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

[Sral]

Need some more eyes and suggestion on controlling a nicrew led 50w version with reef-pi. I have taken a couple runs at this and think I just have a non working unit but trying to see how to debug their board to see if there is something I can correct or fix. I have wired up a 0-10v control section light whats in the lighting guide - https://learn.adafruit.com/reef-pi-lighting-controller/circuit-construction and have verified that its all working via a meter, pwm controls take it from 0-10v. Supposed to be able to control the nicrew 50w and up lights with a 0-10v input, when I try to do it the lights do nothing. Here is a posting that calls out the wiring - https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/reef-pi-control-lighting.811639/post-8787689

I have taken the unit apart and did some continuity on the 0-10v board and I see 24v coming form the main board to the unit (to go to the out port) but I do not see the 0-10v input coming into the board and not sure what I can do to figure out where on the board could be the issue. Here are a couple pics of the board:

Backside:

Just not smart enough on the back side to know how to troubleshoot with a meter and maybe figure out the issue. If anyone has some suggestions or ideas let me know. I wanted to use this light in a new build and purchase a couple more but if I am unable to control them I not sure what to do at that point.

Thanks

Looks like these two black round things at the front might be audio jacks, could that be ? Then you have one for input and probably the out just to chain the next light to the same signal.

My guess would be that the two ICs on the board simply take this 0-10V and turn it into a PWM. As you can see the white connector in the top corner has two lines called "PWMB" and "PWMC". I would not be surprised if those are the PWM signals for the two channels of blue and white.

Another thing: the Adafruit guide gives you a 10V PWM signal. If the light realy wants a smooth DC voltage, it might just not light up if you're unlucky. In that case only 0 and 100% should work, as they correspond to a smooth 0V or 10V signal.

Also: test with a multimeter if the polarity on the audio jack front are correct, e.g. that the sleeve is realy ground and that only the front two contacts carry the voltage and not the other way around.

 

[bishoptf]

Looks like these two black round things at the front might be audio jacks, could that be ? Then you have one for input and probably the out just to chain the next light to the same signal.

My guess would be that the two ICs on the board simply take this 0-10V and turn it into a PWM. As you can see the white connector in the top corner has two lines called "PWMB" and "PWMC". I would not be surprised if those are the PWM signals for the two channels of blue and white.

Another thing: the Adafruit guide gives you a 10V PWM signal. If the light realy wants a smooth DC voltage, it might just not light up if you're unlucky. In that case only 0 and 100% should work, as they correspond to a smooth 0V or 10V signal.

Also: test with a multimeter if the polarity on the audio jack front are correct, e.g. that the sleeve is realy ground and that only the front two contacts carry the voltage and not the other way around.

I did some more playing around, it is using PWM to control the the lights, although its much less than the 0-10v range, looks like they are stepping it down somehow. Took some more pics but the front controls allow you to go from 5%, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100% increments and when I take measurements I can see the voltage so that is what they are doing is using PWM to control the lights. I can take measurements for the pins coming through and I get voltages from reef-pi but then when I take measurements from where the cable goes in and out I see no input, so something on the board is bad since I am getting no readings coming from the jacks.

Here are some pics of the light board:

Thats my only guess, reef-pi is putting out voltages but it just not making it through the circuit and I am not smart enough to know what to look for, wish I could get a replacement board from them but I know the answer to that one. The other interesting thing is if you disconnect that input board the light will not come on, so it is using it as input.

 

[Sral]

I did some more playing around, it is using PWM to control the the lights, although its much less than the 0-10v range, looks like they are stepping it down somehow. Took some more pics but the front controls allow you to go from 5%, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100% increments and when I take measurements I can see the voltage so that is what they are doing is using PWM to control the lights. I can take measurements for the pins coming through and I get voltages from reef-pi but then when I take measurements from where the cable goes in and out I see no input, so something on the board is bad since I am getting no readings coming from the jacks.

Here are some pics of the light board:

Thats my only guess, reef-pi is putting out voltages but it just not making it through the circuit and I am not smart enough to know what to look for, wish I could get a replacement board from them but I know the answer to that one. The other interesting thing is if you disconnect that input board the light will not come on, so it is using it as input.

Maybe open a separate thread, I would love to go more into detail, but I think a dedicated thread for this tinkering might be better

 

[bishoptf]

Maybe open a separate thread, I would love to go more into detail, but I think a dedicated thread for this tinkering might be better

Yeah thats fair, I'm just trying to figure out whats not right with that daughterboard, it's not taking 0-10v and thats a bummer...works through the front panel but not what I need, lol.

 

[Sral]

Yeah thats fair, I'm just trying to figure out whats not right with that daughterboard, it's not taking 0-10v and thats a bummer...works through the front panel but not what I need, lol.

I'm currently writing a separate thread where I collect my thoughts and your info. Give me few minutes

 

[bishoptf]

ANyone know if @theatrus is lurking around these days, would like to get his thoughts on this board I am trying to debug.

 

[ColoredRock]

ANyone know if @theatrus is lurking around these days, would like to get his thoughts on this board I am trying to debug.

yep...

Monitoring solution

Hey everybody! I love this project as it fit's my needs to have a powerful system without paying big bucks for some closed system. Before I pull the trigger on a robo-tank setup, i'd love validation of my idea for a 'monitor only' setup. My logic is that the systems that take control...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[crusso1993]

ANyone know if @theatrus is lurking around these days, would like to get his thoughts on this board I am trying to debug.

Yep, he’s floating around and I am too again. Logged back in shortly ago and am happy to see many familiar people. Hope you have been well!

 

[theatrus]

ANyone know if @theatrus is lurking around these days, would like to get his thoughts on this board I am trying to debug.

Always lurking

 

[Lingwendil]

This thread is overwhelmingly long and a bit daunting to get through- Is there a link to a basic guide on how to set one of these up for PWM dimming? I have a few spare Raspberry Pi Model B's I can use for it with a PCA9685.

 

[bishoptf]

This thread is overwhelmingly long and a bit daunting to get through- Is there a link to a basic guide on how to set one of these up for PWM dimming? I have a few spare Raspberry Pi Model B's I can use for it with a PCA9685.

The original lighting guide goes over all of that, you may have to start at one of the original for the basic setups but you can find them here - https://learn.adafruit.com/reef-pi-installation-and-configuration there are many guides though but that is the starting point, here is the lighting guide - https://learn.adafruit.com/reef-pi-lighting-controller

you may just want to pick up a pre-made unit like robotank, leviathon or other pre-built units, but those guides will will walk you through the basics for DIY, the rpi has 2 built in pwm channels so you do not have to do a pca9685, just depends on how many channels you need.

 

[Lingwendil]

Appreciate it, sorry for asking to be spoonfed!

 

[Sral]

Appreciate it, sorry for asking to be spoonfed!

Don't worry about it, that's what this thread is for and the reason why it is so long ^^

ReefPi is curently lacking a nice documentation for these kind of things, so don't blame yourself.

 

[Ranjib]

Don't worry about it, that's what this thread is for and the reason why it is so long ^^

ReefPi is curently lacking a nice documentation for these kind of things, so don't blame yourself.

Exactly, and not just documentation , many other things. Hence the. Community support is so critical. It’s absolutely awesome that we are honest about these aspects (being diy, there’s lot of rough edges, it’s constantly changing and that the supporting things like docs are not up to the standard )

 

[Lingwendil]

Hmmmmm,

So, just to confirm- My goal here is a PWM control lighting controller that can also switch fans on and off. I figure one of those arduino/raspberry pi marketed relay boards to switch 12 volts DC would work for the fan supply, running off of a GPIO pin. I then would also like to have two, maybe four channels of PWM control to dim Meanwell LDD drivers from zero to 100%, and then dim back down to zero at the end of the night. This differs from how kessil does the controls if I'm not mistaken, as I will be ramping intensity up and down specifically to each channel, rather than color and intensity separately? I am not seeing much documented for how these levels are set.

Maybe I just need to set one up and start playing with it?

So looks like a PCA9685 board (which i already have), and a relay break out will work? then I just need to mount it all up in a box? I can handle all the DC voltages just fine with separate modules.

For the relays, I have a few of these modules-
Amazon product


My current setup has an Arduino controlling a PCA9685 board, and I think 4 channels of PWM control, and a cable snaked from one central tank and box all the way around the room to another tank, so running two fixtures. It'll be nice to have no wires running to tank number three in the other room once i set it up.



What's the minimum size SD card that Reef-pi needs?

 

[bishoptf]

Hmmmmm,

So, just to confirm- My goal here is a PWM control lighting controller that can also switch fans on and off. I figure one of those arduino/raspberry pi marketed relay boards to switch 12 volts DC would work for the fan supply, running off of a GPIO pin. I then would also like to have two, maybe four channels of PWM control to dim Meanwell LDD drivers from zero to 100%, and then dim back down to zero at the end of the night. This differs from how kessil does the controls if I'm not mistaken, as I will be ramping intensity up and down specifically to each channel, rather than color and intensity separately? I am not seeing much documented for how these levels are set.

Maybe I just need to set one up and start playing with it?

So looks like a PCA9685 board (which i already have), and a relay break out will work? then I just need to mount it all up in a box? I can handle all the DC voltages just fine with separate modules.

For the relays, I have a few of these modules-
Amazon product


My current setup has an Arduino controlling a PCA9685 board, and I think 4 channels of PWM control, and a cable snaked from one central tank and box all the way around the room to another tank, so running two fixtures. It'll be nice to have no wires running to tank number three in the other room once i set it up.



What's the minimum size SD card that Reef-pi needs?

Raspbian and reef-pi do not need much space but most of the cards have increased in size these days, I just get whatever is the cheapest. One thing I would recommend is to purchase an SD card that is stated for high endurance, I've had much better luck with them vs the standard cards, high endurance usually are for dash cameras etc, but they seem to last much longer, IMHO...

Here is the size for a newly installed unit:
bishop@testpi:~ $ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 29G 4.4G 24G 16% /
devtmpfs 86M 0 86M 0% /dev
tmpfs 214M 0 214M 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 86M 652K 85M 1% /run
tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
/dev/mmcblk0p1 253M 50M 203M 20% /boot
tmpfs 43M 0 43M 0% /run/user/1001

Only using 4.4g, but again I usually get whatever size is the cheapest, these days its usually 32g or higher...

 

[Lingwendil]

I have a few 128GB cards that I don't use that came with the Pi's ( got a bunch free a while back), do you think these would be fine? If I'm not mistaken these are the SD cards I have-
Amazon product

With some luck I may be able to put this together fully with parts I already have

 

[bishoptf]

I have a few 128GB cards that I don't use that came with the Pi's ( got a bunch free a while back), do you think these would be fine? If I'm not mistaken these are the SD cards I have-
Amazon product

With some luck I may be able to put this together fully with parts I already have

They will work for sure but once you get to a point where you are going into production so to speak I would get a high endurance card for sure....ask me how i know, lol.

 

[Tyberzann]

I am interested in setting up a PI in my tank, if for nothing else to track temps and to make sure the heaters don't cook the tank, however, I am struggling to find a UK equivalent for the power controller section.

Anyone from the UK or Europe had any luck with this?

 

[bishoptf]

I am interested in setting up a PI in my tank, if for nothing else to track temps and to make sure the heaters don't cook the tank, however, I am struggling to find a UK equivalent for the power controller section.

Anyone from the UK or Europe had any luck with this?

Check with robotank, I think he may have options for non us mains, but not sure...otherwise you would have to roll your own. Keep in mind, the Kasa TP-link stuff also is an option, not sure if they have a UK version or not but see if they do something like this - https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/smart-plug/kp303/

Thats a wireless unit, but I know the US equivalents are working, I use them but you would need to verify they are working with reef-pi