Another reef-pi build.
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You pretty summed up me lol. I like building things and can follow directions pretty well. I have a very a basic understanding of linux but typically have to google the more advanced stuff. I do wish I knew more about coding. I was asking a software engineer friend of mine the other day if he knew python and he said "yeah I can code in python" so I asked for some learning resources and he said "google, thats how I would do it" Turns out he has never used python but feels confident enough that he could get around it quickly if needed. I guess some people are just wired to understand it better than others.
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So one is actually an HD15 connector. The power box needed 8 pins for the GPIO and 2 more for power and ground so a DB9 wasnt going to work. The DB9 connector on the right goes to the doser motor box which is only 4 pins total with more if I decide to add more dosers. Its actually just a jebao doser that I am going to gut and re use the motors until I get nicer ones.
Everybody has their specialty. Playing well together is what makes advancement possible, here and in life in general!
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@ScottBrew Funny I was listing to a a guy speaking last night that had a job I had never heard of. His sole purpose in his job was to help the engineers communicate with the technicians lol. Evidently without an intermediary it was chaos.
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I can see that
, communication is a big hurdle between disciplines
I can see that
One of my favorite quotes is "I was not consulted during the design phase!" [from Jim, a guy I used to work with]. I'm often asking "what were they thinking?" when they designed this or wrote the software. Inaccessible bolts, taking half a machine apart to replace one small part, useless software tools, or specialty tools that nobody has, etc. That applies to what I do now, working on medical equipment, what I used to do, a mechanic or pretty much any other field. The engineers, mechanical, electrical or software have parameters they have to work within that aren't always (usually) compatible with anybody else's! As the technician, I have to put up with all of them.
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@Ranjib , do you know what causes this error? I originally tested the PCA9685 by putting my LED with current limiting resistor 4xx ohm iirc directly on the pwm pin to ground. It dimmed and worked like it should. Now I get nothing on the output pins and get the below error. I’m testing with 3 volt 20mA LED’s with a 100 ohm resistor. I don’t read any voltage with a meter on the pwm pins. Both data pins and vcc have 3.3 volts. I have tried disabling and re enabling the pca9685 with a reboot in config with no luck.
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The first error indicate pca9685 is not recognized. Check if you have i2c enabled and pca9685 address value is correct (using i2cdetect -y 1)@Ranjib , do you know what causes this error? I originally tested the PCA9685 by putting my LED with current limiting resistor 4xx ohm iirc directly on the pwm pin to ground. It dimmed and worked like it should. Now I get nothing on the output pins and get the below error. I’m testing with 3 volt 20mA LED’s with a 100 ohm resistor. I don’t read any voltage with a meter on the pwm pins. Both data pins and vcc have 3.3 volts. I have tried disabling and re enabling the pca9685 with a reboot in config with no luck.
The second and third error indicate metric submission to adafruit failed twice. It happens sometime if you reboot pi, and reef-pi starts up earlier than netwok is setup (hence the metric submission failure).
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Hmm, I had to take everything apart to put the transistors in and after I put everything back together it works. Which concerns me a bit because that sounds like a loose connection somewhere if it’s intermittent.
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So much on this project is starting to look like an afterthought. Here are the pn2222 transistors soldered in place. It’s messier than I like but the relays work like a charm now.
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So much on this project is starting to look like an afterthought. Here are the pn2222 transistors soldered in place. It’s messier than I like but the relays work like a charm now.
One of the things I have found in the process of redoing my boards is that a lot of the push on female jumper cables I used have a tendency to loosen up after they have been plugged onto the board a few times. I see that you have quite a few of them in your build could it be that some of them have loosened up on you?
I found that giving them a little squeeze with a pair of needle nose pliers tightens them back up a bit and might help with intermittent connections.
Just for a point of reference here's a pic of the AV plug mini xlrs and 1/8 stereo jack you asked about. The mini XLRs are looking to be my favorite so far and their footprint is only slightly bigger than the 1/8" jacks.
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I love the mini xlrs, cant wait to put them on use
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I love the mini xlrs, cant wait to put them on use
I like everything about them, good strong connection that locks in place, you don't need to worry about plugging them in with power on and they up solder nicely without a lot of heat on the plastic parts.
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I am not disappointed with what I have but those min xlr's do look nice. If I had to do it over I would probably get those.
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@Diamond1 when you took apart your OR fixtures do you think there would be room to drill small holes for LED's in the rows that form an + between the lights? Or is it inaccessible?
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There should be room. The drivers are about 3/4" to 1" above the base of the ligh and there's a space between them in the middle. Might even be enogh room for a low profile heatsink. I'll post some pics after work tonight.
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Awesome, thanks!
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When you don’t have a breadboard but really, really, want to test out your idea lol. I have exactly one pin left in each of my 9 pin connectors and I have about 100 5mm blue LED’s so I decided to work moon lights into my build. 12 volts and ground are already available in the light housing so all I need is to run one of the 14 available PWM pins to the housing. Works perfect. The idea was to run 3 or 4 LED’s per housing and work them into the timers and ramping control. But I wasn’t sure how the best way to do would be. I ended up using 3 LED’s with a current limiting resistor of 150 ohms. Here is the circuit
They are all in series but I may look into driving them In parallel so if one dies it doesn’t take out the whole circuit. In series they draw 20mA in parallel it would be more like 60mA which the PN2222 should handle easily.
My breadboardless test in series. 12 volt PWM and dimming works just fine
They are all in series but I may look into driving them In parallel so if one dies it doesn’t take out the whole circuit. In series they draw 20mA in parallel it would be more like 60mA which the PN2222 should handle easily.
My breadboardless test in series. 12 volt PWM and dimming works just fine
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@b4tn Here's a shot of the inside of my lights. Hope it helps.
There looks like there might be enough room for a couple of leds right in the middle of the base. There's about 1 1/2 inches between the drivers. and the drivers hang down to just below the heatsinks.
There looks like there might be enough room for a couple of leds right in the middle of the base. There's about 1 1/2 inches between the drivers. and the drivers hang down to just below the heatsinks.
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