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

[Cal_stir]

you dont need portforward. What password you are trying? By default username and password are both set as: reef-pi,
did you went through the install guide?

DOH! I was using the username and password of my pi, got in Thanks.

 

[sjeff35]

Woo hoo . so you are using pi based pwm for doser ? did you hook up the peristaltic pumps ?

Just playing with it now on a breadboard. I wanted to make sure I could get it working. I bought two cheap pumps from Amazon.

I got the one pump running this am after adding the dtoverlay=pwm-2chan command you pointed out.

Then I wired up the other pump, and now neither one of them works. So, when I get some time I'll play around with it some more. Reef-pi is working, it's got to be a wiring issue!

Sure would be nice to have a nice wiring diagram of this .... hint, hint, hint!!!

 

[Ranjib]

Just playing with it now on a breadboard. I wanted to make sure I could get it working. I bought two cheap pumps from Amazon.

I got the one pump running this am after adding the dtoverlay=pwm-2chan command you pointed out.

Then I wired up the other pump, and now neither one of them works. So, when I get some time I'll play around with it some more. Reef-pi is working, it's got to be a wiring issue!

Sure would be nice to have a nice wiring diagram of this .... hint, hint, hint!!!

Wiring hints are available here: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-raspberry-pi-lesson-9-controlling-a-dc-motor?view=all
you'll use the pwm pin outputs to connect to EN1 & EN2. IN1/2/3/4 all can be connected to gpios (if you want to control direction of the motor, on/off etc) else you can connect them to 3.3v rail/GND directly (fixed direction and saving the GPIO)

 

[janos]

Hi to all,Ranjib thank you this is better price.https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Q9YBIJI/,and today i was lackey and got the temp sensor for $14.00.Plus bought only the termistor for 5 buck and i try to cast housing from Polyurethane.

 

[MrDeSaussure]

Thank you for your help, I think I understand the setup now.
Unfortunately, I ran into a little problem....

I supplied the ULN2803 with ground on PIN 9, (tied to my Raspberry Pi ground pin, and supplied +12v, via a power supply to pin 10, with the power supply on the same Raspberry Pi ground plane. All GPIO's tied to the inputs, and all of the outputs to the power strip. +12V on Pin 5, (which when I took the cover off the power strip, appears to be the common across all the relays)

Twice now, it appears to work fine for a few minutes, and then go "unresponsive" (though the Raspbery Pi and Reef-pi interface are still good, and I can still cycle the GPIO's). Once it goes "unresponsive" it absolutely appears like it destroys the ULN2803.

Am I missing something? I can go back to the drawing board and start with a single input and output, to see if that resolves anything, but from what I see, it looks good.

Just wanted to give an update:
I tracked the issue down, (after frying two ULN2803's) to a problem with the power strip itself. The first three relays on the board appear to be shorted internally, together. I've got it running perfectly on the last 5 outlets, and I'll have the supplier send me a new power strip. Odd issue to run into, but at least I know what the problem was.

 

[Ranjib]

Just wanted to give an update:
I tracked the issue down, (after frying two ULN2803's) to a problem with the power strip itself. The first three relays on the board appear to be shorted internally, together. I've got it running perfectly on the last 5 outlets, and I'll have the supplier send me a new power strip. Odd issue to run into, but at least I know what the problem was.

I encountered something similar, the first powerstrip i got had one of the outlet dysfunctional . I thought of sending it back (since i got it from amazon, thats an option), but because it was my very first adj powerstrip and I was learning how to control it, instead i opened it up and found one of the relay was bad, i just swapped that one (fortunately i had a similar 12v relay),

 

[janos]

Hi Ranjib,like to know the timer is working?Thank you,just waiting to turn on or off but nothing

 

[Ranjib]

Hi Ranjib,like to know the timer is working?Thank you,just waiting to turn on or off but nothing

This is a known issue in beta7: https://github.com/reef-pi/reef-pi/issues/486
I accidentally broke the timer feature during the UI upgrade and macro. I have fixed it in master, will cut a release shortly. Good thing is now timers can be editable, start and stop.
Can you try this meanwhile:
- Create a macro with a single step, in that step declare the type as "timer", choose your timer from the selection and choose action as "on", save it and the trigger it. That should start the timer for the time being.

 

[Erica-Renee]

I accidentally broke the timer feature during the UI .

In this sense our Careers are kinda alike You gotta break things to make them better.. Breaking things with Big hammers might be more fun thou

 

[janos]

Hi i try as you suggested Ranjib and it is working,not as a timer because now is 7.36 and the macro turned on.Not big deal because we can control from dashboard.Thank you

 

[Cal_stir]

How do I set which GPIO pin is controlling which input or relay? The temperature tutorial shows the sensor wiring but not the input/output to the pi3

 

[janos]

Hi again it is working Ranjib i just mixed up the on and off state,sorry.

 

[Ranjib]

Hi again it is working Ranjib i just mixed up the on and off state,sorry.

Nice. Let me know if you need any other help

 

[janos]

Thank you i always come for help just like a good newbie.

 

[Ranjib]

How do I set which GPIO pin is controlling which input or relay? The temperature tutorial shows the sensor wiring but not the input/output to the pi3

Which version of reef-pi you are using? In 2.0 series GPIO pin numbers are always associated with connectors. Outlets are connectors that control output (relays), Inlets are connectors that control input (water level, switches etc). We then associate individual outlet with equipment and inlet with ato

 

[Ryan115]

@Ranjib I've been following along quietly while working on other projects.
The tank is still running 1.3 and has been stable for months!
I haven't put any new equipment on the tank, so I have not upgraded yet to use any of the new features.

However I have been testing a pi-zero to run as a Chicken-Pi. Yep porting it out to the yard to run my chicken coop.
So far the plan is to have it monitor temp in the coop, control a fan (and maybe a heat lamp), and control the door to the coop (open in morning and close at night). Motor control is using a TB6612FNG to drive a gear motor and lead-screw.
I have been running it in a spare bedroom until I can get power out to the coop, which makes it perfect for a test platform.

Anyway, that has been running 2.0.0 beta for a while and I just updated to beta-7.
First off, I really like all of the new UI changes. Most things are much more intuitive and they display better.
While testing out some of the new lighting control, I found one potential issue with the way it reads time input. This may be limited to the diurnal control where the user inputs time. I am interpreting this as only needing minutes and hours with a : separating them.
Would it be possible to have either an example input shown on the UI or to have them as individual drop downs for hours, minutes and seconds.
I would think the same thing would help in the timers section as well.

Aug 12 10:57:58 raspberrypi reef-pi[22633]: 2018/08/12 10:57:58 ERROR: lighting subsystem, failed to parse start time in diurnal cycle. Error: parsing time "0800" as "15:04": cannot parse "00" as ":"

Aug 12 11:12:21 raspberrypi reef-pi[22633]: 2018/08/12 11:12:21 ERROR: lighting subsystem, failed to parse start time in diurnal cycle. Error: parsing time "08:00:00": extra text: :00

Keep up the amazing work!

 

[Ranjib]

@Ranjib I've been following along quietly while working on other projects.
The tank is still running 1.3 and has been stable for months!
I haven't put any new equipment on the tank, so I have not upgraded yet to use any of the new features.

However I have been testing a pi-zero to run as a Chicken-Pi. Yep porting it out to the yard to run my chicken coop.
So far the plan is to have it monitor temp in the coop, control a fan (and maybe a heat lamp), and control the door to the coop (open in morning and close at night). Motor control is using a TB6612FNG to drive a gear motor and lead-screw.
I have been running it in a spare bedroom until I can get power out to the coop, which makes it perfect for a test platform.

Anyway, that has been running 2.0.0 beta for a while and I just updated to beta-7.
First off, I really like all of the new UI changes. Most things are much more intuitive and they display better.
While testing out some of the new lighting control, I found one potential issue with the way it reads time input. This may be limited to the diurnal control where the user inputs time. I am interpreting this as only needing minutes and hours with a : separating them.
Would it be possible to have either an example input shown on the UI or to have them as individual drop downs for hours, minutes and seconds.
I would think the same thing would help in the timers section as well.

Aug 12 10:57:58 raspberrypi reef-pi[22633]: 2018/08/12 10:57:58 ERROR: lighting subsystem, failed to parse start time in diurnal cycle. Error: parsing time "0800" as "15:04": cannot parse "00" as ":"

Aug 12 11:12:21 raspberrypi reef-pi[22633]: 2018/08/12 11:12:21 ERROR: lighting subsystem, failed to parse start time in diurnal cycle. Error: parsing time "08:00:00": extra text: :00

Keep up the amazing work!

Thats awesome
You are right the diurnal profile assumes the time is in "hh:mm" format. reef-pi needs improvements across the board around input validation. I have a issue to track this already and plan to improve the validation before 2.0 release. I have added your feedback around diurnal cycle there: https://github.com/reef-pi/reef-pi/issues/467
I'll make sure this happens before we get the final 2.0 release

We'll get that chicken

 

[Cal_stir]

Which version of reef-pi you are using? In 2.0 series GPIO pin numbers are always associated with connectors. Outlets are connectors that control output (relays), Inlets are connectors that control input (water level, switches etc). We then associate individual outlet with equipment and inlet with ato

I think I screwed up, I went to the download page and downloaded the customizable dashboard because it said latest version beside it, The dashboard worked and everything seemed ok but today when I started my pi the screen blacks out for a second every 10 seconds or so. I am powering the pi with my laptop, could it be not enough power or should I remove the program and start over.

 

[Ranjib]

I think I screwed up, I went to the download page and downloaded the customizable dashboard because it said latest version beside it, The dashboard worked and everything seemed ok but today when I started my pi the screen blacks out for a second every 10 seconds or so. I am powering the pi with my laptop, could it be not enough power or should I remove the program and start over.

Screen as in pi-touch screen ? I doubt its related to reef-pi, try powering it via a dedicated power source.

 

[Cal_stir]

Screen as in pi-touch screen ? I doubt its related to reef-pi, try powering it via a dedicated power source.

Turns out it's my tv, pi is ok, I'm not sure what release I'm supposed to install, the macro subsystem (reef-pi-2.0.0-beta-7-pi3.deb), the source code (zip).
Do I download and install from the pi browser or type it in the terminal, sorry to be a bother but I'm pretty green to this.