What printer do you use and is it worth self-building?

[TCoach]

Hey everyone,

So, I've been tinkering with reef-pi and as many of you know, have it working by using Seneye data (30 min refresh due to api limits) and Kasa hs300 power strips. Now I'm looking at how I take it to the next level. I'm a software engineer/DBA by trade, so building it by hand is appealing. The automation side of me wants quick and easy so I can focus on the automation/control. What is your feeling on the value proposition of self-building vs buying one of the pre-built reef-pi controllers?

A couple of other questions:

1. How easy/hard is the 3D printing? I don't own a printer, so are there any recommendations? I can see several other things I can use it for (I.e. a Hanna corvette holder for my AutoAqua magnetic stirrer being one), but it is definitely an initial cost addition to self-building.

2. I see a lot of professional looking plug'n'play boards, how do you go from the reef-pi guides and a pile of wires to these "fancy" boards.

3. Is there an advantage to using a hardwired power strip vs just using the HS300's?

I'm sure I'll have other questions. Thanks for taking time to help me figure out how to go.

 

[kstripp]

Warning: getting a 3D printer is dangerous! It will add to your collection of addictive hobbies!

Seriously though, I got a Prusa MK3 kit and I love it. And it has uses far beyond the reef - I've printed replacement kitchen drawer brackets, bird perch clamps... you get the idea.

 

[attiland]

Hey everyone,

So, I've been tinkering with reef-pi and as many of you know, have it working by using Seneye data (30 min refresh due to api limits) and Kasa hs300 power strips. Now I'm looking at how I take it to the next level. I'm a software engineer/DBA by trade, so building it by hand is appealing. The automation side of me wants quick and easy so I can focus on the automation/control. What is your feeling on the value proposition of self-building vs buying one of the pre-built reef-pi controllers?

A couple of other questions:

1. How easy/hard is the 3D printing? I don't own a printer, so are there any recommendations? I can see several other things I can use it for (I.e. a Hanna corvette holder for my AutoAqua magnetic stirrer being one), but it is definitely an initial cost addition to self-building.

2. I see a lot of professional looking plug'n'play boards, how do you go from the reef-pi guides and a pile of wires to these "fancy" boards.

3. Is there an advantage to using a hardwired power strip vs just using the HS300's?

I'm sure I'll have other questions. Thanks for taking time to help me figure out how to go.

As also an IT here is my input;

it is a love and hate relationship for me running reef-pi. There are prebuilt boards an DIY boards which I think worthy for the money. If you want to save money go for the DIY version.
since you don’t have a 3D printer you have 3 options both works. With the design you can send it to print buy a ready made one or bodge a waterproof box for your needs
To me HS300 has no disadvantage at all. I use a different brand but actually this is the point where reef-pi went out of favour for me as most everyday automation done by that. All my devices are WiFi enabled and can be accessed remotely so pi ended up just measuring temperature or as a plan feed the fish. I may add 24 volt supply to it to switch wave makers on /off
Reef pi is ok with grafana for graphs although it has improved a lot in the last 3 versions
On the other hand reef-pi is lack of good documentation and user friendly interface. Connection of bespoke applications seems to be hard. There is a forum here to get help though.

 

[TCoach]

As also an IT here is my input;

it is a love and hate relationship for me running reef-pi. There are prebuilt boards an DIY boards which I think worthy for the money. If you want to save money go for the DIY version.
since you don’t have a 3D printer you have 3 options both works. With the design you can send it to print buy a ready made one or bodge a waterproof box for your needs
To me HS300 has no disadvantage at all. I use a different brand but actually this is the point where reef-pi went out of favour for me as most everyday automation done by that. All my devices are WiFi enabled and can be accessed remotely so pi ended up just measuring temperature or as a plan feed the fish. I may add 24 volt supply to it to switch wave makers on /off
Reef pi is ok with grafana for graphs although it has improved a lot in the last 3 versions
On the other hand reef-pi is lack of good documentation and user friendly interface. Connection of bespoke applications seems to be hard. There is a forum here to get help though.

I think right now, I'm looking to try and replace my reliance on the Seneye. The Seneye only releases data every 30 minutes, so trying to control temp and pH this way is not the best. I want to lock in to both my temp and pH as a start to increasing the stability of the tank.

Long term, I want to add dosers for dosing kalk or 2 part, control my wavemakers (currently 2 Jebao and 4 old school power heads - using reef-pi to randomize via shell script calling api). Also would love to find an easy way to turn on feed and maintenance modes.

 

[robsworld78]

I have a Tevo Black Widow $500 and a Creality CR-10s Pro v2 $800, I use my original Tevo as my default but did need to get a real power supply for it. They aren't too difficult to use but there is a learning curve. If your comfortable with lots of settings in software, which you should be, it's not bad but can take some time to tune. Definitely cool machines, it really showcases what smart code can do as they are very simple physically. At one point I thought about making my own Robo-Printer lol.

The circuits for a controller are all basic so nothing really special, for me the pH was a challenge though. All Ranjibs tutorials have good circuits that work fine so you could use them and layout the parts on a PCB using free software and there's a ton of site you can get the boards made, that's how you get rid of all those wires. If you aren't running any high power through the board layout isn't so critical but that is a one of the biggest factors of a good design. Again it's a learning process, much more so than printing but if you start with the very basics and revise you can do well, that's the approach I've taken. If you are young and bright eyed I would say it's good skill to add, as you know it's all about code so learn the basics to make a board and who knows what you can come up with. It's not hard to make an Arduino type board that you could make do anything.

I have to disagree with @attiland on the HS300, IMO anything wireless should be avoided for critical applications. What if the network can't connect to the HS300 and it's time to turn off the heater, I think you know how that ends. It would be nice if they added Ethernet jack to them, that would help.

 

[attiland]

I have a Tevo Black Widow $500 and a Creality CR-10s Pro v2 $800, I use my original Tevo as my default but did need to get a real power supply for it. They aren't too difficult to use but there is a learning curve. If your comfortable with lots of settings in software, which you should be, it's not bad but can take some time to tune. Definitely cool machines, it really showcases what smart code can do as they are very simple physically. At one point I thought about making my own Robo-Printer lol.

The circuits for a controller are all basic so nothing really special, for me the pH was a challenge though. All Ranjibs tutorials have good circuits that work fine so you could use them and layout the parts on a PCB using free software and there's a ton of site you can get the boards made, that's how you get rid of all those wires. If you aren't running any high power through the board layout isn't so critical but that is a one of the biggest factors of a good design. Again it's a learning process, much more so than printing but if you start with the very basics and revise you can do well, that's the approach I've taken. If you are young and bright eyed I would say it's good skill to add, as you know it's all about code so learn the basics to make a board and who knows what you can come up with. It's not hard to make an Arduino type board that you could make do anything.

I have to disagree with @attiland on the HS300, IMO anything wireless should be avoided for critical applications. What if the network can't connect to the HS300 and it's time to turn off the heater, I think you know how that ends. It would be nice if they added Ethernet jack to them, that would help.

You are right about wireless in that sense.

this is why I make sure In my application all part can do it’s part alone that therefore WiFi is not a disadvantage. For example the temperature controls for heater are not controlled by Pi. Dosing is not controlled by pi. All systems are standalone smart enough so in case coms failure I lose data not function.
having said that in the last 2 years I have had internet down but no WiFi down meaning if the device connected via WiFi to pi never had a connection loss.
might sound contradicting but I prefer wired network over wireless any time.

 

[agame2021]

1. How easy/hard is the 3D printing? I don't own a printer, so are there any recommendations? I can see several other things I can use it for (I.e. a Hanna corvette holder for my AutoAqua magnetic stirrer being one), but it is definitely an initial cost addition to self-building.

Honestly if you want to try it it’s gonna take a ton of hours to figure out. I naught a tevo tarantula pro(not recommended) and it took me 10 hours to put together and then another few days to calibrate to even keep it functioning. Then I got it working and started learning the different programs you need to learn and then you have to figure out how the programs communicate with the printer(which can get flustering!) after all is said and done I kept having to take breaks because it would be printing good and I would come back to a half baked piece a crap with Filipe to everywhere. Basically very finicky and hard to get right. I have put around 5 months trying to do it as my hobby and got about 2 good prints out of it kinda pathetic but I’m proud I even got that!

if you want to test the waters go with an ender pro. It’s small and cheaper and there is a ton more people who have done videos who can help you out! They have great support systems and this industry is best to stay main stream since it’s still a relatively new market.

If you don’t want to put in the time they have some designers who will 3d design what you want, print it and ship it to you. That way you don’t have to mess with it if you don’t want too. But it’s all up to you!

 

[Ranjib]

3d printing is hard, but its nothing compared to what you can do and what you have already done. If you have the time and passion, just go for it. Its like computer, learning curve is steep, but instead of taking it a competitive thing, take it as a learning opportunity and enjoy it in your own time and i can promise you the learning will be invaluable just like computer.

I'll recommend starting small and get an ender 3, watch two youtube videos on setup and calibration and you should be good to go. We are here to help you out in this journey

godspeed.

 

[Ranjib]

Onto your specific question
1. 3d printing is fairly hard, similar to computer. Think of initial days of linux installation. But it has come long way. Most importantly theres an astronomically big community for it. And just like modern PC build, most curious person will be able to pull it off. It will take some time, but there are incremental benefits (like you can download design and print till you learn to design), just like computers. Whats more important to remember is just like coding, it takes some time to get used to, so embrace the initial hiccups.
2. The pre fab boards are very robust options. They works very much same as the official guides, and provide their own documentation (like the ones robotank has) for cases where they provide specific customizations. Its like buying seeds vs saplings vs full grown plants. There are risks and benefits associated with each of these. If someone finds soldering daunting and has no interest in learning, but still want to tinker or customize with a reef-pi, prefab boards are awesome. They also save time. On the other hand , if you want some tailor made customization (like 16 outlet wired controlled power bar), or ultra cheap, or want to learn electronics through reef-pi, then full on DIY is the way to go.
3. Hard wired powerstrip can be more robust than wifi based ones due to their lack of dependency on wifi. Now again, this depends on internal home setup. I run google mesh wifi and transitioning into ubiquity , so i dont worry about internal wifi network, but still i think wired powerstrip will be more robust. Building custom powerbar also opens up the possibility to fine grain control (normally open, normally closed, Amp rating, fuse etc).
sinerely
ranjib