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

[Ranjib]

Rebuilt one of my ph build . This time with 3D printed enclosure, having much smaller form factor and lot less time involved in enclosure building

It has only a pi zero and a normal ph board. All pi zero ports are exposed

It’s a two part enclosure

The bnc port is exposed at the bottom

Ph board is powered by pi directly. And the pi is powered by standard 5v 2.5a wall wart.

I have tested the setup already. Now it’s time to swap it out with older build. With reef-pi 3.0 ph control and WiFi outlet capability , I can use this for controlling two part or some other dosing, but for the pico tank , where I’ll use it , I don’t have any dosing regimen... we’ll see ..

 

[Des Westcott]

Rebuilt one of my ph build . This time with 3D printed enclosure, having much smaller form factor and lot less time involved in enclosure building

It has only a pi zero and a normal ph board. All pi zero ports are exposed

It’s a two part enclosure

The bnc port is exposed at the bottom

Ph board is powered by pi directly. And the pi is powered by standard 5v 2.5a wall wart.

I have tested the setup already. Now it’s time to swap it out with older build. With reef-pi 3.0 ph control and WiFi outlet capability , I can use this for controlling two part or some other dosing, but for the pico tank , where I’ll use it , I don’t have any dosing regimen... we’ll see ..

Which PH board is that Ranjib?

 

[Ranjib]

Which PH board is that Ranjib?

The is the reef-pi open hardware ph board, designed by @Roberto_b and produced by @Michael Lane , I bought it from his Tindie store. I have one from @Jonathan Troutt as well, which is on my biocube. The older build that i took down has the very first board, sent to me from @Roberto_b . It ran flawless for over a year. I plan to repurpose it.

 

[Ranjib]

The is the reef-pi open hardware ph board, designed by @Roberto_b and produced by @Michael Lane , I bought it from his Tindie store. I have one from @Jonathan Troutt as well, which is on my biocube. The older build that i took down has the very first board, sent to me from @Roberto_b . It ran flawless for over a year. I plan to repurpose it.

Isolated pH Probe Interface for reef-pi by ML Reefkeeping on Tindie

Read pH over I2C with Arduino or Raspberry Pi

www.tindie.com

 

[Des Westcott]

OK cool. The same one I'm planning on getting from Michael Lane. Just looked a bit different in the picture. I see what look like jumper pins in your pic and there aren't any on the pics on Michael Lane's Tindie Store.

 

[Bigtrout]

"Electronics Box" and "Tank Temp" didn't work, but "Electronics" and "Tank" work

I know that having spaces in the names cause issues...especially with adafruit feeds.

 

[Michael Lane]

I've just installed reef-pi 3.0.0-rc0 Instant Groove on rpi3 b+ and I'm seeing a strange behavior with adding a light. I've created a jack with 3 pins, but when I create the light, it is created with 6 channels (duplicating the pins). Has anyone else experienced this behavior?

Strangely, I don't experience this behavior when running reef-pi on my Windows development machine...

 

[Ranjib]

I've just installed reef-pi 3.0.0-rc0 Instant Groove on rpi3 b+ and I'm seeing a strange behavior with adding a light. I've created a jack with 3 pins, but when I create the light, it is created with 6 channels (duplicating the pins). Has anyone else experienced this behavior?

Strangely, I don't experience this behavior when running reef-pi on my Windows development machine...

Nope.. Looks like the channel names are duplicated as well. Is it reproducible?

 

[Michael Lane]

Nope.. Looks like the channel names are duplicated as well. Is it reproducible?

I've reproduced several times, all with jacks based on PCA9685.

 

[alphacustomization]

Has anyone tried making an app for this rather than going thru the vnc or .tor to get into a reef-pi?

 

[Ranjib]

Has anyone tried making an app for this rather than going thru the vnc or .tor to get into a reef-pi?

App as in mobile app? reef-pi runs a tiny webserver and you can access it straight via browser if you are in local network. Without VNC. For outside home network, we'll need some sort of cloud presence for anything to work on, other than native app (which probably is not a strict necessity)

 

[Des Westcott]

I realised this morning that Ree-Pi has forgotten my 2 of my 3 temp sensors again.

Interestingly it always forgets the same 2. Also, they are the same 2 that don't do any control, only read temp.

Disabled and re-enabled and they popped back into the graphs.

 

[Des Westcott]

Temp probes went missing again this afternoon. had to disable and re-enable. They're back.

On another note, I am struggling to get timers to work. When I first set this Reef-Pi up, I played around with a timer test triggering a Macro as this was a feature I really like and wanted to use. I got it to work turning an triggering a macro every 20 seconds that turned an item of equipment on for 10 seconds and then off.

Fast forward about 2 weeks and I can't get a single timer to run despite adding a RTC to the Pi as a precaution.

The time never seems to update on my Reef-Pi. Could that be part of the problem?

 

[sfgabe]

I've reproduced several times, all with jacks based on PCA9685.

Same here. They seem to double up, and I'm still getting no response in the light itself. I've deleted the lights and ports several times with the same results.

On a positive note I did a update/upgrade on the core pi raspbian and the temp probe wobble seems to have stabilized quite a bit.

 

[Mike Kearns]

I don’t know if it is related to the disappearing temperature probes but my calibration keeps going away. It will last a few hours then I will go to check it and it is gone. My temperature probe reads about 3 degrees to low

 

[hhaase]

My hat boards should be here in about a week, looking forward to building this up for me. Pi is already here, so going to be moving along quickly.

 

[Des Westcott]

Update with a few observations :

• My timer issue above - I figured I was trying to get the timer to trigger a Macro. Maybe this feature isn't fully ready yet. I then found that the "Equipment" option under "Function" was missing. It still works if you select the blank slot though.
  
• Timers controlling Equipment is working well for me now.
• Back in the dark ages when Reef-Pi first implemented Macros, it would change the "Run" box to "Running" when a macro was actually in use. This was a very useful feature I think. At the moment, I have to analyse from the equipment if a macro is running.
• Editing a Macro - It would be really nice if you could insert a line in the middle of a Macro. I left a step out of a long Macro and you have to re-write the whole thing. Also would be nice if you add equipment and want add them into the middle of a Macro.

Progressing well though.

 

[BenB]

Last Monday I installed reef-pi-3.0.0-rc0-pi3.deb on my new Raspberry Pi 4B. Then I connected 4 temperature probes, did the settings in the Temperature tab, rebooted, all working fine. I let them run until Tuesday evening, no issues. Then I added a PCA9685, in the driver tab I added it with address 64. Assigned a Jack and I went to lights tab to add a light, after rebooting 3 of my temp sensors were gone from the dashboard but still under the Temperature tab. When I checked if Reef-pi did see al the temp sensors I could still choose all 4. Then I deleted the one that was visible on my dashboard in the Temp tab. And suddenly all the other 3 temp sensors showed up in the dashboard again. Only the light is not working still.
It looks like the same issues as some others already described in previous posts. I hope this helps a bit to solve the issue.

 

[PaulJ2303]

just to give an update for those who've helped my with my dosing pump setup.
Ive decided to go with a duty cycle of 250hz with the pumps running sat 70% this has proved to be the most reliable
over time whilst keeping the speed of the pumps down.

TBH the real reason i'm writing is i have a bit of a puzzle (for me anyway)
I have a ATO Refractometer and I've noticed something that has knocked my confidence in it.
I made up some salt using cold water and checked it as usual with my Refractometer, i then kept looking at the reading and the reading kept steadily lowering point by point. i'm assuming because the temperature of the water rose in contact with the warm Refractometer.

but i don't really know ... so i'm asking you techy guys what is the correct procedure for using an ATO Refractometer to get accurate consistent results?

ok back to reef-pi
on my dashboard (3.0b) the temperature seems to auto scale between the highest value and the lowest.
is it possible to set the dashboard temp scale manually like we used to be able to do in 2.4

cheers.

 

[Ranjib]

just to give an update for those who've helped my with my dosing pump setup.
Ive decided to go with a duty cycle of 250hz with the pumps running sat 70% this has proved to be the most reliable
over time whilst keeping the speed of the pumps down.

TBH the real reason i'm writing is i have a bit of a puzzle (for me anyway)
I have a ATO Refractometer and I've noticed something that has knocked my confidence in it.
I made up some salt using cold water and checked it as usual with my Refractometer, i then kept looking at the reading and the reading kept steadily lowering point by point. i'm assuming because the temperature of the water rose in contact with the warm Refractometer.

but i don't really know ... so i'm asking you techy guys what is the correct procedure for using an ATO Refractometer to get accurate consistent results?

ok back to reef-pi
on my dashboard (3.0b) the temperature seems to auto scale between the highest value and the lowest.
is it possible to set the dashboard temp scale manually like we used to be able to do in 2.4

cheers.

Can you share a link of of your refractometer? My refractometer is pretty stable and i can calibrate it with 40ppm calibration solution. Are you using hydrometer?