Buddy's Reef-Pi Build

buddy. · Dec 24, 2018

Bahaha oh well, if I change my LED set up ill have all of the components ready to go

I have a big tank move shortly so who knows!
So its completely safe to run PWM straight from the chip?
Any idea why the resistors etc caused the LEDs not able to be turned off?

wykat · Dec 24, 2018

buddy. said:
Bahaha oh well, if I change my LED set up ill have all of the components ready to go I have a big tank move shortly so who knows!
So its completely safe to run PWM straight from the chip?
Any idea why the resistors etc caused the LEDs not able to be turned off?

I think you should be ok as also the Adafruit 16-Channel 12-bit PWM/Servo Driver - I2C interface - PCA9685 doesn't have any protection between the PWM output and the PCA9685 chip. I've been thinking a little about this but it would require a slightly different schematic to add a protection circuit for a 5V Reef-PI_HAT..
for some reason I think that address 0x3FF (1024 decimal) is converted to 0x000 and with 0x3fe you've seen the 1% dimming. I think @Ranjib or somebody else involved in the Reef-PI software can explain, I've not taken the time to look into the software (more struggling with the mechanics around a Rea Sea 250 Reefer at the moment

)

buddy. · Dec 24, 2018

wykat said:
I think you should be ok as also the Adafruit 16-Channel 12-bit PWM/Servo Driver - I2C interface - PCA9685 doesn't have any protection between the PWM output and the PCA9685 chip. I've been thinking a little about this but it would require a slightly different schematic to add a protection circuit for a 5V Reef-PI_HAT..
for some reason I think that address 0x3FF (1024 decimal) is converted to 0x000 and with 0x3fe you've seen the 1% dimming. I think @Ranjib or somebody else involved in the Reef-PI software can explain, I've not taken the time to look into the software (more struggling with the mechanics around a Rea Sea 250 Reefer at the moment )

What sort of lights did you have in mind when you designed the pwm board?
I am just happy I have a lot more channels to play with now! I will go ahead and take out that one row of resistors and use that spot for my PWM.
Currently on my typhon controller I have all my negatives linked together. Is it safe to have 1 negative running from my pwm board to each LDD board? (two boards mounting 5 LDD drivers each)
Good luck with the 250 reefer!

wykat · Dec 24, 2018

buddy. said:
What sort of lights did you have in mind when you designed the pwm board?
I am just happy I have a lot more channels to play with now! I will go ahead and take out that one row of resistors and use that spot for my PWM.
Currently on my typhon controller I have all my negatives linked together. Is it safe to have 1 negative running from my pwm board to each LDD board? (two boards mounting 5 LDD drivers each)
Good luck with the 250 reefer!

You should be ok with using the GND signal on the middle pin of the LM7805. Basically the Reef-PI_HAT PCB also connects all GND connections on the board without other influence.

So far I was thinking about Kessil although not that familiar in Europe. Nevertheless while still learning also T5's are an option, there are just so many options.....

Ranjib · Jan 6, 2019

It is safe only if its 5V, but yeah folks run stepper motors using that breakout board

buddy. · Jan 17, 2019

Well I am back from my holiday of snorkeling and scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef

A bunch more parts have arrived for my reef-pi build too!
This weekend I have to move my tank to my new house which is 4 hours away and once that is done I will continue on hooking the tank up the the reef-pi.

Ranjib · Jan 18, 2019

buddy. said:
Well I am back from my holiday of snorkeling and scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef A bunch more parts have arrived for my reef-pi build too!
This weekend I have to move my tank to my new house which is 4 hours away and once that is done I will continue on hooking the tank up the the reef-pi.

glad to have you back

. Looking forward for the build updates . I am also settling in my new apartment. I am curious what type of fishes you saw during diving. Hawai was full of achiles tangs, yellow tang etc.

buddy. · Jan 22, 2019

Ranjib said:
glad to have you back . Looking forward for the build updates . I am also settling in my new apartment. I am curious what type of fishes you saw during diving. Hawai was full of achiles tangs, yellow tang etc.

I saw a lot of rabbit fish and Parrot fish! The only Tangs I saw were Browns and Clowns. Saw a few Moorish Idols too.
The coolest thing was a big bommie full of anemones and clownfish.

buddy. · Jan 22, 2019

I tried out my new 5v relay boards and they are working properly so now I need to make up a box and wire up all of my outlets.

buddy. · Feb 8, 2019

My reef-pi is finally controlling my tank

My tank is still cycling from moving house so its a good time to test out the reef-pi.

My build has control of 14 outlets through 2 DB9 cables, 5 temperature probes through mini XLR connectors and LED PWM control through a VGA cable.
I used Wykats pi-hat and pwm board. It turns out that the PWM board doesn't quite work with my set up so I think I will just swap it out for the PCA board.
I already have a dosing pump and ATO so I will leave that off the reef-pi at this stage.

I originally was only going to have 1o outlets but I decided to add on 4 more and use them as always on. I am just waiting for them to arrive!

buddy. · Feb 8, 2019

My list of equipment connected to reef-pi is,
Return - Always on
Skimmer - Always on
Powerheads x 2 - One always on
Chaeto reactor pump and light
Heater
Metal Halide
LEDs
Cabinet fan controller

Temp probes are measuring Sump, Tank, Cabinet sump, Cabinet dry side electrical and outside room temp.

I have set my reef-pi to use a static IP which looks to be working. The last thing that I want to do is access my reef-pi from outside my home network?
I tried to do this but was not too sure how. I read about port forwarding and other network stuff but didn't really understand. Can anyone help me out here?

Bigtrout · Feb 8, 2019

To access from outside your network you have to either use VNC(virtual network computing) which is built into raspian, or something called VPN(virtual private network) for your network.

My router can act as a openVPN server so thats how I access my reef pi.

VNC on the pi is easier to set up but does take some pi resources to run.
VPN on your network is a bit more to setup but lets you access your whole network remotely.

Ranjib · Feb 10, 2019

buddy. said:
My list of equipment connected to reef-pi is,
Return - Always on
Skimmer - Always on
Powerheads x 2 - One always on
Chaeto reactor pump and light
Heater
Metal Halide
LEDs
Cabinet fan controller

Temp probes are measuring Sump, Tank, Cabinet sump, Cabinet dry side electrical and outside room temp.

I have set my reef-pi to use a static IP which looks to be working. The last thing that I want to do is access my reef-pi from outside my home network?
I tried to do this but was not too sure how. I read about port forwarding and other network stuff but didn't really understand. Can anyone help me out here?

What’s your internet provider ? Comcast /dish etc? Once you know that, next you need to know your home router website, through that you can easily setup port forwarding . Keep asking questions, we are here to help

buddy. · Feb 17, 2019

Thanks @Ranjib . I am familiar with logging in to my router so thats no problem. As far as I can see, I have set it up correctly but my port still shows as closed on a port checker.
I know my ISP blocks some ports including 80. Could you help me fill out the correct numbers?

Here is my reef-pi details

Here is my router port forwarding page.

My reef-pi is on 192.168.20.5 on my home network (192.168.20.1)
Ive also set it to a static IP.
What port should I set the reef-pi to run on inside of the reef-pi configuration? What should I be setting for the external and internal ports on my router page?

Thanks!!

Ranjib · Feb 17, 2019

I am guessing you have to set internal port to 80, and external port to something like 8080. then use the router's public ip (WAN ip, not internal wifi ip 192.168.20.1) to and external port number to access reef-pi from outside home network

Ranjib · Feb 18, 2019

@buddy. following up here from the main thread. Do you have any feeds created on adafruit ?

buddy. · Feb 18, 2019

Ranjib said:
@buddy. following up here from the main thread. Do you have any feeds created on adafruit ?

Yup I have two feeds. One for my sump temp and one for my tank temp. I do not have any other probes plugged in for now.
Also my temp probes both dropped out during the night. CPU usage also drops and then spikes at the same time it seems. The heater also got stuck on again when the probes dropped out.

Ranjib · Feb 18, 2019

buddy. said:
Yup I have two feeds. One for my sump temp and one for my tank temp. I do not have any other probes plugged in for now.
Also my temp probes both dropped out during the night. CPU usage also drops and then spikes at the same time it seems. The heater also got stuck on again when the probes dropped out.

You don’t have feeds created for cpu/memory. What other feeds are missing ?