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

[Phildago]

exactly…. if you want to get fancy you can also use the PCA 9685 PWM control with

Dual H Bridge DC Stepper Motor Drive Controller Board Module L298N For Arduino | eBay

L298N as main chip, ST corporation production. Low heat,outstanding anti-interference performance. Chip: L298N (ST NEW). Can drive one 2-phase stepper motor, one 4-phase stepper motor or two DC motors.

www.ebay.com

motors will go directly to the l298N.

here is a good article to get familiar with how to use it.

Controlling DC Motors with Arduino | Arduino L298N Tutorial

In this tutorial, you are going to learn about Arduino L298N Motor driver module interfacing. The L298N module has a very famous L298 Motor driver IC.

electronicshobbyists.com

you will need to use PWM from the PCA9685 and few GPIO pins to control direction. Same concepts as for Arduino but you would use I/O from Rasp-PI instead.

I'm going to go ahead and put a doser together using those controllers. Thanks for the idea.

Do you know if I'd need to use all 3 pins if I just wanted to control speed in one direction? I'd like to run my pumps forward at 50% or so, but I don't care about reverse.

 

[Phildago]

We (family ) are in vacation , Maui , Hawaii. Here are some pics from the public aquarium .

It’s amazing to see how big some of these fish gets in their natural habitat, compared to aquariums

Moorish idol , if I ever get a bigger tank , may be I’ll have this :-). They are pretty hard to keep from what I understand

Their water filtration system

Scorpion fish ?

Junior is having a blast :-)

Wow, that is so incredible. I wish the water by my house was clean enough to be trusted in my tank. I'd have to build one of those of my own lol.

Such a beautiful display. Hawaii is amazing. Enjoy!

 

[Zippyfear]

Guess who got a 3d printer for christmas?!? and this is my first useful print.. many more to come..

 

[Ranjib]

Guess who got a 3d printer for christmas?!? and this is my first useful print.. many more to come..

Awesome :-) . Which one you got ? I have uploaded a bunch of enclosure models in thingiverse .

 

[Ranjib]

Here is one of my latest build, involving a pi zero, a temperature sensor and a float switch. It’s powered by 5v 2.4A micro USB adapter directly. Tiny and feature rich when combined with smart plugs , I am using it to benchmark various power banks for backup /emergency use cases.
3D models: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4077533

Here is how it looks in real life

Internals

 

[burningbaal]

Here is one of my latest build, involving a pi zero, a temperature sensor and a float switch. It’s powered by 5v 2.4A micro USB adapter directly. Tiny and feature rich when combined with smart plugs , I am using it to benchmark various power banks for backup /emergency use cases.
3D models: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4077533

Here is how it looks in real life

Internals

Dang... That right there has a real market... Someone should look into the legality/feasibility of selling that

 

[burningbaal]

K..weird question. I just bought a galaxy s9+, running android 9. On my s7 edge, I could load my reefpi browser page fine. I never have an issue on my MacBook, nor on my windows laptop I occasionally have home from work.
But on my s9+, it only loads a blank screen. No 404 nor 500, just a white screen...

Ideas? Somewhere in the logs to search? I can sah or teamviewer into the pi to find anything that's helpful

 

[Ranjib]

K..weird question. I just bought a galaxy s9+, running android 9. On my s7 edge, I could load my reefpi browser page fine. I never have an issue on my MacBook, nor on my windows laptop I occasionally have home from work.
But on my s9+, it only loads a blank screen. No 404 nor 500, just a white screen...

Ideas? Somewhere in the logs to search? I can sah or teamviewer into the pi to find anything that's helpful

Can you try with the option “Request desktop website”? Which browser you are using ? I thinks it’s an ui /JavaScript issue and won’t manifest in logs

 

[dmolavi]

K..weird question. I just bought a galaxy s9+, running android 9. On my s7 edge, I could load my reefpi browser page fine. I never have an issue on my MacBook, nor on my windows laptop I occasionally have home from work.
But on my s9+, it only loads a blank screen. No 404 nor 500, just a white screen...

Ideas? Somewhere in the logs to search? I can sah or teamviewer into the pi to find anything that's helpful

I had this problem too for a bit on my S9+. Restarted reef-pi and it went away. Not sure what the root cause was.

 

[Bigtrout]

K..weird question. I just bought a galaxy s9+, running android 9. On my s7 edge, I could load my reefpi browser page fine. I never have an issue on my MacBook, nor on my windows laptop I occasionally have home from work.
But on my s9+, it only loads a blank screen. No 404 nor 500, just a white screen...

Ideas? Somewhere in the logs to search? I can sah or teamviewer into the pi to find anything that's helpful

Clear out your browser cache...my s10+ sometimes does this

 

[Zippyfear]

Awesome :) . Which one you got ? I have uploaded a bunch of enclosure models in thingiverse .

Ender 3 Pro! and I think I downloaded them and have them in the queue after a few printer upgrades.

 

[lmm1967]

Bug?

I've discovered that if I enter in the IP address of the pi in the box for the http server to bind to - reef-pi will not start successfully on a reboot. If you manually restart the service - it's just fine.

I'm assuming thats because I'm using DHCP (with a reservation so I always get the same IP) rather than manually configuring a static IP?

If I leave it all zero's (like below) - I don't have that problem.

Below shows the error.....

.....
Jan 03 07:54:29 raspberrypi reef-pi[282]: 2020/01/03 07:54:29 reef-pi is up and running
Jan 03 07:54:30 raspberrypi reef-pi[282]: 2020/01/03 07:54:30 Starting http server at: 192.168.50.202:80
Jan 03 07:54:30 raspberrypi reef-pi[282]: 2020/01/03 07:54:30 ERROR: Failed to run http server. Error: listen tcp 192.168.50.202:80: bind: cannot assign requested address

 

[pickupman66]

Im playing with a lot of different battery-powered reef-pi options during the holidays (other than hacking on model railroad with reef-pi for my son). And wanted to share some insights,
The goal here is to come up with something that can allow reef-pi users to run minimal system (on demand or automatically) during power outage. As usual with reef-pi, the focus here to get something with frugal, affordable components.
My current thought process is to go with mobile power banks , they are cheap and can run multi-hour, easy to source and have different capacity options. Pair them with 5v airstone and submersible pumps (2W or 3Watts at max). Experiement and document the findings then proceed with 12V beefier/expensive power banks if need be.

With that I first used my wife's 4 year old 4600mAh power bank with a vanilla pi zero w. That ran around 13 hours. But i was not sure how the math works or if the powerbank if giving what its rated for after 4 years of use. So i then got a duracell 3300 mAh powerbank (as shown in the photo) and this one gives roughly 16 hours with wifi and reef-pi running . For some reason, i was expecting the pi will experience some kinda of undervoltage situation, and in anticipation i added undervoltage detector in reef-pi :) . Its a common problem we encounter in some builds. But surprisingly it didnt trip, i.e. the power went out without lowering voltage (or at least thats what im concluding/deciphering).

None the less, i'll proceed testing with temp sensor, float switch, airstone , submersible pumps etc. And keep you all posted. I think this is pretty cool, it solves emergency backup situation as well as portable controller think (i need that for my saltwater mixing use case). If nothing, the airstone and pump can be directly hooked up to the powerbank for maximum run time.

@Bigtrout @Michael Lane @theatrus and other with more electrical/electronics understanding, can you decipher anything from this data. Here are the key summary:
- 3300 mAh powebank with 5v output
- Pi zero w draws 100-140ma
- Runtime was16.3 hours

Hmmm.. I am pretty keen on this idea as sometimes, my UPS system will just start beeping and I have to Re-set it. This causes a brief power outage situation in the Equipment room thus causing a reboot in my Reef-pi. Many times this causes my issues with a corrupted SD. I would very much like to implement this. BIG question:

I provide power to my PI thru a 5V wired connection directly to the Board.

1. If I use the USB port on the PI, will it still draw from that port?
2. Will Pi Backfeed voltage to the Battery pack thus charging it? id hate for this to send heat into that pack.

Some battery Packs will switch off once the device they are connected to is charged if it senses the Pi "fully Charged" we hope it does not switch off thus rendering this useless.
3.

 

[burningbaal]

Well..I tried all of this. Chrome browser switch to desktop, no change. Clear cache for my website, no change, remote in via TeamViewer to reboot, no change.
Weird, right?
Also tried the Samsung browser desktop and mobile. Maybe I'll download Firefox or something

 

[marekd1]

I'm going to go ahead and put a doser together using those controllers. Thanks for the idea.

Do you know if I'd need to use all 3 pins if I just wanted to control speed in one direction? I'd like to run my pumps forward at 50% or so, but I don't care about reverse.

You will need, one pin for PWM and one for direction for a per channel. PWM comes from the PCA9685 and direction will be from whatever pin you assign from Raspberry-Pi

 

[marekd1]

Bug?

I've discovered that if I enter in the IP address of the pi in the box for the http server to bind to - reef-pi will not start successfully on a reboot. If you manually restart the service - it's just fine.

I'm assuming thats because I'm using DHCP (with a reservation so I always get the same IP) rather than manually configuring a static IP?

If I leave it all zero's (like below) - I don't have that problem.

Below shows the error.....

.....
Jan 03 07:54:29 raspberrypi reef-pi[282]: 2020/01/03 07:54:29 reef-pi is up and running
Jan 03 07:54:30 raspberrypi reef-pi[282]: 2020/01/03 07:54:30 Starting http server at: 192.168.50.202:80
Jan 03 07:54:30 raspberrypi reef-pi[282]: 2020/01/03 07:54:30 ERROR: Failed to run http server. Error: listen tcp 192.168.50.202:80: bind: cannot assign requested address

Had the same issue. My Reef-Pi is set to static but these are left at 0's otherwise it breaks.

 

[marekd1]

If someone is looking for different options for hooking up the probe to reduce the possibility of blowing the PI here is what I use. Its a sealed connector which is also keyed to make sure you do not plug in the wrong way. Can be found on ebay.

 

[lmm1967]

If someone is looking for different options for hooking up the probe to reduce the possibility of blowing the PI here is what I use. Its a sealed connector which is also keyed to make sure you do not plug in the wrong way. Can be found on ebay.

I just ordered these - will be here tomorrow

Amazon product

 

[Schreiber]

If someone is looking for different options for hooking up the probe to reduce the possibility of blowing the PI here is what I use. Its a sealed connector which is also keyed to make sure you do not plug in the wrong way. Can be found on ebay.

Those look nice, similar to XLR connectors. Curious about your comment about blowing a Pi though... What advantage would this actually have over the BNC connector most pH probes already come with?

 

[lmm1967]

Those look nice, similar to XLR connectors. Curious about your comment about blowing a Pi though... What advantage would this actually have over the BNC connector most pH probes already come with?

I think this is for the temp probe. The reef-pi tutorials utilize a mini stereo headphone / audio jack and the + and - cross over each other when plugging in or removing