685 is 40 / 64 ?

and something for @Michael Lane ... i'm afraid i've still got the dosing pump whine, tbh i wouldn't care but it stops the motors from turning at all.

edit:
just did a further test and all three pumps run fine at 100% .. i only get the whine at a percentage value.

There was an issue with out PCA9685 driver that would cause a whine when at 0%. I thought we had that resolved. The DC motors will tend to whine at lower percentages. I think I found the minimum duty cycle to be a bit over 50% for my pumps.

 

[Ranjib]

Well, I had to sign up for a new forum due to this one. I've only had a chance to do a quick overview, but looks like this project is alive and kicking, and I'm ready to dig deeper.

I've got a background in electronics manufacturing, so hopefully I can contribute to the overall project as needed. I may have to finally figure out how to use github (always found it a really annoying file system to be honest).

Anyway, back to reading and trolling to see where things are, where I can help, and where I can pick up and start building one of these.

Welcome to reef2reef :-)

 

[Michael Lane]

Has any one experienced their pi crashing in the middle of dosing? I heard the pump kick on last night and about 2 minutes later it was still running. It dumped probably 200ml of vinegar but it's not a big deal since I currently dose close to 100ml. While it was running I could not access the local or vnc connection so I power cycled it and regained connection. Glad I was doing long term testing with a 250ml container and only vinegar but regardless I would like to find the root of the issue.

That sounds like some bad timing! Can you check for any errors or clues in the logs?

sudo journalctl -fu reef-pi.service

 

[PaulJ2303]

What frequency are you using...you may have to tweak that to get decent results

ok thanks @Bigtrout i'ts set at the default of 1500 .. i guess that's the duty cycle in hz i'll have a play with that thanks

There was an issue with out PCA9685 driver that would cause a whine when at 0%. I thought we had that resolved. The DC motors will tend to whine at lower percentages. I think I found the minimum duty cycle to be a bit over 50% for my pumps.

funnily enough i was running them at just on 50% ... in conjunction with the duty cycle i'll try changing this.
i'm thinking that if it runs fine at 100% i.e full power i'm wondering if it's a torque thing when i'm trying to run it at a smaller percentage of the duty cycle.

It'll be interesting to see what turns up.

 

[Bigtrout]

ok thanks @Bigtrout i'ts set at the default of 1500 .. i guess that's the duty cycle in hz i'll have a play with that thanks


funnily enough i was running them at just on 50% ... in conjunction with the duty cycle i'll try changing this.
i'm thinking that if it runs fine at 100% i.e full power i'm wondering if it's a torque thing when i'm trying to run it at a smaller percentage of the duty cycle.

It'll be interesting to see what turns up.

It may be worth playing with both duty cycle percentage and frequency. The coil on a motor will have a certain inductance that will tend to react somewhat like capacitance, that is tending to average a signal. Higher frequencies may not work as well as lower ones. It may not make any torque at 20 percent duty cycle on a frequency of 1500hz but it may well run on a 20 percent duty cycle on a frequncy of lets say 200hz

 

[ambientaquatics.adam]

That sounds like some bad timing! Can you check for any errors or clues in the logs?

sudo journalctl -fu reef-pi.service

I'll check the logs. It weird because it's been working fine for the past 1.5-2 mos

 

[ambientaquatics.adam]

It looks like logs reset last night after the crash.

 

[Des Westcott]

I'm struggling to get Adafruit IO Telemetry working.

I've followed the instruction here - https://reef-pi.github.io/additional-documentation/telemetry/

I get the key, copy into the correct field , update and reload. When I go back to the telemetry tab, the Aio key is gone, but username is still there. I get no feeds in Aio.

I'm obviously missing something fundamental.

 

[Ranjib]

I'm struggling to get Adafruit IO Telemetry working.

I've followed the instruction here - https://reef-pi.github.io/additional-documentation/telemetry/

I get the key, copy into the correct field , update and reload. When I go back to the telemetry tab, the Aio key is gone, but username is still there. I get no feeds in Aio.

I'm obviously missing something fundamental.

Sensitive fields like adafruit is key and password are not shown in the ui intentionally. Unless you see an error , they are set. Reload and reef-pi should start sending data to adafruit.io, unless there’s other issues (internet or rate limit)

 

[Des Westcott]

Sensitive fields like adafruit is key and password are not shown in the ui intentionally. Unless you see an error , they are set. Reload and reef-pi should start sending data to adafruit.io, unless there’s other issues (internet or rate limit)

OK. That makes sense.

I rechecked Adafruit and I am getting some info.

But not getting any of my temp info. Now I look closer and realise that two of my temp probes aren't working including the main "Tank" temp. I'm going to try delete and reinstall.