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

[Cary]

Very nice picture and beautiful tanks. I have many Jimi H. Albums, including Electric Ladyland European Version. When I complete my 29 gallon, I have an 8 gallon that will need help with temperature based heater and fan. It is hot here in Texas right now.

 

[Allenj]

Ranjib,
Very impressive, I have started following, I want to keep up with your amazing work.

Allen

 

[Ranjib]

Ranjib,
Very impressive, I have started following, I want to keep up with your amazing work.

Allen

Thank you

 

[Ranjib]

the lighting cycle setting looks fairly stable now. I am calling it done unless some one reports any bug. Heres the adafruit.io dashboard (notice how a bug had crashed the program initially, resulting in sudden dip in the graph).

I am planning to focus on the temperature controller next. I'll be testing with DS18B20 , I have tried couple of other probes already, though they work, the values need post processing. DS18B20 on the other hand if fairly well document and used in open source works, and I think I have found a probe that I can use for reef: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01B27R21Y
If things go well, other than integrating it with my existing controllers, I am also planning to build a dedicated temperature controller using a raspberry pi zero & 2 channel ssd relay. If you all recall, I had mentioned that reef-pi should be able to run both a full blown controller (that control relays, sensors, pwms etc) as well as dedicated controllers (just lighting, just ATO, just temperature etc). There are trade off in both options. None the less, its time to experiment on a dedicated temperature controller. I am thinking of the housing for this. It will hold a pi zero, a 3.5 mm stereo jack for the ds18b20 probe, a 2 channel solid state realy , 2 AC receptacle. I am still torn on the display, I can add a LCD display, but not sure if I need it. It will drive the cost up little bit.

 

[GrizFyrFyter]

What is the current build state cost?

 

[Ranjib]

What is the current build state cost?

I have three different controllers. Each of them with different configuration. The temp only controller I am planning to build, should be belo
- pi zero - 10$
- Probe - 15 $
- Relay 10$
- 2 AC female panel mound socket or receptacles (8$)
- 5v power supply 10$
- Fan 20$
I would say around 80-100$ adding the heater as well. This is a full temperature controller kit , with sensor, heater, fan and the controller.

My first build that has 6 channel relay, tft display, kessil control, 2 dosing pump and coralife temp sensor (MCP3008 based) cost around 250$, which includes the controller electronics (relay, raspberry pi 2, pca9685, mcp3008., tft display, 3 pairs of ac receptacles, 3.5 mm stereo famale panel mounts) and the dosing pumps (no light, heater etc). This one powers my biocube. I plan to break it down in lieu of multiple small ones.

My second build was around 180$ (Pi 3, official touch display, 4 channel relay, kessil controller). This one powers my pico, and I am very happy with the form factor (wood working is lot better).
I have not included the housing cost (wood), i really dont know how to calculate them :-(

 

[Ranjib]

Also following along, I love stuff like this. I've always wanted to build something like this for myself - do you have any good resources that you can recommend for teaching myself to do something similar?

Sorry for responding so late, but I wanted to tell you that I am a biologist by education, and software engineer by profession. I didnt know anything about electronics 3 years back. I learned it entirely from adafruit.com tutorials, and arduino forums. Very similar to reef keeping. I still dont know much, and I also dont spend whole lotta time other than reading through things during my daily commute,. I would say start taking bay steps, get a raspberry pi, and make an LED blink . Its as fascinating as the first critter we see during new tank cycling. I 'll be happy to answer/assist in anything I can

 

[Ranjib]

Hope you're not flaking on us!

Its been long since your post, are you building one ? The software is fairly stable now, it has minimal feature, but whatever shared in this thread is present and working. Couple of folks have built/tested it as well, so you know its not fake news

 

[Ranjib]

getting ready to work tonight, but will try the new file tomorrow, and see if it works, will let you know...you did good job on info to get started...thanks

Hey Mike, how is your build going ?

 

[Ranjib]

Sincerely I still have to start and then dip it

Hey , how is your build going ? Let me know if you need any help

 

[MaccaPopEye]

MaccPopEye. I watched a video on youtube yesterday about how to convert the sbreeflight (a similar light to the MarsAqua) to 1-10v control. It looked rather simple. is part 1. I believe he said that this conversion would work on most of the Chinese Black Boxes as they are made by a single company. I could not find anything on conversion to PWM. BTW, I am following along and trying to understand all of this. Soon to purchase a Raspberry pi and begin working. Thanks Ranjib and all for the great work.

@Cary Thanks for sharing this video. Very informative. Unlike Kessil, these are isolated outputs (i.e. each channels has dedicated +ve and gnd ), ULN2803a should be good enough to power these things.

Thanks Cary, that was one of the vids I watched as well but I wasn't sure what kind of signal the apex sends. I made a few earlier posts in this thread asking if I should use a pwm signal or not (I should have posted the video haha). Aaron Smith who has gotten his Reef-Pi up and running also has a black box LED (different brand though) and he used 0-10V PWM with no issues. So not sure if I should go the same route or not.

Both my ULN2803A and PCA9685 arrived yesterday so I can do either way. Which would you recommend Ranjib?

I am hoping to get basic functionality of lights and relays up this month. I am going on a holiday at the end of August though so I will likely wait until I get back before I run anything more than lighting off of the Reef-Pi so I can make sure I am here to monitor it.

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

Ranjib, really awesome project.

Yes. I am trying to understand whats the best way to collaborate, like should we start a documentation within the software project in github, or a dedicated thread in reef2reef or a google doc. I need all of you, who want to contribute to the guide input in that. Once we decided on the medium, I can start with some initial content and then we can all iterate.
@Cary thoughts?

About the step by step guide, have you decided on a practical way to collaborate so people can contribute to creating the guide? If I can help with helping put the guide together, I certainly would.

 

[Aaron Smith]

Thanks Cary, that was one of the vids I watched as well but I wasn't sure what kind of signal the apex sends. I made a few earlier posts in this thread asking if I should use a pwm signal or not (I should have posted the video haha). Aaron Smith who has gotten his Reef-Pi up and running also has a black box LED (different brand though) and he used 0-10V PWM with no issues. So not sure if I should go the same route or not.

Both my ULN2803A and PCA9685 arrived yesterday so I can do either way. Which would you recommend Ranjib?

I am hoping to get basic functionality of lights and relays up this month. I am going on a holiday at the end of August though so I will likely wait until I get back before I run anything more than lighting off of the Reef-Pi so I can make sure I am here to monitor it.

Just for clarification, I am running 5v pwm. The apex sends a 0-10v analog signal by default.

 

[Aaron Smith]

@Ranjib
Is the latest release with finalized lighting program up for dl?

 

[Ranjib]

@Aaron Smith yes, https://github.com/ranjib/reef-pi/releases/tag/0.0.6
Lighting configuration has changed little bit, check build/reef-pi.yml for example

Let me know if you are using adafruit.io for your telemetry. I am yet to work on the documentation, I can help you configure that. Its a good thing to have to check how reef-pi is doing if you are not around the tank
Thanks again for testing it out, buddy

 

[Ranjib]

Ranjib, really awesome project.



About the step by step guide, have you decided on a practical way to collaborate so people can contribute to creating the guide? If I can help with helping put the guide together, I certainly would.

Hi @Rip Van Winkle I am thinking of this for quiet some time, but could not get my time spend on documentation (was busy in fixing code/electronics).
That said I am starting to work on it right now. I am thinking of two ways to collaborate on the manual. There are two ways to contribute to the documentation:

- For those who are not familiar with github and coding style documentation management, I'll maintain a google doc where we can collaboratively create the manual. This will be available to everyone for reading. While, anyone who wants to contribute to it, has to share his/her gmail address with me, and I'll grant them edit access to this document. Link of this document is this: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jgCcwj_Kou89Tyk9EVkmJ_X3DA5yCoytRaV9FNCjKoM/edit?usp=sharing

- The hard, but authoritative way to distribute the manual will be to keep and update it as part of the software itself in github, those who are familiar with github and pull request against it, with changes one want, I'll review and merge it. The manual will be located here: https://github.com/ranjib/reef-pi/blob/master/doc/manual.md . This documentation will be made available as part of the software.

Let me know if this works for you, I am open to all suggestions

 

[ludnix]

Beautiful work, I want to give this a try soon, I think it would be fun to design some 3d printed housing for the controller. I'm still settling into my new home but this looks like a fun project to start.

 

[Ranjib]

Beautiful work, I want to give this a try soon, I think it would be fun to design some 3d printed housing for the controller. I'm still settling into my new home but this looks like a fun project to start.

That would be awesome, I can share the wooden housing details, if that help,
and thanks for the kind words,

 

[MaccaPopEye]

Just for clarification, I am running 5v pwm. The apex sends a 0-10v analog signal by default.

Ah my mistake, I knew you were using a PWM signal though haha did setting a minimum value fix the flickering for you?

In that case if I can just wire the lights straight to the ULN2803A instead of the potentiometers and send a 0-10V analog signal that would probably be simpler to do.

 

[Ranjib]

Ah my mistake, I knew you were using a PWM signal though haha did setting a minimum value fix the flickering for you?

In that case if I can just wire the lights straight to the ULN2803A instead of the potentiometers and send a 0-10V analog signal that would probably be simpler to do.

yup. This should work just fine.
I am want to build a 2 part doser , and dimmable lunar light (i have to parts for both of them ready), where I'll use exactly same setup. I'll keeo you posted