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

[Brad Cox]

Does this help?

I'm not using that kinda board there?

so I need a resistor from 3.3 to the gpio pin on the sensor?

 

[dburg30]

I'm not using that kinda board there?

so I need a resistor from 3.3 to the gpio pin on the sensor?

Yes.

 

[HM3105]

Thats interesting. I went through couple of my setup running 0.9 again, and could not reproduce this issue. Here is my dashboard, and its working as I expect,

Can you do the following things, that will help me understand your setup as well as detect if theres any thing silly reef-pi is doing:
1) A pic/image of your relay wiring if possible
2) Click on one of the equipment on/off and check the corresponding log entry. For example if you have an equipment named "Light" connected to outlet "O1", which is controlled by GPIO pin 26, then when you click on "Light" -> "on", you should see reef-pi logging "Setting GPIO Pin: 26 State: 0" (command: 'sudo journalctl -fu reef-pi.service')

ok my dashboard and your equipment state looks similar, I must have misunderstood the color coding.

Here is my journal. The relay started in "off" then "on" then "off".

Picture of my relay wiring.

 

[HM3105]

ok my dashboard and your equipment state looks similar, I must have misunderstood the color coding.

Here is my journal. The relay started in "off" then "on" then "off".

Picture of my relay wiring.

Please note, I'm not actually testing the timers with equipment plugged in. I'm watching the equipment tab and checking the relays to see if they change state when the timer is triggered. So when an equipment item is triggered to turn "on" by a timer and the equipment is in the "off" position, the timer isn't charging the relay and changing the state to "on". When the "off" timer is triggered, the relay is charging and changing the state to "on".

 

[Ranjib]

Please note, I'm not actually testing the timers with equipment plugged in. I'm watching the equipment tab and checking the relays to see if they change state when the timer is triggered. So when an equipment item is triggered to turn "on" by a timer and the equipment is in the "off" position, the timer isn't charging the relay and changing the state to "on". When the "off" timer is triggered, the relay is charging and changing the state to "on".

The label/text in UI represents the action that will be taken when the button will be pressed, the color represents current state. If the equipment is on (relay is closed) the button will have text "off" in red color, means the equioments will be turned off if button is pressed (hence red). From the image what I understand, you have normally open (off by when not powered) configuration. http://myhowtosandprojects.blogspot.com/2014/02/sainsmart-2-channel-5v-relay-arduino.html

I like the way you have wired the AC wires, so much better than mine

 

[HM3105]

The label/text in UI represents the action that will be taken when the button will be pressed, the color represents current state. If the equipment is on (relay is closed) the button will have text "off" in red color, means the equioments will be turned off if button is pressed (hence red). From the image what I understand, you have normally open (off by when not powered) configuration. http://myhowtosandprojects.blogspot.com/2014/02/sainsmart-2-channel-5v-relay-arduino.html

I like the way you have wired the AC wires, so much better than mine

Ah, so you saying when it says "off" on the equipment tab the equipment is currently "on"?

 

[dburg30]

Ah, so you saying when it says "off" on the equipment tab the equipment is currently "on"?

Yep, took me a while to see that also.. Clicking the button will take that action... So if the button says on... Clicking it will turn it on... It's not the current state of the relay..

 

[dburg30]

Other than GPIO 2,3 (for PWM) and 4 for temp, are any of the others not able to be used for outlets? Also, are only the ones that are 'green' on the pinout usable or can ANY of the GPIO pins be used / are set up for being used? ie: GPIO 7,8,9,10,11...

 

[Gareth elliott]

Ranjib, do you have an idea how you were attaching the Ph sensor, i got a black Friday deal on one, With the circuit board. Was going to preemptively attach it but all of the guides I found use pins 2 and 3 . Was thinking of either using a Gert board and an adruino or PWM expansion board.
Option 1
https://conoroneill.net/connecting-an-arduino-to-raspberry-pi-for-the-best-of-both-worlds/

Option 2
https://www.adafruit.com/product/2327

And second question will the Ph sensor be able to activate servo motor. Would love to use your project to also turn my fw planted Co2 system automatic. Since not a programer will and in case that makes no sense lol. Rudimentarily similar to the ato where if Ph is (x), then motor (y) turns on til Ph is (z).

 

[Brad Cox]

Thanks guys. I put the resistor in and it started working!

How do i get the email settings to work? I tried gmail settings but i habe gotten any alerts yet.

 

[dburg30]

Thanks guys. I put the resistor in and it started working!

How do i get the email settings to work? I tried gmail settings but i habe gotten any alerts yet.

for gmail are you using
smtp.gmail.com
Port 587
From email is your gmail account
To in my case is the same
And the pw is your gmail password..

Then imo the easiest is to set temp to something out of range and wait.. Shouldn't take long

Edit pretty sure you need notifications clicked in settings also.. Along with on the temperature page.

 

[Ranjib]

Ranjib, do you have an idea how you were attaching the Ph sensor, i got a black Friday deal on one, With the circuit board. Was going to preemptively attach it but all of the guides I found use pins 2 and 3 . Was thinking of either using a Gert board and an adruino or PWM expansion board.
Option 1
https://conoroneill.net/connecting-an-arduino-to-raspberry-pi-for-the-best-of-both-worlds/

Option 2
https://www.adafruit.com/product/2327

And second question will the Ph sensor be able to activate servo motor. Would love to use your project to also turn my fw planted Co2 system automatic. Since not a programer will and in case that makes no sense lol. Rudimentarily similar to the ato where if Ph is (x), then motor (y) turns on til Ph is (z).

pH sensor support is not yet present in reef-pi. I plan to do that after 1.0 release (post Christmas) . If everything goes as planned, I'll be using tentacle shield along with atlas scientific or brs probe. I have a working code example already, its just need to be throughly tested and have appropirate UI/configuration support.

Early in reef-pi development I had experimented with combining arduino with pi for having both analog and digital signal capabilities (i also tried out the alamode board), but my realization was we need very few purely analog components, and for almost all of those a simple DAC(like mcp4725) or ADC (like mcp3008) will work. This simplifies the overall complexity of electronics, while forces me to think about reef keeping use case first, and what all possible with arduino and pi second (which often time i tend to drift )

 

[Ranjib]

for gmail are you using
smtp.gmail.com
Port 587
From email is your gmail account
To in my case is the same
And the pw is your gmail password..

Then imo the easiest is to set temp to something out of range and wait.. Shouldn't take long

Edit pretty sure you need notifications clicked in settings also.. Along with on the temperature page.

Thank you @dburg30 , you are pretty much spot on.

My only additional input will be to use a application specific gmail password as mentioned here: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en

I am in process of adding all these details in the documentation, so by 1.0 release, all these will be relatively easy.

What do you think of adding a test email button, which will fire a test notification, to ease the configuration step. Will it be helpful?

 

[Ranjib]

Ah, so you saying when it says "off" on the equipment tab the equipment is currently "on"?

this has caused confusion in past as well. UX (user experience) in software is a hard problem. Software engineers, in particular are pretty bad at it. I am still not sure if this is the best we can do, for the equipment tab. But my current understanding is , for a anware person the button is intuitive. I am all ears for possible improvements,

 

[Ranjib]

Thanks guys. I put the resistor in and it started working!

How do i get the email settings to work? I tried gmail settings but i habe gotten any alerts yet.

awesome
share some pics of your dashboard or controller build if possible . I find them really inspiring

 

[dburg30]

My first power controller.. Using a regular cat 6 cable for the control wires... Right now including the 5v.. Will probably make a dedicated 5v power supply so the pi doesn't have to run it.. Or hook up a higher amp power supply to the pi itself..

Am trying to figure out if I want to break out the gpio away from the pi and have it so you can pick what gpio to use.. Make it more changeable on the fly..

Edit: @Ranjib did you see my question about what gpio can be used?

 

[Brad Cox]

Theres my screenshot so far!

Emails still hasnt came thru yet

 

[Ranjib]

My first power controller.. Using a regular cat 6 cable for the control wires... Right now including the 5v.. Will probably make a dedicated 5v power supply so the pi doesn't have to run it.. Or hook up a higher amp power supply to the pi itself..

Am trying to figure out if I want to break out the gpio away from the pi and have it so you can pick what gpio to use.. Make it more changeable on the fly..

Edit: @Ranjib did you see my question about what gpio can be used?

Awesome
I would recommend going for the green colored GPIO pins (except GPIO4), they are not used for any special purpose
for reference : https://www.jameco.com/Jameco/workshop/circuitnotes/raspberry_pi_circuit_note_fig2.jpg

so, GPIO 5,6,13,19,26,12,16,20,21 all are good. I plan to recommend the GPIO pins on the right side of pinout diagram for relay usage. The ones present in the middle can be used for ATO and other inputs.

 

[Ranjib]

Theres my screenshot so far!

Emails still hasnt came thru yet

Sweet.

Have you checked the reef-pi log? reef-pi will log a statement like "Sending email to", everytime it sends email. You can check for this in your log using:

sudo journalctl -u reef-pi.service | grep "Sending email to"

 

[dburg30]

Awesome
I would recommend going for the green colored GPIO pins (except GPIO4), they are not used for any special purpose
for reference : https://www.jameco.com/Jameco/workshop/circuitnotes/raspberry_pi_circuit_note_fig2.jpg

so, GPIO 5,6,13,19,26,12,16,20,21 all are good. I plan to recommend the GPIO pins on the right side of pinout diagram for relay usage. The ones present in the middle can be used for ATO and other inputs.

But could others be used, the non green ones?