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

Marc Kruithof · Apr 16, 2018

You can use old IDE cables for the pi 3. You only have to check if that one pin in the connector is not blocked. Besides, stacking is easy, just add a connector to the ribbon cable, I do use triacs. Check my schematic and pcb on an earlyer post. I use a opto coupler (triac version with zero crossing) with a power triac.

ludnix · Apr 16, 2018

Have you guys seen these etape liquid level sensors before? I am in the planning stages of my reefpi build and thought this might be really useful for monitoring my sump level. I use two float switches currently but I think having information about how high the water level actually is could inform what is wrong from a distance.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/463

Ranjib · Apr 16, 2018

ludnix said:
Have you guys seen these etape liquid level sensors before? I am in the planning stages of my reefpi build and thought this might be really useful for monitoring my sump level. I use two float switches currently but I think having information about how high the water level actually is could inform what is wrong from a distance.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/463

Yess

. In fact the early version of reef-pi (known as reefer , that time ) used those etape based sensors. What I learned was that salt creep can cause trouble but they are very good for monitoring ato reservoir water level. Being spi based sensor , these involve one additional wire per sensor. They are also bit expensive . Lastly, on the software side I was not using the level information for any practical purpose other than a Boolean cutoff . Which is why I went with photo electric sensor at the end.

But I do think they are awesome, and we just have to come up with a nifty use for them. This is in my mind, for 3.0 release , along side some other really advance sensors and image processing based algorithms

Kramden · Apr 17, 2018

Sorry to butt in. I have been following for a few weeks. I am having trouble with v1.5. Version 1.4 works great and I can revert to that. I am running an 8 channel mechanical relay board and a ds18b20 on a Pi3 B and temp control is perfect. Version 1.5 won't start. I get an error in the journal that i2c won't initialize and there is no /dev/i2c-1 file or directory. I have deleted the db. I have ordered a PCA9685 but its still on the boat from China. Any thoughts?

Ranjib · Apr 17, 2018

Kramden said:
Sorry to butt in. I have been following for a few weeks. I am having trouble with v1.5. Version 1.4 works great and I can revert to that. I am running an 8 channel mechanical relay board and a ds18b20 on a Pi3 B and temp control is perfect. Version 1.5 won't start. I get an error in the journal that i2c won't initialize and there is no /dev/i2c-1 file or directory. I have deleted the db. I have ordered a PCA9685 but its still on the boat from China. Any thoughts?

Please revert back to 1.4. From the error it looks like rpi i2c driver is trying to get loaded (not pca9685 related, this is something I introduced recently.). the only easy workaround i can recommend is to enable i2c using raspi-config . Can you share some details of your setup, is that all you have wire up (relay and temperature probe)? I'll try to reproduce this tomorrow.

Erica-Renee · Apr 17, 2018

Ranjib said:
Please revert back to 1.4. From the error it looks like rpi i2c driver is trying to get loaded (not pca9685 related, this is something I introduced recently.). the only easy workaround i can recommend is to enable i2c using raspi-config . Can you share some details of your setup, is that all you have wire up (relay and temperature probe)? I'll try to reproduce this tomorrow.

I have 8 channel relay board temp float switch (non optical) and ds18b temp probe and not having any issues.

Also the strip level sensor would be kewl to monitor things like Dosing canisters . If it can be protected from those chemicals..

I am now working on Lighting. I think i have to grab some tutorials on pwm because Its not going well so far...

will share what i have in some images sometime very soon i hope

jcmental · Apr 17, 2018

Ranjib said:
So much better

James Golden said:
Then put probe in it. Might help

Lol I think thats a good idea, I may even make a tube with a small hole in the bottom so the wave effect will be slowed even more. Wow I love you guys you just bring out all the good ideas in me. xxx

Ranjib · Apr 17, 2018

Kramden said:
Sorry to butt in. I have been following for a few weeks. I am having trouble with v1.5. Version 1.4 works great and I can revert to that. I am running an 8 channel mechanical relay board and a ds18b20 on a Pi3 B and temp control is perfect. Version 1.5 won't start. I get an error in the journal that i2c won't initialize and there is no /dev/i2c-1 file or directory. I have deleted the db. I have ordered a PCA9685 but its still on the boat from China. Any thoughts?

Hey, I just crosschecked things on my side. I believe your issue will go away if you just enable i2c. You can follow the steps here: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit...c#installing-kernel-support-with-raspi-config

This was introduced recently, in 1.5 release

Kramden · Apr 17, 2018

That was it. The command lsmod showed the module loaded so I assumed it was ok. Raspi-config didn't help. I had to manually add it to /etc/modules to get it to work. Thank you for this project. I'm looking forward to the ph build guide. Thank you again.

Ranjib · Apr 17, 2018

Kramden said:
That was it. The command lsmod showed the module loaded so I assumed it was ok. Raspi-config didn't help. I had to manually add it to /etc/modules to get it to work. Thank you for this project. I'm looking forward to the ph build guide. Thank you again.

Thats very strange. raspi-config should persist the changes, i dont know why it didnt work, but I'll definitely look into this. It is the recommended way of configuring Pi, and something that I have little control over. But I am pretty sure if theres a bug I'll be able to spot it (strace foo), if I do find a bug, i'll follow up with the originial developers.

cheeseclock · Apr 17, 2018

I'm going to finish the light fixture before I continue on with the controls. 256 holes drilled and the ledge for the glass made. I need to make something lightweight for the top to act as a manifold/fan mount/electrical enclosure. I had considered acrylic, but it's heavier than sheet aluminum.

Kramden · Apr 18, 2018

Very minor bug report-- maybe its a feature--Heater/Cooler graph on Dashboard does not resize per the settings on configuration page (tc).
Thanks

Ranjib · Apr 18, 2018

Kramden said:
Very minor bug report-- maybe its a feature--Heater/Cooler graph on Dashboard does not resize per the settings on configuration page (tc).
Thanks

Thanks for testing out 1.5. I caught that bug soon after releasing. It’s already patched on master and will be out in 1.6 release
https://github.com/reef-pi/reef-pi/pull/338

cheeseclock · Apr 18, 2018

I'm waiting on some aluminum, so I soldered and crimped today.

Ranjib · Apr 19, 2018

Support for multiple temperature probes is almost done https://github.com/reef-pi/reef-pi/pull/342
I am hopeful that by maker faire (May 20th) we’ll have both multiple ato and temperature probe support released. I am also thinking to release this as 2.0-beta since this will break pretty much all ato and temperature related api and the existing configuration

Erica-Renee · Apr 20, 2018

Having issues (prob me being stupid
But is there a way to test that the PCA9685 board is working correctly...
Like voltage in and voltage out on say pin 0,1
I am going to work on hooking this up today to test .. I have not decided on leds I will use at this time . Just want to get it all working...

Question.. should the dc voltage or current change or very when testing with meter over pin 0 on pca9685 when adjusting the signal in the lighting control in reef-pi ?
If so i assume on the pi computer testing gpio pin 2,3 running reef-i ver 1.6 and selecting rpi under jacks pin 2,3 if pca9685 is selected it should be pin 0,1 or what ever pins being used in the pca9685 board . testing currant will adjusting slider will cause it to very... ?

if I am wrong from above please if you can provide me with some guidance
Thanks in advance
Erica

James Golden · Apr 20, 2018

The Arduino fade tutorial has a good example of how to hook up a led to a pwm pin on an Arduino. This should be almost exactly what you will need to test your pca9685 outputs.

James Golden · Apr 20, 2018

I am running in to this problem when I try to delete a relay that I have hooked up to the ato. I am running 1.5 and here is what happens when I do these steps
1. Add relay to connections in configuration update
2. Add connection to relay in equipment. Update
3. Go to ato and enable with sensor pin on 23. Update
4. Click on control and select outlet. In this case outlet 4. Update
5. Check operation. Working back wards. Sensor out of water shuts off relay sensor in water turns relay off.
Want to delete this thing so I do these steps
1. Go to ato and click on pump and select -
2. Turn off control. Update
3. Go to equipment and delete outlet 4. So far so good
All is gone and looking good
Go to add it back doing every thing in the above first 5 steps
And this is what happens

Erica-Renee · Apr 20, 2018

Anyone know how to correct this
also getting this error in connectors trying to reload
error failed to reload reef-pi output: error: signal :terminated ...

Error log
Apr 20 16:12:27 reef reef-pi[322]: 2018/04/20 16:12:27 lighting-subsystem: Setting PWM value: 0 at channel: 1
Apr 20 16:12:27 reef reef-pi[322]: 2018/04/20 16:12:27 ERROR: lighting-subsystem: Failed to set pwm value. Error: open /sys/class/pwm/pwmchip0/export: no such file or directory
Apr 20 16:12:27 reef reef-pi[322]: 2018/04/20 16:12:27 ato sub-system: sensor value: 0
Apr 20 16:12:27 reef reef-pi[322]: 2018/04/20 16:12:27 health check: Used memory: 55.45 Load5: 0.27
Apr 20 16:12:28 reef reef-pi[322]: 2018/04/20 16:12:28 WARNING: Alert is above throttle limits. Skipping. Subject: [Reef-Pi ALERT] temperature out of range
Apr 20 16:12:28 reef reef-pi[322]: 2018/04/20 16:12:28 Temperature sensor value: 74.52
Apr 20 16:12:32 reef reef-pi[322]: 2018/04/20 16:12:32 ato sub-system: sensor value: 0
Apr 20 16:12:37 reef reef-pi[322]: 2018/04/20 16:12:37 ato sub-system: sensor value: 0
Apr 20 16:12:42 reef reef-pi[322]: 2018/04/20 16:12:42 ato sub-system: sensor value: 0
Apr 20 16:12:47 reef reef-pi[322]: 2018/04/20 16:12:47 ato sub-system: sensor value: 0
Apr 20 16:12:52 reef reef-pi[322]: 2018/04/20 16:12:52 ato sub-system: sensor value: 0
Apr 20 16:12:57 reef reef-pi[322]: 2018/04/20 16:12:57 lighting-subsystem: Setting PWM value: 88 at channel: 0
Apr 20 16:12:57 reef reef-pi[322]: 2018/04/20 16:12:57 ERROR: lighting-subsystem: Failed to set pwm value. Error: open /sys/class/pwm/pwmchip0/export: no such file or directory
Apr 20 16:12:57 reef reef-pi[322]: 2018/04/20 16:12:57 lighting-subsystem: Setting PWM value: 0 at channel: 1
Apr 20 16:12:57 reef reef-pi[322]: 2018/04/20 16:12:57 ERROR: lighting-subsystem: Failed to set pwm value. Error: open /sys/class/pwm/pwmchip0/export: no such file or directory
Apr 20 16:12:57 reef reef-pi[322]: 2018/04/20 16:12:57 ato sub-system: sensor value: 0
Apr 20 16:13:02 reef reef-pi[322]: 2018/04/20 16:13:02 ato sub-system: sensor value: 0
Apr 20 16:13:07 reef reef-pi[322]: 2018/04/20 16:13:07 ato sub-system: sensor value: 0

Erica-Renee · Apr 20, 2018

Update ..reverted to 1.4 setup gpio 0,1 under connectors then turned on lighting and its working.....

I do not know if its something in my 1.5 install or a General bug.....

Hope this helps you..... I have thought for 3 days i was doing something wrong wiring wise. I forget about log file

Erica