Hey everyone starting a reef pi build

[youngblood421]

 

[AquaRaider44]

The URL is wrong https://github.com/reef-pi/reef-pi/ releases/download/ 3.0.0-pre-alpha-2/reef-pi-3.0.0-pre-alpha-2-pi0.deb

Remove the spaces in the url above before releases and after download

 

[youngblood421]

im officially in. thank you!

 

[AquaRaider44]

im officially in. thank you!

You are welcome! If you need anything else feel free to let us know

 

[youngblood421]

is it cheaper to get the hats or build yourself?

 

[youngblood421]

looking ahead at the plans it seems for the ph plans it requires another pi?

 

[AquaRaider44]

is it cheaper to get the hats or build yourself?

looking ahead at the plans it seems for the ph plans it requires another pi?

Hello, Everything can be done on one pi but it can be a challenge hence by build thread Reef-Pi The All In One Pi Challenge. It is cheaper to use the ph board by about 40$ here https://www.tindie.com/products/Ranthalion/isolated-ph-probe-interface-for-reef-pi/ from Michael Lane and I would definitely get this one for sure.

As for the hat https://www.tindie.com/products/ranthalion/ml-reef-pi-hat-v3/ also by Michael Lane it is about the same price as building it yourself but there are perks and drawbacks. The hat limits you to what is on the hat but is nice because it is prebuilt and basically plug and play.

But if you like soldering and seeing how things work and are ok with making mistakes and attempting to follow directions and do not want to be limited to only what is on the hat then you should definitely build it yourself.

I built it myself and enjoyed the process and did not want to be limited to a hat. Especially because new features may come in the future which will need a new hat whereas you could just expand your setup.

 

[Michael Lane]

A single rpi should be capable of running (almost) everything that reef-pi supports. I haven't tried running a camera on reef-pi, but I could see that bogging down resources. I have 3 temperature sensors, 3 dosing pumps, 16 outlets, ph, and multiple channels of lights all running on a single pi.

I haven't configured the ph sensors yet, but ph calibration via the UI (for the ph board and pico board) should be ready within the next few days. I may upgrade my working system once that is done and bring those online next.

I haven't tried a pi zero, so I'm not sure what kind of performance trade offs that might involve. I also run my pi headless and use Stretch Lite, so it isn't supporting a GUI desktop.

 

[AquaRaider44]

@youngblood421 @Michael Lane I think a pi 0 would work fine. I have 4 lights 4 dosers 2 ato's 8 equipment 1 ph 1 temperature and still basically no usage. I think my pi 3 is wayyyyy overkill.

 

[Ranjib]

you dont have to uninstall it, just install 3.0 . remove the database before you upgrade,. check troubleshooting guide for details

 

[youngblood421]

Both of these are out of stock what’s a good alternative?

 

[AquaRaider44]

Both of these are out of stock what’s a good alternative?

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GJ0SC2C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
You dont need the standoffs

 

[Ranjib]

@youngblood421 how is your build coming?

 

[youngblood421]

@youngblood421 how is your build coming?

Thank you for asking! Just got back from vacation to everything in the mail to start the next steps. I leave for a work trip on Thursday and already have a separate duffel bag with all the raspberry pi stuff to knock her out in the evenings in the hotel room. I’m excited to get it finished. I feel like the most challenging part for me is over but we will see lol

 

[youngblood421]

@youngblood421 how is your build coming?

Do you know if I can use reef pi to control my sb reef sbox sprite reef? I know it doesn’t come with an option to control it just the knobs

 

[Michael Lane]

You can probably modify the lights to work with reef-pi, but it depends on how the small circuit board connected to the knobs work. Sometimes you can just directly connect pwm from reef-pi, sometimes you need to do a bit more. We can probably figure it out if you can open your lights and get some good, clear pictures of the pcb the knobs are on.

 

[youngblood421]

You can probably modify the lights to work with reef-pi, but it depends on how the small circuit board connected to the knobs work. Sometimes you can just directly connect pwm from reef-pi, sometimes you need to do a bit more. We can probably figure it out if you can open your lights and get some good, clear pictures of the pcb the knobs are on.

Will do! Lights are on the way still and about to be out of town for work but I will in about a week and a half

 

[youngblood421]

finally back on finishing up my build today hopefully

 

[youngblood421]

If something doesn’t look good or right feel free to let me know lol

 

[Ranjib]

looks ok to me. double check the uln2803 direction, its not very clear from the image. Given you are soldering the IC directly on the permaproto board, fixing any mistake will be lot of work