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

Erica-Renee · Jun 1, 2018

Top pic is the Sensor box.. It contains 3 Temp sensor jacks. 4 ato jacks. With room to expand..

The bottom image is the Low Voltage electronics housing... I still have not decided on a 40 pin connector to the pi yet .

thinks to finish .. Lighting, Dosing pumps, rodi solenoid , I have also ran most of the perm controllable outlets in the basement over sump...
I want to order another pi computer to test with before i put this into use and stop tinkering with it..

Thanks Ron

Erica-Renee · Jun 1, 2018

Very bad image but here is my Main display tank.. I know its so tiny

Ranjib · Jun 1, 2018

Erica-Renee said:
Very bad image but here is my Main display tank.. I know its so tiny

:-( , mine is 29G and 3G

Ranjib · Jun 1, 2018

Erica-Renee said:
Top pic is the Sensor box.. It contains 3 Temp sensor jacks. 4 ato jacks. With room to expand..

The bottom image is the Low Voltage electronics housing... I still have not decided on a 40 pin connector to the pi yet .

thinks to finish .. Lighting, Dosing pumps, rodi solenoid , I have also ran most of the perm controllable outlets in the basement over sump...
I want to order another pi computer to test with before i put this into use and stop tinkering with it..

Thanks Ron

Whats the length of that vga/db9 cable ? I bet its will be useful information for lot of folks who have tank further from the controller

Erica-Renee · Jun 1, 2018

Ranjib said:
Whats the length of that vga/db9 cable ? I bet its will be useful information for lot of folks who have tank further from the controller

Relay serial cable is 6 feet (tested it with 12 feet and works)
the sensors are on a 12 feet serial cable.. I tried it on a super heavy duty one and it did not work...

In the box with clear top. under the terminal pin board is the adafruit relay board.

Hookster15 · Jun 2, 2018

Ranjib said:
Can you turn it off (from Configuration -> Poweroff), then hook up the temp probe and then power it on? In other words, dont plug the probe when its running.
Also, can you share a picture of your wiring, both temperature circuit as well as the connector.
I definitely recall experiencing this in past. One of the pain with the audio connectors is the way they are designed GND and PWR touches each other when you insert the connector. But once plugged in, it should be all good. There might be circuit related issue.

Its only happens when i add the PCA 9685, for some reason the software crashes. I have uninstalled the software and reinstalled it and same thing.

Erica-Renee · Jun 2, 2018

Hookster15 said:
Its only happens when i add the PCA 9685, for some reason the software crashes. I have uninstalled the software and reinstalled it and same thing.

Before you enable the pca9685 in Configuration settings you must connect it .
To add the pca9685 it must be connected to the pi and powered up... (Green light on..) There should be 3,4 wires .. Ground ,and the two ic2 wires as well as power, Even if you power it externally it must be grounded to the pi..

if this device is not powered on you will get that crash. You can connect it and reboot and reef-pi will load

Hookster15 · Jun 2, 2018

Erica-Renee said:
Before you enable the pca9685 in Configuration settings you must connect it .
To add the pca9685 it must be connected to the pi and powered up... (Green light on..) There should be 3,4 wires .. Ground ,and the two ic2 wires as well as power, Even if you power it externally it must be grounded to the pi..

if this device is not powered on you will get that crash. You can connect it and reboot and reef-pi will load

ok, well im way off track. then how do i enable the temp probe? do i need a pca9685 for the temp probe?

Ranjib · Jun 2, 2018

Hookster15 said:
ok, well im way off track. then how do i enable the temp probe? do i need a pca9685 for the temp probe?

You dont need pca9685 for temp probe. You have to enable one wire protocol using raspi-config. https://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2018/02/enable-1-wire-interface-raspberry-pi/

pca9685 is required for pwm (LED or doser) only. It will be easier for us to help you, if you can share the version of reef-pi you are using and logs.

Code:

 journalctl -u reef-pi.service

Erica-Renee · Jun 2, 2018

Hookster15 said:
ok, well im way off track. then how do i enable the temp probe? do i need a pca9685 for the temp probe?

No.. Temp probe uses the one wire protocol and must use gpio 4 . You need a a resister between the sense and voltage pin .

https://reef-pi.github.io/build-guides/temperature/

Hookster15 · Jun 2, 2018

Erica-Renee said:
No.. Temp probe uses the one wire protocol and must use gpio 4 . You need a a resister between the sense and voltage pin .

https://reef-pi.github.io/build-guides/temperature/

Thanks

Hookster15 · Jun 2, 2018

Ranjib said:
You dont need pca9685 for temp probe. You have to enable one wire protocol using raspi-config. https://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2018/02/enable-1-wire-interface-raspberry-pi/

pca9685 is required for pwm (LED or doser) only. It will be easier for us to help you, if you can share the version of reef-pi you are using and logs.

Code:

journalctl -u reef-pi.service

Thank you

Erica-Renee · Jun 2, 2018

@ranjab resetting up the pca 9685 to drive my led dosing pumps and Fans..

When it was all setup on the bench I was driving the pca board with 3.3v .. pushing ir520 mosfit the lights are high power led and run at 16v max.. the output after the ir520 with a 16v power i could only get .5 to 4,5v range with the LED Slider bar.. Not enough to power anything.. So i switched it to 5v on the pca9685 and everything is working normally.

Any ideas why its now requiring 5v and rather this will be a issue or not .... ??

Ranjib · Jun 2, 2018

Erica-Renee said:
@ranjab resetting up the pca 9685 to drive my led dosing pumps and Fans..

When it was all setup on the bench I was driving the pca board with 3.3v .. pushing ir520 mosfit the lights are high power led and run at 16v max.. the output after the ir520 with a 16v power i could only get .5 to 4,5v range with the LED Slider bar.. Not enough to power anything.. So i switched it to 5v on the pca9685 and everything is working normally.

Any ideas why its now requiring 5v and rather this will be a issue or not .... ??

I have never used the pca9685 with 3.3 v. I really have no idea whats going on with it, I have to check with oscilloscope and read the datasheet to say anything regarding this.
When you use it with 5 v, does it work as expected. I have always run it with 5 v, and always got stable 0.1-> 5 v when checked with multimeter (controlled from reef-pi UI).

The only issue I have seen consistently so far is that the Kessil lights will flickr when I use the circuit (10v pwm) along side other 5v/3v component (ato/temperature sensors etc). It works perfectly if is just build a kessil controller, but everytime i build an all in one version it will flicker. The output is same when I check with multimeter, but it does not have the same result when i hook it up with a kessil,. I belive I am missing some capacitors. I;ll be working on to fix this (by checking each circuit hops with oscilloscope) and probably employing some 100uf capacitors if I see voltage fluctuations.

Erica-Renee · Jun 2, 2018

Ranjib said:
I have never used the pca9685 with 3.3 v. I really have no idea whats going on with it, I have to check with oscilloscope and read the datasheet to say anything regarding this.
When you use it with 5 v, does it work as expected. I have always run it with 5 v, and always got stable 0.1-> 5 v when checked with multimeter (controlled from reef-pi UI).

The only issue I have seen consistently so far is that the Kessil lights will flickr when I use the circuit (10v pwm) along side other 5v/3v component (ato/temperature sensors etc). It works perfectly if is just build a kessil controller, but everytime i build an all in one version it will flicker. The output is same when I check with multimeter, but it does not have the same result when i hook it up with a kessil,. I belive I am missing some capacitors. I;ll be working on to fix this (by checking each circuit hops with oscilloscope) and probably employing some 100uf capacitors if I see voltage fluctuations.

Yes it seems to work fine on 5v .. I just am not sure what i have done differently that it does not work on 3v any longer. There is a place on the pca0685 for a capacitor and ada fruit specs say if you push it you may need to add one.

Anyway its all working correctly.. First lite will be a 3 channel RGB Light for the Turf scrubber ..

Ranjib · Jun 2, 2018

Erica-Renee said:
Yes it seems to work fine on 5v .. I just am not sure what i have done differently that it does not work on 3v any longer. There is a place on the pca0685 for a capacitor and ada fruit specs say if you push it you may need to add one.

Anyway its all working correctly.. First lite will be a 3 channel RGB Light for the Turf scrubber ..

The capacitor is for cases where you use the pca9685 to also power servo/light directly (5v). Other than that, i dont think its required

LionHeart2017 · Jun 3, 2018

Some parts arrived at last[emoji3]
Let's see them parts boxes you guys must have[emoji116]

Erica-Renee · Jun 3, 2018

LionHeart2017 said:
Some parts arrived at last[emoji3]
Let's see them parts boxes you guys must have[emoji116]

Your gonna need a bigger box.. But nice start..

LionHeart2017 · Jun 3, 2018

Erica-Renee said:
Your gonna need a bigger box.. But nice start..

Haha, I have 3 of the kitchen cupboards and half my living room full of aquatic stuff, gonna have to get it organised and actually throw some stuff out(or buy a big box for the shed [emoji1]) missus none too happy, today I have moved my rodi from the kitchen worktop to a small cupboard, looks much nicer[emoji41]

Erica-Renee · Jun 3, 2018

LionHeart2017 said:
Haha, I have 3 of the kitchen cupboards and half my living room full of aquatic stuff, gonna have to get it organised and actually throw some stuff out(or buy a big box for the shed [emoji1]) missus none too happy, today I have moved my rodi from the kitchen worktop to a small cupboard, looks much nicer[emoji41]

My RODI System is in the Basement