Has anyone tried using a Nextion display.

[Wolfw28]

I have a Nextion display I have used on an arduino. I’d like to Use it ability to send switch input high low, and use the ATO control in Reefpi to read the on/off signal. Basically I’d like to setup multiple on off switch to turn on or off equipment ie pumps, to set up basic switch run a macro. Like a feed button on the control screen that shut off the pumps. Just some basic control light on/off pump control on off or even high or low speed. It would be nice to have a cheap touch on off control mounted in the stand. So I’d have some kind of quick access to control devices while Working on the tank instead of fumbling around trying to find my phone. To access Reefpi over the internet , I’m not looking for fancy touch screen, looking for cheap and quick acess of equipment and something disposable basically It going to need to be replaced ever 6 months or so ,be that’s is in the salt air in the cabinet. Simple hookup 2 serial wires 5v and ground. I got the hookup and the setup within Reefpi UI interface , but the code, no clue.any help would be nice. Thank you.

 

[Sral]

Just for interest, it seems to me that the Nextion Displays are using the serial UART interface on the Pi to send simple ASCII text commands.

Does anybody know whether Reef-Pi has innate UART capabilities ? Quick answer from @Ranjib maybe ?
Or does one have to work around that by writing a driver that handles the UART serial interface in the background and communicates to Reef-Pi, for example via the file-drivers or the API like Kivy-Reef (example) ?

Addition: does Robo-Tank give you access to the UART pins, or are those already used ? @robsworld78 ?

 

[Wolfw28]

Or a uart to usb convert. I believe they are used.

 

[Wolfw28]

I saw Livy-reef wouldn’t my using that mounted on the door on my stand as a full time dasplay. But in my stand near my sump no. Plus i have had this displat sitting here doing nothing.

 

[Sral]

Or a uart to usb convert. I believe they are used.

Good idea. Not sure how easy it is to make those work on a Pi Zero, but that would give you a UART interface.
You will need a OTG to USB adapter like this and then a USB to UART like this I think.
( There are also variantes that go directly from micro USB to UART, but I would use the USB Typ A, since you might also need that to transfer the software onto the Nextion display from a PC. Maybe you can also do that from the Pi, but better safe than sorry. )

I looked up Robsworld's manual for the Robotank V3, on page 5 he mentiones that Pins 8 and 10 (the UART pins as mentioned here) are used for the AC ports, so you would have a harder time accessing those pins and using them for the display.

 

[Sral]

Or a uart to usb convert. I believe they are used.

Thx BTW for bringing this up, made me rethink my controller to leave the UART pins free for something like this ^^

 

[Wolfw28]

@Sral my Freind you are quite welcome, thank you for all your help and advice. I’m actually running my Reef-pi on a pi 3b I moved my pi zero 2 to m 3d printer needed a smaller cooler running pi to fit inside my printer to run Octoprint. Got a chance last night to checkout your build looks awesome.

 

[robsworld78]

Good idea. Not sure how easy it is to make those work on a Pi Zero, but that would give you a UART interface.
You will need a OTG to USB adapter like this and then a USB to UART like this I think.
( There are also variantes that go directly from micro USB to UART, but I would use the USB Typ A, since you might also need that to transfer the software onto the Nextion display from a PC. Maybe you can also do that from the Pi, but better safe than sorry. )

I looked up Robsworld's manual for the Robotank V3, on page 5 he mentiones that Pins 8 and 10 (the UART pins as mentioned here) are used for the AC ports, so you would have a harder time accessing those pins and using them for the display.

All the pins mentioned in the manuals are GPIO numbers not actual pin numbers. Going to change lists in manuals to GPIO as I can see how you thought this. Pin 8 (GPIO 14) and pin 9 (GPIO 15) is sensor port 1 and 2. These can be used for UART if a person wants to.

 

[Sral]

All the pins mentioned in the manuals are GPIO numbers not actual pin numbers. Going to change lists in manuals to GPIO as I can see how you thought this. Pin 8 (GPIO 14) and pin 9 (GPIO 15) is sensor port 1 and 2. These can be used for UART if a person wants to.

Maybe you can change it to give both numbers, then people might recognize the difference easier.
Thanks for the info!