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

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Ouch. I feel for you @MaccaPopEye. The cost in the US will likely be much lower. A RPi Model B v3 costs closer to $40 USD shipped. An 8 channel relay board costs about $7.75 USD shipped. The miscellaneous parts will likely be cheaper as well.

@Ranjib has done a lot of the hard work. The small costs add up, but the beauty of using general purpose computer like the Rasbperry Pi is that you just need to write some code and the controller basically does something new. Ranjib was able to add temperature functionality for a few bucks worth of parts. Add some code and this controller now can run a heater and chiller based on the temperature probe. The sky's really the limit.

 

[Ranjib]

I havent read the whole thread but how much does it cost?

At minimum this will cost you 40 USD. Which is pi zero, a charger and some sort of housing (wooden or plastic ), but this will only run the software and provide you browser based ui that you can use from mobile or tablet at to see , configure things at home.
Depending upon what all you want to do, you need additional electronicss. Following is a quick guess(all prices are in usd )
Ato : 30
Power strip : 40 (4 outlet )
Temperature controller : 40
Kessil controller: 55
Some other led controller which has lot more channels : 70
Doser : 85 (dual or may be triple pump )
Touch screen display : additional 70
An all in one controller .. around 250

It will be easier to guess if you can specify what all you want to control, some prefers all in one because it gives central command and control, some prefers multiple independent controller for reliability (fails independently) , you can take either approach. You can also turn off internet and run it if need be.

 

[Cory]

Wow seems exspensive. Seems. I mean whats the neptune apex jr cost?

The cost for me would be about the same as austrailia as im in canada. But thats just a guess.

I really just would like temp control, and maybe ph. I already got an ato from avast, ghl profilux doser and a kessil 160 with their spectral controller. But i love diy and wouldnt mind diy se stuff.

 

[Ranjib]

Wow seems exspensive. Seems. I mean whats the neptune apex jr cost?

The cost for me would be about the same as austrailia as im in canada. But thats just a guess.

I really just would like temp control, and maybe ph. I already got an ato from avast, ghl profilux doser and a kessil 160 with their spectral controller. But i love diy and wouldnt mind diy se stuff.

Dont be worried about the cost upfront.
I always wanted an Apex when I first saw one, but could not justify it due to my simple use case (the things that I wanted would cost me around 700-800 USD , without the touch screen). So I went with individual controllers, got the kessil controller first, followed by smart micro ATO. I liked both, since they are simple. Later as I picked up arduino+pi, it became very clear doing something similar will not be impossible (by myself), that combined with the fact that I have to physicall go and navigate the kessil controller ,is what started my itch. Then finally it reached a tipping point where I lost couple of acros du to not properly acclimatizing them (I think one of the reason was me not ramping light steadily, and I blame that to the cumbersome controller + my laziness),

Coming back to my original point, comparing reef-pi with commercial controllers, in its current form wont be fair. Since those are very well tested, you get support, and the hardware is chosen carefully. reef-pi on the other hand is hackable, it is likely to require some upgrades over the time (since it is under heavy development), but then it is wifi capable. It can also be reused, i,e. if you want to build ATO from a temperature controller, you can just add the new probes, and reuse the existing electronics.

Last but not the least, this is a DIY project . I personally like hacking on things, and having something like this as a side project where I am not under commercial pressure, helps me keeping the focus on innovation, quality and everything that I find intriguing. Currently I am only building the basic features, but I would love to have a profile import/export feature which will help users to auto-configure a controller for specific tank + live stock (sps or mixed reef or lps heavy pico tanks), image recognition (auto detect that some hermit crab is nipping at my zoas and alert me), a command center (cons0lidated dashboard of key parameters that show your tank is in good state)... theres no guarantee that I will be able to make it, but reef-pi opens up the possibility... In case if someone else also wants to hack it like that, godspeed

btw, reef-pi is apache licensed, which mean a vendor can use reef-pi to build their own controllers, and they dont have to pay anything, so if reef-pi really becomes popular, someone will notice and make it in bulk, thus reducing the manufacturing cost to almost half.

 

[MaccaPopEye]

Wow seems exspensive. Seems. I mean whats the neptune apex jr cost?

The cost for me would be about the same as austrailia as im in canada. But thats just a guess.

I really just would like temp control, and maybe ph. I already got an ato from avast, ghl profilux doser and a kessil 160 with their spectral controller. But i love diy and wouldnt mind diy se stuff.

Haha good question, that will likely put my "high" costs in perspective. An apex Jr in Australia is $1,133AUD. A full apex is around $1637AUD and that is with only 1 of the old power bars (they aren't planning to release the new power bars in Aus any time soon, if at all).

If I could afford to buy an off the shelf controller I would go for the profilux 4 which would set me back the same as an apex Jr (But still with only 1 power bar).

In the future I would eventually like to add pH, salinity & ORP. I know Ranjib has been talking about pH at least so I'm keen to see how he does it as I know it can be tricky. But if I did this the expensive way and got the largest Atlas scientific tentacle board it would add another $150AUD + the cost of probes. So still well under the cost of an Apex Jr in Aus.

So cost savings is certainly a reason I am doing this, but to challenge myself is another reason, I've always wanted to try and do something like this

 

[aj741986]

Ranjib thank you for all of your hard work. People like you really make our community great. If theres anyway i can help please pm me. I have some coding and electronics knowledge not alot but some. I would be happy to put time into research if it would help.

 

[denierlexiese]

@Ranjib - Sorry I have gone quiet. I had the worst thing happen in all my 13 years of fish keeping. My 200 gallon leaked at the bottom at 3am in the morning. I'm still in the clean up process and it has really derailed my work on my DIY controller with reef pi. Hopefully I can get back to full help with you in a few weeks. I have learned a lot about leveling large aquariums. I guess I will also need to learn how to reseal my tanks, as many of them are probably over 10 years old and have never been resealed. I didn't realize lack of leveling and resealing would be a problem for my floors . Those topics doesn't seem to get much attention in the fish hobby. Woops.

In addition to the clean-up I'm looking into leveling my 60 gallon saltwater tank. Last night I spent the night zip tying all my cords to peg boards so they are surely off the ground. I got a little electrocuted with the freshwater tank leak. I should have had the surge protectors off the floor and the plugs in GFCI adaptors :/

As a cost perspective, i think the reef pi will be cheaper down the road. It may match the cost of an off the shelf controller, but in the future it will be much cheaper. I have a neptune 3 that is not supported anymore and not really upgradable. Going down the DIY path means future upgrades as minimal expense.

 

[Cory]

Haha good question, that will likely put my "high" costs in perspective. An apex Jr in Australia is $1,133AUD. A full apex is around $1637AUD and that is with only 1 of the old power bars (they aren't planning to release the new power bars in Aus any time soon, if at all).

If I could afford to buy an off the shelf controller I would go for the profilux 4 which would set me back the same as an apex Jr (But still with only 1 power bar).

In the future I would eventually like to add pH, salinity & ORP. I know Ranjib has been talking about pH at least so I'm keen to see how he does it as I know it can be tricky. But if I did this the expensive way and got the largest Atlas scientific tentacle board it would add another $150AUD + the cost of probes. So still well under the cost of an Apex Jr in Aus.

So cost savings is certainly a reason I am doing this, but to challenge myself is another reason, I've always wanted to try and do something like this

Well thats certainly much more exspensive than here in Canada. Apex jr costs far less.

https://www.reefsupplies.ca/online-store/Neptune-System-Apex-Jr-w-Display-and-Temperature-probe.html

 

[Aaron Smith]

Wow seems exspensive. Seems. I mean whats the neptune apex jr cost?

The cost for me would be about the same as austrailia as im in canada. But thats just a guess.

I really just would like temp control, and maybe ph. I already got an ato from avast, ghl profilux doser and a kessil 160 with their spectral controller. But i love diy and wouldnt mind diy se stuff.

I bought a near new apex jr. With pm-1 module for pH and an included Neptune auto feeder for $250. I was lucky and looked for months. That being said I still have reef-pi running my 2 channels of LED lighting. Mainly because it works very well, and it's DIY. Ranjib has done a great job, answers any questions, and makes you feel like you are truly a part of the build/development. That to me is worth more than my apex.[emoji41]

 

[Cory]

@Ranjib - Sorry I have gone quiet. I had the worst thing happen in all my 13 years of fish keeping. My 200 gallon leaked at the bottom at 3am in the morning. I'm still in the clean up process and it has really derailed my work on my DIY controller with reef pi. Hopefully I can get back to full help with you in a few weeks. I have learned a lot about leveling large aquariums. I guess I will also need to learn how to reseal my tanks, as many of them are probably over 10 years old and have never been resealed. I didn't realize lack of leveling and resealing would be a problem for my floors . Those topics doesn't seem to get much attention in the fish hobby. Woops.

In addition to the clean-up I'm looking into leveling my 60 gallon saltwater tank. Last night I spent the night zip tying all my cords to peg boards so they are surely off the ground. I got a little electrocuted with the freshwater tank leak. I should have had the surge protectors off the floor and the plugs in GFCI adaptors :/

As a cost perspective, i think the reef pi will be cheaper down the road. It may match the cost of an off the shelf controller, but in the future it will be much cheaper. I have a neptune 3 that is not supported anymore and not really upgradable. Going down the DIY path means future upgrades as minimal expense.

Its hard to reseal a tank. I just did mine. Use a tape measure to get between the panes to remove the bond if a razor blade is too thick. Thats my first tip. My second tip is to use dry 0000 steel wool after you scrape the edges with a razor. Lastly look into the silicone injection method. Make sure you use corner clamps and not bar clamps.

 

[Ranjib]

@Ranjib - Sorry I have gone quiet. I had the worst thing happen in all my 13 years of fish keeping. My 200 gallon leaked at the bottom at 3am in the morning. I'm still in the clean up process and it has really derailed my work on my DIY controller with reef pi. Hopefully I can get back to full help with you in a few weeks. I have learned a lot about leveling large aquariums. I guess I will also need to learn how to reseal my tanks, as many of them are probably over 10 years old and have never been resealed. I didn't realize lack of leveling and resealing would be a problem for my floors . Those topics doesn't seem to get much attention in the fish hobby. Woops.

In addition to the clean-up I'm looking into leveling my 60 gallon saltwater tank. Last night I spent the night zip tying all my cords to peg boards so they are surely off the ground. I got a little electrocuted with the freshwater tank leak. I should have had the surge protectors off the floor and the plugs in GFCI adaptors :/

As a cost perspective, i think the reef pi will be cheaper down the road. It may match the cost of an off the shelf controller, but in the future it will be much cheaper. I have a neptune 3 that is not supported anymore and not really upgradable. Going down the DIY path means future upgrades as minimal expense.

Oops, sorry to hear that :-( . I hope things work out well this time. I have no experience with keeping large tanks. I agree there are fewer resources on such things. I have seen some really old threads on sump, plumbing, stands etc.. but not too many on resealing, leveling. On youtube, DIY king channel has some good tips on large aquarium setups. I had once lend a hand in setting up a 380G for one of the local reefer, and I distinctly remember that leveling was the trickiest part , and was done by one of the dedicated/most experience member of the local club (from what I recall everyone takes his help on levelling tanks specifically ) . It was a humbling experience for me.

No worries on the absence, we have progressed a lot. A couple of other folks have built the temperature monitors, so it tested, both electronics, reef-pi software and adafruit.io based dashboards. I have also finished the ATO coding, and tested it. Currently finishing up my temperature controller housing (wooden box, I got it cut during the weekend, over the week I am gluing and clamping ) and building the reef-pi website in parallel, at night. These are some of the latest happenings

 

[Ranjib]

Ranjib thank you for all of your hard work. People like you really make our community great. If theres anyway i can help please pm me. I have some coding and electronics knowledge not alot but some. I would be happy to put time into research if it would help.

Thanks for the kind words.
I could use every bit of help you can offer . Some initial recommendation will be building and testing a reef-pi unit, provide feedback on the user interface and correctness. Documentation across the board is missing, from configuration to installation to hardware schematic. It will be nice if you can let us know what you want to work on, and I can carve out some small task.
reef-pi is an opensource hardware, which means it has to be free to make, share, redistribute, sell and all of its internal schematics needs to be available out in the open. Due to my limited knowledge of fritzing and time availability I have not been able to put effort on pcb & circuit schematics, so if you can build a reef-pi and document those on the way, that will be great. You can share your work here, and I can pull it from there and push it in reef-pi code base (I promise I'll keep proper attribution ), or you can directly send patches as github pull requests against reef-pi code repository

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

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

Whatever you decide is fine. I'll pm you my e-mail. Let me know when I have access.

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

Hey @Ranjib just FYI, https://reef-pi.com does not work (ERR_CONNECTION_CLOSED on Chrome 59.0.3071.115). Similarly, https://www.reef-pi.com does not work either (same error, ERR_CONNECTION_CLOSED). www.reef-pi.com seems to work fine, and redirects to https://reef-pi.github.io/ without issue.

Let me know if I can lend a hand with the redirects. I built a labyrinth of ProxyPass and virtual host directives in order to serve my personal sites to the Internet.

Take off the 's' in https So: http://www.reef-pi.com will work.
https://www.reef-pi.com
Just catching up with this thread right now. One more page to go.....

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

@Ranjib - Sorry I have gone quiet. I had the worst thing happen in all my 13 years of fish keeping. My 200 gallon leaked at the bottom at 3am in the morning. I'm still in the clean up process and it has really derailed my work on my DIY controller with reef pi. Hopefully I can get back to full help with you in a few weeks. I have learned a lot about leveling large aquariums. I guess I will also need to learn how to reseal my tanks, as many of them are probably over 10 years old and have never been resealed. I didn't realize lack of leveling and resealing would be a problem for my floors . Those topics doesn't seem to get much attention in the fish hobby. Woops.

In addition to the clean-up I'm looking into leveling my 60 gallon saltwater tank. Last night I spent the night zip tying all my cords to peg boards so they are surely off the ground. I got a little electrocuted with the freshwater tank leak. I should have had the surge protectors off the floor and the plugs in GFCI adaptors :/

As a cost perspective, i think the reef pi will be cheaper down the road. It may match the cost of an off the shelf controller, but in the future it will be much cheaper. I have a neptune 3 that is not supported anymore and not really upgradable. Going down the DIY path means future upgrades as minimal expense.

You're right about information being lacking about silicone joints on glass. If an aquarium is torn down and left empty the silicone will tend to dry out, giving it an opaque/whitish hue, especially on larger tanks. When silicone turns that color, it needs to be completely removed and the joints completely redone before it can be filled and put back into use again. Acetone to clean the glass and then new silicone reapplied, using the right amount of pressure to inject it in the gap between the glass edges. Then clamped while drying like Cory mentioned above, so that no air bubbles are left in the joints.

Use neoprene on the bottom to protect the glass. I use yoga mats. You can double it up or triple it, depending on the weight of your tank.

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

... Documentation across the board is missing, from configuration to installation to hardware schematic. It will be nice if you can let us know what you want to work on, and I can carve out some small task.
reef-pi is an opensource hardware, which means it has to be free to make, share, redistribute, sell and all of its internal schematics needs to be available out in the open. Due to my limited knowledge of fritzing and time availability I have not been able to put effort on pcb & circuit schematics, ...

Ranjib, do you have schematics yet? You must have some software to set up a standard / basic PCB? (going on the assumption that you work in this field)

 

[Aaron Smith]

Take off the 's' in https So: http://www.reef-pi.com will work.
https://www.reef-pi.com
Just catching up with this thread right now. One more page to go.....

I was stuck here for a whole day. I can't tell you how many times I typed HTTPS: [emoji23]

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

I was stuck here for a whole day. I can't tell you how many times I typed HTTPS: [emoji23]

I think that's what Ranjib was trying to tell everyone on page 22 when he said it wasn't working for https. Anyway glad I could clarify.
So do you guys have any schematics yet? I'm asking because if you did, you would have some idea about the size of the PCB and then that would allow you to use a project box as an enclosure. Using a project box as an enclosure would save time and effort, is cleaner, is also waterproof, faster and easier to work with as opposed to hand crafting a wooden housing. That would allow you to go ahead with this a little more quickly. That's just a suggestion though, if you have some preference for wooden construction, just ignore this.

Project box example: http://www.goldpt.com/enclosures.html


I'm familiar with Protel and can help you with setting up your PCB. Let me know if I can help. Meanwhile I'm working on the documentation.

 

[Cary]

Ranjb and all,

I am planning to buy components soon. I have looked at the BOM and the list you have here in the thread, but I am not sure what components to purchase for my immediate use and "wish list"

I will be purchasing a Sbreeflight either 2 channel or 3 channel after I build this controller.

Need components to control the following at this time:

Heater and fan controller based on tank temperature
Refugium light on and off timer and power - opposite of DT light
PH
Salinity
Alkalinity
Display - not sure what size

Future (possibly a larger aquarium)

ATO - not sure what function other than monitoring?
LED 2 or 3 channel
Additional moon lights if LED 2 channel above - I think it would be very cool to have this based on lunar cycle
four circulation pumps on and off plus speed control
Main return pump on and off
wifi?

Is there a way to have the controller send a text or message? This would open new areas to explore.

For people like me, it might be easier to list the components required to support each item in the list. I realize that some items will and can be used for more than one item.

I will create a How To as I am building these components and adding and configuring the software. As you mentioned, we can place where others can use the information. I believe you want to use this : https://reef-pi.github.io/build-guides/01_power/

Current purchase list - with comments regarding the component use (anyone, please correct as necessary)
Pi 3 - 16mb memory and power supply - used to as the controller, software storage, and memory.
Sainsmart 4 channel relay - should I get a 6 channel or larger? - not sure what this is used for?
kanakit's ds18b20 temp probe - used to detect tank temperature

 

[Ranjib]

I think that's what Ranjib was trying to tell everyone on page 22 when he said it wasn't working for https. Anyway glad I could clarify.
So do you guys have any schematics yet? I'm asking because if you did, you would have some idea about the size of the PCB and then that would allow you to use a project box as an enclosure. Using a project box as an enclosure would save time and effort, is cleaner, is also waterproof, faster and easier to work with as opposed to hand crafting a wooden housing. That would allow you to go ahead with this a little more quickly. That's just a suggestion though, if you have some preference for wooden construction, just ignore this.

Project box example: http://www.goldpt.com/enclosures.html


I'm familiar with Protel and can help you with setting up your PCB. Let me know if I can help. Meanwhile I'm working on the documentation.

I don't have the schematics yet, I am learning fritzing and will be creating the schematics as and when I create the guides, and build the physical controllers .

I love these housing you shared. I don't know if these are safe for 220v/110v electrical receptacles, and how easy it is to drill holes in these (for mounting connectors). I went with wood because it is readily available, I know how to fabricate it , and dart cheap. I would definitely prefer to use something salt water safe. Mine are clearly not suitable for use next to sump.
I am pondering about using one of these housing to build the power strip controller and doser (to be safe from fire/spark and water )