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

[Ranjib]

I just assembled my raspberry pi and installed reef pi and now I'm looking to make the power controller and I was wondering if there are any cheap alternatives to this power strip CLICK

i think its on the cheapest range in off the shelf category... its quality is not that great. We have had defects in many cases.. Even if you build from scratch it will cost more with new parts (outlets , relays etc). If you have those parts, or find them by other means (i had gutted an existing surge protector when i first prototyped..) that would be cheaper.

 

[Ranjib]

Wait im confused. So in the original post on adafruit it said we need a breadboard but in the power controller guide it says we need the hat. Do we need both? I already bought the breadboard.

the first guide uses the breadboard for testing initial setup and demo/dry run. You can run reef-pi with breadboard, but its not safe or secure (physically). Since most builds expected to run for years individual guides always use hat or proto boards.

 

[youngreefer10g]

Cool! The hat on Adafruit is sold out any other options?

 

[Ranjib]

I've just reset alert time again and ran and got nothing (after 16H00). No alert or disable

I'll be checking again the ato alert, but last i did i was not able to reproduce this.
My ATOs are running ok as of now .

 

[Ranjib]

@Ranjib posts coral pics to lighten the mood in this thread.
I have some neat news. A pair of angelfish successfully spawned and hatched eggs in my community tank! Dont know what to do. Let them be and nature take its course or try to move them to the empty section of the sump.

Oh wow . Congratulations. My son will be super curious to see these tiny fishies .. i'll show this to him first thing tomorrow . Thank you for sharing

 

[Des Westcott]

Yes.. it has to be a bug if its reproducible. Can you share the details like check period and alert threshold for the scenarios where its not working consistently? We discussed this earlier and I was not able to reproduce it with my setup. I was using 5s check period.

Just ran this as another test. Ran for 180 seconds with no alert or disable.

 

[Ranjib]

ATO issue - It seems that reef-pi gets to the limit of alerts in an hour and then when the clock resets at the top of the hour it sends out alerts from the previous hour that weren't sent. Since my last post, I have been recieving 10 alerts every hour, on the hour, but they are comparing previous usage to current alert usage limit.

I don't have the ATO Disable on Alert , because I want my ATO to keep working.

So.. "disable on alert" is working? the usage thing is a known bug. I'll get to it soon. Im trying to consolidate the ATO issue.. i definitely want to fix it asap, but having a hard time compiling it. Let me start a github issue.. where we can add the details

 

[Ranjib]

Just ran this as another test. Ran for 180 seconds with no alert or disable.

Wow... thats not good. Do you have macro or anything that will enable/disable ato?

 

[Des Westcott]

So.. "disable on alert" is working? the usage thing is a known bug. I'll get to it soon. Im trying to consolidate the ATO issue.. i definitely want to fix it asap, but having a hard time compiling it. Let me start a github issue.. where we can add the details

No. I set it to Alert and disable on alert at 20 seconds and the ATO ran for 180 seconds with no alert and it did not disable. Same as @ahnuts72 describes.

 

[Des Westcott]

Wow... thats not good. Do you have macro or anything that will enable/disable ato?

My only macro that affects ATO is my AWC Macro and that is definitely not running at the moment. I actually even have the timers that control those Macros off at the moment.

(Due to Lockdown conditions I have a limited supply of fresh sea water and am triggering them manually)

 

[Ranjib]

Hi @Ranjib - I'm having trouble getting my PH probe set up and was wondering if you had any idea as to what I'm doing wrong.

I'm using Michael Lanes reefpi gobi hat with a PI zero. As for PH I'm using Atlas's carrier board and PH module.

I got it set to i2c (blue light) but when I go to the PH tab and hit the add (+) button, there is nothing showing in the Analog Input dropdown.

Any idea?

Also I have o errors but this shows up when I first load the page, I think it's because I dont have anything configured on myy dashboard yet. {"error":"stats for id: '1' not found"} | HTTP 404

you have to use python ezo library from atlas to configure the ezo circuit in i2c mode. By default it uses UART, which reef-pi does not recognize

 

[Ranjib]

No. I set it to Alert and disable on alert at 20 seconds and the ATO ran for 180 seconds with no alert and it did not disable. Same as @ahnuts72 describes.

Got it. Can you disable this ato and create a new ato with same setting and see if that works? Im trying to diagnose if this is related to the past usage data or some other thing.

 

[Ranjib]

Cool! The hat on Adafruit is sold out any other options?

amazon? It does not need to be adafruit. Those are good and very sturdy.. but if they are not available you should be able to get similar hats from gikfun and few other vendors in amazon.

 

[Des Westcott]

Got it. Can you disable this ato and create a new ato with same setting and see if that works? Im trying to diagnose if this is related to the past usage data or some other thing.

Will try that now. and report back.

As I said earlier, it worked once, but then not again

 

[Ranjib]

amazon? It does not need to be adafruit. Those are good and very sturdy.. but if they are not available you should be able to get similar hats from gikfun and few other vendors in amazon.

 

[Des Westcott]

Will try that now. and report back.

As I said earlier, it worked once, but then not again

Created a new ATO with the same parameters as the previous one and it worked as expected.

Edited parameters to higher threshold and they also worked

 

[Ranjib]

randomly stumbled upon this because I am trying to generate a 0-10v apex like control from my system to manage the speed of my pumps. I am slowly getting rid of ecotech stuff because it is so closed. So a new pump on the way takes apex style 0-10v. Anyway...

Here is my setup...in case it helps anyone who wants to DIY it. I'll get around to putting the code and detail on GitHub.

It measures the main parameters, watches the sump level, pump details and other instrumentations so I can start and stop things as needed.

For example, I have a process on the RPi in Node-red that turn on and off the heaters. But I have a second process on the Ubuntu system that watches this information as a backup process. All of these are on UPS. I recognize this is a bit extreme but...don't judge! HAHAHA!

My favorite part is how I can control everything in HomeKit, so when I go to the basement to check on something I can turn things on and off on my phone.

Also, since this is mostly mediated by MQTT I can create synthetic devices. For example, I have a device called "do swap" and that turns off the pump, stops the heaters, and a bunch of other things and then turns on an evacuation pump for 15 min. Then turns on a pump to put saltwater back into the sump. But it only does this if the swap salt is close to the same SG/pH/Temp as the tank.

Once you instrument...you can do lots of stuff!

If anyone is interested I can detail out the sensors and wiring and other things.

My goal is to make this easier on the next person! So ask away...

This is neat.
I was trying out some home automation recently. I am thinking of a permanent home assistant setup .. We are planning to add mqtt metric emission soon. I have a prototype branch already, i just have to polish it up. reef-pi api powers the entire reef-pi UI, and should be useful to build any kind of integration with most home automation system if anyone is seriously interested. Things like remote device control, group execution were recently launched in reef-pi, so im using straight up reef-pi for those.

 

[Des Westcott]

Created a new ATO with the same parameters as the previous one and it worked as expected.

Edited parameters to higher threshold and they also worked

If I go back and test the original ATO the same way, it doesn't alert or Disable

 

[Ranjib]

How do I clear all graph data?

You cant , easily. Theres reef-pi db command that you can use to purge the data, but its more involved than simply using UI. If possible just recreate the temp controller/ato etc,

 

[Schreiber]

Hey guys, are any of you using a Pi Zero wireless exclusively to control only lighting? I have one sitting around and I was thinking it could be cool to put it to use but only to control LEDs.

Ohhh, that's actually a pretty great idea.