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

[Matt Carden]

These are the probes I use. T-PRO DS18b20 Waterproof... Amazon product

just as important. These are the connectors I have. SiYear 3-Pole 3.5mm Stereo... Amazon product

then solder well. They have been running for over 1 year.

Thanks for posting the temp sensor link. I ordered them in case the Aliexspress ones I ordered don't work .

 

[baendres]

Are you encapsulating them, either in silicone or epoxy works well, mine work well almost 2 years in salt water without any real issues.

No,
But when I get back from Vacation I will give that a shot. I have my parents coming to check on the tanks a couple times in the week we are gone so hopefully nothing goes wrong next week.


any certain kind of epoxy work best for pouring around the probe end?


Thanks guys

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

any certain kind of epoxy work best for pouring around the probe end?


Thanks guys

Any 2 part clear epoxy should be fine. I used a product from total boat that I originally purchased for building snow skis and snowboards. It’s high end but for this purpose high end isn’t needed. Just make sure the whole probe is submerged in epoxy. You don’t pour it around. You hang the probe into a mold and fill the mold with epoxy. I used a piece of pvc pipe as my mold and wax as a mold release.

I’ve personally never tried silicone for this. For me silicone is too flexible and can tear. But others have had success.

 

[92Miata]

@Ranjib

Is reef-pi currently capable of controlling devices through HTTP\REST type requests? I've built some ESP8266 based dosing pumps that currently respond to GETs at specific addresses (IE, GET http:\\<ip>\Calcium?steps=100 moves the stepper half a rotation ) - and really don't feel like adding 0-10v support for them as the ESP8266 only has one 3.3v analog IN pin - so I'd need to either give each pump its own ESP, or build out some circuitry to get multiple analog INs and convert voltage.

Right now its a nice self contained Ca/Alk/Mag unit.

Anyways - if that's not currently supported - where do I start digging in to write a driver/etc? Or is it better to just drive the thing via a CRON job and log to the reef-pi database somehere? Any developers guide anywhere?


I've got a RoboTank in the mail and a Pi on my desk. Excited.

 

[Ranjib]

@Ranjib

Is reef-pi currently capable of controlling devices through HTTP\REST type requests? I've built some ESP8266 based dosing pumps that currently respond to GETs at specific addresses (IE, GET http:\\<ip>\Calcium?steps=100 moves the stepper half a rotation ) - and really don't feel like adding 0-10v support for them as the ESP8266 only has one 3.3v analog IN pin - so I'd need to either give each pump its own ESP, or build out some circuitry to get multiple analog INs and convert voltage.

Right now its a nice self contained Ca/Alk/Mag unit.

Anyways - if that's not currently supported - where do I start digging in to write a driver/etc? Or is it better to just drive the thing via a CRON job and log to the reef-pi database somehere? Any developers guide anywhere?


I've got a RoboTank in the mail and a Pi on my desk. Excited.

reef-pi uses a common driver framework called HAL, which makes it easy to add new driver. This should be fairly easy to integrate, but it requires some coding.
If your design and code is opensource, I'd be more than happy to develop the driver for you. It will be nice to collaborate and so that we can provide some feedback on the esp32 API as well, i think it will be beneficial for the users.

 

[acanfor420]

Ok...just a couple more questions....
Do I need a router or home network to connect the pi?
We have Xfinity wifi internet modem and service

 

[Smin]

Hive minds,
I have just cut a new reef-pi release, 3.5. Its been almost 4 months sine the last stable reef-pi release and lot has piled up since then. Hence this release brings a handful of goodies. Key highlights are

New features:

• Availability of ADS1015/ADS1115 series analog to digital converter. This will allow a wide range of analog sensor, including alternate temperature sensor, UV/Lux sensors, anemometers, VOC/CO2/Gas sensor and many more system to seamlessly integrate with reef-pi and used for controlling equipment.
• We have introduced a special feature called "One Shot" in temperature , ph and ATO controllers. When enabled reef-pi will run the controller till the sensor reaches its target point instead of running perpetually. For example an one shot ATO controller will run the ATO pump till the sensor detect water level has reached the level and stop there. Same for temperature and ph, where the controller will stop soon the read reaches within min/max zone. When used within macro, this step will block the next step instead of running parallel. Intention of this feature is to help model auto water change and other scenarios.
• Macros now have a new step called "alert". This can be used to send sms/email as part of a macro
• Lighting module UI now support lunar, random and sine profile in addition to the existing ones (auto/interval, diurnal and fixed). Decimal/fractional values are also allowed in light profiles.
• API documentations are now bundled with reef-pi code itself. The footer section in the UI will link to API documentation.

Bugfixes:

• Pi 4 driver detection failures are resolved for upgraded raspberry pi os.
• Temperature calibration bug was fixed
• Equipment chart rendering bug was fixed
• Temperature chart bounds are now removed, light chart rendering bug fixed.
• Erroneous and out of acceptable range temperature sensor values are now ignored and retry logic has been implemented to address ds18b20 sensor reading issues.

Other than these critical features and bug fixes a number of tech chores across package updates, automated user acceptance test , performance improvement have also went in this release. I want to thank @Michael Lane from the bottom of my heart for his tireless contribution across drivers, backend and UI bugfixes. Without his work this release wont be happening in this challenging times.

Release builds are available in usual location: https://github.com/reef-pi/reef-pi/releases/tag/3.5

Please help us make reef-pi better by testing and providing feedback. You all, including the pre-built hardware vendors, have been absolutely awesome and we appreciate your effort and interest in this project. You, the users and builders, constitute the best of this project.

Yours truly
ranjib on behalf of reef-pi development team.

Thanks again for all your hard work! How do I access the new light profiles? they don't show up when I edit the lights.

 

[robsworld78]

Ok...just a couple more questions....
Do I need a router or home network to connect the pi?
We have Xfinity wifi internet modem and service

You do need a router to access the Raspberry Pi, you can plug directly into it or use wifi. Your router will assign an IP address to your Pi, you type this in your web browser and reef-pi will load. If you want to access reef-pi outside your local network you need to port forward the Pi and how to do that really depends on your router, if you can find a user manual it should explain how to do this.

Thanks again for all your hard work! How do I access the new light profiles? they don't show up when I edit the lights.

I just setup a light and the new profiles appear, maybe when you edit a previous profile they don't show, try removing it and adding back.

 

[acanfor420]

You do need a router to access the Raspberry Pi, you can plug directly into it or use wifi. Your router will assign an IP address to your Pi, you type this in your web browser and reef-pi will load. If you want to access reef-pi outside your local network you need to port forward the Pi and how to do that really depends on your router, if you can find a user manual it should explain how to do this.



I just setup a light and the new profiles appear, maybe when you edit a previous profile they don't show, try removing it and adding back.

ok thanks
I'm thinking of using a pi zero w or the pi4

 

[robsworld78]

ok thanks
I'm thinking of using a pi zero w or the pi4

Either will work and you can even update the Pi4 OS. :)

 

[Bigtrout]

ok thanks
I'm thinking of using a pi zero w or the pi4

Start a build thread, and the first thing to decide is what all you want to monitor and or control with reef pi. Members of the community will gladly chime in with helpful guidance. That way it doesnt get lost in the megathread.

 

[BenB]

Hive minds,
I have just cut a new reef-pi release, 3.5. Its been almost 4 months sine the last stable reef-pi release and lot has piled up since then. Hence this release brings a handful of goodies. Key highlights are

New features:

• Availability of ADS1015/ADS1115 series analog to digital converter. This will allow a wide range of analog sensor, including alternate temperature sensor, UV/Lux sensors, anemometers, VOC/CO2/Gas sensor and many more system to seamlessly integrate with reef-pi and used for controlling equipment.
• We have introduced a special feature called "One Shot" in temperature , ph and ATO controllers. When enabled reef-pi will run the controller till the sensor reaches its target point instead of running perpetually. For example an one shot ATO controller will run the ATO pump till the sensor detect water level has reached the level and stop there. Same for temperature and ph, where the controller will stop soon the read reaches within min/max zone. When used within macro, this step will block the next step instead of running parallel. Intention of this feature is to help model auto water change and other scenarios.
• Macros now have a new step called "alert". This can be used to send sms/email as part of a macro
• Lighting module UI now support lunar, random and sine profile in addition to the existing ones (auto/interval, diurnal and fixed). Decimal/fractional values are also allowed in light profiles.
• API documentations are now bundled with reef-pi code itself. The footer section in the UI will link to API documentation.

Bugfixes:

• Pi 4 driver detection failures are resolved for upgraded raspberry pi os.
• Temperature calibration bug was fixed
• Equipment chart rendering bug was fixed
• Temperature chart bounds are now removed, light chart rendering bug fixed.
• Erroneous and out of acceptable range temperature sensor values are now ignored and retry logic has been implemented to address ds18b20 sensor reading issues.

Other than these critical features and bug fixes a number of tech chores across package updates, automated user acceptance test , performance improvement have also went in this release. I want to thank @Michael Lane from the bottom of my heart for his tireless contribution across drivers, backend and UI bugfixes. Without his work this release wont be happening in this challenging times.

Release builds are available in usual location: https://github.com/reef-pi/reef-pi/releases/tag/3.5

Please help us make reef-pi better by testing and providing feedback. You all, including the pre-built hardware vendors, have been absolutely awesome and we appreciate your effort and interest in this project. You, the users and builders, constitute the best of this project.

Yours truly
ranjib on behalf of reef-pi development team.

I did a quick test with an ads1115 and a PH probe, i get a reading, i calibrated with tapwater ph7.6, I did not have calibration solution.
Michael Lane I used settings 2/3 for gain. What does it mean and what about the other gains you are able to enter like 1,2,4,8 or 16?

 

[DeeEmm]

Hi guys, reef-pi noob here.

First up awesome project. I looked at creating a tank automation controller myself using an Arduino, but then discovered your project so decided to give reef-pi a go on my tank instead.

At the moment I'm just trying to get the Raspi working and doing what it should before progressing on to adding additional sensors etc.

I'm using an 'orange-pi pc' as I have a few laying around from their kickstarter campaign. I've prepared an image and then installed reef-pi via SSH using the guides on reef-pi.github.io

So I now have reef-pi running, access via SSH and via the browser, and everything seems to be working as it should, with the exception of the configuration > connectors tab, which throws an error...

Something went wrong.

TypeError: Cannot read property 'analog-input' of null

When I check the error log I get the following...

can't build hal pin 8: embd: your host ": ARMv7 Processor rev 5 (v7l)" is not supported at this moment. request support at https://github.com/kidoman/embd/issues

I suspect that it may be related to the boot configuration file (/boot/config.txt) as this file was not present when I went to edit it, leading me to think that a different startup file is called.

I have tried installing under both Armbian and Debian. I will give Ubuntu a go later.

If anyone has any ideas or pointers. I'm hoping it's a simple issue. I've got a fair bit of experience with Arduino's but Raspi's are a new thing for me.

With thanks in advance.

/DM

 

[BenB]

Hi guys, reef-pi noob here.

First up awesome project. I looked at creating a tank automation controller myself using an Arduino, but then discovered your project so decided to give reef-pi a go on my tank instead.

At the moment I'm just trying to get the Raspi working and doing what it should before progressing on to adding additional sensors etc.

I'm using an 'orange-pi pc' as I have a few laying around from their kickstarter campaign. I've prepared an image and then installed reef-pi via SSH using the guides on reef-pi.github.io

So I now have reef-pi running, access via SSH and via the browser, and everything seems to be working as it should, with the exception of the configuration > connectors tab, which throws an error...



When I check the error log I get the following...


I suspect that it may be related to the boot configuration file (/boot/config.txt) as this file was not present when I went to edit it, leading me to think that a different startup file is called.

I have tried installing under both Armbian and Debian. I will give Ubuntu a go later.

If anyone has any ideas or pointers. I'm hoping it's a simple issue. I've got a fair bit of experience with Arduino's but Raspi's are a new thing for me.

With thanks in advance.

/DM

Hi, I used Raspberry Pi OS and it works fine!

Operating system images – Raspberry Pi

From industries large and small, to the kitchen table tinkerer, to the classroom coder, we make computing accessible and affordable for everybody.

www.raspberrypi.org

 

[DeeEmm]

Thanks Ben,

Will give that a go

 

[DeeEmm]

Unfortunately the Raspberry Pi image does not appear to work on the Orange-Pi. I suspect that it has a different architecture / chipset.

 

[Yov]

Unfortunately the Raspberry Pi image does not appear to work on the Orange-Pi. I suspect that it has a different architecture / chipset.

i just bought a pi-zero for the camera. After i found out that the camera option save's the pictures and never delete these XD i wil be using different solution. @Ranjib maybe its a idea to add IP camera screen option to the dashboard? :)

 

[DeeEmm]

So after some research I think my issue is due to the 'embd' library that is used to interface with the GPIO. This error appears to be a common problem as it is also reported elsewhere. There is no official fix for it as the library appears to be abandoned since 2017, which is not great.

Any ideas?

 

[Mandelstam]

i use the PH tab for a humidity sensor. ( sht31d ) but the humidity in the tank says 100% when in fact it is 80% so its is of by 20%! i like to adjust this so it is whitin 5% correct.

Edit: Second Calibration problem XD:

Most if not all humidity sensors don't like to be in >80%rh environments for very long. The sensor gets saturated after a while and gets stuck at 100% even when the humidity drops down. It usually gets back to normal operation after drying out in a dry environment for a few hours. Can this be what has happened?

There's a heating element in the sensor but I don't know how it's currently set up. Always on or just on for a few seconds before reading (which probably isn't enough to dry it out properly). For a very humid environment I think the possibility to tweak the time the heating element is on together with time between readings is crucial. From what I've read the heating element should be turned off for some time before a measurement is taken. But I'm not completely sure.

 

[Ranjib]

So after some research I think my issue is due to the 'embd' library that is used to interface with the GPIO. This error appears to be a common problem as it is also reported elsewhere. There is no official fix for it as the library appears to be abandoned since 2017, which is not great.

Any ideas?

We are unlikely to support architectures other than raspberry pi. The pin map , i2c bus and several other hardware interfacing aspects differ across architecture and supporting all of them will greatly increase our maintenance burden.

In the beginning reef-pi used to be called as reefer and I was planning to support pi, Galileo etc .. but soon I realized this will sink my time and I won’t be able to focus on the reef keeping specific features , instead was overwhelmed by various architecture specific nuances and raspberry pi was the only ground up sbc with biggest community. Around 0.4 version , made the conscious decision to support only raspberry pi (That too Model B )and Renamed the project as reef-pi.