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

[bishoptf]

Get a good asus or netgear

Eh opensource is always going to be my answer, lots of good software out there and then its just depends on your speeds as how fast you want to go and if you have some real software there are a lot more options for doing stuff. the problem I have with most commercial stuff is they don't keep them up to date they always want to sell ya the latest and greatest. Like I said, just shoot me a message if you would like to chat more about it.

 

[Dave B]

Hi All - I am attempting to get AdaFruit IO established and keep hitting brick walls. I have scoured the board and help files and think I am close.

1. I have my AdaFruit IO account established, know the UserID and the IO Key and have entered that info into Reef-Pi (2.0)
2. It appears that the Reef Pi is hitting the IO account since these IO feeds got created (not sure why I have so many)

3. I am getting the following errors in Reef Pi

4. None of the feeds contain any data

So I am open for ideas.

I got this working by actually doing nothing. As someone posted, apparently the Adafruit IO servers take some time to propagate once you set things up. Magically and about 4 hours after setup, my data started appearing. I will say that the data ended up in different Adafruit Feeds that were auto-created. I then had to reset the dashboard, using the created feeds. At some point, I will write a process for this to assist new users.

 

[Dave B]

I have a comment about the Temperature Control GUI and the naming of the field on the GUI. I know this was discussed during development but I want to bring it back to the surface.

Typical control scenarios surrounding temperature control (from the HVAC industry), threshold is defined as the Gap between to setpoints. Just like the thermostat that heats and cools your home, each unit has a Threshold. Those same unit have a setpoint. Some thermostats even have adjustable thresholds called anticipators. Really the threshold is just a range of min/max temperatures. So in the Reef-Pi config, my opinion is there should be two settings;

1. Setpoint - The desired target temperature for the tank
2. Threshold - The acceptable Range

As example, Setpoint could be set to 78 Deg F and the Threshold to 1 Deg F. The acceptable range then would be from 77 to 79 in this example. If your not doing corals, the threshold might be larger. a climb of 1.5 Deg above setpoint would bring on the chiller and a decrease below 1.5 Deg would bring on the heat. There would need to be a gap introduced in the center that would prevent both the Heating and Chiller to operate at the same time.

 

[rushbattle]

I got this working by actually doing nothing. As someone posted, apparently the Adafruit IO servers take some time to propagate once you set things up. Magically and about 4 hours after setup, my data started appearing. I will say that the data ended up in different Adafruit Feeds that were auto-created. I then had to reset the dashboard, using the created feeds. At some point, I will write a process for this to assist new users.

I admit, it was pretty frustrating. Ada should point this out somewhere. For something that updates once a second, seems like it would work after a few minutes, if not faster.

 

[crusso1993]

Maybe the reboot did fix it, I'm now able to connect via vnc and browser, thanks for the help, I'm blaming my router on this as it's pretty crap

It just might be your router. However, if it works without issue most of the time then it could be something else. Is it a D-Link router and, if so, is it a DSL-3782? Or is it a Huawei? If it is either of those throw it away! Lol

 

[theatrus]

Dedicated cable modem, Linux PC for routing, Ubiquiti for all WiFi and some switches. But then I have a 10G core network in my house.

 

[stefanm]

@Ranjib I'm going to have a play with hooking up four dosing pump heads today via a PCA 9685, so do I need two inputs into the l293d from the pi's gpio per head? That's a total of 8 plus 2 more to the PCA SCA/SDL, so that's a total of 10, does it matter which gpio pins I can use?

Also I'll be running 8 relays, so that's 8 more pins gone, plus the data for the temperature probes, so I'll be up to 19, now if I also want to run lights later on with another PCA 9685 (version 3.0?) do I have enough useable pins?

 

[Ranjib]

Regarding my previous post, I would find great value in a 16×2 or 16x4 screen always on display, displaying temp, ip address, ph,etc

I have this in my mind. If you check the old posts in this thread , there should be a few posts of me talking about reef-pi physical interface. A barebone lcd panel/mechanical button based interface to do basic configuration as well as display summary information. This does not need to be in reef-pi , that was my learning. I was able to run a dedicated program that uses reef-pi api to get the data and show in a lcd panel .. etc

 

[Ranjib]

I have a comment about the Temperature Control GUI and the naming of the field on the GUI. I know this was discussed during development but I want to bring it back to the surface.

Typical control scenarios surrounding temperature control (from the HVAC industry), threshold is defined as the Gap between to setpoints. Just like the thermostat that heats and cools your home, each unit has a Threshold. Those same unit have a setpoint. Some thermostats even have adjustable thresholds called anticipators. Really the threshold is just a range of min/max temperatures. So in the Reef-Pi config, my opinion is there should be two settings;

1. Setpoint - The desired target temperature for the tank
2. Threshold - The acceptable Range

As example, Setpoint could be set to 78 Deg F and the Threshold to 1 Deg F. The acceptable range then would be from 77 to 79 in this example. If your not doing corals, the threshold might be larger. a climb of 1.5 Deg above setpoint would bring on the chiller and a decrease below 1.5 Deg would bring on the heat. There would need to be a gap introduced in the center that would prevent both the Heating and Chiller to operate at the same time.

How it is different from the current setup? If we are allowing specifying min and max , it’s anither way of specifying setpoint and tolerance . You are effectively controlling hysteresis

 

[b4tn]

@Ranjib I'm going to have a play with hooking up four dosing pump heads today via a PCA 9685, so do I need two inputs into the l293d from the pi's gpio per head? That's a total of 8 plus 2 more to the PCA SCA/SDL, so that's a total of 10, does it matter which gpio pins I can use?

Also I'll be running 8 relays, so that's 8 more pins gone, plus the data for the temperature probes, so I'll be up to 19, now if I also want to run lights later on with another PCA 9685 (version 3.0?) do I have enough useable pins?

If you disabled spi when you set up your rpi that frees up more gpio pins that can be used. It doesn’t matter which pins you use. As far as I know the only pin that’s required to stay the same as the guide is the one wire pin for the temp probe and pins 18 and 19 if you are using built in pwm. All the other pins are free to use as Gpio.

I did not try this so cannot say if it will work or not but was thinking. The input pins just tell the motor which way to turn. So one goes low and the other is the high signal to trigger the motor. Since we don’t really care about motor direction for dosing pumps you could potentially save 3 output pins by using one gpio pin to all the low side inputs of the 293. This would put one side of all 4 motors to low then you would have 4 individual control pins to the high side.

 

[stefanm]

If you disabled spi when you set up your rpi that frees up more gpio pins that can be used. It doesn’t matter which pins you use. As far as I know the only pin that’s required to stay the same as the guide is the one wire pin for the temp probe and pins 18 and 19 if you are using built in pwm. All the other pins are free to use as Gpio.

I did not try this so cannot say if it will work or not but was thinking. The input pins just tell the motor which way to turn. So one goes low and the other is the high signal to trigger the motor. Since we don’t really care about motor direction for dosing pumps you could potentially save 3 output pins by using one gpio pin to all the low side inputs of the 293. This would put one side of all 4 motors to low then you would have 4 individual control pins to the high side.

Thank you.

Makes sense, I was researching this all day almost came to the same conclusion, though wasn't quite sure, right now I've wired it up with the extra 3 wires, just for testing, hopefully won't blow anything up....

 

[Dave's Reef]

Finally finished up my second reef-pi build. Time to start the 3rd

 

[b4tn]

Finally finished up my second reef-pi build. Time to start the 3rd

Nice, what size box is that? I see you have power, lights, doser, and temp/ATO. What are the relays for?

 

[daveCB]

How it is different from the current setup? If we are allowing specifying min and max , it’s anither way of specifying setpoint and tolerance . You are effectively controlling hysteresis

That is really what I would like to have control over. The +/- tolerance.

 

[dmolavi]

That is really what I would like to have control over. The +/- tolerance.

I agree that the gap/drift/threshold is the more commonly used syntax in HVAC, ie 79F +/- 1F, instead of a min/max. At the end of the day, it's the same thing, and the backend code could easily convert the drift to a max/min for use. Should be trivial for anyone to make that change, if that's what they want.

 

[dmolavi]

@Ranjib - I think that for my DLI smart power switch, I'm going to need to create a new driver, since I will still need the 'equipment' module for other stuff (ATO monitoring, specifically).

To do this, I'll have to clone/fork the main git repo for reef-pi and reef-pi/drivers/ correct? Then drop my stuff into a new subdirectory in there...

How will I ensure that my code is built into reef-pi?

Also, where do I put UI elements for it?

 

[Dave's Reef]

Nice, what size box is that? I see you have power, lights, doser, and temp/ATO. What are the relays for?

The box is a 9x6x3.5 ish. The relays run solenoids one is a spare one will run my RO/DI solenoid for my ATO

 

[b4tn]

I got to thinking with all this talk about heater switching and my heater switches on and off a lot even set to 1 minute check intervals. This cant be good on a mechanical relay. I started looking at some solid state relays that could be used just for the heater channel and they all have a max current draw of 2 amps. I have a 250 watt heater and was actually looking to get a 300 watt soon so 250/120=2.07 amps and 300/120=2.5 amps. Does anyone know of a source for 3-4 amp 12 volt solid state relays?

 

[Diamond1]

I got to thinking with all this talk about heater switching and my heater switches on and off a lot even set to 1 minute check intervals. This cant be good on a mechanical relay. I started looking at some solid state relays that could be used just for the heater channel and they all have a max current draw of 2 amps. I have a 250 watt heater and was actually looking to get a 300 watt soon so 250/120=2.07 amps and 300/120=2.5 amps. Does anyone know of a source for 3-4 amp 12 volt solid state relays?

Maybe something like this?
https://www.amazon.com/Solid-State-...54737&sr=8-16&keywords=12v+solid+state+relays

 

[stefanm]

I got to thinking with all this talk about heater switching and my heater switches on and off a lot even set to 1 minute check intervals. This cant be good on a mechanical relay. I started looking at some solid state relays that could be used just for the heater channel and they all have a max current draw of 2 amps. I have a 250 watt heater and was actually looking to get a 300 watt soon so 250/120=2.07 amps and 300/120=2.5 amps. Does anyone know of a source for 3-4 amp 12 volt solid state relays?

You'll need something like this, should be simple to hook up, the Jayfish controller (similar to reef pi) uses this for its dosing set up.