reef-pi :: An opensource reef tank controller based on Raspberry Pi.

[Somnifac]

Any chance you can add this as a guide under 'additional documentation' section?
This is the relevent repository:
https://github.com/reef-pi/website/tree/master/content/additional-documentation
you can use edit /add pages using github UI straight.

I can. When I attempt to create a new file, it says:

You’re creating a file in a project you don’t have write access to. We’ve created a fork of this project for you to commit your proposed changes to. Submitting a change will create the file in a new branch in your fork, so you can send a pull request.

Since I don't want to fork the project, do I need to be added to an access list? My GitHub username is:

AndySomnifac

 

[Somnifac]

Transistor question:

When buying my transistors for the 5v PWM to 10V analog lighting circuit it seems that I accidentally bought 2N2222A transistors. I know that PN2222 and 2N2222 transistors are equivalent, but can the 2N2222A be substituted for the PN2222? The datasheet shows that there are differences in the collector-base voltage, collector-emitter voltage, and emitter-base voltage. See image below:

I can always re-buy if needed, they're cheap enough. Figured I'd check first.

 

[Ranjib]

I can. When I attempt to create a new file, it says:



Since I don't want to fork the project, do I need to be added to an access list? My GitHub username is:

AndySomnifac

You should totally fork it . Thats how it works, you fork first, make your changes, then send the changes as pull request for review (which I then merge and publish). I can give you write access, but that will allow you to make changes without me being notified .

 

[Somnifac]

You should totally fork it . Thats how it works, you fork first, make your changes, then send the changes as pull request for review (which I then merge and publish). I can give you write access, but that will allow you to make changes without me being notified .

K. You're the boss. I've never contributed to a project on GitHub, so I'm unfamiliar with how it works. I'll get the doc together and submit it there.

 

[Ranjib]

Transistor question:

When buying my transistors for the 5v PWM to 10V analog lighting circuit it seems that I accidentally bought 2N2222A transistors. I know that PN2222 and 2N2222 transistors are equivalent, but can the 2N2222A be substituted for the PN2222? The datasheet shows that there are differences in the collector-base voltage, collector-emitter voltage, and emitter-base voltage. See image below:

I can always re-buy if needed, they're cheap enough. Figured I'd check first.

I think its ok, may be even better than pn2222a

 

[Somnifac]

I created the file and submitted a pull request. Hopefully, I did it right.

 

[Somnifac]

I think its ok, may be even better than pn2222a

K. I'll stick it on the breadboard and measure voltage when I get a chance.

 

[philshel]

Hello All,
Thought I'd chime in and introduce myself. Been lurking for awhile and reading. I just found this thread while searching for a WiFi controller for my Kessils even though I've been on R2R for seven years. I'm a serious "DIYer" though it's mostly in industrial and fabrication. I do have some experience with electronics and coding but am a novice at best. I was leaning towards a Reef Angel until I found this thread and this looks way too much fun and on target to not join in. On something of a personal note: Ranjib, I am surprised and impressed by how cheerful and patient you have remained though all 100+ pages of this. I find this to be a good sign as so many of these sort of threads become hostile to newcomers. Anyway several of my parts should be arriving today, looking forward to getting to work.

 

[MaccaPopEye]

My ABS enclosure Finally arrived I'm now crazy close to starting this build now I am only waiting on my outlets (finally found some AUS panel mount outlets to use instead of the original plan to butcher up some power boards), a pack of resistors and a pack of PN2222 transistors to arrive and I am good to go.

I'm keen to see some pics of other enclosures people have and the layout of components in them. With 16 outlets on this little ABS enclosure its going to be tight but I think I have it all planned out so it will fit. Once the outlets arrive I can see how much space I need behind them and move things around to make sure it fits.

Front of the enclosure in sketch up - it's tight but it looks like it will fit. Ive made sure I have enough space on the bottom two rows to fit at least 4 standard sized "wall wart" adapters each. The second row fits 4 normal Aus plugs (the circles) and the top row is going to be 4 universal outlets as some of my equipment needs adapters to fit Aus plugs - not anymore! A total of 16 outlets.

Plug Layout With Plugs

• MaccaPopEye
• Oct 30, 2017

If everything fits this way with the outlets in place then this will be my preferred layout, I plan to run everything off a power board (for the relay A/C and the light PWM power) with inbuilt surge protection and 4x USB ports built into it (for the Pi and the relays).

Component Layout

• MaccaPopEye
• Oct 30, 2017

All the other components are waiting patiently ready to go

Cheers,

Macca

 

[Somnifac]

My ABS enclosure Finally arrived I'm now crazy close to starting this build now I am only waiting on my outlets (finally found some AUS panel mount outlets to use instead of the original plan to butcher up some power boards), a pack of resistors and a pack of PN2222 transistors to arrive and I am good to go.

For some reason, I hadn't even considered panel mount outlets. Thank you sooooo much for bringing them up. This will simplify things by an order of magnitude.

 

[MaccaPopEye]

For some reason, I hadn't even considered panel mount outlets. Thank you sooooo much for bringing them up. This will simplify things by an order of magnitude.

No worries, they are way easier to find for US style plugs too.

I searched for ages for Aus ones before giving up and accepting that I would just have to cut up some power boards to use for outlets instead. In Australia general power outlets (GPOs) share a common negative between the 2 outlets and you can't break it like you can on the US GPOs that most people here are using so they are no good for this kind of application.

At the last minute when I ordered the enclosure I decided to try and find some universal panel mount plugs (and found them), only to also find a link to 10A, 240V rated ones with Aus outlets on them!

 

[njtiger aquariums]

Hello All,
Thought I'd chime in and introduce myself. Been lurking for awhile and reading. I just found this thread while searching for a WiFi controller for my Kessils even though I've been on R2R for seven years. I'm a serious "DIYer" though it's mostly in industrial and fabrication. I do have some experience with electronics and coding but am a novice at best. I was leaning towards a Reef Angel until I found this thread and this looks way too much fun and on target to not join in. On something of a personal note: Ranjib, I am surprised and impressed by how cheerful and patient you have remained though all 100+ pages of this. I find this to be a good sign as so many of these sort of threads become hostile to newcomers. Anyway several of my parts should be arriving today, looking forward to getting to work.

Agree with @philshel . Even with someone like me who chimes in but not using Reef-Pi and also coding my own. He has commented nicely and supportably on my project as well. Its folks like @Ranjib that make open-source what its all about.

 

[marspeed]

My ABS enclosure Finally arrived I'm now crazy close to starting this build now I am only waiting on my outlets (finally found some AUS panel mount outlets to use instead of the original plan to butcher up some power boards), a pack of resistors and a pack of PN2222 transistors to arrive and I am good to go.

I'm keen to see some pics of other enclosures people have and the layout of components in them. With 16 outlets on this little ABS enclosure its going to be tight but I think I have it all planned out so it will fit. Once the outlets arrive I can see how much space I need behind them and move things around to make sure it fits.

Front of the enclosure in sketch up - it's tight but it looks like it will fit. Ive made sure I have enough space on the bottom two rows to fit at least 4 standard sized "wall wart" adapters each. The second row fits 4 normal Aus plugs (the circles) and the top row is going to be 4 universal outlets as some of my equipment needs adapters to fit Aus plugs - not anymore! A total of 16 outlets.

Plug Layout With Plugs

• MaccaPopEye
• Oct 30, 2017

If everything fits this way with the outlets in place then this will be my preferred layout, I plan to run everything off a power board (for the relay A/C and the light PWM power) with inbuilt surge protection and 4x USB ports built into it (for the Pi and the relays).

Component Layout

• MaccaPopEye
• Oct 30, 2017

All the other components are waiting patiently ready to go

Cheers,

Macca

 

[marspeed]

not sure how I posted doubles

 

[pdisner]

reef-pi will have ph/salinity/ORP probe integration via atlas scientific ezo boards. They are lab grade equipment and I am fairly confident they wont fail on us. This is planned for post 1.0 release. Our current focus is to get the basic requirements done (equipment control, lighting, temperature, ato, telemetry and notifications). Doser, ph/orp/salinity is definitely going to be part of post 1.0 release (I would say soon after 1.0 , probably 1.1 or 1.2 , which is early first quarter of next year)

Outstanding! I’m just in awe right now....I’m just starting out with this and though I’ve had years of basic experience but nothing else... now I’m deciding on a career in computers too and don’t know which road to take. I’m trh8nking programming but not sure. Hopefully the classes I’ll b taking will help with me his as I’m really digging this new IoT and CoB craze happening. There’s so much cool stuff it’s overwhelming

 

[Ranjib]

Transistor question:

When buying my transistors for the 5v PWM to 10V analog lighting circuit it seems that I accidentally bought 2N2222A transistors. I know that PN2222 and 2N2222 transistors are equivalent, but can the 2N2222A be substituted for the PN2222? The datasheet shows that there are differences in the collector-base voltage, collector-emitter voltage, and emitter-base voltage. See image below:

I can always re-buy if needed, they're cheap enough. Figured I'd check first.

I think its ok, may be even better than pn2222a

Transistor question:

When buying my transistors for the 5v PWM to 10V analog lighting circuit it seems that I accidentally bought 2N2222A transistors. I know that PN2222 and 2N2222 transistors are equivalent, but can the 2N2222A be substituted for the PN2222? The datasheet shows that there are differences in the collector-base voltage, collector-emitter voltage, and emitter-base voltage. See image below:

I can always re-buy if needed, they're cheap enough. Figured I'd check first.

For those who are interested to know more, 2n2222 is the north American cousine of pn2222 with higher heat dissipation (better). They are interchangeable almost always.
For everything that requires low current PWM (like kessil or some other LED controllers) these npns are enough , along side couple of resistors. For higher current usage (dosing pump or dc pumps) T120 is the recommended transistor.

 

[Ranjib]

Well I thought it would be easy to program and setup the hardware, but getting stuck on the Arduino WiFi shield (8266). It’s the older model with no school card slot. All the libraries aren’t working right with this board. Might be a Chinese fake. I bought at a reputable store....

One of the reasons I went with pi over arduino is the ability to run linux natively, which opened up using all other opensource frameworks, tools etc. Arduino's opensource side engagement was dodgy as well during that time.

 

[Ranjib]

I created the file and submitted a pull request. Hopefully, I did it right.

Thank you, I'll make it go live tonight.

 

[Ranjib]

Hello All,
Thought I'd chime in and introduce myself. Been lurking for awhile and reading. I just found this thread while searching for a WiFi controller for my Kessils even though I've been on R2R for seven years. I'm a serious "DIYer" though it's mostly in industrial and fabrication. I do have some experience with electronics and coding but am a novice at best. I was leaning towards a Reef Angel until I found this thread and this looks way too much fun and on target to not join in. On something of a personal note: Ranjib, I am surprised and impressed by how cheerful and patient you have remained though all 100+ pages of this. I find this to be a good sign as so many of these sort of threads become hostile to newcomers. Anyway several of my parts should be arriving today, looking forward to getting to work.

I am glad you liked reef-pi.
Let us know if you need any help. I have learned a lot about electronics (and UI, javascript etc) through reef-pi

 

[Ranjib]

My ABS enclosure Finally arrived I'm now crazy close to starting this build now I am only waiting on my outlets (finally found some AUS panel mount outlets to use instead of the original plan to butcher up some power boards), a pack of resistors and a pack of PN2222 transistors to arrive and I am good to go.

I'm keen to see some pics of other enclosures people have and the layout of components in them. With 16 outlets on this little ABS enclosure its going to be tight but I think I have it all planned out so it will fit. Once the outlets arrive I can see how much space I need behind them and move things around to make sure it fits.

Front of the enclosure in sketch up - it's tight but it looks like it will fit. Ive made sure I have enough space on the bottom two rows to fit at least 4 standard sized "wall wart" adapters each. The second row fits 4 normal Aus plugs (the circles) and the top row is going to be 4 universal outlets as some of my equipment needs adapters to fit Aus plugs - not anymore! A total of 16 outlets.

Plug Layout With Plugs

• MaccaPopEye
• Oct 30, 2017

If everything fits this way with the outlets in place then this will be my preferred layout, I plan to run everything off a power board (for the relay A/C and the light PWM power) with inbuilt surge protection and 4x USB ports built into it (for the Pi and the relays).

Component Layout

• MaccaPopEye
• Oct 30, 2017

All the other components are waiting patiently ready to go

Cheers,

Macca

awesome
I dont have any 16 outlet build. I have 2, 4 and 8 outlet builds.
Once you are comfortable with the wiring and everything you know is working and tested, you can use a perma proto board or normal proto board or perf board to replace the breadboard. That will increase the wiring reliability and give lot of additional space, that can be used for any new circuit.
Relay board will be connected to the outlets (110/220 V AC), I always try to keep them closer, and away from pi.
This is going to be intense