Reef Pi Build

[b4tn]

I used freshwater for the test. The probe is covered in silicon and water getting in shouldn't be an issue but you never know. I've had problems with the probe from the start. I will be ordering a pack of 5 new probes today.

Awesome write up. I got a lot out of the AC wiring portion. I had a general idea of what needed to be done but you described it clearly with pics

As for the temp probes. I got a 3 pack on amazon for I think $4.99. So far two have stopped working completely and I only have one that has worked reliably. I wonder if there is a good place to order these that have been through QC?

 

[money88]

Awesome write up. I got a lot out of the AC wiring portion. I had a general idea of what needed to be done but you described it clearly with pics

As for the temp probes. I got a 3 pack on amazon for I think $4.99. So far two have stopped working completely and I only have one that has worked reliably. I wonder if there is a good place to order these that have been through QC?

I've used this one from sparkfun and never had issues unlike a lot of the ones I used from amazon and ebay.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11050

Plus it's all plastic so you dont have so silicone it to prevent rusting. I've been using it in my tank for close to 2 years whereas my old one stopped working within a few months.

 

[b4tn]

I've used this one from sparkfun and never had issues unlike a lot of the ones I used from amazon and ebay.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11050

Plus it's all plastic so you dont have so silicone it to prevent rusting. I've been using it in my tank for close to 2 years whereas my old one stopped working within a few months.

Funny because thats the exact one I am looking at.

 

[Diamond1]

Awesome write up. I got a lot out of the AC wiring portion. I had a general idea of what needed to be done but you described it clearly with pics

As for the temp probes. I got a 3 pack on amazon for I think $4.99. So far two have stopped working completely and I only have one that has worked reliably. I wonder if there is a good place to order these that have been through QC?

Thanks glad it helped you out. I learned a lot as I was doing it.

 

[Diamond1]

I've used this one from sparkfun and never had issues unlike a lot of the ones I used from amazon and ebay.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11050

Plus it's all plastic so you dont have so silicone it to prevent rusting. I've been using it in my tank for close to 2 years whereas my old one stopped working within a few months.

Cool thanks for the link. I haven't gotten one yet so I'll look into getting one like that.

 

[Diamond1]

I got the temperature probe sorted out today and it seems to be working fine at the moment and is controlling the heater as it should. I ordered 5 more sensors in case the new one I'm using has any issues. My new rpi will be here Saturday morning.

I have also been thinking about a way to control my Ocean Revive T247 fixture.

The drivers run on 3.3 volts and it is fairly easy to hack into the wiring and bypass the onboard timer and dimmer controls. My plan is to use the raspberry pi's pwm straight from the pi to control the led drivers and 2 12V DC relays to control turning the drivers and cooling fans on. Since there are only 2 channels in the fixture I should be able to control the ramp up and down of both channels using GPIO pins 18 and 19 then assign the pins in the connectors tab as jacks and then assign them in the lighting tab and use that to control the ramp up and down. I will be testing this out Saturday. I'm also planning on using a DB9 cable to run from the controller to the fixture for the PWM signal, ground, 12V and on/off wire.

Here's the diagram I drew up in paint to test the circuit.
If anyone sees any problems or anything I need to add to the circuit please feel free to comment.

 

[Ranjib]

There will be LM2596 for 12V -> 5V conversion?

 

[Diamond1]

There will be LM2596 for 12V -> 5V conversion?

Yes there will be. If it works I will be adding the above circuit to this board.

 

[crusso1993]

I got the temperature probe sorted out today and it seems to be working fine at the moment and is controlling the heater as it should. I ordered 5 more sensors in case the new one I'm using has any issues. My new rpi will be here Saturday morning.

I have also been thinking about a way to control my Ocean Revive T247 fixture.

The drivers run on 3.3 volts and it is fairly easy to hack into the wiring and bypass the onboard timer and dimmer controls. My plan is to use the raspberry pi's pwm straight from the pi to control the led drivers and 2 12V DC relays to control turning the drivers and cooling fans on. Since there are only 2 channels in the fixture I should be able to control the ramp up and down of both channels using GPIO pins 18 and 19 then assign the pins in the connectors tab as jacks and then assign them in the lighting tab and use that to control the ramp up and down. I will be testing this out Saturday. I'm also planning on using a DB9 cable to run from the controller to the fixture for the PWM signal, ground, 12V and on/off wire.

Here's the diagram I drew up in paint to test the circuit.
If anyone sees any problems or anything I need to add to the circuit please feel free to comment.

@Diamond1 - Out of curiosity; any particular reason(s) your choosing the wire color for the ground in red? Being that it's different from the rest of your reef-pi system could make for confusing and possible complications down the road.

 

[ScottBrew]

Awesome write up. I got a lot out of the AC wiring portion. I had a general idea of what needed to be done but you described it clearly with pics

As for the temp probes. I got a 3 pack on amazon for I think $4.99. So far two have stopped working completely and I only have one that has worked reliably. I wonder if there is a good place to order these that have been through QC?

Which brand did you get from Amazon? I got these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LY53CED/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 all 5 worked out of the box, all are within a degree of each other. I took the 3 closest ones to use and the other 2 for backups.

 

[b4tn]

Which brand did you get from Amazon? I got these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LY53CED/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 all 5 worked out of the box, all are within a degree of each other. I took the 3 closest ones to use and the other 2 for backups.

The listing for the ones I got are not available anymore. I was reading reviews and I guess a lot of these probes are packed with Chinese knock off chips. The ones I ordered one guy cut one open and it was not a Dallas chip inside but something else.

 

[Diamond1]

@Diamond1 - Out of curiosity; any particular reason(s) your choosing the wire color for the ground in red? Being that it's different from the rest of your reef-pi system could make for confusing and possible complications down the road.

I was just using the same colors that they used inside the fixture to keep things straight in my mind with what I was working with. It will change when I get things wired up and running.

 

[Diamond1]

Spent a good deal of time working with my t247 fixture yesterday. I got the pi configured to run pwm at 3.3 volts off of gpio 18 and was able to confirm that reef pi was controlling the voltage output from 0v to 3.2volts by changing the output level via the lighting control and measuring it with a multi meter.

I was also able to confirm that by bypassing the t247's onboard timer I was able to turn the lights and fan on by connecting the on/off wire to the 12 volt wire via a jumper wire or a relay.

I was not able to get the pi to control the dimming of the lights however.
Not sure if it's something lacking in the circuit but all my testing has been unsuccessful.

So my questions at this point are:
Is there something I can add to the circuit which will allow better control of the pwm signal?
Is the pwm straight from the pi enough to control the driver?

One good thing is I was able to clean up the inside of the fixture. After 3+ years of service it was pretty funky.

Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome.

 

[crusso1993]

Spent a good deal of time working with my t247 fixture yesterday. I got the pi configured to run pwm at 3.3 volts off of gpio 18 and was able to confirm that reef pi was controlling the voltage output from 0v to 3.2volts by changing the output level via the lighting control and measuring it with a multi meter.

I was also able to confirm that by bypassing the t247's onboard timer I was able to turn the lights and fan on by connecting the on/off wire to the 12 volt wire via a jumper wire or a relay.

I was not able to get the pi to control the dimming of the lights however.
Not sure if it's something lacking in the circuit but all my testing has been unsuccessful.

So my questions at this point are:
Is there something I can add to the circuit which will allow better control of the pwm signal?
Is the pwm straight from the pi enough to control the driver?

One good thing is I was able to clean up the inside of the fixture. After 3+ years of service it was pretty funky.

Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome.

@Diamond1 - let me start by saying you're way ahead of me in this stuff. As a matter of fact, I am curious to know if some of the "advanced" reef pi users/coders have had some education/training but that is for another thread.
Anyway, goofy question; did you turn on pwm in boot log and save setting?
Also, I wonder if @b4tn has made any advancements with his lights/controller? Maybe he can help.

 

[b4tn]

If I recall you may need to mess with the frequency which I don’t think is available If you are using the doser control to adjust the lights. Have you tried running it through the actual light control portion of reef-pi?

 

[Ranjib]

T247 uses 3.3V pwm? or you are converting it into some other voltage. I'll recommend playing with the PWM frequency as @b4tn mentioned. Try 10, 20, 80, 200, 1000, 2000. Everytime you update the rpi pwm frequency, set the light intensity to 0 before and reload reef-pi after.

 

[Diamond1]

@Diamond1 - let me start by saying you're way ahead of me in this stuff. As a matter of fact, I am curious to know if some of the "advanced" reef pi users/coders have had some education/training but that is for another thread.
Anyway, goofy question; did you turn on pwm in boot log and save setting?
Also, I wonder if @b4tn has made any advancements with his lights/controller? Maybe he can help.

Like most things in my life I'm self taught. Whether that's good or bad remains to be seen but I have fun doing it.

If I recall you may need to mess with the frequency which I don’t think is available If you are using the doser control to adjust the lights. Have you tried running it through the actual light control portion of reef-pi?

I have tried both the dosing pump controller and the light controller. No luck with the dosing controller but I was able to record a voltage change from 3.3 to 0 using the lighting control.

T247 uses 3.3V pwm? or you are converting it into some other voltage. I'll recommend playing with the PWM frequency as @b4tn mentioned. Try 10, 20, 80, 200, 1000, 2000. Everytime you update the rpi pwm frequency, set the light intensity to 0 before and reload reef-pi after.

Yes the pwm on the driver is 3.3 volts. I will try to change the frequency and see what happens. It's probably what I am missing. Right now it's set to 100.

 

[Ranjib]

Like most things in my life I'm self taught. Whether that's good or bad remains to be seen but I have fun doing it.



I have tried both the dosing pump controller and the light controller. No luck with the dosing controller but I was able to record a voltage change from 3.3 to 0 using the lighting control.



Yes the pwm on the driver is 3.3 volts. I will try to change the frequency and see what happens. It's probably what I am missing. Right now it's set to 100.

Dosing controller didn’t work? Can you share some details ? If you have shared them already then leave it, I’ll go through the thread, but it should not be complicated , may be we are missing something small

 

[Diamond1]

Dosing controller didn’t work? Can you share some details ? If you have shared them already then leave it, I’ll go through the thread, but it should not be complicated , may be we are missing something small

I wasn't able to get the lights to respond using the dosing controller. I checked it using reef-pi software like I did with the lighting controller, assigning it to the correct pins and playing with the software to change the speed and got nothing, I didn't check to see if the pwm was responding like it did on the lighting controller with a multi meter. I would assume that it does but if the frequency is the problem I would expect the same result.
I still need to experiment with changing the pwm frequency in reef-pi.

I have to take a break from all things reef pi. I had a pipe burst in the wall behind my shower. So I'm in the process of ripping out a wall and doing some home repairs. Once that's taken care of I will get back to this.
Gotta love the messes life throws at you.:mad:

 

[crusso1993]

I wasn't able to get the lights to respond using the dosing controller. I checked it using reef-pi software like I did with the lighting controller, assigning it to the correct pins and playing with the software to change the speed and got nothing, I didn't check to see if the pwm was responding like it did on the lighting controller with a multi meter. I would assume that it does but if the frequency is the problem I would expect the same result.
I still need to experiment with changing the pwm frequency in reef-pi.

I have to take a break from all things reef pi. I had a pipe burst in the wall behind my shower. So I'm in the process of ripping out a wall and doing some home repairs. Once that's taken care of I will get back to this.
Gotta love the messes life throws at you.:mad:

Dude! A burst pipe in the wall? Is it copper? An exterior wall with lack of insulation? What happened that caused it to burst?
If you were closer, I'd come by and fix it for you.