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

[pickupman66]

A little humor for you. Why is he here. Nothing to eat here. Unless he knows it's almost feeding time.

 

[Ranjib]

A little humor for you. Why is he here. Nothing to eat here. Unless he knows it's almost feeding time.

That’s a big acro

 

[MaccaPopEye]

Yup. I am renting which makes me even more wary, as I am pretty sure the apartment building supervisor comes and does yearly electrical inspections. It may derail my whole Reef pi project.

Yeah you can't do any 240v and above at all yourself. Even in a motorhome you need it done by an electrician and all certified. Probably saves a lot of fires happening though!

Regs are much stricter here for sure and I believe it actually differs a bit for each state / territory to make it more complicated. I have been told (but I don't know what the guys qualifications were and I haven't looked it up myself yet to confirm or deny) that in some states as long as it's not hard wired into mains power it's OK (this was in a discussion on an Aus 3D printing page as many 3D printers are kits bought overseas).

Renting certainly makes it a lot harder for sure. I'd ask an electrician what the laws are in your state for "rewiring a corded appliance" (I need to get around to doing this too).

I think motorhomes are a bit different because they are technically a dwelling. But you may still need to get it tested and tagged at a minimum if your landlord finds out about it.

Edit: all the low voltage stuff is definitely fine though

 

[b4tn]

So I guess the ULN2803 does not have short protection. I just accidentally fried mine. I will do more testing tomorrow but I think the RPI is fine. Sounds stupid but my tv has been having issues that I have been troubleshooting. I discovered that if I put a fan on the back the issues are gone. So for fun I thought I would put the temp probe and fan off a gpio and run the chiller in reef-pi. Well the fan leads shorted and the 2803 got super hot and that awesome burnt smell.

 

[ScottBrew]

So I guess the ULN2803 does not have short protection. I just accidentally fried mine. I will do more testing tomorrow but I think the RPI is fine. Sounds stupid but my tv has been having issues that I have been troubleshooting. I discovered that if I put a fan on the back the issues are gone. So for fun I thought I would put the temp probe and fan off a gpio and run the chiller in reef-pi. Well the fan leads shorted and the 2803 got super hot and that awesome burnt smell.

You are NOT the first to let the magic smoke out and certainly won't be the last! Do you have any spare 2803's?

 

[rsehnert]

Regs are much stricter here for sure and I believe it actually differs a bit for each state / territory to make it more complicated. I have been told (but I don't know what the guys qualifications were and I haven't looked it up myself yet to confirm or deny) that in some states as long as it's not hard wired into mains power it's OK (this was in a discussion on an Aus 3D printing page as many 3D printers are kits bought overseas).

Renting certainly makes it a lot harder for sure. I'd ask an electrician what the laws are in your state for "rewiring a corded appliance" (I need to get around to doing this too).

Thanks so much @MaccaPopEye. I will ask my electrician friend and see if he can clarify the law in NSW for us. I probably am thinking overkill on this, but I do remember them coming around last year for the electrical fire safety inspection thing.

 

[b4tn]

You are NOT the first to let the magic smoke out and certainly won't be the last! Do you have any spare 2803's?

I don’t but reef-pi is not running my reef yet so it’s just a small setback. I need to finish building and close the box so I will stop messing with it lol

 

[Ranjib]

Fts of my nano

Apartment move is coming , thinking of some changes in rockscape
Sps are fighting for space

Red dragon

Micro goni

Zoa island

 

[Diamond1]

Fts of my nano

Apartment move is coming , thinking of some changes in rockscape
Sps are fighting for space

Red dragon

Micro goni

Zoa island

SPS are fighting for space....

Sheesh we should all have that problem

 

[buddy.]

@rsehnert here is the link for the relay boards

 

[pickupman66]

I have moved several tanks in my 18 years of reef keeping. It is not a fun task

 

[b4tn]

Does anyone know what this error is?

{"error":"request failed - Throttle error. b4tn data rate limit reached, 16 seconds until throttle reset"}

 

[b4tn]

Does anyone know what this error is?

{"error":"request failed - Throttle error. b4tn data rate limit reached, 16 seconds until throttle reset"}

Quoting myself lol. I figured it out. I guess there is a limit to the amount of data adafruit.IO can accept. My temp was set to check every 5 seconds. I switched it to 30 seconds and fixed it.

 

[Ranjib]

Quoting myself lol. I figured it out. I guess there is a limit to the amount of data adafruit.IO can accept. My temp was set to check every 5 seconds. I switched it to 30 seconds and fixed it.

the defeault (free account) limit for adafruit io is 10 feed, 30 data points per minute. I was concerned about it from very beginning, given we have multiple ato and temp controller support, users could easily hit the limit.

 

[Nicolas Sabrun]

I'm waiting also for button interrupts, they will be convenient. You can build a macro that will turn off everything you want off and wait X amount of time and back on automatically. Works great! Make sure you turn off the corresponding timer as well as the device. Here are screen shots of mine. Looks long but I added a bunch of waits to give room for editing in other stuff as you can't insert into the list, just build from the bottom. It turns on main pumps and powerheads for short duration numerous times to help keep any uneaten food in suspension before pumps kick back on fully.

Thanks. I will give it a try. I am not too familiar with macros

 

[buddy.]

I posted this in my build thread but I am just going to post it here for more visibility.

I am testing out my 8 channel 5v relay boards.

First I tested with just the raspberry pi by connecting up the 5v, ground and an outlet GPIO and it worked as expected.

Next I tried with the pi-HAT but it is not activating the relay. The input of the ULN2803 is receiving 3.25v. The ULN2803 is outputting only 0.6v to the relay board.
I tried a different GPIO on the second ULN2803 on the pi-HAT with the exact same result.

The VCC light is on when I connect the relay board to the 5v and GND on the 10pin connector on the pi-HAT.

The ULN inputs have continuity with the GPIO outlets. The ULN outlets also have continuity with the 10pin connector.
The ULN's are also grounded on their number 9 pin and have 5v on their number 10 pin. Measuring the voltage on pin 9 and 10 gives 5v.

Can anyone help me figure out why the ULN2803 output is so low and not activating the relay?

 

[LionHeart2017]

I posted this in my build thread but I am just going to post it here for more visibility.

I am testing out my 8 channel 5v relay boards.

First I tested with just the raspberry pi by connecting up the 5v, ground and an outlet GPIO and it worked as expected.

Next I tried with the pi-HAT but it is not activating the relay. The input of the ULN2803 is receiving 3.25v. The ULN2803 is outputting only 0.6v to the relay board.
I tried a different GPIO on the second ULN2803 on the pi-HAT with the exact same result.

The VCC light is on when I connect the relay board to the 5v and GND on the 10pin connector on the pi-HAT.

The ULN inputs have continuity with the GPIO outlets. The ULN outlets also have continuity with the 10pin connector.
The ULN's are also grounded on their number 9 pin and have 5v on their number 10 pin. Measuring the voltage on pin 9 and 10 gives 5v.

Can anyone help me figure out why the ULN2803 output is so low and not activating the relay?

You might be better to share some pictures of it

 

[ScottBrew]

I posted this in my build thread but I am just going to post it here for more visibility.

I am testing out my 8 channel 5v relay boards.

First I tested with just the raspberry pi by connecting up the 5v, ground and an outlet GPIO and it worked as expected.

Next I tried with the pi-HAT but it is not activating the relay. The input of the ULN2803 is receiving 3.25v. The ULN2803 is outputting only 0.6v to the relay board.
I tried a different GPIO on the second ULN2803 on the pi-HAT with the exact same result.

The VCC light is on when I connect the relay board to the 5v and GND on the 10pin connector on the pi-HAT.

The ULN inputs have continuity with the GPIO outlets. The ULN outlets also have continuity with the 10pin connector.
The ULN's are also grounded on their number 9 pin and have 5v on their number 10 pin. Measuring the voltage on pin 9 and 10 gives 5v.

Can anyone help me figure out why the ULN2803 output is so low and not activating the relay?

How are the chips oriented in regards to the notch at one end of each chip? The com and ground are at the opposite end from the notch.

 

[ScottBrew]

Thanks. I will give it a try. I am not too familiar with macros

A macro is just a series of commands, in whatever order you set them up. Use mine for a template if you like. Just remember to turn off the corresponding timer controlling any device. For instance, my powerheads are set to time intervals that could make them run while in feeding mode if the timer went off. So, timer off for each powerhead, then the powerhead itself. Hope that is clear.

 

[buddy.]

You might be better to share some pictures of it

How are the chips oriented in regards to the notch at one end of each chip? The com and ground are at the opposite end from the notch.

Thanks for the replies, I have attached a picture of the pi-hat stacked on the raspberry. I can confirm that all of the chips are in the correct way.