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

[Urtoo]

I believe the jitter and latency is a factor. I believe the same many say RC vehicles, they don’t suggest using pigpio and do suggest using hardware PwM board for control.

 

[Ranjib]

This is probably an ignorant question so bear with me. Is there a reason we can’t use software PWM on the other GPIO pins to drive the light channels?

The current pi ecosystem only exposes two hardware timers. which are then exposed as pwm pins in GPIO18 and 19. Those can be remapped to some other pins, but as far as i can tell two is the limit. You can ofcourse do software pwm on any GPIO, but we dont do that in reef-pi, due to myriad if performance and stability issues.

 

[Ranjib]

Too much tech talk , let’s cherish the animals we do this for , shall we?
Pico

closeup

sps in biocube

Goniopora

 

[MikeSpike]

Can you link the relays you used?

Amazon product

and

5V 6 Channel Relay Module 250V AC 30V DC Arduino Pi TTL Flux Workshop 742776923090 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 5V 6 Channel Relay Module 250V AC 30V DC Arduino Pi TTL Flux Workshop at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.

www.ebay.co.uk

I Like the display with the power consumption values, how did you do that? You have a link where is explained how to make that???

Thanks! Its just an AC power monitor from amazon. Got the idea from someone else TBH

After researching online - i gave the broken relays some hard bangs which sorted them - put the power controller back together and low and behold another one got stuck. did the same again and then another one.

Seems strange this is happening so often (and they are different brands of board) so don't think it they are faulty. Anyone got any idea why they keep on sticking. Definitely not overloading them. Total draw on my whole system is less than 2A

 

[Des Westcott]

Yes. E.g my skimmer. It just stays on even when I turn it off

I've had this. It is the relay that has welded itself closed. Happened to 3 out of the 8 on a bank of relays.

 

[MikeSpike]

I've had this. It is the relay that has welded itself closed. Happened to 3 out of the 8 on a bank of relays.
Yeah, as above some banging released it. But dont know why its happening to so many. Getting me a little worried especially on the auto top off module! what if that relay failed and stayed on!!

 

[rushbattle]

Amazon product

and

5V 6 Channel Relay Module 250V AC 30V DC Arduino Pi TTL Flux Workshop 742776923090 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 5V 6 Channel Relay Module 250V AC 30V DC Arduino Pi TTL Flux Workshop at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.

www.ebay.co.uk

Thanks! Its just an AC power monitor from amazon. Got the idea from someone else TBH

After researching online - i gave the broken relays some hard bangs which sorted them - put the power controller back together and low and behold another one got stuck. did the same again and then another one.
Seems strange this is happening so often (and they are different brands of board) so don't think it they are faulty. Anyone got any idea why they keep on sticking. Definitely not overloading them. Total draw on my whole system is less than 2A

Do any of them stick with no load at all?

 

[MikeSpike]

Do any of them stick with no load at all?

Yes. Even with no load still sticking

 

[rushbattle]

Yes. Even with no load still sticking

Practically speaking, I would change out the relays to something more reliable. Have you watched the signal voltage when applying it to the relay?

 

[Urtoo]

Yep, those little relay boards can self weld shut, or the metal contact rod inside can get wedged without enough umph to snap open again. Did you test the voltage supplied to the dc relay supply from your controller, make sure that it is being fed proper voltage?

 

[MikeSpike]

Yep, those little relay boards can self weld shut, or the metal contact rod inside can get wedged without enough umph to snap open again. Did you test the voltage supplied to the dc relay supply from your controller, make sure that it is being fed proper voltage?

both being fed 5v exactly. A little concerned as above on ATO but also on my titanium heater!
Would prefer to switch out to solid state relays but unfortunately you can’t use them on DC circuits which a lot of my equipment is

 

[Ranjib]

both being fed 5v exactly. A little concerned as above on ATO but also on my titanium heater!
Would prefer to switch out to solid state relays but unfortunately you can’t use them on DC circuits which a lot of my equipment is

How much dc voltage you are switching ? L293d are pretty good for dc workloads

 

[MikeSpike]

Hardly any. Not familiar with that chip. Can I just use it in place of a relay. Curious what others who built their own controller have done? Have I just got unlucky?

 

[Ranjib]

Hardly any. Not familiar with that chip. Can I just use it in place of a relay. Curious what others who built their own controller have done? Have I just got unlucky?

I have used mechanical relays in the beginning almost 1.5 years. I found high failure rates from the beginning, not by usage but just faulty units from the beginning. I think a relatively reputed brand like sainsmart will help. Double check your wiring as well.
The ADJ power strips that we recommend in 2.0 are also known to be of shoddy quality. Among the 5 I ordered two of them has one relay shorted. So, two outlets are actually controlled by a single pin.

The single/dual/quad outlet options from adafruit are expensive but definitely quality alternatives. In 3.0 I am planning to recommend kasa hs300 powerstrips. But I still dont think these are as beefy as the other ones (including ADJ )

 

[Ryan115]

Hardly any. Not familiar with that chip. Can I just use it in place of a relay. Curious what others who built their own controller have done? Have I just got unlucky?

Not sure if you already addressed this, but do you have the grounds tied together on the system? Grounding issues can cause similar results.

 

[Urtoo]

@Ranjib I was looking at the Kasa last night! So glad you are adding them to 3.0. Speaking of which, when is 3 going to be released?
After I paint the basement this afternoon, I am going to wire in my lights with the PWM board from ML. I will take pictures to share in my build.

 

[Ranjib]

@Ranjib I was looking at the Kasa last night! So glad you are adding them to 3.0. Speaking of which, when is 3 going to be released?
After I paint the basement this afternoon, I am going to wire in my lights with the PWM board from ML. I will take pictures to share in my build.

Thanksgiving . I try to make the major releases around thanksgiving time. There’s no hard deadline , so if some major bugs or concerns comes out we can delay that. We are already I feature freeze mode , so no big new feature is being written right now . I am working on finishing up the small features from backlog (lunar profile for example ), sorting out bugs (we have many ), field testing in October . Michael and Vince is working on the new UI updates to support the new features . By last week of October or early November I’ll cut another 3.0 beta releases and focus on documentation (tutorial and api ) from then on. Till we hit thanksgiving /final release

 

[Urtoo]

I looked at the Kasa again, are you adding wireless Control to ReefPi? Flashing the power strip with Tasmota, or something else?

 

[Ranjib]

I looked at the Kasa again, are you adding wireless Control to ReefPi? Flashing the power strip with Tasmota, or something else?

Direct wireless control. Kasa HS300, HS103, HS110 are supported. Current monitoring will be exposed as analog input in reef-pi, users can treat it as ph probe and graph or do something with it if they want

 

[Urtoo]

Wait wait wait. You incorporated their monitoring per port into version 3?
Adding wireless will allow users to add multiple aquariums across the home or yard. That is huge