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

[Bigtrout]

These are supposed to be really good - https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/titanium-heater-element-bulk-reef-supply.html , they do need a controller since they do not have one internally. I think they are rebranded Schego heaters and are supposed to be about the best you can do, from what I read. I am running aqueon pro heaters and even some of the cheap aqueon pre-set heaters, I do tend to run undersized and run multiple vs one large one.

Although I tend to agree that all heaters are a crap shoot, they all seem to have issues.

On the aqueon pro heater note, maybe some helpful info for everyone. The aqueon pro that failed is a new one made in china. Seems from reviews that quality dropped considerably since Aqueon changed these to being made in China.

Aqueon Pro with the BLUE temp knob= Made in Italy, and a good solid accurate heater.

Aqueon Pro with CLEAR temp knob= Made in China, numerous reports of malfunctioning heaters, cracked temp knobs and cases splitting.

I did find a new old stock BLUE knob 250w on evilbay. Small time aquarium shops may still carry these as well.

Ps: these heaters have a lifetime warranty IF you remember to keep the reciept. The heater that failed on me is only a year and a half old. Of course I cant find the receipt.

 

[jsweir]

For those of you using the pi 4 which model/memory size are you using?

 

[Ranjib]

Wow, that's crazy. How are you loading Raspberry OS? I'm using the Raspberry Imager program.

Linux raspberrypi 5.4.51-v7l+ #1333 SMP Mon Aug 10 16:51:40 BST 2020 armv7l GNU/Linux

same, the official new pi imager, running on my macbook. im using the lite version, no gui,lite version

 

[Ranjib]

For those of you using the pi 4 which model/memory size are you using?

Just a test setup right now, with only one equipment/outlet

 

[jsweir]

I meant the pi hardware itself - 4mb, 8mb?

 

[Smin]

Just a test setup right now, with only one equipment/outlet

8 GB pi4 linux 5.4.51-v7l+ #1333 SMP Mon Aug 10 16:51:40 BST 2020 armv7l
how odd it has to be set-up related? I have the pi 4 8gb connected to a pca9685 as a driver with 6 jacks (connected to 8 meanwell drivers) and then 6 light channels set up.

The system still changes the pwm setting, but no lights come on. No error messages are thrown except those listed earlier in the thread..

 

[Ranjib]

I meant the pi hardware itself - 4mb, 8mb?

2gb

 

[Bzar]

Hi All. Been a long time since I've check out the boards...sorry Anyway long time ago I shared some scripting and stuff to make the DS18B20 temp sensor usable without having to solder a resistor, and just use pullup on the RaspberryPi. Over the last few months I've noticed my temp sensors didn't always read after a power failure; and I'd have to go in a start the sensor script manually even though I had the script in the rc.local startup file on the RaspberryPi. What seems to have been happening is that Reef-Pi started before rc.local could get the script running...so I've fixed that by putting a launcher in the crontab. Here's the instructions to do this all from beginning to end. Temp sensor...no hardwired resistor.


NO RESISTOR PULLUP SCRIPT CONFIG INSTRUCTIONS...
To make a script that runs the pull up code for temp sensor pin (in this case Pin 4) and have it run at startup follow these instructions (note. this is for scripts in the home/pi director,y change as you see fit)...

Step 1a: Make python script that tells the Pi which pin to pullup...
sudo nano Temp1.py

Step 1b: Add this info to the script, and save...
#Temp1.py
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import time

time.sleep(30) # Checks Pin Every 30 seconds.

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
GPIO.setup(4, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down=GPIO.PUD_UP)
#Script End

Step 2: Make this python scripts executable...
chmod 755 Temp1.py

Step 3a: Make a Launcher Script...
sudo nano launcher.sh

Step 3b: add python scripts and locations to launcher, and save…
cd /
cd home/pi/
sudo python Temp1.py
cd /

Step 4: Make this launcher executable...
sudo chmod 755 launcher.sh

Step 5: make a directory for the any errors in crontab to go...
sudo mkdir logs

Step 6a: Add launcher to Your Crontab...
sudo crontab -e

Step 6b: Add this line to the bottom of Crontab...
@reboot sh /home/pi/launcher.sh >/home/pi/logs/cronlog 2>&1

Step 7: Reboot
sudo Reboot

Step 8: Test after reboot that the sensor is functional, the sensors start with a number 28…
cd /sys/bus/w1/devices
ls

If there’s trouble make sure 1 wire is on for gpio...
sudo modprobe w1-gpio
sudo modprobe w1-therm


Hope this helps.

 

[Ranjib]

Hi All. Been a long time since I've check out the boards...sorry Anyway long time ago I shared some scripting and stuff to make the DS18B20 temp sensor usable without having to solder a resistor, and just use pullup on the RaspberryPi. Over the last few months I've noticed my temp sensors didn't always read after a power failure; and I'd have to go in a start the sensor script manually even though I had the script in the rc.local startup file on the RaspberryPi. What seems to have been happening is that Reef-Pi started before rc.local could get the script running...so I've fixed that by putting a launcher in the crontab. Here's the instructions to do this all from beginning to end. Temp sensor...no hardwired resistor.


NO RESISTOR PULLUP SCRIPT CONFIG INSTRUCTIONS...
To make a script that runs the pull up code for temp sensor pin (in this case Pin 4) and have it run at startup follow these instructions (note. this is for scripts in the home/pi director,y change as you see fit)...

Step 1a: Make python script that tells the Pi which pin to pullup...
sudo nano Temp1.py

Step 1b: Add this info to the script, and save...
#Temp1.py
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import time

time.sleep(30) # Checks Pin Every 30 seconds.

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
GPIO.setup(4, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down=GPIO.PUD_UP)
#Script End

Step 2: Make this python scripts executable...
chmod 755 Temp1.py

Step 3a: Make a Launcher Script...
sudo nano launcher.sh

Step 3b: add python scripts and locations to launcher, and save…
cd /
cd home/pi/
sudo python Temp1.py
cd /

Step 4: Make this launcher executable...
sudo chmod 755 launcher.sh

Step 5: make a directory for the any errors in crontab to go...
sudo mkdir logs

Step 6a: Add launcher to Your Crontab...
sudo crontab -e

Step 6b: Add this line to the bottom of Crontab...
@reboot sh /home/pi/launcher.sh >/home/pi/logs/cronlog 2>&1

Step 7: Reboot
sudo Reboot

Step 8: Test after reboot that the sensor is functional, the sensors start with a number 28…
cd /sys/bus/w1/devices
ls

If there’s trouble make sure 1 wire is on for gpio...
sudo modprobe w1-gpio
sudo modprobe w1-therm


Hope this helps.

pretty neat.
You can also just create a systemd oneshot service that calls the python script (which in turn sets the gpio pullup), and add it as dependency in reef-pi service. That way systemd will always ensure it executed that script before starting reef-pi. We use the same trick to ensure reef-pi starts after networking

 

[Ranjib]

I found this as well: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/config-txt/gpio.md
looks like we can edit the boot config file to set the pull up/down configuration

 

[robsworld78]

same, the official new pi imager, running on my macbook. im using the lite version, no gui,lite version

Same here but on Windows. I'm shocked you aren't experiencing it, tomorrow I'll posted a quick video showing what happens, trust me it's real lol. You must be thinking I get this Pi and nothing wrong. I've been able to get it to happen like clockwork.

I see @Smin has the same kernel version, I'm guessing that's what you have?

 

[Ranjib]

Same here but on Windows. I'm shocked you aren't experiencing it, tomorrow I'll posted a quick video showing what happens, trust me it's real lol. You must be thinking I get this Pi and nothing wrong. I've been able to get it to happen like clockwork.

I see @Smin has the same kernel version, I'm guessing that's what you have?

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ uname  -a
Linux raspberrypi 5.4.51-v7l+ #1333 SMP Mon Aug 10 16:51:40 BST 2020 armv7l GNU/Linux
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:    Raspbian
Description:    Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
Release:    10
Codename:    buster

 

[robsworld78]

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ uname  -a
Linux raspberrypi 5.4.51-v7l+ #1333 SMP Mon Aug 10 16:51:40 BST 2020 armv7l GNU/Linux
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:    Raspbian
Description:    Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
Release:    10
Codename:    buster

What command gets all that data? Video coming in 2 minutes, processing.

 

[robsworld78]

Ok so I started with a fresh install, here's the imager with OS lite selected.

Then to make sure I'm not doing anything I follow the steps here except for the update at the beginning.

reef-pi Guide 1: Setup and Demonstration

reef-pi is an opensource reef tank controller capable of automating day to day reef keeping chored including equipment control, temperature control, water level control, dawn to dusk light cycle. T...

learn.adafruit.com

The video starts after these steps. You can see it works and can access connectors.

Then I install the update.

Once finished connectors still work because I haven't reboot the pi.

Then I reboot pi and now connectors gives the error. Everything else seems to work.

 

[Ranjib]

Ok so I started with a fresh install, here's the imager with OS lite selected.

Then to make sure I'm not doing anything I follow the steps here except for the update at the beginning.

reef-pi Guide 1: Setup and Demonstration

reef-pi is an opensource reef tank controller capable of automating day to day reef keeping chored including equipment control, temperature control, water level control, dawn to dusk light cycle. T...

learn.adafruit.com

The video starts after these steps. You can see it works and can access connectors.

Then I install the update.

Once finished connectors still work because I haven't reboot the pi.

Then I reboot pi and now connectors gives the error. Everything else seems to work.

Oops. I can reproduce this now. Thank you so much. I hade to go back to the connector tab. As expected, this is the embd related issue. Let me start work on the fix.

Aug 23 01:28:12 raspberrypi reef-pi[3871]: 2020/08/23 01:28:12 ERROR: failed to initialize drivers. Error: can't build hal pin 2: embd: your host ": ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l)" is not supported at this moment. request support at https://github.com/kidoman/embd/issues

 

[robsworld78]

Oops. I can reproduce this now. Thank you so much. I hade to go back to the connector tab. As expected, this is the embd related issue. Let me start work on the fix.

Aug 23 01:28:12 raspberrypi reef-pi[3871]: 2020/08/23 01:28:12 ERROR: failed to initialize drivers. Error: can't build hal pin 2: embd: your host ": ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l)" is not supported at this moment. request support at https://github.com/kidoman/embd/issues

No problem, glad it's what you thought it was, good luck!

 

[bishoptf]

Quick question I finally purchased a PH probe and trying to calibrate it but the longer I leave the probe in the calibration liquid it never seems to bottom out, the numbers keep going down ever so slowly. How long should you leave the probe in the liquid before it settles on a number, I could have dodgy calibration fluid but it just does not seem to settle.

Thanks

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

I think I left mine about 5 or 10 minutes. I don’t know if it will ever completely stop changing. Exposure to co2 in the air will change the ph. After it slows it is accurate enough I think. after calibrating recheck the 7 fluid and see it is accurate enough.

 

[bishoptf]

I think I left mine about 5 or 10 minutes. I don’t know if it will ever completely stop changing. Exposure to co2 in the air will change the ph. After it slows it is accurate enough I think. after calibrating recheck the 7 fluid and see it is accurate enough.

I left it until it finally settled down, looks like its close enough now, will see how it tracks, thanks.

 

[lmm1967]

No problem, glad it's what you thought it was, good luck!

so for RPi 4 - install latest but don't do any updates?