reef-pi 5.0 - release announcement

Litserv · Jan 7, 2022

Ranjib said:
We would love to know about your setup

Here're some pictures...
Photo Aquarium (freshwater tank, 80l), Screenshot Overview Reef-Pi (Aquarium), Screenshot Integration 3 Reef-Pi installation in HomeAssistant, Screenshot Overview Terrarium (young Testudo Hermanni, 'born' fall 2021; sorry, invisible because sleeping at the moment), photo Terrarium.

Ranjib · Jan 7, 2022

Litserv said:
Here're some pictures...
Photo Aquarium (freshwater tank, 80l), Screenshot Overview Reef-Pi (Aquarium), Screenshot Integration 3 Reef-Pi installation in HomeAssistant, Screenshot Overview Terrarium (young Testudo Hermanni, 'born' fall 2021; sorry, invisible because sleeping at the moment), photo Terrarium.

gorgeous

im_jeremy5 · Jan 8, 2022

Ranjib said:
gorgeous

Hello @Ranjib,

I have an issue where I changed the "address" on the configuration page to my public ip in a failed and misguided attempt to access reef pi remotely. Now I cannot access it via the local network or http://localhost/ on the device itself. I confirmed reef-pi is running and it is still sending data to adafruit.io, I just cannot access the gui in a web browser. The only thing I changed is "0.0.0.0:80" to my public IP.

Is there any terminal commands I can use to change that back to default so I don't have to disassemble my reef-pi to access my SD card and install everything from scratch?

Thank you, sorry to stalk you for tech support. I am just at a loss.

Ranjib · Jan 8, 2022

im_jeremy5 said:
Hello @Ranjib,

I have an issue where I changed the "address" on the configuration page to my public ip in a failed and misguided attempt to access reef pi remotely. Now I cannot access it via the local network or http://localhost/ on the device itself. I confirmed reef-pi is running and it is still sending data to adafruit.io, I just cannot access the gui in a web browser. The only thing I changed is "0.0.0.0:80" to my public IP.

Is there any terminal commands I can use to change that back to default so I don't have to disassemble my reef-pi to access my SD card and install everything from scratch?

Thank you, sorry to stalk you for tech support. I am just at a loss.

thats a bad user experience from reef-pi side, that we should fix. meanwhile you can use the reef-pi db command to get the settings , update it and restart reef-pi.

Code:

sudo systemctl stop reef-pi.service
sudo reef-pi db show reef-pi settings > settings.json
# open the settings.json file , search for the address, change it back to 0.0.0.0:80, save it
sudo reef-pi db update reef-pi settings < settings.json
sudo systemctl start reef-pi.service

that should do it

im_jeremy5 · Jan 9, 2022

Ranjib said:
thats a bad user experience from reef-pi side, that we should fix. meanwhile you can use the reef-pi db command to get the settings , update it and restart reef-pi.

Code:

sudo systemctl stop reef-pi.service sudo reef-pi db show reef-pi settings > settings.json # open the settings.json file , search for the address, change it back to 0.0.0.0:80, save it sudo reef-pi db update reef-pi settings < settings.json sudo systemctl start reef-pi.service

that should do it

IT WORKED! Thank you!

I have another question. Has anyone got adafruit.io and email alerts on the telemetry page working simultaneously? I can only seem to get one working at a time. Unfortunately, my isp blocks port forwarding so to my understanding that makes it impossible to access the webserver remotely. That makes adafruit.io (or something similar) important to me to check on it while I am out of town for work. Email alerts are also huge. But I can't get them to work at the same time. If you can point me in a direction of a workaround or some other option for receiving notifications and viewing data that would be amazing.

Thank you so much for your work on this project. I have learned so much in the process and enjoyed it tremendously. It even inspired my son to buy a raspberry pi and start working on python and other programming projects.

Ranjib · Jan 9, 2022

im_jeremy5 said:
IT WORKED! Thank you!

I have another question. Has anyone got adafruit.io and email alerts on the telemetry page working simultaneously? I can only seem to get one working at a time. Unfortunately, my isp blocks port forwarding so to my understanding that makes it impossible to access the webserver remotely. That makes adafruit.io (or something similar) important to me to check on it while I am out of town for work. Email alerts are also huge. But I can't get them to work at the same time. If you can point me in a direction of a workaround or some other option for receiving notifications and viewing data that would be amazing.

Thank you so much for your work on this project. I have learned so much in the process and enjoyed it tremendously. It even inspired my son to buy a raspberry pi and start working on python and other programming projects.

reef-pi was started as a project for me to get out of social media, and spend time with my son Ryan when he was born

. The project and Ryan are of same age (6) . It's awesome to hear that you find it useful. These kind words mean a lot for me and the rest of the community

Litserv · Jan 9, 2022

im_jeremy5 said:
Unfortunately, my isp blocks port forwarding

That's bad...
Can you implement/create a VPN-connection to your LAN?
This is how I do it to get access to my servers, not only reef-pi. At least I consider such a solution more safe than port forwarding. And I never would use my public IP address...

im_jeremy5 said:
Thank you so much for your work on this project. I have learned so much in the process and enjoyed it tremendously.

I totally agree!!! Thanks to Ranjib again (and the other people to improve reef-pi).

AbjectMaelstroM · Jan 9, 2022

Litserv said:
Here're some pictures...
Photo Aquarium (freshwater tank, 80l), Screenshot Overview Reef-Pi (Aquarium), Screenshot Integration 3 Reef-Pi installation in HomeAssistant, Screenshot Overview Terrarium (young Testudo Hermanni, 'born' fall 2021; sorry, invisible because sleeping at the moment), photo Terrarium.

Thats awesome. Home Assistant integration is my next project once I'm finished collapsing all of my hue and smartthings setups into HA and ditch their hubs.

Looks great!

im_jeremy5 · Jan 9, 2022

Litserv said:
That's bad...
Can you implement/create a VPN-connection to your LAN?
This is how I do it to get access to my servers, not only reef-pi. At least I consider such a solution more safe than port forwarding. And I never would use my public IP address...

I totally agree!!! Thanks to Ranjib again (and the other people to improve reef-pi).

Question, does this require a separate computer/server to always be running on the network? Or is it something that runs on the pi itself?

im_jeremy5 · Jan 9, 2022

Litserv said:
That's bad...
Can you implement/create a VPN-connection to your LAN?
This is how I do it to get access to my servers, not only reef-pi. At least I consider such a solution more safe than port forwarding. And I never would use my public IP address...

I totally agree!!! Thanks to Ranjib again (and the other people to improve reef-pi).

Also, this is different than VNC server right? I try to use vnc server, it works, but that way makes me use the browser on the pi. And since I am using a pi zero (due to a lack of supply of the bigger pi s) opening a browser on it is less than ideal, and usually results in a crash while I am not home to reset it.

attiland · Jan 10, 2022

im_jeremy5 said:
Also, this is different than VNC server right? I try to use vnc server, it works, but that way makes me use the browser on the pi. And since I am using a pi zero (due to a lack of supply of the bigger pi s) opening a browser on it is less than ideal, and usually results in a crash while I am not home to reset it.

VPN is a firewall function (most of the time) it requires you to have a router/firewall to support it. It supports you to access your local network resources from the internet. Pi is not powerful enough to do this effectively.

chrisc123 · Jan 12, 2022

im_jeremy5 said:
Also, this is different than VNC server right? I try to use vnc server, it works, but that way makes me use the browser on the pi. And since I am using a pi zero (due to a lack of supply of the bigger pi s) opening a browser on it is less than ideal, and usually results in a crash while I am not home to reset it.

Check out tailscale: https://tailscale.com/download/linux/rpi

Install that on your pi, the tailscale app on your mobile and/or PC and it'll build a mesh VPN you can use to access reef-pi remotely.

jatem · Jan 12, 2022

Ranjib said:
thats a bad user experience from reef-pi side, that we should fix. meanwhile you can use the reef-pi db command to get the settings , update it and restart reef-pi.

Code:

sudo systemctl stop reef-pi.service sudo reef-pi db show reef-pi settings > settings.json # open the settings.json file , search for the address, change it back to 0.0.0.0:80, save it sudo reef-pi db update reef-pi settings < settings.json sudo systemctl start reef-pi.service

that should do it

Thanks for this snippet. I installed reefpi on a pi zero with pihole, and needed to change the http port so I could access both web interfaces. Unfortunately, I initially tried to use the reef-pi db update command with a faulty syntax as shown in an old thread (using -input argument, which would hang reef-pi). This syntax worked great.

Litserv · Jan 15, 2022

I actually have two solutions to reach my servers including the Reef-Pi installations from the WAN on my LAN:

1. a VPN, configured in my internet router
and alternatively
2. a port forwarding from the router to a haproxy server.

To 1.: How to set up a VPN depends on the router. There are enough instructions on the internet, so I don't need to describe it here.

To 2.: For this solution, I have set up a sub-domain at my internet provider for each internal server (including 3 Reef-Pi installations), which points to the (current) IP address of my router. The router forwards the requests via port forwarding to the haproxy server. The haproxy server runs on its own Raspberry Pi. The haproxy server distributes the respective requests to the individual servers in the LAN. It passes SSL certificates transparently. I generate the SSL certificates via Letsencrypt.

The second solution is more convenient; the first is more secure, but more cumbersome in that I always have to set up the VPN tunnel before I can access my LAN from the WAN.

im_jeremy5 · Jan 15, 2022

chrisc123 said:
Check out tailscale: https://tailscale.com/download/linux/rpi

Install that on your pi, the tailscale app on your mobile and/or PC and it'll build a mesh VPN you can use to access reef-pi remotely.

DUDDDDDEEE!!! I have been trying to figure this out for sooooo long. I was about to spend $$$ on a new router/modem to run a VPN server or something. I have gone down so many dead ended rabbit holes trying to figure this out for the last 6 months. This took 10 minutes and it WORKS. THANK YOU!

attiland · Jan 15, 2022

Just be really careful with how you set it up port forwarding as it is not safe if not limited to one location/ip or other authenticated access.
pi’s defences are weak.

chrisc123 · Jan 15, 2022

attiland said:
Just be really careful with how you set it up port forwarding as it is not safe if not limited to one location/ip or other authenticated access.
pi’s defences are weak.

@Ranjib - Do you think it might be worth updating the docs (https://reef-pi.github.io/additional-documentation/remote/) to recommend Tailscale rather than VNC and/or Tor?

I think it would reduce the likelihood of people inadvertently exposing their home networks as a result of sketchy port forwarding setups?

Ranjib · Jan 15, 2022

chrisc123 said:
@Ranjib - Do you think it might be worth updating the docs (https://reef-pi.github.io/additional-documentation/remote/) to recommend Tailscale rather than VNC and/or Tor?

I think it would reduce the likelihood of people inadvertently exposing their home networks as a result of sketchy port forwarding setups?

Yes. I think it’s a good idea

Ranjib · Jan 15, 2022

attiland said:
Just be really careful with how you set it up port forwarding as it is not safe if not limited to one location/ip or other authenticated access.
pi’s defences are weak.

I use port forwarding on demand, with google WiFi app (google home ). That is I do not keep any permenent port forwarding,. When outside home, i’ll setup the port forwarding as and when I need it. It’s two click with the app, can be done anywhere , since google mesh WiFi has cloud connectivity. And I delete it soon after I use. I tend to use it for many other things , including grafana and octoprint.

Devin_Tesla · Jan 15, 2022

did something change with timers feeding macros since 4.1 i did the up date and the lights and control was fine but the macro that turns every on didn't fire not a big deal may have messed up the start of the macro turn it one and the end of day didn't run eater.

runing robo tank V1.0 pi3