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

[dmsc2fs]

Just enter the desired version number

Just enter the desired version number and hit the update button, then click ok. For me that was "5.3" (without quotation marks). It takes while to update though and it doesn't tell you when it's done.

At some point I rebooted (not sure if that's needed) afterwards it still displayed version 5.2 in the bottom of the page.
I hit update again twice and waited longer. Had a few reboots in between as well while I was testing other stuff and now it shows version 5.3

@Ranjib I would appreciate if that process would be a little more explained to the user, I felt a bit lost to whether it was doing something, or whether and when exactly I had to reboot ^^

I had thought of that but when I tried it I received: {"error":"Failed to update. Error: Unit reef-pi-install.service already exists."} | HTTP 500

I thought this was due to entering the wrong data into this input.

 

[Sral]

I had thought of that but when I tried it I received: {"error":"Failed to update. Error: Unit reef-pi-install.service already exists."} | HTTP 500

I thought this was due to entering the wrong data into this input.

I got the Same message. I rebooted and retried it I think.

 

[dmsc2fs]

I got the Same message. I rebooted and retried it I think.

This resolved the issue.

 

[Ranjib]

Have any guides been posted no how to upgrade through the UI? Under Admin it says "Upgrade Reef-Pi to version" but the input box is empty and I'm not sure what would be place in it?

just specify the version number :

5.3

 

[Ranjib]

Just enter the desired version number

Just enter the desired version number and hit the update button, then click ok. For me that was "5.3" (without quotation marks). It takes while to update though and it doesn't tell you when it's done.

At some point I rebooted (not sure if that's needed) afterwards it still displayed version 5.2 in the bottom of the page.
I hit update again twice and waited longer. Had a few reboots in between as well while I was testing other stuff and now it shows version 5.3

@Ranjib I would appreciate if that process would be a little more explained to the user, I felt a bit lost to whether it was doing something, or whether and when exactly I had to reboot ^^

i appreciate this feedback
you know there was a time when users had to literally download and run dpkg to install reef-pi , through terminal. its nice to hear new asks, but against the new normal.
I'll see what i can do. priority will be on bugs, followed by mission critical new features, hard to see it becoming p0 till next major release, but this is definitely worth tracking, I want to improve the upgrade UX

rule of thumb, for any upgrade, generally a single reboot is more than enough for a single attempt. Whats more important is to shift-refresh browser to get rid of stale data. The front end code is always cached in the browser.

 

[Ranjib]

I had thought of that but when I tried it I received: {"error":"Failed to update. Error: Unit reef-pi-install.service already exists."} | HTTP 500

I thought this was due to entering the wrong data into this input.

this can happen during upgrade (due to reef-pi being busy with some device operation that is harder to kill from the upgrade process). Reboot should always resolve this. If reboot does not resolve, then attempt to upgrade again. But multiple reboot for a single upgrade attempt is not meaningful to my understanding
Always refresh broswer in between upgrades, reloads. Else it can and will show stale data for some time

 

[Ranjib]

It’s been couple of years since we moved in to the new house , and now the home related work is settled (it’s never finished ). I am taking this opportunity to get back to my original goal, to have more tanks.

I was pondering for some time .. on specifics of individual tanks . And was thinking of slowly setting up them one by One . But then I realized I have all the equipment , I just finished rebuilding whole bunch of old reef-pi controller with shiny new parts , and I have the tank and dry rock sitting idle . So why not just start cycling those . Here is what happened next
My next pico (calling it my son ‘s as he is the one choosing the corals , doing some of the chores ) . Started early Jan

the next one started late March is the repurposed Red Sea reefer ato container . This one does not have any controller , it’s mostly to see keep those rocks alive . As I was mentioning , I have not decided yet on what to keep in it yet.

The only current resident

kickstarted my first biocube back again last month

and here is the last remaining pico tank that was not sitting idle

These new tanks join the family with the older pico . One of them is pretty much same for past 3 years

the other old pico was being neglected . I took time to de-clutter it and bring some softies back. I’ll decide later what to do once the softies grow larger. I intend to transfer some in biocube .. but there should many other options

A lot of options to experiment with things now. I plan to slowly start experiment with different type of controller functions with this . I have already started with various lights .. will keep you all posted . Follow my build threads for any of the tank specific information

 

[Matt Carden]

I have some weird going ons happening with my reef-pi! Started ths controller up about a month ago. Had a few hiccups but otherwise running smoothly. I have been accessing daily via Google Chrome browser by typing in my IP address to turn off my return pump for frozen feedings. A few days ago I couldn't access via Chrome anymore but the controller was still controlling the equipment. Yesterday I went on my Xfinity gateway app and discovered my reef-pi IP address had changed! I was then able to access via Chrome with the updated IP address.

Then this morning I woke to discover my lights never turned off as scheduled last night and my water level was low. The truly strange part is that the reef-pi was controlling the intensity of the lights. I reset the Raspberry-Pi power and everything started working correctly?

 

[elysics]

I have some weird going ons happening with my reef-pi! Started ths controller up about a month ago. Had a few hiccups but otherwise running smoothly. I have been accessing daily via Google Chrome browser by typing in my IP address to turn off my return pump for frozen feedings. A few days ago I couldn't access via Chrome anymore but the controller was still controlling the equipment. Yesterday I went on my Xfinity gateway app and discovered my reef-pi IP address had changed! I was then able to access via Chrome with the updated IP address.

Then this morning I woke to discover my lights never turned off as scheduled last night and my water level was low. The truly strange part is that the reef-pi was controlling the intensity of the lights. I reset the Raspberry-Pi power and everything started working correctly?

The IP stuff is just something that can happen if you don't explicitly go into the settings of your router/switch and tell it that the IP address of reef-pi should always stay the same. Otherwise, if reef-pi goes offline for some reason, the router might just give that address to something else and then reef-pi gets a new one once it comes back.

What does the health graph say, was reef-pi offline for a while?

 

[Ranjib]

I have some weird going ons happening with my reef-pi! Started ths controller up about a month ago. Had a few hiccups but otherwise running smoothly. I have been accessing daily via Google Chrome browser by typing in my IP address to turn off my return pump for frozen feedings. A few days ago I couldn't access via Chrome anymore but the controller was still controlling the equipment. Yesterday I went on my Xfinity gateway app and discovered my reef-pi IP address had changed! I was then able to access via Chrome with the updated IP address.

Then this morning I woke to discover my lights never turned off as scheduled last night and my water level was low. The truly strange part is that the reef-pi was controlling the intensity of the lights. I reset the Raspberry-Pi power and everything started working correctly?

Are you using wired power control or Kasa strips ?

 

[Matt Carden]

Are you using wired power control or Kasa strips ?

I posted about this issue in my thread here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/matts-reef-pi-build-thread.745599/page-4

 

[InactiveAcct]

Believe the answer is wired haha

 

[Matt Carden]

Lol I didn't know how to answer in words so I gave 1000!

 

[DWKDiver]

Is enable/disable supposed to work? Doesn't seem to work for lights OR I don't understand what it is supposed to do!

 

[SilverBulletPRN]

So how do you set a static IP for the Reef-Pi? I have that same issue where the IP address changes and I have to figure where it ran off too

 

[elysics]

So how do you set a static IP for the Reef-Pi? I have that same issue where the IP address changes and I have to figure where it ran off too

Either do it in the settings menu of your router, or do it on the raspberry pi via

sudo nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf

and then put in something like this:

I prefer doing it on the router, you are less likely to accidentally lose settings there, less likely to run into problems than if you do it manually on devices, you get nice GUIs and sometimes it gives you nifty features like local urls. My router lets me access reefpi via reefpi.local after enabling static ips via the router for example

 

[Sral]

Is enable/disable supposed to work? Doesn't seem to work for lights OR I don't understand what it is supposed to do!

Maybe it’s misleading. I remember a similar „enable“ setting for macros, but I think that only disables the Macro itself, not the equipment it’s connected to.
I guess it might be similar with lights, in that it only enables/disables the automatic intensity profiles, but not the light itself ?

 

[Sral]

Either do it in the settings menu of your router, or do it on the raspberry pi via

sudo nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf

and then put in something like this:

I prefer doing it on the router, you are less likely to accidentally lose settings there, less likely to run into problems than if you do it manually on devices, you get nice GUIs and sometimes it gives you nifty features like local urls. My router lets me access reefpi via reefpi.local after enabling static ips via the router for example

I prefer the router as well, even though I’m not sure about the accidents … for about a year I for example lost my whitelist on every automatic router update ^^

Also: the mentioned Settings in the dhcpcd.conf only work for Ethernet connections, not WiFi.

The url connection should work even without the router settings if I’m not mistaken. You have to ensure that your PI has the right name of course (either when setting the Raspian Image up using the PI Image creator or connecting to your PI and running „sudo raspi-config“ setting the right name and then reboot using „sudo reboot“)

 

[bishoptf]

@Ranjib or @robsworld78 or someone explain the temperature setting for the chiller portion in the temperature control. When I upgraded my return pump my temps have been running higher then I would like in the summer and they have gotten high enough that I have a fan blowing across the top of the tank but would like to control it with reef-pi. All I want to do is to have the fan turn on when it hits a certain temp and turn off when it returns to a certain temp. In the temp settings there is a heater threshold, I have that set to turn of the heater if it ever reaches that point and there is a chiller threshold but it states it needs to be higher than the heater threshold. Not sure I understand how its suppose to work, if anyone can explain it let me know, thanks.

 

[InactiveAcct]

@Ranjib or @robsworld78 or someone explain the temperature setting for the chiller portion in the temperature control. When I upgraded my return pump my temps have been running higher then I would like in the summer and they have gotten high enough that I have a fan blowing across the top of the tank but would like to control it with reef-pi. All I want to do is to have the fan turn on when it hits a certain temp and turn off when it returns to a certain temp. In the temp settings there is a heater threshold, I have that set to turn of the heater if it ever reaches that point and there is a chiller threshold but it states it needs to be higher than the heater threshold. Not sure I understand how its suppose to work, if anyone can explain it let me know, thanks.

Chiller needs to be higher than heater thresh. For example, if your heater kicks in under 78 deg, you don’t want your chiller kicking in above 77 deg, because then the two devices would be fighting each other.

I think at some point I was having trouble with that feature and it ended up being that I needed to use PC web browser instead of my phone.