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

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Ranjib

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I think we should just group by or let @robsworld78 or @theatrus , someone with enough experience on this to order it for us, in bulk. Say 100 of each. I’m more than happy to chip in or even pay the whole amount . I know there’s a demand for it.
 
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a quick update. I was trying to do this all in the arduino, but it seems it's really not up to the task of slurping in all of the metrics, parsing for the right data and then spitting out the right bit.. So... I decided to write a python script to do that part and output to a file, then will have the arduino connect and FTP the files to get the data and then display it. Should be way easier on the ardiuno side that way. Then it's a matter of finding a case and figuring out how I want to power it long term.. Fun stuff!!

On the positive side, this will make the gadget portable. Will not be tied to the tank. Just will need to plug it in somewhere and instant stats!

so far, this is the python code.


import requests

URL = "http://10.167.15.10/x/metrics"
tankTemp = "tank_temp_reading"
sumpTemp = "sump_temp_reading"
boxTemp = "box_temp_reading"

def listToString(s):
#initialize an empty string

string = " "
#return string
return (string.join(s))

def getTemp(t):

from urllib.request import urlopen

response = urlopen(URL)
html = response.read()
html = html.decode()
text = html.split('\n') # split everything into lines.

for line in text:
if not line.startswith(t) :
# do nothing
pass
else :
text = line.split(' ') # split everything into lines.
text.pop(0)
temp = (listToString(text))
return temp

print(getTemp(tankTemp))
print(getTemp(sumpTemp))
print(getTemp(boxTemp))
Nice :)
 

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I hear you on the eyes, mine are shot close up, most of the time I'm soldering blind. :) Something about the pca9685 that makes it easy, I've done other IC's with similar pitch but they seem harder.

I have one of these cheap hot air guns, I'm amazed at how long it has lasted and it's been used a lot with times running hours. I highly recommend, no need to spend big bucks. With that said it's still better to remove parts using that technique I showed, that's the best tip I ever learned. Never remove solder when removing anything, instead add solder.


The pca9685 is quite rugged, I have very little trouble with them, I don't think I've ever seen a pin stuck on. It's sounding like you have a bad mosfet instead. I'm guessing you have similar being driven by the pca9685? Those can get stuck closed, when that happens the gate with the PWM signal will have voltage which can looks like it's coming from pca9685 but it's not. If you remove the mosfet the pin will react as expected. I would look at that first.

That adapter is nicely thought out, I guess at this point it wouldn't hurt to get some. I currently have a customer who's trying to adapt the light, he determined the signal inside the light is 0-3.3v, are you driving the adapter with the same or 0-5v? I'm hoping 0-5v PWM from your pca9685.
Yeah I was looking at the 858d clones, some of them say to check the polarity of the power cable but that was the model I was looking at, so I will add it to my list. I am using a @Michael Lane goby hat and it controls the doser via PWM but you may be on to something. The doser module is a separate module that plugs into the doser port - https://www.tindie.com/products/ranthalion/dosing-pump-adapter/ that little board has a uln2803a chip on it and maybe something on that board is what went belly up versus the pca9685, that actually makes more sense. It made me wary of using the dosing via that since I just happen to be around when it happened and was able to remove it from dosing, otherwise it would not have been good outcome. I moved to BRS AC dosing pumps controlled via relay outlet since I fill like i have more control over them vs the dosing setup but now I am leary of the relays in the strips going bad, need to find a more robust relay vs the ones in the DJ housing which is what I am using.

I have a quote out at pcbway.com to see what the board will cost, the PCB are cheap but I have not priced the components but I suspect they should be pretty reasonable also but I have not gone to digikey or anywhere to price up the BOM, he has that listed on the github, it's pretty much ready to go, when I get some more information from them I will let you know what I find out. I have not ordered any PCB's before so lots to learn but if you guys have any insight into where and how to do it I'd like to learn how to do it, etc. :)
 
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Hi folks,
im thinking of putting a booth in aquashella 2022, Orlando for reef-pi. It will be a nice gathering for hobbyists and fun times for the family. the booth will be mostly for information, demo , exhibit of different reef-pi modules, pre fab controllers etc. @robsworld78 @theatrus @Schreiber i am thinking of adding one of each of your products there. Let me know if it’s ok,. You are more than welcome to join me in the booth (im paying for the booth, so don’t worry about the booth fees ).

i need some help with a small colony or a single rock of coral that can fit into 8”x8” pico tank , 4G. It’ll need it for the exhibit. I’ll carry rest of equipment, but need some one local to help me out with the live stock for three days. I’ll return afterwards.
what you folks think ? ok or too much ?
 

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I think we should just group by or let @robsworld78 or @theatrus , someone with enough experience on this to order it for us, in bulk. Say 100 of each. I’m more than happy to chip in or even pay the whole amount . I know there’s a demand for it.
I agree, I'd like to learn and it appears @Michael Lane has all of the files on github. I assume you agree it appeared he had it labeled as opensource hardware and I assume he would have no issues in ordering up some boards, right? I have gotten to a certain point on pcbway.com where they are going to give me a quote but will probably not see that until tomorrow etc, I will update and see if there is anything that they are still needing information wise but the gerber files loaded up and the bom calls out all the parts, typical great work by Michael as usual. :)

I'm willing to chip in and order some, I'd like to have a couple of spares to play with since I am going to have a spare vipar to swap out the leds, I wanted to have a complete unit. I will post an update once I get additional information.
 

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I hear you on the eyes, mine are shot close up, most of the time I'm soldering blind. :) Something about the pca9685 that makes it easy, I've done other IC's with similar pitch but they seem harder.

I have one of these cheap hot air guns, I'm amazed at how long it has lasted and it's been used a lot with times running hours. I highly recommend, no need to spend big bucks. With that said it's still better to remove parts using that technique I showed, that's the best tip I ever learned. Never remove solder when removing anything, instead add solder.


The pca9685 is quite rugged, I have very little trouble with them, I don't think I've ever seen a pin stuck on. It's sounding like you have a bad mosfet instead. I'm guessing you have similar being driven by the pca9685? Those can get stuck closed, when that happens the gate with the PWM signal will have voltage which can looks like it's coming from pca9685 but it's not. If you remove the mosfet the pin will react as expected. I would look at that first.

That adapter is nicely thought out, I guess at this point it wouldn't hurt to get some. I currently have a customer who's trying to adapt the light, he determined the signal inside the light is 0-3.3v, are you driving the adapter with the same or 0-5v? I'm hoping 0-5v PWM from your pca9685.
Oops forgot to answer the last question, yes the adapter is really well thought out, here is the main thread where he -details everything and several of us detail how things are wired up - https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/controlling-viparspectra-lights.698216/

Whats nice is all you feed from reefpi is pwm signals and the electrical connection goes to a normal outlet, on/off is all controlled via pwm signal from the reefpi. It's really an awesome board for the vipar, pretty much plug and play.
 

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Hi folks,
im thinking of putting a booth in aquashella 2022, Orlando for reef-pi. It will be a nice gathering for hobbyists and fun times for the family. the booth will be mostly for information, demo , exhibit of different reef-pi modules, pre fab controllers etc. @robsworld78 @theatrus @Schreiber i am thinking of adding one of each of your products there. Let me know if it’s ok,. You are more than welcome to join me in the booth (im paying for the booth, so don’t worry about the booth fees ).

i need some help with a small colony or a single rock of coral that can fit into 8”x8” pico tank , 4G. It’ll need it for the exhibit. I’ll carry rest of equipment, but need some one local to help me out with the live stock for three days. I’ll return afterwards.
what you folks think ? ok or too much ?

Always ok, let me know if you're interested in some new prototype stuff :)
 

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bishoptf

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Forum context missing in the jump.

Is this the Viaspectra adapters? https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/r...ler-based-on-raspberry-pi.289256/post-9739136
Yup, @Michael Lane was making them but no longer, all of the files are up on git and I have been looking at having some boards made but I am a total noob. I know I would like some and I know there are some others as well trying to figure out what is the easiest way to accomplish it. I was looking through the part list and for some items they do not list the detailed part number like for this TL432DBZ SMD-SOT23 but there are quite a few part numbers to choose from. The boards look pretty straight forward but at least for me I would need some better descriptions for some of the parts listed, @Ranjib thought it would be you or @robsworld78 would be able to clarify and or figure out what was needed to order some up.

:)
 

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Yup, @Michael Lane was making them but no longer, all of the files are up on git and I have been looking at having some boards made but I am a total noob. I know I would like some and I know there are some others as well trying to figure out what is the easiest way to accomplish it. I was looking through the part list and for some items they do not list the detailed part number like for this TL432DBZ SMD-SOT23 but there are quite a few part numbers to choose from. The boards look pretty straight forward but at least for me I would need some better descriptions for some of the parts listed, @Ranjib thought it would be you or @robsworld78 would be able to clarify and or figure out what was needed to order some up.

:)

The good news is these are all pretty basic parts, and could even be built nearly fully assembled from the parts catalog of JLCPCB's hilariously cheap assembly service. I'll see about getting the centroid/part center/pick and place file out of KiCad.

TL432s come in two basic voltages, but the 2.495V reference is usually considered the standard one.
 

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Yeah I was looking at the 858d clones, some of them say to check the polarity of the power cable but that was the model I was looking at, so I will add it to my list. I am using a @Michael Lane goby hat and it controls the doser via PWM but you may be on to something. The doser module is a separate module that plugs into the doser port - https://www.tindie.com/products/ranthalion/dosing-pump-adapter/ that little board has a uln2803a chip on it and maybe something on that board is what went belly up versus the pca9685, that actually makes more sense. It made me wary of using the dosing via that since I just happen to be around when it happened and was able to remove it from dosing, otherwise it would not have been good outcome. I moved to BRS AC dosing pumps controlled via relay outlet since I fill like i have more control over them vs the dosing setup but now I am leary of the relays in the strips going bad, need to find a more robust relay vs the ones in the DJ housing which is what I am using.

I have a quote out at pcbway.com to see what the board will cost, the PCB are cheap but I have not priced the components but I suspect they should be pretty reasonable also but I have not gone to digikey or anywhere to price up the BOM, he has that listed on the github, it's pretty much ready to go, when I get some more information from them I will let you know what I find out. I have not ordered any PCB's before so lots to learn but if you guys have any insight into where and how to do it I'd like to learn how to do it, etc. :)
I think all those cheap hot air guns are basically the same, mine is actually a Sigma R700 but I wouldn't be too worried about the different brands.

If you unplug the dosing adapter does the pca9685 pin work as expected with a volt meter? If nothing is attached to the pca9685 pin and it still stuck on then it's like the culprit.

I've seen a number of mosfets fail, they are quite sensitive to ESD and voltage spikes. I started adding TVS diodes across the gate and drain and source pins, that'll help a lot. The uln2803 looks like it has some protection built in but something must have got through.

Let us know how it goes with the board.
 

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Hi folks,
im thinking of putting a booth in aquashella 2022, Orlando for reef-pi. It will be a nice gathering for hobbyists and fun times for the family. the booth will be mostly for information, demo , exhibit of different reef-pi modules, pre fab controllers etc. @robsworld78 @theatrus @Schreiber i am thinking of adding one of each of your products there. Let me know if it’s ok,. You are more than welcome to join me in the booth (im paying for the booth, so don’t worry about the booth fees ).

i need some help with a small colony or a single rock of coral that can fit into 8”x8” pico tank , 4G. It’ll need it for the exhibit. I’ll carry rest of equipment, but need some one local to help me out with the live stock for three days. I’ll return afterwards.
what you folks think ? ok or too much ?
Wow that's a very generous offer, how can someone say no to that. :) When would you be going? I would love to join you but unfortunately that's no possible, I can send you a package though, you can sell and go towards booth or do whatever.
 

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I was looking through the part list and for some items they do not list the detailed part number like for this TL432DBZ SMD-SOT23 but there are quite a few part numbers to choose from.
Welcome to component land where not much makes sense... 10 parts with basically the same model can really put you in jam. :)
 

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The good news is these are all pretty basic parts, and could even be built nearly fully assembled from the parts catalog of JLCPCB's hilariously cheap assembly service. I'll see about getting the centroid/part center/pick and place file out of KiCad.

TL432s come in two basic voltages, but the 2.495V reference is usually considered the standard one.
If you want to do this you'll know better than me. The one question I have is the adapter wanting 0-3.3v or 0-5v PWM signal. Something tells me ML's board is putting out 3.3v but I could be wrong.
 

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If you want to do this you'll know better than me. The one question I have is the adapter wanting 0-3.3v or 0-5v PWM signal. Something tells me ML's board is putting out 3.3v but I could be wrong.
I think he stated in the vipar thread that he was feeding 5v but that the vipar was ok with that voltage, I think he stated it used 3.3 but was ok with 5v.
Here is the reference - https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/controlling-viparspectra-lights.698216/post-7212790
 

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a quick update. I was trying to do this all in the arduino, but it seems it's really not up to the task of slurping in all of the metrics, parsing for the right data and then spitting out the right bit.. So... I decided to write a python script to do that part and output to a file, then will have the arduino connect and FTP the files to get the data and then display it. Should be way easier on the ardiuno side that way. Then it's a matter of finding a case and figuring out how I want to power it long term.. Fun stuff!!

On the positive side, this will make the gadget portable. Will not be tied to the tank. Just will need to plug it in somewhere and instant stats!

so far, this is the python code.


import requests

URL = "http://10.167.15.10/x/metrics"
tankTemp = "tank_temp_reading"
sumpTemp = "sump_temp_reading"
boxTemp = "box_temp_reading"

Another quick update.. the python side of things is complete, mostly, just need to figure out where on the PI that the files are going to live, however, everything works as needed.

You can assign any of the metrics that reef-pi emits in the metrics "dictionary" and it'll happily scrape that and plop the value in a text file named for the metric.

Next step will be to figure out the best way to have the arduino connect to the PI and read those files. I'm thinking I'll have to store the files in a separate directory and have the arduino just get a listing of the files and read any it finds.. (with whatever sanity checking I can figure out). Mind you, I am not a C programmer at all. For that matter, I'm not a python programmer, I spent a few minutes in the 90's working with Perl and a couple decades mucking around with PHP though.

# add metrics from the reef-pi/x/metrics end point here that you'd like to display on your # arduino or whatever else may be reading these files metrics = { "tankTemp": "tank_temp_reading", "sumpTemp": "sump_temp_reading", "boxTemp": "box_temp_reading", "boxFan": "equipment_fan_state" } # retrieve the metrics from the server and save them to a variable. from urllib.request import urlopen response = urlopen('http://10.167.15.10/x/metrics') html = response.read() html = html.decode() serverMetrics = html.split('\n') # split everything into lines. # function to remove the metric name from the line found in getTemp() def listToString(s): # initialize an empty string string = " " # return string return string.join(s) # while looping through the metrics dictionary, get the metric value from def getMetric(t, m): for line in m: if not line.startswith(t): # remove commented lines from metrics to reduce size in memory pass else: text = line.split(' ') # split everything into lines. text.pop(0) tempMetric = (listToString(text)) # strip the metric name from the line return tempMetric # loop the dictionary to get the values of the temp readings for key, value in metrics.items(): met = (getMetric(value, serverMetrics)) # get the values from the server metrics if met is None: metric = str("BROKEN!") # in the likely event that a sensor fails, rather than bork the script, return an error else: # all data should be good, so let's write some files... f = open(value, "w") f.write(met) f.close()
 
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Yup, @Michael Lane was making them but no longer, all of the files are up on git and I have been looking at having some boards made but I am a total noob. I know I would like some and I know there are some others as well trying to figure out what is the easiest way to accomplish it. I was looking through the part list and for some items they do not list the detailed part number like for this TL432DBZ SMD-SOT23 but there are quite a few part numbers to choose from. The boards look pretty straight forward but at least for me I would need some better descriptions for some of the parts listed, @Ranjib thought it would be you or @robsworld78 would be able to clarify and or figure out what was needed to order some up.

:)

Just as a test, since its a very simple adapter, I dropped a full turnkey order to JLCPCB for 15 units. This means everything except the headers will come pre-assembled on the boards. Due to some aggressive couponing ("please try our service!"), the whole thing was sub $50 including DHL. Its amazing how cheap some simple prototypes have gotten..

The part rotations needed some tweaking, and odds are I'm going to get the board back with all the diodes on backwards. Will report back when I get something in hand :)
 
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Just as a test, since its a very simple adapter, I dropped a full turnkey order to JLCPCB for 15 units. This means everything except the headers will come pre-assembled on the boards. Due to some aggressive couponing ("please try our service!"), the whole thing was sub $50 including DHL. Its amazing how cheap some simple prototypes have gotten..

The part rotations needed some tweaking, and odds are I'm going to get the board back with all the diodes on backwards. Will report back when I get something in hand :)
whoa.. thank you for doing this.
 

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Just as a test, since its a very simple adapter, I dropped a full turnkey order to JLCPCB for 15 units. This means everything except the headers will come pre-assembled on the boards. Due to some aggressive couponing ("please try our service!"), the whole thing was sub $50 including DHL. Its amazing how cheap some simple prototypes have gotten..

The part rotations needed some tweaking, and odds are I'm going to get the board back with all the diodes on backwards. Will report back when I get something in hand :)

Small update: JLCPCB didn't feel like they could load SOD-123 diodes onto an 0805 sized pad (which is fair, its not really the right size). A few hours later, trying with SOD-323 diodes from their catalog. And saved an extra $5 in the process by using some mainland brand parts.


I have to say, if you can fall under the limits of the assembly service (not too many unique parts, using mostly parts already loaded on their machines, etc) the whole thing is a very good value.
 

HAVE YOU EVER KEPT A RARE/UNCOMMON FISH, CORAL, OR INVERT? SHOW IT OFF IN THE THREAD!

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