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

[Ranjib]

Awesome and thank you! What I have been waiting for. Something that is incorrect on the fritzing diagram, you have the ground plugged into the 5v (pin 4), should be on pin 6.

Done. I have update the guide. Thank you so much for reporting this, you are the best :0)

 

[ScottBrew]

Posted my reef-pi build in DIY. Hope this gives anyone looking to build their own some ideas. Was very helpful looking at other people's builds when figuring out my own, so trying to give back a little. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/scottbrews-reef-pi.497789/#post-5325377

 

[Ranjib]

Posted my reef-pi build in DIY. Hope this gives anyone looking to build their own some ideas. Was very helpful looking at other people's builds when figuring out my own, so trying to give back a little. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/scottbrews-reef-pi.497789/#post-5325377

Thank you

 

[b4tn]

Why do failures always happen while you are away lol. Just spent a week on the left coast visiting family and come home to one of my RKL PC4’s not responding. So my algae scrubber, both wavemakers, and my doser where offline. Judging by all the growth in the display and a dying stylo it was probably offline all week :mad:

Looks like the reef-pi priority has shifted.

 

[Erica-Renee]

Why do failures always happen while you are away lol. Just spent a week on the left coast visiting family and come home to one of my RKL PC4’s not responding. So my algae scrubber, both wavemakers, and my doser where offline. Judging by all the growth in the display and a dying stylo it was probably offline all week :mad:

Looks like the reef-pi priority has shifted.

This is the thing about Wiring your own Relays.. I have some of mine wired to On Without control and some Off Without Control. Meaning . My Return pump Wave pump and so on will be on when the reef-pi is turned off or not working. You just have to reverse them in the Configuration... . Of course you can remotely turn them off with reef-pi.. other equipment like heaters its probably best to have them to be shut off if reef-pi fails.. Unless you have other means of safe guard temp between reef-pi and the Outlet.. I have not tested this with My ink-bird controllers but Its probably how i will do it..

Hope this helps ..
Erica Renee ..

 

[b4tn]

This is the thing about Wiring your own Relays.. I have some of mine wired to On Without control and some Off Without Control. Meaning . My Return pump Wave pump and so on will be on when the reef-pi is turned off or not working. You just have to reverse them in the Configuration... . Of course you can remotely turn them off with reef-pi.. other equipment like heaters its probably best to have them to be shut off if reef-pi fails.. Unless you have other means of safe guard temp between reef-pi and the Outlet.. I have not tested this with My ink-bird controllers but Its probably how i will do it..

Hope this helps ..
Erica Renee ..

@Erica-Renee that is an outstanding idea that I never thought about. My RKL is on its way out so it was no big surprise but wiring relays normally closed for certain equipment is a great idea just in case reef-pi looses connection. I was on the fence to buy the DJ power strip or build my own and I think this just made up my mind.

 

[ScottBrew]

@Erica-Renee that is an outstanding idea that I never thought about. My RKL is on its way out so it was no big surprise but wiring relays normally closed for certain equipment is a great idea just in case reef-pi looses connection. I was on the fence to buy the DJ power strip or build my own and I think this just made up my mind.

If you want relays that have a normally closed postion as well as normally open, do not get the solid state relays as they won't provide that functionality.

 

[speedstar]

Well the raspbian OS died on me today and would not reboot, had to reconfigure everything. But hey at least now i am on RC2. Also did some recase work, this fit the reef-pi-Hat awesome looks great fits great and I have access to plug in local if needed. Also added a second temp sensor.

 

[Nicolas Sabrun]

The RKL uses a pretty simple I2C protocol. Each module has its own I2C address and command set. It's pretty simple to sniff out the address/command bits using the head unit and isolating each command / response cycle. You can use something like this to bridge between the head unit and the first power bar (or whatever module you want to sniff).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017B69D3U/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's a typical four wire connection on the jack (VCC, GND, SDA, SCL).

I had looked at this years ago and stopped at the point of controlling the PB4's and probe modules.

There is no reason you couldn't integrate this into reef-pi although it may be hard to find hardware now. I always thought DA should open source the hardware since their UI/UX was lacking and it was obvious they weren't going to put any real investment into furthering the product line. Which sucks because their hardware has always been rock solid. I still have a DA setup on a paludarium I did almost a decade ago now, and it's still going strong.

That s interesting. My issue is my head unit is shot so i can t get anything from it.

If I understand it correctly, two wire provides power to each module. The 2 other are for signal.

Would you know what kind of power each module use?

If I power the module directly, would it be possible to connect the 2 other wire to the pi and get control of the module thru reef pi?

I am complete newbie on that stuff so bare with me please.

I just ordered my pi 3 B+. My next step is to figure out if DA modules can be reused.

 

[Nicolas Sabrun]

18 & 19

Are you saying that pi 3 comes with 2 pwm port already? Without any other parts.

I only need 2 0-10v for my mars aqua. One for blue, one for white.

How can I wire these to the pi? Obviously ground would go to the pi ground. What about the + wire?

I didnt receive my pi yet but try to gather info so I know what to do when it gets here.

 

[Ranjib]

@Erica-Renee that is an outstanding idea that I never thought about. My RKL is on its way out so it was no big surprise but wiring relays normally closed for certain equipment is a great idea just in case reef-pi looses connection. I was on the fence to buy the DJ power strip or build my own and I think this just made up my mind.

This is a more general aspect of building reef-pi, that you get to customize whole lot of things. Its blessing and a curse at the same time. It make each of our builds unique (depending upon how much you customize), tuned specific to each of our needs (like not only NC/NO, you can also make a single GPIO controlling multiple relays together, for example, or have different types of relays [solid state and mechanical]).

 

[Ranjib]

Well the raspbian OS died on me today and would not reboot, had to reconfigure everything. But hey at least now i am on RC2. Also did some recase work, this fit the reef-pi-Hat awesome looks great fits great and I have access to plug in local if needed. Also added a second temp sensor.

that was an SD card issue. I am just reminding folks to take a backup of the /var/lib/reef-pi/reef-pi.db file once they have configured everything. In case the SD card dies, you can just recreate your setup easily in a new SD card

 

[speedstar]

that was an SD card issue. I am just reminding folks to take a backup of the /var/lib/reef-pi/reef-pi.db file once they have configured everything. In case the SD card dies, you can just recreate your setup easily in a new SD card

Thanks for the info I did a deep reformat and was able to apply an image. It wouldn't take one prior, now i'll know what to copy when the new sd arrives.

 

[Ranjib]

Are you saying that pi 3 comes with 2 pwm port already? Without any other parts.

I only need 2 0-10v for my mars aqua. One for blue, one for white.

How can I wire these to the pi? Obviously ground would go to the pi ground. What about the + wire?

I didnt receive my pi yet but try to gather info so I know what to do when it gets here.

Yes. Pi 3 and Pi zero both comes with two hardware timers (PWMs). I have detailed how to enable it here: https://learn.adafruit.com/reef-pi-installation-and-configuration/raspberry-pi-configuration
After you have configured it, you can declare jacks (PWM connectors) in reef-pi to use those two pins by slecting driver as "rpi" (other option is to use PCA9685), and pin number 0 (for GPIO 18) or 1 (for GPIO 19). Rember, Pi's pwm are 3.3V , unlike PCA9685 which is 5V. But this should not make any difference in most cases (since we use NPN transistor or meanwell drivers to convert that Pi/PCA9685 pwm to 10V or something else suitable for the LED lights, and both NPN transistor or meanwell drivers work on 3.3V pwm just fine)
let me know if you have any more questions

 

[Ranjib]

Thanks for the info I did a deep reformat and was able to apply an image. It wouldn't take one prior, now i'll know what to copy when the new sd arrives.

yeah, its trivial to make a backup copy and keep a backup SD card ready, in case things go south. You can just swap the SD card and get your reef-pi running in no time. SD card is almost always the part that goes bad (due to sudden power outage, or just by lifespan)

 

[Matt Carden]

Are you saying that pi 3 comes with 2 pwm port already? Without any other parts.

I only need 2 0-10v for my mars aqua. One for blue, one for white.

How can I wire these to the pi? Obviously ground would go to the pi ground. What about the + wire?

I didnt receive my pi yet but try to gather info so I know what to do when it gets here.

I have 3 SB reeflights configured for control by Apex, also with 2 channel control needed. I am now having a hard time stomaching $800 on an Apex. I am therefore interested in the same question above. I want the ability to ramp the lights up and down(sunrise sunset).

 

[Thomas J Loeper]

Yes. Pi 3 and Pi zero both comes with two hardware timers (PWMs). I have detailed how to enable it here: https://learn.adafruit.com/reef-pi-installation-and-configuration/raspberry-pi-configuration
After you have configured it, you can declare jacks (PWM connectors) in reef-pi to use those two pins by slecting driver as "rpi" (other option is to use PCA9685), and pin number 0 (for GPIO 18) or 1 (for GPIO 19). Rember, Pi's pwm are 3.3V , unlike PCA9685 which is 5V. But this should not make any difference in most cases (since we use NPN transistor or meanwell drivers to convert that Pi/PCA9685 pwm to 10V or something else suitable for the LED lights, and both NPN transistor or meanwell drivers work on 3.3V pwm just fine)
let me know if you have any more questions

I didn't know the Pi's PWM ran at 3.3v. With the Pi's PWM running at 3.3v they may be able to directly control Ocean Revive T-247 and possibly Viparspectra lights (they appear to use the same timer/controller). Here is a guy that is controlling a Ocean Revive T-247 with an Arduino at 3.3v PWM:
Do you think the Pi could do the same without additional circuitry?

 

[Ranjib]

I didn't know the Pi's PWM ran at 3.3v. With the Pi's PWM running at 3.3v they may be able to directly control Ocean Revive T-247 and possibly Viparspectra lights (they appear to use the same timer/controller). Here is a guy that is controlling a Ocean Revive T-247 with an Arduino at 3.3v PWM:
Do you think the Pi could do the same without additional circuitry?

I think it will work. If you do end up testing /building this, remember you can tune the pwm frequency in reef-pi, and I think you will need this. I’ll double check the video and see if I can zoom in and get the pwm frequency

 

[Thomas J Loeper]

I think it will work. If you do end up testing /building this, remember you can tune the pwm frequency in reef-pi, and I think you will need this. I’ll double check the video and see if I can zoom in and get the pwm frequency

I was able to zoom in and see that his scope was indicating a frequency of 1KHz. I wonder if he copied the frequency from the light's controller or if he went with it because it just worked. Either way, it appears to work just fine.

I am currently planning a 40b build and was down to selecting either the SB 32" Basic or the Viparspectra 300w light. I watched videos on how to modify a SB light to use a controller and I was leaning this direction because of it. However, after seeing this video, I feel a Viparspectra light can also be easily modified. Decisions... decisions... Either way, I will definitely be using the Reef Pi as a controller. If I try out the Viparspectra light I will be sure to let everyone know how it works out.

 

[b4tn]

I was able to zoom in and see that his scope was indicating a frequency of 1KHz. I wonder if he copied the frequency from the light's controller or if he went with it because it just worked. Either way, it appears to work just fine.

I am currently planning a 40b build and was down to selecting either the SB 32" Basic or the Viparspectra 300w light. I watched videos on how to modify a SB light to use a controller and I was leaning this direction because of it. However, after seeing this video, I feel a Viparspectra light can also be easily modified. Decisions... decisions... Either way, I will definitely be using the Reef Pi as a controller. If I try out the Viparspectra light I will be sure to let everyone know how it works out.

Keep us informed. I looked into this as well for the OR lights but scrapped the plan barbecue the lights would only dim to 10% then you had to switch them off with a relay or mosfet.