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

[Matt Carden]

Looks like its based on the normal fan motor wiring:

In this case, Red is +, Black is GND, Blue is PWM speed input. FG is the tachometer output so you can measure the actual speed output (its going to be a pulse train back out). I'd tie the yellow wire either GND to make sure it spins in a defined direction and won't flip on you.

Probably using some variant of a fan controller:

https://fscdn.rohm.com/en/products/databook/datasheet/ic/motor/fan/bd6961f-e.pdf

I didn't realize they had PWM controlled pump heads _with_ speed output, which is very nice when you want to spin them faster as it will probably be much quieter than a stepper.

Thanks for the response and verification.

 

[bishoptf]

OK so I am running 3.3.1 and just had something odd happen. I know email alerts are buggy with 3.3.1 but I had alerts enabled after a period of time and disable on alert. I get an alert about a very extended runtime, of course I was pretty nervous and went to check both tanks and everything appeared to be working as expected. So when I dug into it deeper it was alerting for something that happend almost a month ago when I was initially setting things up etc. Why would it go back and read a previous entry and is there a way to clear the past ATO values and start fresh?

One additional comment, since I am running multiple reefpi's is there any way to include the name of the tank in the alerts that go out, I might have missed something but when I get alerts I am not always sure which tank its for....I think I see what I can do I need to give a unique name for the ATO based on the tank and then I will know...

Thanks

 

[Yov]

Check if your sensor is being detected. It looks like reef-pi cant find the sensor

The Strange thing is,

it is 3 sensors. Connected on diferent ports on the Robo tank board. When i unconnect them and reconect he finds them again. (see spike in the graphs) an then x hours later he forgets them all. All at the same time... 0:55 time of photo 7:40 AM.

 

[robsworld78]

The Strange thing is,

it is 3 sensors. Connected on diferent ports on the Robo tank board. When i unconnect them and reconect he finds them again. (see spike in the graphs) an then x hours later he forgets them all. All at the same time... 0:55 time of photo 7:40 AM.

Hi Yov, this sounds hardware related as nobody else has reported this. How long has it been happening and how often does it happen? Do you have to unplug them all to get it working again? How long are your cables? I think you have a RevA boarb, the power pins on temp ports are 3.3v but I should have had 5v there. Can you try powering them up with a 5v pin from a sensor port to see if that clears it up.

 

[Yov]

Hi Yov, this sounds hardware related as nobody else has reported this. How long has it been happening and how often does it happen? Do you have to unplug them all to get it working again? How long are your cables? I think you have a RevA boarb, the power pins on temp ports are 3.3v but I should have had 5v there. Can you try powering them up with a 5v pin from a sensor port to see if that clears it up.

Wel i have this from the start of the board now. 3 lenghts between 50cm-1 Meter.
Can i change the 3,3V on the board ? For now il just change the pin to a 5V source.

 

[robsworld78]

Wel i have this from the start of the board now. 3 lenghts between 50cm-1 Meter.
Can i change the 3,3V on the board ? For now il just change the pin to a 5V source.

That's not good, don't hesitate to contact me if you have issues, I'm here to help.

Those cable lengths should be fine, I've run 3 with 5m with no issues. The sensors are fine on 3.3v but 5v is better and if that solves it you can make a small change on the board to get 5v on those pins.

If it locks up regularly it might also be worth trying to run one sensor to see if it locks, it could be something with a sensor.

 

[Des Westcott]

Version 3.3.1. This really seems like a bug. I "think" that the ATO reporting/alerts is a combination of all ATOs you have defined, not seperate, and it's alerting for the combination of my two.

OK. My issue went away when I downgraded to 3.3.1, so possibly not the same.

I have 3 x ATO's defined, but only ever have one enabled at a time. Controlled by Timers and Macros. Alerting disabled on all of them though.

 

[Des Westcott]

OK so I am running 3.3.1 and just had something odd happen. I know email alerts are buggy with 3.3.1 but I had alerts enabled after a period of time and disable on alert. I get an alert about a very extended runtime, of course I was pretty nervous and went to check both tanks and everything appeared to be working as expected. So when I dug into it deeper it was alerting for something that happend almost a month ago when I was initially setting things up etc. Why would it go back and read a previous entry and is there a way to clear the past ATO values and start fresh?

One additional comment, since I am running multiple reefpi's is there any way to include the name of the tank in the alerts that go out, I might have missed something but when I get alerts I am not always sure which tank its for....I think I see what I can do I need to give a unique name for the ATO based on the tank and then I will know...

Thanks

I had this as well. Deleted the ATO and re-created it and the problem went away.

 

[waynel]

OK. My issue went away when I downgraded to 3.3.1, so possibly not the same.

I have 3 x ATO's defined, but only ever have one enabled at a time. Controlled by Timers and Macros. Alerting disabled on all of them though.

Could you temporarily enable alerts and see if you get something similar to mine? If I disable alerts, mine is working, but no way to know if the topoff tank is low unless I plug a light/bell/something into that outlet to let me know (that's why I'd like it to email alert me, of course). It's the alerting that seems to be broken/buggy, not the ATO control itself. This might be similar to the issue that @robsworld78 mentioned in a posting today about alerting.

Maybe an ATO control isn't the best way to set this up, but I don't see another option in reef-pi to do this. I just need it to send me an email if the float switch detects low water level (electrical contact will be open). Right now, it sends 10 messages at a time (the limit I have it set to) every hour saying "Elevated ATO usage..." no matter what position the float switch is in, although the outlet I have it controlling works correctly.

@Ranjib - any insight into this?

 

[Freccialata]

The Strange thing is,

it is 3 sensors. Connected on diferent ports on the Robo tank board. When i unconnect them and reconect he finds them again. (see spike in the graphs) an then x hours later he forgets them all. All at the same time... 0:55 time of photo 7:40 AM.

Sometimes it happened to me too (same Robo Tank controller).
Sometimes only one sensor... sometimes 3 sensors at the same time.
Last time it happened on the 19th of August.
At the moment I'm not at home and I haven't so much time to "play" with the controller.
I had problem with the ph board too... but I will try to setup it on the next week.

 

[robsworld78]

This might be similar to the issue that @robsworld78 mentioned in a posting today about alerting.

The problem I was discussing was related to the DS18B20 temp sensors, sorry I don't have much experience with the alerts so not sure what to suggest.

Sometimes it happened to me too (same Robo Tank controller).
Sometimes only one sensor... sometimes 3 sensors at the same time.
Last time it happened on the 19th of August.
At the moment I'm not at home and I haven't so much time to "play" with the controller.
I had problem with the ph board too... but I will try to setup it on the next week.

Sorry to hear about the problems, for the pH board did you add this line to the config.txt file in the /boot/ folder of the SD card? Not sure what was happening to you but if you were getting a bunch of parsing errors this will be why.

dtparam=i2c_arm_baudrate=10000

For your temp issue do the sensors keep working or do you need to restart the controller?

I read this message about 4 hours ago but wanted to try and get an answer and now I'm really confused.

After reading this I plugged in two 5m sensors, running a Pi 3 with v3.4, checking sensors every second. Almost immediately I got two errors like yours and the time stamp on error would continue to update every 0-5 minutes so the error kept happening. The sensors didn't stop working though and charts were updating as they should. This didn't make sense as months ago I ran three sensors each with 5m cable for weeks and never seen an error and I've been using the same hardware for another project for weeks reading the same sensors and no issues.

Then I decided to setup another SD card running 3.3.1 as I believe that's what I was running then and it's been going 4 hours and no errors and I really don't expect one. So this does seem to be a problem with software at least what I'm experiencing however @Yov sounds more hardware related as the controller actually needs to be restarted.

Is anyone else seeing these errors with v3.4? I would think if this is software I would have seen more discussion about it but I was definitely get a lot of errors with 3.4 that I've never seen before so really confused, any suggestions?

 

[theatrus]

The problem I was discussing was related to the DS18B20 temp sensors, sorry I don't have much experience with the alerts so not sure what to suggest.



Sorry to hear about the problems, for the pH board did you add this line to the config.txt file in the /boot/ folder of the SD card? Not sure what was happening to you but if you were getting a bunch of parsing errors this will be why.

dtparam=i2c_arm_baudrate=10000

For your temp issue do the sensors keep working or do you need to restart the controller?

I read this message about 4 hours ago but wanted to try and get an answer and now I'm really confused.

After reading this I plugged in two 5m sensors, running a Pi 3 with v3.4, checking sensors every second. Almost immediately I got two errors like yours and the time stamp on error would continue to update every 0-5 minutes so the error kept happening. The sensors didn't stop working though and charts were updating as they should. This didn't make sense as months ago I ran three sensors each with 5m cable for weeks and never seen an error and I've been using the same hardware for another project for weeks reading the same sensors and no issues.

Then I decided to setup another SD card running 3.3.1 as I believe that's what I was running then and it's been going 4 hours and no errors and I really don't expect one. So this does seem to be a problem with software at least what I'm experiencing however @Yov sounds more hardware related as the controller actually needs to be restarted.

Is anyone else seeing these errors with v3.4? I would think if this is software I would have seen more discussion about it but I was definitely get a lot of errors with 3.4 that I've never seen before so really confused, any suggestions?

Just as a sanity check, are both SD cards running the same kernel?

The ReefPi 1wire code is pretty boring, in that it only knows how to read devices the kernel provides. Maybe its now reading faster? Only impacting difference I could think of.

 

[robsworld78]

Just as a sanity check, are both SD cards running the same kernel?

The ReefPi 1wire code is pretty boring, in that it only knows how to read devices the kernel provides. Maybe its now reading faster? Only impacting difference I could think of.

Thanks for the suggestion, both seem to be running the same.

Linux raspberrypi 5.4.51-v7+ #1333 SMP Mon Aug 10 16:45:19 BST 2020 armv7l GNU/Linux

Just as I was checking the card with 3.4 it immediately gave the errors but yet to see one on 3.3.1.

 

[Freccialata]

Sorry to hear about the problems, for the pH board did you add this line to the config.txt file in the /boot/ folder of the SD card? Not sure what was happening to you but if you were getting a bunch of parsing errors this will be why.

dtparam=i2c_arm_baudrate=10000

For your temp issue do the sensors keep working or do you need to restart the controller?

As I wrote you in August, I’m still on holidays.
So, I will setup the ph probe next week and... yes, the config file has that line!

For the temperature sensors, after the errors they keep on working without any problem.... till one or all the sensors have another error... than they keep on working.

The 3 sensors have been working without any peoblem (without any error) since the 19rh of August.

P.S.: Raspberry Pi 3B+ and reef pi 3.3.1 running.

 

[rmilyard]

Anyone know what right settings to get email alerts with Hotmail account? Server using smtp.live.com, tried ports 25, 465 and 587

 

[jsweir]

Ok getting ready to build mine. Primary objective is to monitor everything I can, but no control. I have a ph probe is every one using a ds18b20 for monitoring temp? How about optical switches for water level - what is a good one to use? Anything else easy to monitor?

 

[Weasel1960]

Hi. I am a newbie all over again. Going to start a tank soon after being away 30 years. Looking at equipment, did an internet search for control systems and Robo-Tank came up. Shout out especially to Ranjib and Rob for their work and all of you for the support. This world would be a much better place if everything was open source and a collaborative effort. I have been messaging Rob on his Robo site but since I am following I decided to jump into this thread. Rob suggested in his last message that not all equipment will work with ReefPi so my question to the masses is how do I start selecting equipment that will? For instance I am looking at the Aqua Life dimableDX hybrid lights which have a 0-10v connection so am assuming that would work. What other equipment clues should I be looking for on skimmers pumps etc.?

 

[robsworld78]

As I wrote you in August, I’m still on holidays.
So, I will setup the ph probe next week and... yes, the config file has that line!

For the temperature sensors, after the errors they keep on working without any problem.... till one or all the sensors have another error... than they keep on working.

The 3 sensors have been working without any peoblem (without any error) since the 19rh of August.

P.S.: Raspberry Pi 3B+ and reef pi 3.3.1 running.

Sorry I'm not really sure who you are, I've got a lot of controllers out there so getting hard to track who's who. When you get home be sure to send a message so we can get your issues solved.

 

[Ranjib]

Anyone know what right settings to get email alerts with Hotmail account? Server using smtp.live.com, tried ports 25, 465 and 587

Check if this helps: https://www.lifewire.com/what-are-windows-live-hotmail-smtp-settings-1170861
i dont use hotmail, and have not tested this. reef-pi uses smtp for email, this is based on that

 

[Ranjib]

Hi. I am a newbie all over again. Going to start a tank soon after being away 30 years. Looking at equipment, did an internet search for control systems and Robo-Tank came up. Shout out especially to Ranjib and Rob for their work and all of you for the support. This world would be a much better place if everything was open source and a collaborative effort. I have been messaging Rob on his Robo site but since I am following I decided to jump into this thread. Rob suggested in his last message that not all equipment will work with ReefPi so my question to the masses is how do I start selecting equipment that will? For instance I am looking at the Aqua Life dimableDX hybrid lights which have a 0-10v connection so am assuming that would work. What other equipment clues should I be looking for on skimmers pumps etc.?

When i started with my reef tanks, following were the main thing i needed to control:
- Light: I use kessil (0-10v) and 12v coralife moon light strip,
- ATO: 12v dc peristaltic pump and float sensor (was using optical sensor for first 3 years)
- Temperature: Jaeger eheim Heater & 12V dc fans with ds19b20 sensor
- Return pumps (rio for picos and sicce syncra for nano), skimmer, HoB filters (for pico tanks)

I later added ph monitoring, dosing of two parts , skimmer etc. But, except ATO nothing else is a must have in my experience, everything can run off timer (i.e instead of sunrise to sunset cycle, it will be direct on/off) ... heater too has its own termostat. Controller just make it little easier. I have macros to start/stop water change. I get to use two heaters to maintain temperature during winter etc.

The actual equipment has more to do with your tank size, type of corals you are planning to grow. You may need lot more things including dosers and calcium reactor controls for more sophisticated setup.