Another reef-pi build.

[Diamond1]

Good Job! Looks like you ended up with a nice set up. Lots of good info in your build thread too.
I may follow your build for the moonlights and see if I can make that work with my setup.

Would love to hear your thoughts on the sunrise/sunset of the lights.

 

[b4tn]

Good Job! Looks like you ended up with a nice set up. Lots of good info in your build thread too.
I may follow your build for the moonlights and see if I can make that work with my setup.

Would love to hear your thoughts on the sunrise/sunset of the lights.

I honestly did not think it would make a big difference. When you are looking at the lights the difference between 10% and 65% does not look like a lot. It’s for sure a lot more drastic over the tank! It’s very cool and it ramps up and down and your right, you barely notice the white channel coming on. I drew this up for my initial settings and will watch it and see how things react.

The idea was to try and keep roughly the same amount of light as the direct on/off setup but since the intensity is less ramping up the time would need to be extended. If that makes sense. How does your schedule look?

 

[crusso1993]

I think I am done! The doser was an easy add on. I just cracked open my jaebo and there was lots of room to add a dB9 connector. Since the doser circuit is housed inside the pi box only 4 wires needed to be run, power and ground for the 2 motors.

The other 2 motors are still connected to the jaebo controller and work as a backup. It took me all of 5 minutes to calibrate them. 76% speed and I get 1 ml per second. . My biggest concern though was interference from the motors causing issues with the lights but not even a faint flicker while the motors run. I am happy!

So the final state of the pi.. due to the last minute troubleshooting with the lights and having to make some changes, it’s not as organized inside anymore. But all connectors inside the box have been either soldered or pressed on tightly to prevent issues down the road.

Now that I’m done with this part of the build I closed up the box and did my best to get the cables all cleaned up.

So to sum things up for my reefpi I wanted the build to be in one box with remote boxes for the doser and the power. I built the following into my box

- 8 configurable outlets, 4 normally open, 4 normally closed, With reef pi turned off my return, skimmer, algae scrubber, and right Powerhead stays on.

- 2 temp probes

- 2 float switches for ATO that detect high and low level.

- 2 dosers controlled with a tb6612 driver on a pca9685 PWM module

- PWM controlled moon lights on the pca9685

-RPI PWM controlled Ocean Revive lights with on/off relays for power.

Mission complete .

I’m not done though. I’m patiently waiting and researching for the next module I want to build. I have 2 maxspect gyres on each end of my tank. Right now they are on pulse mode via their built in controller and I flip flop them every hour via a reefpi outlet. Hopefully someday reefpi will have the ability to run 24volt brushless motors so I can ramp them up and down.

Nicely done!

 

[b4tn]

Nicely done!

Thanks!

 

[b4tn]

The pi3 B+ is not even breaking a sweat! Before switching to headless mode it would hover around 12-18.

 

[Diamond1]

Here's what mine look like. I have a bit more of a curve than you on my white channel with a 50% peak at the middle of the cycle and a more even ramp up of the blues that peak at 65%.
Partly because I'm acclimating some new corals to the tanks light and partly because I like a 14k to 20k look to my tank.

Since this is all new territory for me with the ramping thing and coral response, I feel like it's trial and error at this point. I just ordered a LUX meter to try and get a better idea of how much PAR I'm getting at the top of the tank and I may rent one of BRS par meters to get some better PAR values at depth throughout the tank.

 

[b4tn]

Here's what mine look like. I have a bit more of a curve than you on my white channel with a 50% peak at the middle of the cycle and a more even ramp up of the blues that peak at 65%.
Partly because I'm acclimating some new corals to the tanks light and partly because I like a 14k to 20k look to my tank.

Since this is all new territory for me with the ramping thing and coral response, I feel like it's trial and error at this point. I just ordered a LUX meter to try and get a better idea of how much PAR I'm getting at the top of the tank and I may rent one of BRS par meters to get some better PAR values at depth throughout the tank.

I really wish I had a par meter so I could have taken before and after readings. I am curious how close the 65% on the dial is to 65% in reefpi. But I just noticed the other day you can rent one from BRS and thought to myself that’s a great idea! But still need to do it.

I considered and am still considering how you have yours ramped. I noticed yesterday how cool the tank looks when both white and blue ramp down together. You don’t get that windex blue color lol. I probably won’t mess much with them until I get a par meter to see what readings I have.

 

[Ranjib]

I am very happy to see you reach this milestone
Our local club has a par meter that members can borrow , I am lucky in that way

 

[b4tn]

I am very happy to see you reach this milestone
Our local club has a par meter that members can borrow , I am lucky in that way

Big thanks to you and the others that are working on the code. This would not have been possible without all the work you all put into this and all the help available. I have learned and re-learned a lot since I have not dealt in electronics design since high school some 25 years ago lol.

I took my time and did lots of testing I think I started my build in September. I wanted to be 100% confident before switching everything over. But over all I am extremely happy. Not only for the sense of achievement I love the most, that “I made this” feeling, but the features and functionality. The RKL worked for me but it was painfully slow, complicated to use and program, and 0 support. Reefpi improves in all aspects of those areas.

 

[Diamond1]

Big thanks to you and the others that are working on the code. This would not have been possible without all the work you all put into this and all the help available. I have learned and re-learned a lot since I have not dealt in electronics design since high school some 25 years ago lol.

I took my time and did lots of testing I think I started my build in September. I wanted to be 100% confident before switching everything over. But over all I am extremely happy. Not only for the sense of achievement I love the most, that “I made this” feeling, but the features and functionality. The RKL worked for me but it was painfully slow, complicated to use and program, and 0 support. Reefpi improves in all aspects of those areas.

I still look at my reef-pi and feel a lot of satisfaction in knowing I made this and IT WORKS!
Having never done anything like this before I think I did OK and learned a lot in the process.

 

[b4tn]

@Ranjib I’m still having issues with disabling timers in the macro UI. I know it works because I was able to build and test it. But today it did not work as expected. I went to go check the macro and all the drop downs where missing from the selection box.

I went to the timer UI and opened one of the timers, didn’t make any changes but hit save, and went back to the macro I created and the drop downs where back

I ran the macro and it didn’t work so I went to look again and the drop downs where missing again. I went back and did the same thing in the timer UI and again they where showing but the macro still doesn’t work and when going back to check the drop downs are missing again. Any ideas?

 

[b4tn]

@Ranjib I tried running a macro this morning and I am getting the same result.

Open the macro UI and all the timers that where previously selected say "select system"
click the timer UI, go back to macros's, all the systems are now showing
refresh browser, go to the macro UI and all the previous selected timers say "Select System". when I select edit and go to select a system there is nothing in the drop down.

I am running version 2.1

 

[Ranjib]

@Ranjib I’m still having issues with disabling timers in the macro UI. I know it works because I was able to build and test it. But today it did not work as expected. I went to go check the macro and all the drop downs where missing from the selection box.

I went to the timer UI and opened one of the timers, didn’t make any changes but hit save, and went back to the macro I created and the drop downs where back

I ran the macro and it didn’t work so I went to look again and the drop downs where missing again. I went back and did the same thing in the timer UI and again they where showing but the macro still doesn’t work and when going back to check the drop downs are missing again. Any ideas?

I am thinking if theres a bug in the UI and its not loading the timers list unless you hit the timer tab. So, if you directly go to macro tab without visiting the timer tab then it does not show the timers.. this is my guess, I 'll have to verify this on my end.

 

[Ranjib]

@Ranjib I tried running a macro this morning and I am getting the same result.

Open the macro UI and all the timers that where previously selected say "select system"
click the timer UI, go back to macros's, all the systems are now showing
refresh browser, go to the macro UI and all the previous selected timers say "Select System". when I select edit and go to select a system there is nothing in the drop down.

I am running version 2.1

This is a UI bug. Its happening because reef-pi is not loading the timers unless you visit the timer tab. I am pushing a fix now, it will be available in next 2.x minor release. As a temporary workaround, click on the timer tab before you add/edit/remove macros.

https://github.com/reef-pi/reef-pi/pull/697

 

[Ranjib]

Sorry for the trouble :0-(, and thank you again for reporting this.

 

[b4tn]

No problem, thanks for looking into it. Even when they do show up the macro does not disable the timers. I know I got it to work once but cant figure out what sequence I did to make it work. Should I disable the equipment first then the timer for that equipment? Or will disabling the timer turn of the equipment by itself?

 

[b4tn]

Never mind, I got it sorted out and working like you suggested with the workaround

 

[b4tn]

So.... started researching powerhead control today. And found a whole bunch of useful information.

First off the jaebo and maxspect gyre pumps are sensorless brushless DC motors (BLDC). I need to look but I’m pretty sure the jaebo pumps are 12 volt and the gyres are 24 volt.

Second BLDC motors require a controller and use either PWM or 0-x volts for control.

So in searching around I was able to find a sensorless BLDC controller for $10

https://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-12V-24V...615878&hash=item2819d4da8b:g:t5wAAOSwqBJXVVC~

In searching for more information on the controller I ran across this thread and another from a different reef forum confirming it will work.

@erk was kind enough to go look at the pin colors from the maxspect gyres that need connected. From another thread discussing this in a little more detail

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-gyre-controller-idea.295784/

Maxspect wires
Black - W
Yellow - V
Red - U

So all that needs to be done is provide a .1v-5v pwm source and the pumps are controllable. Now I just need to decide do I use one of the multiple additional pins I have left over on my pca9685 for the powerheads? Or do I get a pi zero and another pca9685 to build a box for controlling 3 jew’s and 2 maxpects?

 

[theatrus]

So.... started researching powerhead control today. And found a whole bunch of useful information.

First off the jaebo and maxspect gyre pumps are sensorless brushless DC motors (BLDC). I need to look but I’m pretty sure the jaebo pumps are 12 volt and the gyres are 24 volt.

Second BLDC motors require a controller and use either PWM or 0-x volts for control.

So in searching around I was able to find a sensorless BLDC controller for $10

https://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-12V-24V...615878&hash=item2819d4da8b:g:t5wAAOSwqBJXVVC~

In searching for more information on the controller I ran across this thread and another from a different reef forum confirming it will work.

@erk was kind enough to go look at the pin colors from the maxspect gyres that need connected. From another thread discussing this in a little more detail

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-gyre-controller-idea.295784/

Maxspect wires
Black - W
Yellow - V
Red - U

So all that needs to be done is provide a .1v-5v pwm source and the pumps are controllable. Now I just need to decide do I use one of the multiple additional pins I have left over on my pca9685 for the powerheads? Or do I get a pi zero and another pca9685 to build a box for controlling 3 jew’s and 2 maxpects?

Looks like a standard Chinese LM339 + ??? IC BLDC controller. This is likely pretty close to what Jebao uses in their pump controllers. Note that there are various motor parameters which are usually controllable which aren't in this type of controller - will need testing and validation to make sure you're not over-driving coils and everything can start under load (eg., in water).

 

[b4tn]

Thanks for the input @theatrus. Starting under load was one of my concerns as well. @doughboy has a really good thread on the other forum that I still need to read through but it looks like it’s confirmed to work with the DCT series pumps. There are other versions of the controllers available but I still need to do some more research. There is also a Texas Instruments controller that you can fine tune via eprom but that may be a little too advanced for me.