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

[buddy.]

Just thought I would throw this out there as an example. I bought a bundle of the temp sensors on Amazon which was 5 for about the same price as the 2 pack of Drok sensors. I had these hooked up to my reef-pi through a Y adapter and pico board, even though they were advertised as stainless steel you can see it is not high quality from the picture. As soon as I noticed I ordered the Drok sensors and replaced them. Right one was on my IM14 in the tank since January and the left one was in my IM40 that I just started cycling at the beginning of March.

All of my amazon probes did the same thing. They continued to work but I removed them anyway. I have since bought the Drok probes.

 

[Ranjib]

@Ranjib
pH above 7 is negative voltage, the more negative the voltage the higher the ph

pH at 7 is zero volts

pH below 7 is positive voltage, the more positive the number is, the lower the ph

Hmm.. that's interesting, thank you so much for sharing this information. If this is the case then I should expect the reading to be positive during afternoon hours, i.e. when ph is high. I have not checked my pico tank's ph, but I know the nano is definitely always above 7

 

[Ranjib]

Tom, are those peaks corresponding to your timer? Looks like loading something and GC cleaning it.

Since I started using the grafana integrations (with 3.0 development branch) I have lot more data around memory utilization. Here is the usage of my pico tank's controller (running @theatrus ' base board with one temp sensor, adj power strip, pwm control for light). Notice the two restart even (me testing the ph setup)

And here is the memory consumption of reef-pi app/process specifically.. i see theres some increase periodically, but nothing too concerning yet.

I'll keep you all posted about my findings. Let me know if you want to me test out anything specific. It's been little crazy testing out all the different versions with different setups , but I do want to address any serious performance issues if there any

 

[PaulJ2303]

Just thought I would throw this out there as an example. I bought a bundle of the temp sensors on Amazon which was 5 for about the same price as the 2 pack of Drok sensors. I had these hooked up to my reef-pi through a Y adapter and pico board, even though they were advertised as stainless steel you can see it is not high quality from the picture. As soon as I noticed I ordered the Drok sensors and replaced them. Right one was on my IM14 in the tank since January and the left one was in my IM40 that I just started cycling at the beginning of March.

I've
seen someone previously covered their temp probe in silicone to stop the rust ... is that a good idea do you think ?

 

[hockeyhead019]

Since I started using the grafana integrations (with 3.0 development branch) I have lot more data around memory utilization. Here is the usage of my pico tank's controller (running @theatrus ' base board with one temp sensor, adj power strip, pwm control for light). Notice the two restart even (me testing the ph setup)

And here is the memory consumption of reef-pi app/process specifically.. i see theres some increase periodically, but nothing too concerning yet.

I'll keep you all posted about my findings. Let me know if you want to me test out anything specific. It's been little crazy testing out all the different versions with different setups , but I do want to address any serious performance issues if there any

Is this running on a pi zero or full pi? I doubt there should be any differences besides RAM availability, just curious.

 

[Bigtrout]

Is this running on a pi zero or full pi? I doubt there should be any differences besides RAM availability, just curious.

I monitor 3 temps, control 2 heaters, power conttoller, 4 channels of PWM for lights with some assorted macros and timers, with a pi zero w and memory hangs aroynd 9 percent. A pi zero is just fine.

 

[bishoptf]

Hmm.. that's interesting, thank you so much for sharing this information. If this is the case then I should expect the reading to be positive during afternoon hours, i.e. when ph is high. I have not checked my pico tank's ph, but I know the nano is definitely always above 7

I no nothing about salt water but for freshwater planted tanks the pH goes down when the lights are on, even more so with co2 injection. I would suspect even with salt water you should see a difference when the lights are on vs when they are off, probably not as high of a swing but a difference none the less.

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

I've
seen someone previously covered their temp probe in silicone to stop the rust ... is that a good idea do you think ?

Silicone doesn’t seem durable enough for me. I potted mine in 2 part epoxy. But the better solution is the drok probe made of better material.

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

@Ranjib
pH above 7 is negative voltage, the more negative the voltage the higher the ph

pH at 7 is zero volts

pH below 7 is positive voltage, the more positive the number is, the lower the ph

This is great news!

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

Tom, are those peaks corresponding to your timer? Looks like loading something and GC cleaning it.

I have some telemetry going to adafruit, but all of my system errors are related to certain communications with adafruit failing. My memory usage is creeping up to 30% now.

 

[bishoptf]

I have some telemetry going to adafruit, but all of my system errors are related to certain communications with adafruit failing. My memory usage is creeping up to 30% now.

@DirtDiggler2823 that's a good catch, I am not doing any telemetry to adafruit so maybe it has something to do with that since that appears to be a major difference.

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

@DirtDiggler2823 that's a good catch, I am not doing any telemetry to adafruit so maybe it has something to do with that since that appears to be a major difference.

Quite possibly. I'm not getting all of the telemetry I should be getting, but i get some of it. Might have to do a total controller rebuild once 3.0 comes out.

 

[DirtDiggler2823]

@DirtDiggler2823 that's a good catch, I am not doing any telemetry to adafruit so maybe it has something to do with that since that appears to be a major difference.

Maybe I'll turn that function off and reboot. I'm not getting any value out of the adafruit telemetry functions.

 

[hockeyhead019]

Maybe I'll turn that function off and reboot. I'm not getting any value out of the adafruit telemetry functions.

I was about to ask what the benefit of the adafruit telemetry was going to be lol

 

[bishoptf]

Maybe I'll turn that function off and reboot. I'm not getting any value out of the adafruit telemetry functions.

Agree I think this will be a good comparison, since that will be the only change...

 

[KevinDodge]

Can anyone explain to me how the ATO Alerts is supposed to work? I attempted to test it yesterday and it did not behave like I had anticipated. I set the check interval to be 5 seconds and then the alert interval to be 40 seconds. I also marked that I wanted to disable the ATO on alert. Sticking the water level sensor in and out of the water it would turn on and off my pump. But when I leave it out of the water for more than 40 seconds I never received an alert, it never turned off my pump, and it did not disable ATO at this point. If I stick the probe back in the water then at this point the pump turns off and ATO is disabled. I never received an email. I tried this a few times and never had very consistent results.

How is it supposed to work? I assumed that after the alert interval it would 1. stop the pump, 2. Disable the ATO, 3. Send me an email.

 

[theatrus]

@Ranjib
pH above 7 is negative voltage, the more negative the voltage the higher the ph

pH at 7 is zero volts

pH below 7 is positive voltage, the more positive the number is, the lower the ph

Woot thanks for getting to this before me. Still catching up on a bunch of replies. Ranjib also has one of the very first hand reworked RevC units - I may have made a firmware improvement in the interim but need to check my build log.

If you’re looking for more boards I’m doing 3 more panel builds (12 more boards) this weekend to put more stock into place.

 

[Ranjib]

Is this running on a pi zero or full pi? I doubt there should be any differences besides RAM availability, just curious.

Pi zero. The base board only works with pi zero.

 

[Ranjib]

Can anyone explain to me how the ATO Alerts is supposed to work? I attempted to test it yesterday and it did not behave like I had anticipated. I set the check interval to be 5 seconds and then the alert interval to be 40 seconds. I also marked that I wanted to disable the ATO on alert. Sticking the water level sensor in and out of the water it would turn on and off my pump. But when I leave it out of the water for more than 40 seconds I never received an alert, it never turned off my pump, and it did not disable ATO at this point. If I stick the probe back in the water then at this point the pump turns off and ATO is disabled. I never received an email. I tried this a few times and never had very consistent results.

How is it supposed to work? I assumed that after the alert interval it would 1. stop the pump, 2. Disable the ATO, 3. Send me an email.

Let me test out the scenario you just described and get back to you. You are using 2.0 ?

 

[Ranjib]

I was about to ask what the benefit of the adafruit telemetry was going to be lol

If your controller dies, you can use the adafruit.io telemetry to get a notification