Reef Pi Build Help!

[Maxx Yung]

Hey fellow reefers,
Recently, I've been looking into the idea of Reef Pi and it seems amazing for me, however, I have little experience with these electrics and technology - hence this thread.
I don't have a pH tester, and I believe my current temp sensor is off calibration, so right now, all I want is the Reef Pi to be connected to several temperature sensors and a pH sensor. However, I would also like the Reef Pi to be able to send the temp/pH data online so I can access it on my mobile device.

Here's my list of materials so far:
pH Sensor - https://store.arduino.cc/usa/gravity-analog-ph-sensor
Temperature Sensor - this or this
Raspberry Pi Zero - (Not sure if this is suitable for this project)
PCA9645 breakout board
5V 2.4A DC power adapter
MCP3008 IC

Questions
On the Reef Pi thread, they have two ICs (MCP3008 IC and L293D IC, do I need both)?
Do I need to buy an additional soldering kit?
Is my build materials sufficient?

 

[Michael Lane]

Hi. reef-pi can definitely do what you are looking for. RPI zero w can run reef-pi just fine as long as you can run it headless. It may be a bit slow if you run a desktop and use something like VNC though.

Temperature - Either of those temperature sensors will work for you. The ones from Amazon will just need a single resistor added.

pH - That pH sensor isn't currently supported by reef-pi. Currently we have driver support for Atlas Scientific and an open source design using ADS1119 from Roberto Buti. I'm currently working on a driver to support ADS1015 and ADS1115, but it's not ready yet.

PCA9685 is usually intended for dosing pump or LED control.

L293D is intended as a motor driver. Many people use them to control dosing pumps. I prefer to use PCA9685 and a ULN2803, but there are trade-offs with each choice.

reef-pi doesn't have a driver for MCP3008, so you can skip that too.

You may need a soldering kit, but that can depend on your goals and what you plan to use. It's possible use breadboards and jumper wires, but that's really only appropriate for temporary builds and prototyping. Otherwise, you should probably get some protoboard to build a permanent set up. There are also a handful of modules that make assembly much easier. If you find that you enjoy it, you can even learn to design your own boards!

It's best to build one functionality at a time and build iteratively. Temperature is an easy start and provides a lot of value up front.

Keep us all posted and we'll help as we can.