Geeks reef-pi "possible" build.

[geekengineer]

So far I not going to be building anything right away since I may start on other things first and also depending on if I decide to start up another tank again. I made up a quick diagram of what I think I would want to have for my setup. Of course depending on when different hardware becomes available this might change a bit. I have some things I want in the basement so I have to have a I2C bus extender unless some things can be done via USB maybe in the future.

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

Wow planning.

I’m not good at planning but I can see how it will prevent redoing things later.

It is just so much fun to just jump in and start doing things right away without knowing where you are going.

Either way good luck! I’ll be watching for updates.

 

[geekengineer]

Lol I not sure if I'm good with planning either, but I thought it would be good to start out with a diagram of what I think I need. If I start with anything physical I work on building a stand for a 40 gallon breeder setup. I also need to do some major clean up in the basement where I want to put my RODI, Saltwater and ATO tanks. I like making messes more than cleaning up tho.

 

[geekengineer]

Ok rev 2 here we go...

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

What is a long hall i2c buffer? Is letting you have outlets you can control in your basement using data from sensors in your dt?

 

[Ranjib]

Exciting , tagging along #reefpi

 

[geekengineer]

What is a long hall i2c buffer? Is letting you have outlets you can control in your basement using data from sensors in your dt?

Well assuming it will work OK I was going to try to use this special buffer chip in the link below. The person made boards for it on OSH park as well you can buy and I already bought a set of the PCBs in case I needed them. I think it will require slowing down the I2C bus to 100Khz (if its not that way already?) to be safe.

https://www.hackster.io/chipmc/extend-the-reach-of-your-i2c-sensor-simply-and-inexpensively-ea6b53

 

[geekengineer]

I guess one question I should be asking is will I be able to do what I have diagramed with a reef-pi? Will I be able to add the code if I need to in order to support some on the hardware I like to use on I2C bus if there isn't support for it yet etc? I usually am pretty good at coding stuff etc. I can post the code branch if needed.

 

[Ranjib]

We have introduced something called Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL ) in reef-pi recently, which makes adding new driver very easy. I think it will be straight forward. Join the slack channel for help with development setup/questions.

 

[geekengineer]

We have introduced something called Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL ) in reef-pi recently, which makes adding new driver very easy. I think it will be straight forward. Join the slack channel for help with development setup/questions.

Cool that will be great if its a flexible system.

 

[Ranjib]

Cool that will be great if its a flexible system.

Yes it is, you just have to write driver that conforms to a simple interface (https://github.com/reef-pi/hal)

 

[geekengineer]

So does it allow for I2C access read/write etc?

 

[Ranjib]

So does it allow for I2C access read/write etc?

The driver interface is not aware of i2c, it only expected certain methods (like read, set etc) to be present. You can definitely use i2c bus in your driver, just like ph board or pca9685 ic, checkout reef-pi/drivers for example

 

[geekengineer]

Ok thanks well I can get on the channel you mentioned when I start to get into the details. I still don't totally know how it all works yet.

 

[Ranjib]

The best way to learn it is to build a simple setup, juts pi and may be a single ic (ph board or pca9685) and then start playing with the code. I think just Pi is enough for testing things. You can build/develop the software in mac/windows directly.

 

[geekengineer]

Well I was thinking of using the HAT that I made for that other project for a start point since its already go the PH circuit on it and the power outlets relay I already have. I not sure I might have to tweak the pin out setup a bit to make it work hopefully that's not too hard.