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

[Ranjib]

Here's my quick and dirty minimalist reef-pi in its temporary enclosure, a good match for a simple tank! Gonna test it out with my battery bank soon.

Extremely stoked to have historical air/water temps.

This is awesome. I love frugal setup. I had a build running in a tupper wire for few months , it was awesome.

 

[Ranjib]

Y

@Ranjib Got my pi all set up with temperature probes. I'm trying to pair it with my HS105 that you suggested, but I noticed that isn't actually in the drop down list of selectable plugs. Should I select the HS103 or do I need to return this one for the actual 103?

edit: Nevermind got it sorted!

:-/, we have to update the ui or docs to let users know that hs105 is also supported, its exactly like hs103

 

[Schreiber]

Picked up a Pi 4 last week & had the time to set up Reef Pi on it today. Just wanted to share that it does work- I know I've seen some questions in the past, not sure how long ago though.

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

Picked up a Pi 4 last week & had the time to set up Reef Pi on it today. Just wanted to share that it does work- I know I've seen some questions in the past, not sure how long ago though.

Any advantages to using this over a pi3b?

 

[Ranjib]

Any advantages to using this over a pi3b?

more powerful, if you are running dual dekstop.. it might be better suited

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

more powerful, if you are running dual dekstop.. it might be better suited

My pi3b is only running reef-pi. I'd love to tie a USB camera into it, and maybe that would be where I would go with a pi4

 

[Schreiber]

Any advantages to using this over a pi3b?

Realistically, most people would be better suited by the 3B+. The 4 is way more powerful than Reef-Pi alone needs, plus it only has mini HDMI, so you're stuck buying an adapter like you would with the Zero W. I'd always recommend the 3B+ for ease of use, Zero W for price. Pi 4 is kinda the worst of both worlds, unless you're trying to run multiple things other than Reef-Pi on there.

 

[burningbaal]

FYI, I spoke some with the maker of the ReeFi light, which seems to be a stinking-awesome light. They run a ton of channels (I think 10?) of dimmable LED in a very fancy controller that can run moon cycles, etc. It's super awesome as it uses individual reflectors instead of lenses/diffusers.

Anyways, I was asking him about if they have considered making an option to have an external controller with a 10-pin connector instead of including parts for wifi/computation/etc. It turns out most of that's on the same board as the driver, so it isn't very viable and would evade 100% of the protections they build in.

However, they have a tcp api. So, does anyone have #reefpi using a tcp interface? especially as a macro? I figure I might want a 'major maintenance' macro that turns down pumps/etc, but also dims the lights so I don't burn corals while the water level is down. Thoughts?

 

[brandon clow]

I finally had a moment to start messing with the other pwm profiles via the api. Here is a 15 minute interval spanning 09:00:00 to 20:00:00 on the blue channel. I am excited to integrate this into some wave maker functions next. Excellent work reef-pi team!

Also, has anyone ran the sine profile? I need to actually test it some on my ldd's but is this what is expected (in pic LEDSinev1, Note the "Unknown Profile: sine") I am expecting this would work except the gui doesn't know what it is, or perhaps I am wrong.

 

[Ranjib]

FYI, I spoke some with the maker of the ReeFi light, which seems to be a stinking-awesome light. They run a ton of channels (I think 10?) of dimmable LED in a very fancy controller that can run moon cycles, etc. It's super awesome as it uses individual reflectors instead of lenses/diffusers.

Anyways, I was asking him about if they have considered making an option to have an external controller with a 10-pin connector instead of including parts for wifi/computation/etc. It turns out most of that's on the same board as the driver, so it isn't very viable and would evade 100% of the protections they build in.

However, they have a tcp api. So, does anyone have #reefpi using a tcp interface? especially as a macro? I figure I might want a 'major maintenance' macro that turns down pumps/etc, but also dims the lights so I don't burn corals while the water level is down. Thoughts?

If they have api, it will be pretty easy to rollup a network based driver for them which exposes the channels as jacks.

 

[Ranjib]

I finally had a moment to start messing with the other pwm profiles via the api. Here is a 15 minute interval spanning 09:00:00 to 20:00:00 on the blue channel. I am excited to integrate this into some wave maker functions next. Excellent work reef-pi team!

Also, has anyone ran the sine profile? I need to actually test it some on my ldd's but is this what is expected (in pic LEDSinev1, Note the "Unknown Profile: sine") I am expecting this would work except the gui doesn't know what it is, or perhaps I am wrong.

You are right, the GUI wont be able to show components for the sine profile, but the backend should work just fine.

 

[Ranjib]

You are right, the GUI wont be able to show components for the sine profile, but the backend should work just fine.

And if you have grafana or adafruit.io , you can use that to visualize the output, as individual channel intensity is emitted as metric on every update

 

[burningbaal]

If they have api, it will be pretty easy to rollup a network based driver for them which exposes the channels as jacks.

Just to be clear: he said they do have an API and indicated that we could control each channel via that api if desired. If I ever decide I'm rolling in money and get serious about buying one, maybe I'll work more toward a tcp api for it.

 

[brandon clow]

You are right, the GUI wont be able to show components for the sine profile, but the backend should work just fine.

I want to give a big thanks for the db editor. It just saved me an entire rebuild as one of my newly added profiles was crashing reef-pi with a code=exited, status=2. Went in to lightings, grabbed the id and did the delete command. Today was a very good day!

 

[ummwhy]

I'm in between a major life event, house purchase :0) .
Those of you who have house in US, any advice? Im going through property inspection phase (in between offer accepted and closing state). What are the key things I should look for? I want to have a larger aquarium (120G), there is information about floor support, but I could also use some electrical and ceiling/paint related advice

Title Insurance...

 

[Des Westcott]

I had a bit of time and thought I should calibrate all 3 of my temp probes............

Read up on the ice bath technique and set to it.............................................

And I seem to have broken them. 1 was reading about 1 deg high, punched in the right temp and hit apply (well, my son did that. I was under the tank stirring ice). In my haste, I did all 3 of them and now they are all reading 0 and I'm getting errors.

Jan 29 16:51:20
temperature sub-system. Failed to read sensor ChillOut. Errorpen /sys/bus/w1/devices/28-001898431736/w1_slave: no such file or directory

Jan 29 16:51:21
temperature sub-system. Failed to read sensor Electrics. Errorpen /sys/bus/w1/devices/28-5ec58f1d64ff/w1_slave: no such file or directory

Jan 29 16:51:25
temperature sub-system. Failed to read sensor Sump Temp. Errorpen /sys/bus/w1/devices/28-0018984300d1/w1_slave: no such file or directory

I did try delete and re-create one of them, but no difference.

Help?

 

[Des Westcott]

I had a bit of time and thought I should calibrate all 3 of my temp probes............

Read up on the ice bath technique and set to it.............................................

And I seem to have broken them. 1 was reading about 1 deg high, punched in the right temp and hit apply (well, my son did that. I was under the tank stirring ice). In my haste, I did all 3 of them and now they are all reading 0 and I'm getting errors.

Jan 29 16:51:20
temperature sub-system. Failed to read sensor ChillOut. Errorpen /sys/bus/w1/devices/28-001898431736/w1_slave: no such file or directory

Jan 29 16:51:21
temperature sub-system. Failed to read sensor Electrics. Errorpen /sys/bus/w1/devices/28-5ec58f1d64ff/w1_slave: no such file or directory

Jan 29 16:51:25
temperature sub-system. Failed to read sensor Sump Temp. Errorpen /sys/bus/w1/devices/28-0018984300d1/w1_slave: no such file or directory

I did try delete and re-create one of them, but no difference.

Help?

I've also reloaded and rebooted and same situation.

 

[brandon clow]

I've also reloaded and rebooted and same situation.

Looks like they are completely offline. Is it possible you disturbed some wiring when doing this task?

 

[Des Westcott]

Looks like they are completely offline. Is it possible you disturbed some wiring when doing this task?

I went to have a look around, unplugged one of the sensors and re-plugged it in and all is working again.

Strange.

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

I went to have a look around, unplugged one of the sensors and re-plugged it in and all is working again.

Strange.

Test them one at a time with no other temp probes in the system.