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

Simonv92

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I think that the easiest solution will be to go wireless..
Just for knowledge, do you think that a 10Mbit ethernet connection can cause any trouble in normal usage of reef-pi? I don't think that there is so much activity on network...
 

theatrus

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Thank you very much! I'm planning to build a pcb with the Rpi Zero mounted on it. So I really want something that I could integrate on my pcb. I've seen some solution based on RTL8152 chip from Realtek but I couldn't find any official schematic...
In this way I can mount my Rpi without any cable connected and use pogopin to touch the usb pad under the board...

If you want to go down this route, see if you can source a compute module (CM4).

Pogo pins to the USB connector isn't the worst idea, but its easier to just align a super short cable IMO.
 

GaryE

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Made progress on this board.. most things work properly now. The dosing control is still not quite there.. Don't really need it on the tank this is on though.


1644767693063.png


This has a DS18B20 on board for internal box temp, controls a fan on the cover. On the left you can see my sht31d breakout board that gets my room temp / humidity. Bottom right is 24v input power. Bottom left is one of the tank temp sensors, the other one is on the bottom right below the two PWM driven Chinese black box lights. the middle two two wire connectors are powering 24v actinic led bars. they run on an interval schedule so they are on in the AM and PM only.


There were a few issues with this board once I got it populated that needed to be addressed. The main issue was powering the pca9685 with 5v. That and the one wire connectors for temp sensing were on that power rail. I had to scab in a jumper to power them on 3.3v. Then there were various solder joints that were bad.

The 3.3v issue and the issues causing the dosing to not function have been resolved in the next revision of the board.

I should have that one in the next few weeks. Once I'm able to source parts, I will be able to let these out into the wild.


Here's a graph of everything from this install: (the black out on the right is from having it down today to put the new board in place.)

1644769275950.png
 
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Ranjib

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Made progress on this board.. most things work properly now. The dosing control is still not quite there.. Don't really need it on the tank this is on though.


1644767693063.png


This has a DS18B20 on board for internal box temp, controls a fan on the cover. On the left you can see my sht31d breakout board that gets my room temp / humidity. Bottom right is 24v input power. Bottom left is one of the tank temp sensors, the other one is on the bottom right below the two PWM driven Chinese black box lights. the middle two two wire connectors are powering 24v actinic led bars. they run on an interval schedule so they are on in the AM and PM only.


There were a few issues with this board once I got it populated that needed to be addressed. The main issue was powering the pca9685 with 5v. That and the one wire connectors for temp sensing were on that power rail. I had to scab in a jumper to power them on 3.3v. Then there were various solder joints that were bad.

The 3.3v issue and the issues causing the dosing to not function have been resolved in the next revision of the board.

I should have that one in the next few weeks. Once I'm able to source parts, I will be able to let these out into the wild.


Here's a graph of everything from this install: (the black out on the right is from having it down today to put the new board in place.)

1644769275950.png
looking good. the graphs will look much better as time pass. This is state of the art observability (grafana+prometheus)
 

waynel

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the Zero W (version 1) is just fine.. Zero 2 W is a bit faster..
I have the zero w ( don't know what version), and want to enable remote access with vnc (so I can access it over the internet from anywhere). The one I have is not fast enough to do this. Which rpi is recommended for this?
 

GaryE

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I have the zero w ( don't know what version), and want to enable remote access with vnc (so I can access it over the internet from anywhere). The one I have is not fast enough to do this. Which rpi is recommended for this?
I wouldn't run an GUI on the Zero.. Rpi 3 or 4 are fine for GUI though.

You can SSH into the zero with out issue..
 

ColoredRock

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Made progress on this board.. most things work properly now. The dosing control is still not quite there.. Don't really need it on the tank this is on though.


1644767693063.png


This has a DS18B20 on board for internal box temp, controls a fan on the cover. On the left you can see my sht31d breakout board that gets my room temp / humidity. Bottom right is 24v input power. Bottom left is one of the tank temp sensors, the other one is on the bottom right below the two PWM driven Chinese black box lights. the middle two two wire connectors are powering 24v actinic led bars. they run on an interval schedule so they are on in the AM and PM only.


There were a few issues with this board once I got it populated that needed to be addressed. The main issue was powering the pca9685 with 5v. That and the one wire connectors for temp sensing were on that power rail. I had to scab in a jumper to power them on 3.3v. Then there were various solder joints that were bad.

The 3.3v issue and the issues causing the dosing to not function have been resolved in the next revision of the board.

I should have that one in the next few weeks. Once I'm able to source parts, I will be able to let these out into the wild.


Here's a graph of everything from this install: (the black out on the right is from having it down today to put the new board in place.)

1644769275950.png
Do you guys mind sharing your query on equipment status... im a bone head.. and missing something.
 

bishoptf

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I have the zero w ( don't know what version), and want to enable remote access with vnc (so I can access it over the internet from anywhere). The one I have is not fast enough to do this. Which rpi is recommended for this?

I wouldn't run an GUI on the Zero.. Rpi 3 or 4 are fine for GUI though.

You can SSH into the zero with out issue..

This is just my opinion and I am sure lots of folks do certain things but I would never open anything on my local network to the internet at large. I am probably biased since Cyber security is my day job but I would never recommend doing that. If you want or have a need for remote access look into getting a router that supports a vpn of some sort, or some sort of Reverse proxy feature like https://guacamole.apache.org/ but depending on your level getting a replacement router that supports a vpn might be the easiest.

again just my .02 :)
 

waynel

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This is just my opinion and I am sure lots of folks do certain things but I would never open anything on my local network to the internet at large. I am probably biased since Cyber security is my day job but I would never recommend doing that. If you want or have a need for remote access look into getting a router that supports a vpn of some sort, or some sort of Reverse proxy feature like https://guacamole.apache.org/ but depending on your level getting a replacement router that supports a vpn might be the easiest.

again just my .02 :)
I was looking at doing the realvnc cloud based solution, nothing to open on the router or firewalls and uses 2fa and I've changed all default passwords. Any thoughts or suggestions on this approach? Having the remote access back to monitor and make some changes as needed would be useful.
 

bishoptf

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I was looking at doing the realvnc cloud based solution, nothing to open on the router or firewalls and uses 2fa and I've changed all default passwords. Any thoughts or suggestions on this approach? Having the remote access back to monitor and make some changes as needed would be useful.
What that means based on how you have described it then realvnc is hosting a connection in the cloud that you connect to. In other words, it establishes an outbound active connection from the deivce and then you connect to it from a remote session. I would think then it comes down to how much you trust that cloud based service, im old and untrustworthy of most cloud based stuff but thats just me. I'd rather be in control of my security vs some service, but again thats just me. There are many firewalls out there that will let you do a VPN connection which I would consider a better solution but just my opinion.

Eh...get off my lawn...;)
 

theatrus

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This is a persistent theme, and I'm cooking up something to help folks at least for secure web access back to their ReefPi from anywhere. I'll have more to share soon, as a free community service.

I'm a bit into Tom's camp from a remote access PoV (I have a good mesh of Wireguard tunnels up at all times between devices, makes roaming a dream), but its not something I'd expect from folks to understand how to setup, nor is it in their set of risk factors. Port forwarding can work, but it adds some other risk factors, and isn't workable for everyone (non-pseudo-static IPs, ISPs with less inbound allowance, etc). As Tom said, the right way is something like the venerable ngrok tunneling setup, just secure by default and no need for the silly free plan caps. More details soon.

Note that "using VNC" usually means you should either be using Reef-Pi on the web interface directly, _or_ just using SSH (for admin stuff). If you're using VNC to look at the web interface or opening the terminal, that's just silly ;)
 

bishoptf

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This is a persistent theme, and I'm cooking up something to help folks at least for secure web access back to their ReefPi from anywhere. I'll have more to share soon, as a free community service.

I'm a bit into Tom's camp from a remote access PoV (I have a good mesh of Wireguard tunnels up at all times between devices, makes roaming a dream), but its not something I'd expect from folks to understand how to setup, nor is it in their set of risk factors. Port forwarding can work, but it adds some other risk factors, and isn't workable for everyone (non-pseudo-static IPs, ISPs with less inbound allowance, etc). As Tom said, the right way is something like the venerable ngrok tunneling setup, just secure by default and no need for the silly free plan caps. More details soon.

Note that "using VNC" usually means you should either be using Reef-Pi on the web interface directly, _or_ just using SSH (for admin stuff). If you're using VNC to look at the web interface or opening the terminal, that's just silly ;)
Why I like the vpn option I'm not port forwarding anything, openvpn is my only open port. ;)

Let me know if you want someone to poke around at what you come up with, I know some folks..lol. This is my neck of the woods and I can actually help, lol. :)

BTW I'd like to talk to you about your analog driver board, I have a nicrew light that can work with 0-10v analog control but was trying to use a @Michael Lane mars aqua board and could never get it to work, would like to see if I could adapt one of your boards to do it.
 

osterac

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Hi,
I have a Raspberry pi 2 I am trying to use for reef pi with a pond. I already have a thermometer working but I am trying to get pH working too. I bought The atlas pH circuit and the atlas carrier board (and a probe of course) but then realized the guide for this doesn't use the carrier board. I want to use the carrier board in my build because it would make everything much tidier but I haven't been able to get it working.
I get this error:
ph subsystem: Failed read probe:pH probeError:write /dev/i2c-1: remote I/O error
I have a pH ezo driver set up with an address of 99.
I have an analog input for that driver on port 0.
In the pH tab I have a probe set up pointing to that analog input.
on the carrier board I have it wired like this.
rx->sda1 i2c
tx->scl1 i2c
gnd->gnd
off->n/c
vcc->5v
Any tips?
thanks
 

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GaryE

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This is a persistent theme, and I'm cooking up something to help folks at least for secure web access back to their ReefPi from anywhere. I'll have more to share soon, as a free community service.

I'm a bit into Tom's camp from a remote access PoV (I have a good mesh of Wireguard tunnels up at all times between devices, makes roaming a dream), but its not something I'd expect from folks to understand how to setup, nor is it in their set of risk factors. Port forwarding can work, but it adds some other risk factors, and isn't workable for everyone (non-pseudo-static IPs, ISPs with less inbound allowance, etc). As Tom said, the right way is something like the venerable ngrok tunneling setup, just secure by default and no need for the silly free plan caps. More details soon.

Note that "using VNC" usually means you should either be using Reef-Pi on the web interface directly, _or_ just using SSH (for admin stuff). If you're using VNC to look at the web interface or opening the terminal, that's just silly ;)
I also use wireguard.. I do have a few things open to the internet, but wireguard on my phone makes it feel like I'm at home while at work.. ;)
 

iLMaRiO

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Guys, do you know where to find a salt-water compatible temperature probe ? I don't want to use the steel probes, as I know that there are the same DS18B20 with plastic cover.
 

theatrus

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Guys, do you know where to find a salt-water compatible temperature probe ? I don't want to use the steel probes, as I know that there are the same DS18B20 with plastic cover.

I made an alternative option awhile back, definitely not as cheap as the import variety. There are other alternatives such as dipping and coating the cheaper probes in PlastiDip or silicones.
 

Mikeneedsahobby

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Very interesting, but i'm in europe, shipping costs and custom would kill me
1) buy two of the cheap probes. Periodically check the probe your using for corrosion. If you get some or your temps get wonky then replace. Likely you never will have to.

2) buy the cheap probe. Pot the probe and an inch of wire in epoxy. I used a piece of pvc pipe as the mold for the epoxy.

3) by one of the double crimp silicone wire probes. Do nothing but use it and get better temperature accuracy (hopefully). I have no idea where to get it in Europe but it looks like this. https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-DS18b2...2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

4) buy one from theatrus and know you are getting an accurate probe with long lasting corrosion protection.
 

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