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

[jcmental]

Love it! Did you took some pictures of the internal arrangement before you closed it? I understand the drawing but I’m curious on how you actually did it.

Thanks

Math

Sadly no but the picture is very similar to the internals, the only difference is the colored wires in my drawing inside the power strip were actually brass strips and very easy to solder the wires on to.
I would open it up to take a picture but it has security screws and my kit for them is in work. sorry
If I do another one I will defo take some pictures.

 

[Ranjib]

I am planning to mod one of the triplite power outlet, like this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0068LACFI
I can post some pics when I finish that build.

 

[TMB]

Well, since everyone is showing their power outlet builds I’ll share mine too.
The HDMI is the connection to the main Reef-Pi box. When I finish the other enclosure I'll show them side by side with all of the other sensors and stuff I have built.

 

[Ranjib]

Well, since everyone is showing their power outlet builds I’ll share mine too.
The HDMI is the connection to the main Reef-Pi box. When I finish the other enclosure I'll show them side by side with all of the other sensors and stuff I have built.

Whoa this is the prettiest power bar

I must say, this looks better than most commercial power bar.

 

[TMB]

To be honest, the build is the most fun for me. I don't really NEED another reef controller. However, the build aspect is what keeps me in this hobby. I love building DIY projects.
There are a couple things left to do on this part:
I need to wire the internals, and I'm waiting for a 5v AC - DC PCB power supply for the "power center".
The HDMI will feed power to the Reef-PI control enclosure, as well as carry the on/of signals for the relays.
By doing this I eliminate all power plugs but one, the cord from the power bar to the wall.
I'll post pictures when it's done in case anyone wants to see it all finished.

 

[Ranjib]

To be honest, the build is the most fun for me. I don't really NEED another reef controller. However, the build aspect is what keeps me in this hobby. I love building DIY projects.
There are a couple things left to do on this part:
I need to wire the internals, and I'm waiting for a 5v AC - DC PCB power supply for the "power center".
The HDMI will feed power to the Reef-PI control enclosure, as well as carry the on/of signals for the relays.
By doing this I eliminate all power plugs but one, the cord from the power bar to the wall.
I'll post pictures when it's done in case anyone wants to see it all finished.

I can totally relate to that . I bet I have spend enough on different reef-pi builds to buy at least couple of RKLs. The joy of making is tremendous. I also get kick out of the coding side of things

One the 5v pcb topic, I am surprised, how close we think. I have actually ordered an el-cheapo dual output PSU: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LENMPUO/
and I am hoping to do something similar, but power both Pi & dosing pump + kessil controller. Which is why the 12v output required. I actually did quiet a bit of reading on this. Later I felt this is a better place to choose a PSU, the vendor build PSUs for spacecrafts: https://www.tracopower.com/products...etail/ac-dc-power-supplies/open-frame-design/

 

[TMB]

Can't wait to see what you come up with for circuitry on the PSU. I'm assuming you'll split it out for the multiple voltages you need from the 12v source?
I'm in pretty good shape on the electrical and hardware side. I wish I new the coding part. I have zero knowledge there, and sometimes I think I would like to learn. Only problem is how much time do I want to devote to learning something like that? Probably not realistic, but I do think about it once in a while.
Ranjib, I'm very thankful for all the work you have done here. You made this possible for a lot of people.

 

[Ranjib]

Can't wait to see what you come up with for circuitry on the PSU. I'm assuming you'll split it out for the multiple voltages you need from the 12v source?
I'm in pretty good shape on the electrical and hardware side. I wish I new the coding part. I have zero knowledge there, and sometimes I think I would like to learn. Only problem is how much time do I want to devote to learning something like that? Probably not realistic, but I do think about it once in a while.
Ranjib, I'm very thankful for all the work you have done here. You made this possible for a lot of people.

Thank you for the kind words.
When I first started with electronics (3 years before) i knew nothing. My adafruit.com order history is a my the exact history of my electronics learning .

All I can say is, as human being, we are curious, and we love to learn new things. All this anxiety of "what is the use of this skill in such short time" is a expectation issue. You dont need that. You dont need to do anything with your coding skills other than having fun with it. Whether it will be useful or not , we can come back to that question a year or two later. The joy of watching an LED blink automatically is priceless

I am writing a python client for reef-pi, as we chat. Once completed, this will significantly reduce the learning curve related to coding with reef-pi. It will open up whole new possibilities

 

[TMB]

I think what you're saying is very true about curiosity, and learning. Since I started reading the Reef-Pi thread there is a long list of things to learn.
These are my steps so far:
Got first ever Raspberry Pi 3 (and Pi-Zero too).
Lots of reading and learning curve on command line and the first Raspbian/Reef-Pi set up.
Built Linux computer from old laptop so I could continue learning.
I followed the instructions for the development environment guide that you published.
I made it most of the way through that process, all I lack is to make it build Reef-Pi. Which I can do later if I want to.
What I really wanted to do was to start looking at the code, and play (more accurately probably break stuff).

Way more reading to do... This is a whole new and very complex world! But this has been very fun along the way. I'm in this project for the long haul.

 

[jcmental]

The joy of watching an LED blink automatically is priceless

LOL yep your so right.
I've always been good with my hands, I dont read to well I find it tiring, I have dyslexia and for some reason I when I read I pick up bits of words from other words on the page, like as if my eyes are jumping around the page, their not of corse it's just my brain doing it. I'm also word blind I cant see words in my head computers have helped me alot with this as I can see when I type that I've spelt it right or not. BUT I am brilliant at working out machines I can strip a machine down into all it's parts then come back months later and rebuild it, I've always been able to do this, I got into alot of trouble at school because for 3 weeks one of my teachers didnt know I was in her History class. I sat behind a curtain at the back of the class taking an old singer peddle sewing machine apart and "servicing" it I was 11 lol, boy did I get into trouble for that.

I love doing things with my hands and finding this reef pi build has been a god send for me. just learning and getting my head around how to over come small problems has been such fun. and the way you guys have kept the thread alive I think is awesome.

Change of topic now lol.
I stripped down an old 600W PCU yesterday from a PC I had floating around in the loft. I now have a power supply that gives me. 3.3 V, 5V, 12V and what ever this is -12v all I had to do was keep a few ground wires and snip the rest off just leaving one of each colour. I linked the Green wire to a ground on the circuit board so it comes on when I switch on the on off switch insted of it needing a motherboard to do it.
Do you think it will be ok to fit a micro USB to the 5v side to power my pi 3 ?

 

[ThorEp]

@ThorEp


If you're referring to the resistor required for the Temp circuit - it specifies a value of 4.7k. And I believe the data sheet says the value may be between 4.7k and 10k. I have tested and can confirm that the 10k resistor will also work.

I cant for the life of me see where in the document the resistor value is spesified

 

[Ranjib]

I cant for the life of me see where in the document the resistor value is spesified

This is a bug in the documentation, I missed it. Its present in the circuit diagram, and in adafruit tutorial (under reference). I just forgot to update the docs, this was reported few days back, i think
anyway i am updating the doc right now: https://github.com/reef-pi/website/pull/37

 

[Ranjib]

LOL yep your so right.
I've always been good with my hands, I dont read to well I find it tiring, I have dyslexia and for some reason I when I read I pick up bits of words from other words on the page, like as if my eyes are jumping around the page, their not of corse it's just my brain doing it. I'm also word blind I cant see words in my head computers have helped me alot with this as I can see when I type that I've spelt it right or not. BUT I am brilliant at working out machines I can strip a machine down into all it's parts then come back months later and rebuild it, I've always been able to do this, I got into alot of trouble at school because for 3 weeks one of my teachers didnt know I was in her History class. I sat behind a curtain at the back of the class taking an old singer peddle sewing machine apart and "servicing" it I was 11 lol, boy did I get into trouble for that.

I love doing things with my hands and finding this reef pi build has been a god send for me. just learning and getting my head around how to over come small problems has been such fun. and the way you guys have kept the thread alive I think is awesome.

Change of topic now lol.
I stripped down an old 600W PCU yesterday from a PC I had floating around in the loft. I now have a power supply that gives me. 3.3 V, 5V, 12V and what ever this is -12v all I had to do was keep a few ground wires and snip the rest off just leaving one of each colour. I linked the Green wire to a ground on the circuit board so it comes on when I switch on the on off switch insted of it needing a motherboard to do it.
Do you think it will be ok to fit a micro USB to the 5v side to power my pi 3 ?

ATX PSU/SMPS , aka Desktop computer power supplies are actually a very popular power source for all sorts of hobby projects. They are regulated, provides ample current and relatively cheaper. I didn't went with one, as I only need 12v and 5v . Also, these units provides lot more current than I need , initially i was concerned about this (that they can fry the electronics), but my readings suggest this is fine, pi will only draw the current it needs. I was also not happy with their size. Now that I am tinkering with the jebao pump for wave maker, I am thinking about a mini or pico ATX power supply or a traco PSU for my future AIO build.

It may be better to design the PSU+ relay control in one unit, and then fan out the rest of the boards in different units,

 

[Ranjib]

This is a bug in the documentation, I missed it. Its present in the circuit diagram, and in adafruit tutorial (under reference). I just forgot to update the docs, this was reported few days back, i think
anyway i am updating the doc right now: https://github.com/reef-pi/website/pull/37

Website is updated now, https://reef-pi.github.io/build-guides/temperature/ . BoM has 4.7 resistor. Let me know if it still missing anything,
thanks for pointing this out,

 

[MaccaPopEye]

And the finished product complete with shrink tube.

Mate, that's awesome! I initially planned to do something like this but couldn't figure out how to do it cleanly, you nailed it

I have received the jebao pp4 , so I might take the rpi pwm driver based code to power the new doser or wave maker.

I've got 3 jebao pumps and 2 coral box pumps so I'm looking forward to this. Would it eliminate the Jebao controller? I'm assuming we would have to cut the cable (on the controller side) going from the controller to the pump to connect it to reef pi?

Well, since everyone is showing their power outlet builds I’ll share mine too.

That's a really nice build mate - looks like it's mass produced I'm also very envious of how small US plugs are. At least Aus plugs are smaller than UK plugs

 

[Octane13]

This is awesome, interested in the jebao custom wave settings

 

[philshel]

I have ordered this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00798612C/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1517776536&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=atlas+scientific+ph+kit&dpPl=1&dpID=41jvE+Ni2+L&ref=plSrch

I was initially thinking of getting the tentacle board (which combines circuit for three probes ), but I realized I won’t need the orp or salinity probe

I have a working code for the atlas scientific ezo board already, last year one of the fellow reefer played with the tentacle shield and he shared then prototype code with me

That tentacle board is a sexy beast, but by the time you buy everything the price is way up there. I want the same exact board, but the Chinese clone version!

 

[philshel]

Website is updated now, https://reef-pi.github.io/build-guides/temperature/ . BoM has 4.7 resistor. Let me know if it still missing anything,
thanks for pointing this out,

Sorry to bring up an problem, but you have the wiring diagram for a relay pictured instead of the temp.

 

[Ranjib]

Sorry to bring up an problem, but you have the wiring diagram for a relay pictured instead of the temp.

the temperature controller has both temperature sensor circuit, as well as power bar circuit (relay), this is due to the fact that temperature controller needs to turn on/off equipment. This is intentional.

 

[MaccaPopEye]

Sorry to bring up an problem, but you have the wiring diagram for a relay pictured instead of the temp.

Hey Philshel that is the wiring diagram for the "temp controller" which includes a relay to turn heaters / fans / chillers on and off. You can wire it without the relay and just with the temp probe if you only want temp monitoring (the temp probe is the little black thing in the top right corner)