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

[cheeseclock]

I should be ready to test it tomorrow.

 

[Ranjib]

pH monitor entered operation yesterday night. The coding work and initial prototype testing was done for almost a month or two before. I had to punt on the actual deployment due to missing probe holder in my initial order. Then I got busy with 2.0 features. Anyway..

I was very happy to see the calibration features work smoothly, no major issues. I will update the UI to make things more intuitive, but I am over all happy. Will post the graphs soon, its very interesting to see the graph as I perform the calibration process.

This is also the smallest reef-pi build

Calibration ..

 

[cheeseclock]

pH monitor entered operation yesterday night. The coding work and initial prototype testing was done for almost a month or two before. I had to punt on the actual deployment due to missing probe holder in my initial order. Then I got busy with 2.0 features. Anyway..

I was very happy to see the calibration features work smoothly, no major issues. I will update the UI to make things more intuitive, but I am over all happy. Will post the graphs soon, its very interesting to see the graph as I perform the calibration process.

This is also the smallest reef-pi build

Nice rug!

Do reef people use pH for dosing or is it just to have the data? I ask because with a planted tank, you could potentially meter CO2 based on pH.

 

[Ranjib]

Nice rug!

Do reef people use pH for dosing or is it just to have the data? I ask because with a planted tank, you could potentially meter CO2 based on pH.

Dosing.
Two part or kalkwasser dosing is sometime controlled by ph feedbacks. I am learning sps husbandry , which requires some of these. Once 2.0 is out , I might focus on some ph driven dosing system

 

[cheeseclock]

They all light. I was confused why I had no control over the brightness. It appears that the LDD drivers vary the cathode voltage as opposed to the anode. I'll have to adjust the wiring accordingly.

 

[Ranjib]

Too many build pics ,

Here is my bubble coral, caught off guard at night

Micro goniopora at night with sweeper tentacles out

Rainbow acan

 

[cheeseclock]

Those are gorgeous! You're making me want to try saltwater.

 

[Ranjib]

Here are my learnings during the ph monitor build calibration process.
This is the ph chart for the whole process,

- Out of the box , the ph probe is fairly accurate. The storage solution itself has ph 3. This is the very first phase in the chart. Rest three phases (up, down and up) represent three calibration phases.
- Atlas Scientific ph kit ships with three ph calibration solution. Mid (7), Low(4) and High(10)
- Without any calibration the probe reads 6.9 for mid, 4.1 for low and 9.7 for high. Here are some screen shots with the exact values.

- I ran the calibration using reef-pi ui. In order of progression: Mid(7),Low(4) and High (10)

I have also manually verified that the calibration was done indeed, using atlasscintific example code

Over all, it was a fairly straight forward thing for me. I am planning to create a build guide for this. Probably after Makerfaire,
Finally, this is current trend of my 29G biocube's pH

 

[Ranjib]

Got some time today to take a few macro shots for my tanks.

Bubble coral (earlier photo was at night)., fully extended during daytime

Zoa garden is out of real estate

One of the pico tanks

Ricordia

 

[Cary]

Ranjib, Good morning. I may have missed this in the previous 200+ pages, if so I am sorry. Did the two customers (Public Aquariums?) get their systems set up and if so what do they think of Reef-pi?

Also, any pictures on them?

 

[Ranjib]

Ranjib, Good morning. I may have missed this in the previous 200+ pages, if so I am sorry. Did the two customers (Public Aquariums?) get their systems set up and if so what do they think of Reef-pi?

Also, any pictures on them?

I wont call them customers, they are just users (since I have not sold anything to them ). One of them is using it to research aging process in killi fish (??), where reef-pi is hooked up with cmu cams and it can quantify the movements of fish. He is running it on-demand (the fish lab is far from his actual work desk, and there are many fish that goes through the experimentation in parallel), this is a local university. The other setup is temperature monitors. They have not complained about anything yet. Though I think the public aquarium setup could benefit a lot from the 2.0 release. I'll check with them for pics after the makerfaire is over

 

[Cary]

thanks for correcting me. Look forward to the pics.

 

[Cary]

BTW, If anyone is looking for a rock flower anemone, @cultivatedreef (an R2R sponsor) has a sale going on. I am not affiliated with them and don't receive anything. I have purchased several zoas\palys and a beautiful Cyphastrea and they were all packaged and delivered promptly.

 

[Ranjib]

Today I deployed latest reef-pi (master) to all of my 5 reef-pi controllers. All are up . I was very happy to finally customize the dashboard of each of the controllers. This was probably the widest hardware test I did in a single run, throughout reef-pi development. Here is a rundown of these controllers,

1. The power controller (adj srp 8 power strip). Dashboard is configured to show only equipment and cpu/memory utilization. Dashboard

Equipment

Connectors

Dashboard configuration

2. The kessil controller, which controls day light cycle of all of my three tanks. Runs on pca9685 and couple of lm2596 (12 -> 5v and 12->10v)
Dashboard

Dashboard configuration

3. The multi temperature monitor , no extra hardware other than pi and minimal circuit required to support temp sensor (1 4.7k resistor). It has three connectors for three sensors, currently only two of them are in use. Dashboard:

dashboard settings:

4. ph Monitor. Uses Pi + atlas scientific ezo circuit. The smallest form factor build. Dashboard

Dashboard settings

5. The all in one controller (sort of ). Runs pi + one temp sensor + one ato sensor + kessil controller based on pi pwm, not pca9685.

Dashboard configuration

Very happy with the outcome. I'll take down aio controller and revamp it to add few things (uln2003 and ph circuit) to support power controller and ph monitoring capabilities.

 

[MaccaPopEye]

Today I deployed latest reef-pi (master) to all of my 5 reef-pi controllers. All are up . I was very happy to finally customize the dashboard of each of the controllers. This was probably the widest hardware test I did in a single run, throughout reef-pi development. Here is a rundown of these controllers,

1. The power controller (adj srp 8 power strip). Dashboard is configured to show only equipment and cpu/memory utilization. Dashboard

Equipment

Connectors

Dashboard configuration

2. The kessil controller, which controls day light cycle of all of my three tanks. Runs on pca9685 and couple of lm2596 (12 -> 5v and 12->10v)
Dashboard

Dashboard configuration

3. The multi temperature monitor , no extra hardware other than pi and minimal circuit required to support temp sensor (1 4.7k resistor). It has three connectors for three sensors, currently only two of them are in use. Dashboard:

dashboard settings:

4. ph Monitor. Uses Pi + atlas scientific ezo circuit. The smallest form factor build. Dashboard

Dashboard settings

5. The all in one controller (sort of ). Runs pi + one temp sensor + one ato sensor + kessil controller based on pi pwm, not pca9685.

Dashboard configuration

Very happy with the outcome. I'll take down aio controller and revamp it to add few things (uln2003 and ph circuit) to support power controller and ph monitoring capabilities.

That's looking amazing mate!

Have you ever considered trying to combine everything from all of your 5 systems into 1?

Not really for any reason other than because it would be a cool build to see. I know it' probably easier prototyping with individual controllers though.

 

[Ranjib]

That's looking amazing mate!

Have you ever considered trying to combine everything from all of your 5 systems into 1?

Not really for any reason other than because it would be a cool build to see. I know it' probably easier prototyping with individual controllers though.

Yes. The 4th build, which is AIO will go through some changes, definitely a power strip integration, and may be ph monitoring as well.
It will be hard to combine everything though, because reef-pi is going through heavy development (and this is likely to be the case for quiet some time.. dosing, wavemaker is still in prototype phase), so there are some things thats always a work in progress.. but definitely two all in controllers are in my mind, each of them will completely control one pico tank., and have temperature, ato, kessil and power controller capabilities (reef-pi 1.0 specs).

 

[Ranjib]

Also to reduce the number of controllers I have overall :0) . Currently this is beneficial as this setup allows me to test things one at a time, while i have multiple backups. It also ensures that one of the original promise of reef-pi, that is modularity is preserved (i.e. each sub-system can be run independently without needing anything else).

 

[Ranjib]

 

[Erica-Renee]

Do you have one controller with all of the components running on it?

 

[Ranjib]

Do you have one controller with all of the components running on it?

Nah, the closest one I have has ato, kessil , temperature sensor. I’ll be adding power controller circuit in it as well . I don’t think I’ll have such controller anytime soon , since we are building a module almost every quarter