Buddy's Reef-Pi Build

[buddy.]

I don't think I have anything else set up yet. I'm not running any pH or ATO on the reef-pi. I have my led lights connected but I haven't set up any schedule for them to run on yet as the tank is just cycling.

 

[buddy.]

@Ranjib I am able to reprouduce the temp probes dropping out.
It does not happen every time, but if I toggle any of my equipment on/off then the probes will drop out straight away. Any idea why this might be happening?

I just noticed a pattern that when my algae reactor light turns off from the timer I have set, is around the same time that the probes have been dropping out. It also explains why it doesn't happen every day because I have to toggle the equipment a few times for the probes to drop out.
The probes can only be restored by a complete power off.

 

[Ranjib]

I suspect voltage or current spike or some kind of other aberration. I cant think of an easy way to predict this without scope. What type of relay you are using? Is it possible that relay does not have diod (kickback voltage) or drawing too much current (you'll need capacitors)
@theatrus thoughts?

 

[buddy.]

I am using this board https://www.amazon.com/JBtek-Channel-Module-Arduino-Raspberry/dp/B00KTELP3I
I am powering it from wykats board. What if I tried powering it from its own power source?

 

[Bigtrout]

I am using this board https://www.amazon.com/JBtek-Channel-Module-Arduino-Raspberry/dp/B00KTELP3I
I am powering it from wykats board. What if I tried powering it from its own power source?

Wykats board may not be enough to power it all so I think you are on the right track. What kind of pi are you using, a zero or a 3b?
I use 2 of the same relay board and wanted to power them seperately so relay coils pulling in and out would not affect my PI power.

To power the relay board seperately( this isolates the coil power of the relays on a seperate supply), look at the yellow jumper on the corner of the board. There is a header there with GND, VCC and JDVCC. Remove the jumper that goes from JDVCC and VCC,and put seperate 5v power to jdvcc (positive) and the ground (negative) that is beside vcc on that pin header. Whatever you do, DO NOT put the jumper on VCC to GND as that makes a direct short.

This power problem may also be why your relays are acting strange and not working your light and heaters correctly.

 

[Bigtrout]

Here is a pic of mine, yellow is positive, gray the negative. Each relay coil draws 71 milliamps, so if all 8 relays are pulled in at the same time the board draws about .58 amps. I am running 2 8 channel relays so thats why they have their own supply.

 

[Ranjib]

Its worth noting that that when powering via pi gpio , it can only draw 1A max. I tend to create a common 5v rail which is used across pi, ATO and ph sensor.
Take voltage reading of your 3.3v rail, if its running low, then may be its worth using a seperate lm2596 to generate 3.3v rail instead of relying on pi

 

[buddy.]

I have a lm2596 supplying 5v to the pi. Maybe I can supply the relay boards from that lm2596 instead of the pi gpio. I'll give it a go tonight if I get a chance and report back. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Bigtrout]

I have a lm2596 supplying 5v to the pi. Maybe I can supply the relay boards from that lm2596 instead of the pi gpio. I'll give it a go tonight if I get a chance and report back. Thanks for the suggestions!

If not you may have to use another to supply the relays

 

[buddy.]

So I ended up sacrificing an old phone charger for the 5v to power the relay boards and its looking good so far. I left my metal halide on for about 30 minutes and I was able to toggle it off no problems. I will leave it on for a few hours tomorrow and try again.

I tried to get the temperature probes to drop out by toggling different equipment on and off several times but the probes stayed connected the entire time If this works then I will get a AC to DC converter that I can mount inside my power box and power the relays from that.
Time well tell if this was an easy fix but I am pretty positive so far!

Other things to fix are...
Get port forwarding working. I found out my ISP blocks ports by default so I will have to call them to see if I can get any opened.
I am still getting the adafruit error {"error":"not found - that is an invalid URL, please check the API documentation at https://io.adafruit.com/api/docs to make sure your URL is correct"}, im still not sure why.
My adafruit.io alerts did not trigger when my probes dropped out so I will need to investigate.

 

[buddy.]

24 hours later and things are still stable. I swapped out my wykat PWM board for a PCA9685 as wykats board didn't suit the LED drivers I am running.
I plugged in the rest of my temp probes as I am pretty positive that supplying the relays with their own power solved the weird problems I was having.

I think when the heater got stuck on it caused a lot of die off and restarted my cycle. All my chaeto died off too but I had a backup in my temporary tank with all of my livestock.
Hopefully I have smoothed out my reef-pi now and I can monitor it for a couple more weeks until my cycle completes.

 

[Bigtrout]

Sounds like you have it all sorted out.

 

[buddy.]

Been a while since I updated. I got an email alert that all of my temp probes had failed!
I did some investigating and it seems one of my orange double crimped sensors has failed and was knocking out the whole chain of sensors (4). Once removed everything seems back to normal. Has anyone had an orange one fail before?
There doesn't look like there is anything physically wrong with it so I am not sure why.

 

[Bigtrout]

Mine are all going strong...and im running 3 of them...

 

[Ranjib]

Been a while since I updated. I got an email alert that all of my temp probes had failed!
I did some investigating and it seems one of my orange double crimped sensors has failed and was knocking out the whole chain of sensors (4). Once removed everything seems back to normal. Has anyone had an orange one fail before?
There doesn't look like there is anything physically wrong with it so I am not sure why.

These were from DROK? Mine are still going good (canakit & adafruit). I had couple sensor failure early this year

 

[buddy.]

These were from DROK? Mine are still going good (canakit & adafruit). I had couple sensor failure early this year

Yes the DROK. Hopefully just a one off. All looking good since I removed the faulty sensor.

 

[buddy.]

Well it seems I spoke too soon about the temperature probe.
I swapped out my Eheim heater for a more powerful Schego and now every time the heater comes on, my temp prob fails instantly.
I spent a couple of hours troubleshooting today and sort of solved the problem.
I found that if I powered on my raspberry pi with the temp probe out of the water, it did not fail when the heater came on.
As soon as the metal end of the probe got put back in the water with the heater on, I instantly get a failed sensor alert.

So then I put the sensor in a zip lock bag pictured below and now the heater doesn't cause it to fail at all.

Should the ds18b20 transistor really be so super sensitive to the heater? I am using a DROK sensor.
I previously thought that the failures were because of running the probe wire next to other wires but i have found that not to be the case.
I guess long term I could encase the end of the probe in silicone.

 

[buddy.]

Problem number two!
I have not been using my metal halide light because it instantly causes my temp probe to fail. After putting the probe in the bag in the previous post I was curious to see what happens when I put my metal halide on.
Weirdly my probe did not fail! But it wasn't completely error free...
Both times I tested the light, my temp probe spiked to 85c. Any reason why it would be doing this and why is it 85 degrees each time?

 

[buddy.]

Andddd finally
I have been accessing my reef-pi dashboard on my laptop (firefox), my phone (chrome) and the raspberry pi desktop (chrome)
I can no longer access the dashboard on my phone or r-pi. It just gives me a blank page on both. It works just fine on my laptop.
I confirmed I am using the correct address and it is not https. I tried rebooting, reloading and powering off the pi but no luck.
Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[Ranjib]

Andddd finally
I have been accessing my reef-pi dashboard on my laptop (firefox), my phone (chrome) and the raspberry pi desktop (chrome)
I can no longer access the dashboard on my phone or r-pi. It just gives me a blank page on both. It works just fine on my laptop.
I confirmed I am using the correct address and it is not https. I tried rebooting, reloading and powering off the pi but no luck.
Does anyone have any ideas?

Try the incognito or private mode in your mobile browser.
Do you have a grounding probe in your tank ? I think It can reduce the electrical interfere .
All these are invaluable information