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

[Mike25]

You should be able to do this by configuring the 3rd dosing pump pin as an outlet instead of a jack. Then you can treat it just like any kind of ATO pump.

Thanks Michael! I'll try that.

 

[Matevz Savarin]

I am using vnc for now, I just want to know 2 temps, if room one rises I turn on ac.. next step is to do this automated. Names used to work in adarfuit io before. I ll try rename them.. tnx

 

[Matevz Savarin]

I used to get those - it was around naming of the feeds. Change names to have no spaces or other non-allowed characters and all went away.

I am using vnc for now, I just want to know 2 temps, if room one rises I turn on ac.. next step is to do this automated. Names used to work in adarfuit io before. I ll try rename them.. tnx

 

[Ranjib]

A little something I've noticed , but not sure it can be addressed or not. It relates to updating equipment status on the "Equipment" tab.

If I run a Macro, say my kalkstirrer one that just turns the stirrer on, runs for 5 minutes and then turns it off and then go to the "Equipment" tab, I see that the Stirrer status is "On". It runs and I hear the relay click off at the correct time, but it does not update the Equipment status ie the stirrer is off, but it shows as on. If I click onto another tab and go back to Equipment, it displays the correct status. I've noticed it with my ATO pump status as well.

I suspect it has something to do with the browser refreshing - I have tried it on Chrome as well as the new Edge and get the same behaviour. It's not a big deal, but I was wondering if there was a setting or something I had wrong.

Edit - Just to be clear, every time I open the "Equipment" tab it shows the status correctly. If I change it manually, it shows correctly. Only if an automated process causes a change in status, it doesn't update the display, but the equipment functions correctly.

the state of the equipment in UI tab is loaded every time you go to that tab from other place, or refreshed at 10s interval. So there are chances that you may see stale state for upto 9 seconds at worst

 

[Des Westcott]

the state of the equipment in UI tab is loaded every time you go to that tab from other place, or refreshed at 10s interval. So there are chances that you may see stale state for upto 9 seconds at worst

Thanks Ranjib. I'll check that 10s interval now an confirm. Maybe it's just me being impatient :)

 

[Des Westcott]

@Ranjib There's definitely something going on with equipment status. I manually triggered my ATO pump so that it ran for a few seconds and then stopped as the ATO grabbed control of it. Status stayed showing "On" and I set a stopwatch. 5 minutes later and it was still showing "On" despite the pump being off. Jump to Dashboard and back to equipment and it has changed to "Off"

 

[brian2kgt]

The error indicates something wrong on the physical/linux layer that not under reef-pi 's control. The first error means the value we are getting from sensor is failing on checksum (i.e. the data sent from the sensor is mangled on the wire by the time it reaches the linux i/o ports). The second one means the sensor is not being detected. Most likely its a sensor / wiring issue that got progressively bad. Its fascinating, as you are the first one to report these two different errors happening in order (first checksum mismatch, then lost sensor).

Thanks, I had a hunch it might be a physical problem. I have one of the better sensors from Sparkfun arriving tomorrow to test. So would one bad sensor cause both sensors to throw the checksum error simultaneously? If not, I guess i would have to look for a wiring issue in a place they share in common? This would be the short section where they are connected in parallel to the Pi with the shared resistor.

It happened again last night. An email alert from both sensors at the same time that " Temperature sensor failure. Error: First line of device file does not end with YES", followed by errors and a loss of both sensors in reef-pi. A power cycle fixed it again both times.

 

[Auto-pilot]

I'm not really sure about the pico board ph since I haven't used it. Based on the driver code, I believe you should use pico-board driver, and 0x75 hex address might be the ph address, which should be entered as 117 (decimal) in reef-pi.

Could not get this working no matter what I've tried I can't get a reading. I've tryed contacting theatrus but it seems like hes busy and hasn't been able to get back to me. I was curious if anyone has recommendations for another board. I might try to make another system and give mine to a good friend

 

[Ranjib]

@Ranjib There's definitely something going on with equipment status. I manually triggered my ATO pump so that it ran for a few seconds and then stopped as the ATO grabbed control of it. Status stayed showing "On" and I set a stopwatch. 5 minutes later and it was still showing "On" despite the pump being off. Jump to Dashboard and back to equipment and it has changed to "Off"

there's a bug in the equipment chart in 3.4 where it does not show the off state correctly. i am thinking if you are encountering that. i fixed it in master, will be out in next release

 

[Des Westcott]

there's a bug in the equipment chart in 3.4 where it does not show the off state correctly. i am thinking if you are encountering that. i fixed it in master, will be out in next release

I downgraded to 3.3.1 a week or so ago when encountering the temp sensor errors.

 

[Yov]

Sooo @Ranjib, wil there be or is it posible to add functions for "Lightning" and or weather cloning from location ?
Like the bluefish controller? :)

kind regards !

 

[Litserv]

I have not tried this personally, but should be fairly easy. Try this: https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-ssl-lets-encrypt/ , its for apache web server (which we are not using) but the instructions provided here does show how to control the path of generated certificates.
Please do report back if this works. If not, i'll find out how to do this. Its an important topic (to run reef-pi with https and proper cert authority), which should be easy, and we should know if theres some obvious gotchas.

I run a configuration management system and install my own selfsigned root can and corresponding PKI infra ( certs, crl, csrs etc)

I'm away from home until next week. Asap I'll try it and report the resulst. THANKS!

 

[Smin]

So I have reefpi 3.3 all setup and working to control my custom pwm led build for my 400l tank.
For the most part it's working great, except when dimming there is a noticeable step in lighting. I have six channels so it's proving tricky to setup and dim each one as needed. Is there a way to access the new sine, lunar modes etc? They're not available in the GUI..

 

[GaryE]

I just sent off for a new board. This one is a mini board for use on tanks that don't require a lot of external connetions.

It has two connectors for DS18B20 temp probes and 3 12 or 24 volt led's (depending on your powersupply voltage). It also has a header for an Adafruit SHT31-d Temp/Humidity sensor(optional) and a header to expose 8 GPIO pins for use with buttons or switches to manually control equipment.

No ATO or Dosing on this board.

I intend to use this board for my sons fresh water tank and my QT tank.

If you want to follow along with the progress of this and the full size board I am working on, check in on my build thread.

 

[LongBeachReefer562]

Been wanting to add some dosers and remembered I had some L298Ns (for motor control) in the parts bin so figured it was worth giving them a shot.

I wired as shown below and added pin 4 as a doser.... to my amazement it works fantastic. The output voltage to the motor is very linear as well based on the dosing speed set to pin 4.

They're pretty cheap, about $10 for 5pcs and each is made to control 2 motors for forward/reverse/speed. For reefpi use case I think we could even control 4 pumps since each output can be set to high/low and we only want the motor to run in one direction typically.

Seems to easy to be true though. From a circuity standpoint, does anyone see any issues with using this as a long term solution?

 

[Michael Lane]

Been wanting to add some dosers and remembered I had some L298Ns (for motor control) in the parts bin so figured it was worth giving them a shot.

I wired as shown below and added pin 4 as a doser.... to my amazement it works fantastic. The output voltage to the motor is very linear as well based on the dosing speed set to pin 4.

They're pretty cheap, about $10 for 5pcs and each is made to control 2 motors for forward/reverse/speed. For reefpi use case I think we could even control 4 pumps since each output can be set to high/low and we only want the motor to run in one direction typically.

Seems to easy to be true though. From a circuity standpoint, does anyone see any issues with using this as a long term solution?

Very cool! That seems totally fine to me. You'll probably just want to make sure your PWM frequence <= 1000.

 

[cnidus]

Does anyone have performance/responsiveness issues with the webUI?

im finding it locks up, takes a long time to load the graphs on dashboard and doesn’t respond to clicks on the equipment, macros etc... but then sometimes 10min later the thing I wanted to trigger kicks off (like feed mode macro).

edit: running 3.4 on a rpi2b (is that the problem, old hardware?)

 

[GaryE]

Does anyone have performance/responsiveness issues with the webUI?

im finding it locks up, takes a long time to load the graphs on dashboard and doesn’t respond to clicks on the equipment, macros etc... but then sometimes 10min later the thing I wanted to trigger kicks off (like feed mode macro).

edit: running 3.4 on a rpi2b (is that the problem, old hardware?)

Possible

I'm running my main DT on an RPi3. No issues other than it's connected to a couple of soldered breadboards. They are a bit wonky from time to time.

My QT and sons freshwater are running on RPi0w's without issue, however, they really aren't doing a lot. Temp control via Kaza power strips.

RPi boards are dirt cheap, would be worth it to swap for something with a bit more horsepower.

The best part, you can swap your current sd card to the new board and be up and running with no software changes.

 

[Ranjib]

Sooo @Ranjib, wil there be or is it posible to add functions for "Lightning" and or weather cloning from location ?
Like the bluefish controller? :)

kind regards !

I’m not sure exactly what it is , if you can detail I can think through . What we get from this ?

 

[Ranjib]

Does anyone have performance/responsiveness issues with the webUI?

im finding it locks up, takes a long time to load the graphs on dashboard and doesn’t respond to clicks on the equipment, macros etc... but then sometimes 10min later the thing I wanted to trigger kicks off (like feed mode macro).

edit: running 3.4 on a rpi2b (is that the problem, old hardware?)

That’s not good. I a, running couple of builds on 3.4 without any issues. How does the health chart looks ?