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

[elysics]

Someone I helped with doing a similar thing had the problem that part of the connector inside the lamp was corroded and did not make contact, so the light ignored the signal.

Hence my suggestion to hardwire stable voltages to the pins to see what happens, to figure at which end of the cable the problem is, or whether it is the cable itself.

 

[bishoptf]

what does "does not change" mean? Stays at 100%? Stays off?

Different approach: do the voltages also show up at the end of the cable, or did you just measure the output at the board?

Also, what happens if instead of connecting the cable to the board, you connect the ground line to ground, and the two other lines to a resistor that also goes to ground?

Not change mean that the light is on but doesnt respond to me changing the intensities on reefpi. I measured at the plug end, it shows voltage for tip and ring and slave as ground. I change the percentage on reefpi and it changes at the plug tip, but when I insert it into the light it just stays on its current setting, no change.

 

[bishoptf]

Someone I helped with doing a similar thing had the problem that part of the connector inside the lamp was corroded and did not make contact, so the light ignored the signal.

Hence my suggestion to hardwire stable voltages to the pins to see what happens, to figure at which end of the cable the problem is, or whether it is the cable itself.

I verified the cable multiple ways, one was a continuity test before I crimped my connectors, tip, ring and sleeve all were fine. Not sure what else to try, I do have another tip and was going to see if it made any difference, but the one I have now looks and tests fine.

 

[bishoptf]

I do not have a variable control dc supply but I do have buck converters, could I use a buck converter and turn the voltage down to say 5v and see if that worked. Just trying to figure out how to test it further and figure out what could be the issue.

Thanks

 

[elysics]

I do not have a variable control dc supply but I do have buck converters, could I use a buck converter and turn the voltage down to say 5v and see if that worked. Just trying to figure out how to test it further and figure out what could be the issue.

Thanks

I don't know that lamp, how involved would it be to take it apart and measure in the lamp? Doesn't sound like the rest is the issue

 

[lucasw]

I have a nicrew 0-10v running off a robo tank. It is working correctly now, but I am getting some flickering when dimming. The connector on the light is a 4-pin TRRS (tip, 2 rings, sleeve) DO NOT go by the diagram on Nicrew’s Amazon page which shows it as a regular headphone (TRS) jack. Tip is channel 1, first sleeve is channel 2, second sleeve is a 24v output (for powering the as-yet unreleased nicrew controller) and the sleeve is ground. I killed a Pi when I used a headphone jack the first time around so I am speaking from experience. Wired it up as per the Amazon page, plugged it in, and got magic smoke from my Pi.

double check all your connections with a multimeter before you do a live run, and DO NOT plug or unplug the jack from the light when it is on, or you may short out the contacts.

 

[robsworld78]

The Nicrew is 0-10v Analog, quite a few people are using it and they seem to like. @lucasw try changing the PWM frequency for the pca9685 driver to 600 instead of the 150 it's likely set to, this should clear up the flickering.

@Tom Bishop looks like you have things connected correctly, maybe check the ground is actually connected from Pi to ground going to light, if there's no common ground I think you'll have full power and no dimming even if signal voltage changes.

The plug in the Nicrew is actually a TRRS as mentioned, one ring has +24v on it which is used to power the Nicrew controller, apparently shorting out the ring (+24v) and sleeve (GND) you will get a ground that's why the Amazon listing shows a TRS connector.

NICREW HyperReef blackbox hard to find info

how so, you got full control of the lights with timers, dimming and spectrum? looking into getting some of these for my 90 there are only 2 channels white and blue so you can control timing and dimming for each of the 2 channels.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[bishoptf]

The Nicrew is 0-10v Analog, quite a few people are using it and they seem to like. @lucasw try changing the PWM frequency for the pca9685 driver to 600 instead of the 150 it's likely set to, this should clear up the flickering.

@Tom Bishop looks like you have things connected correctly, maybe check the ground is actually connected from Pi to ground going to light, if there's no common ground I think you'll have full power and no dimming even if signal voltage changes.

The plug in the Nicrew is actually a TRRS as mentioned, one ring has +24v on it which is used to power the Nicrew controller, apparently shorting out the ring (+24v) and sleeve (GND) you will get a ground that's why the Amazon listing shows a TRS connector.

NICREW HyperReef blackbox hard to find info

how so, you got full control of the lights with timers, dimming and spectrum? looking into getting some of these for my 90 there are only 2 channels white and blue so you can control timing and dimming for each of the 2 channels.

www.reef2reef.com

So a three tip plug should be fine, if I read that correct, if you short the one ring to ground it acts like a ground. I have a three tip plug but the light is not changing to any input.

 

[robsworld78]

So a three tip plug should be fine, if I read that correct, if you short the one ring to ground it acts like a ground. I have a three tip plug but the light is not changing to any input.

I believe so but @lucasw thinks that might have ruined his Pi. Only thing I can think other than no common ground is try a TRRS cable so you have access to the GND and not shorting any pins in light.

If you have some cable you could open the light and solder directly to the jack internally to test saving you from getting a TRRS cable.

 

[bishoptf]

The Nicrew is 0-10v Analog, quite a few people are using it and they seem to like. @lucasw try changing the PWM frequency for the pca9685 driver to 600 instead of the 150 it's likely set to, this should clear up the flickering.

@Tom Bishop looks like you have things connected correctly, maybe check the ground is actually connected from Pi to ground going to light, if there's no common ground I think you'll have full power and no dimming even if signal voltage changes.

The plug in the Nicrew is actually a TRRS as mentioned, one ring has +24v on it which is used to power the Nicrew controller, apparently shorting out the ring (+24v) and sleeve (GND) you will get a ground that's why the Amazon listing shows a TRS connector.

NICREW HyperReef blackbox hard to find info

how so, you got full control of the lights with timers, dimming and spectrum? looking into getting some of these for my 90 there are only 2 channels white and blue so you can control timing and dimming for each of the 2 channels.

www.reef2reef.com

Ground checks out, verif

I believe so but @lucasw thinks that might have ruined his Pi. Only thing I can think other than no common ground is try a TRRS cable so you have access to the GND and not shorting any pins in light.

I do not think I have a trrs plug, the information on amazon specifically calls out a trs plug, they mention a trrs plug and state to not use ring 2 close to the sleeve. I have verified the grounds and they look good but I am missing something, going to see when I have the plug in the light and see if the multimeter reads anything.

 

[bishoptf]

I do not see any power coming out of the trs plug when plugged into the light, no voltage at all. I think a three tipped plug should work and be safe since you don't want 24v being fed back. Not sure what else to try at this point, it all looks good but the light is not reacting like it should, light could have issues in that regard, never tested it so how would I know and I do not have anything else to try it on.

 

[robsworld78]

I do not see any power coming out of the trs plug when plugged into the light, no voltage at all. I think a three tipped plug should work and be safe since you don't want 24v being fed back. Not sure what else to try at this point, it all looks good but the light is not reacting like it should, light could have issues in that regard, never tested it so how would I know and I do not have anything else to try it on.

Yeah I think if a TRS is plugged in TRRS jack the sleeve will short out the bottom ring which would be the 3 Pin mode, unfortunately I don't have a TRRS jack to verify though. If you get no voltage with TRS plugged in it sounds like is doing what it should.

Can you find another DC power point in the light? With the TRS plugged in use the sleeve for ground probe and see if it is indeed a ground.

I guess another thing you could test is connect light to adapter and see if you get 0-10v testing from the jack in light. You tested plug but how about jack when its plugged in.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Hey all, its been a while since I posted in this thread. I was looking over the reef brite schematic that @Ryan115 posted a while back and wanted to confirm something...
(here is the post https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/r...ler-based-on-raspberry-pi.289256/post-5170928)

I am trying to hook up my Lumilite strips to my reef pi and in the above post it looks like the PWM voltage to the lights is 0-10V but the power supply that my lights are running on now is a 24V supply. Not sure how the schematic changes and if I bought the wrong voltage regulators as I got the LM7810. Does the in-line dimmer that comes with the lights drop that down to 10V..? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[bishoptf]

Yeah I think if a TRS is plugged in TRRS jack the sleeve will short out the bottom ring which would be the 3 Pin mode, unfortunately I don't have a TRRS jack to verify though. If you get no voltage with TRS plugged in it sounds like is doing what it should.

Can you find another DC power point in the light? With the TRS plugged in use the sleeve for ground probe and see if it is indeed a ground.

I guess another thing you could test is connect light to adapter and see if you get 0-10v testing from the jack in light. You tested plug but how about jack when its plugged in.

Yeah I'm a little reluctant to take it apart, its the only one I have for my frag/qt tank and not wanting something to happen to it. I was trying to think of another way to get 0-10v to the light and see if that worked, I have a buck converter and was thinking of using that, what do you think?

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Hey all, its been a while since I posted in this thread. I was looking over the reef brite schematic that @Ryan115 posted a while back and wanted to confirm something...
(here is the post https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/r...ler-based-on-raspberry-pi.289256/post-5170928)

I am trying to hook up my Lumilite strips to my reef pi and in the above post it looks like the PWM voltage to the lights is 0-10V but the power supply that my lights are running on now is a 24V supply. Not sure how the schematic changes and if I bought the wrong voltage regulators as I got the LM7810. Does the in-line dimmer that comes with the lights drop that down to 10V..? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I think I got myself on the right path. Not sure how the post listed in the Additional Resources applied to Reef Brite but the LumiLite strips just take a voltage of 0-24V so I should just be able to use a n-channel MOSFET pretty much identical to the original lighting guide. I will keep searching around but I think I way over complicated this. I should have paid attention in my electrical classes back in college.

 

[Martin Lowry]

PH Probe issues.

I have the Michael Lane PH Board and a Milwaukee Instruments MA913B/3 pH Probe. I plugged the probe onto the board today, configured it and everything seems to be working, but I'm seeing a current PH reading of 58. Strange as my PH meter is showing 8.1 . Maybe there's something else that I need to configure (RPI 4.1), not sure, but if anyone has any ideas as to why the strange reading I would appreciate some help

 

[bishoptf]

PH Probe issues.

I have the Michael Lane PH Board and a Milwaukee Instruments MA913B/3 pH Probe. I plugged the probe onto the board today, configured it and everything seems to be working, but I'm seeing a current PH reading of 58. Strange as my PH meter is showing 8.1 . Maybe there's something else that I need to configure (RPI 4.1), not sure, but if anyone has any ideas as to why the strange reading I would appreciate some help

I've had issues with PH probes also, usually the idea is to calibrate it with a calibration fluid for the various calibration fluids then it should track accordingly.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Question... In the lighting example with the MOSFETs we use a resistor between the PWM and gnd I am guessing to protect the PWM pins or to pull voltage down to zero.. Anyways, for a 12V setup like the LED strip in the example it shows a 1K ohm but if I am using a 24 V power supply does the resistor also need to change?

 

[Ranjib]

Question... In the lighting example with the MOSFETs we use a resistor between the PWM and gnd I am guessing to protect the PWM pins or to pull voltage down to zero.. Anyways, for a 12V setup like the LED strip in the example it shows a 1K ohm but if I am using a 24 V power supply does the resistor also need to change?

Should be fine. You can also use ULN2803 like darlingtons if the current draw is less than 500ma
you can also search for LED mosfet circuit, and that will give you quiet a few good reference

MOSFET-LED

A sample circuit used to test a MOSFET driving an LED, controlled by a momentary switch.

www.circuitlab.com

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Should be fine. You can also use ULN2803 like darlingtons if the current draw is less than 500ma
you can also search for LED mosfet circuit, and that will give you quiet a few good reference

MOSFET-LED

A sample circuit used to test a MOSFET driving an LED, controlled by a momentary switch.

www.circuitlab.com

Its a 30W supply so I would likely be outside of that range. I will read around before I finish wiring it up and testing. It is just very dense reading material haha

Thanks!