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

[Bigtrout]

This Goes Double for Bonnie and I...

I like the natural looking biotope, she likes trinkets etc so u can see a few decorating compromises in my tank...and the glofish. But i do have to admit that they do look neat under the blue leds at night.

Looking at return pumps for my future 40 breeder sump, any recommendations for a return pump easily controlled by reef pi PCA9685 pwm? I was thinking of using a jebao dcp6500 or 8000, but im welcome to suggestions for a return pump capable of 600gph pushing 5 feet of head, easily contolled by pwm.

 

[Erica-Renee]

I like the natural looking biotope, she likes trinkets etc so u can see a few decorating compromises in my tank...and the glofish. But i do have to admit that they do look neat under the blue leds at night.

Looking at return pumps for my future 40 breeder sump, any recommendations for a return pump easily controlled by reef pi PCA9685 pwm? I was thinking of using a jebao dcp6500 or 8000, but im welcome to suggestions for a return pump capable of 600gph pushing 5 feet of head, easily contolled by pwm.

I am not sure about pwm controllable . I have seen a few threads about controlling Jabao pumps with controller other then there own thou. I know i have a dcp 8000 and its not the most reliable pump..

My suggestion for return pump is ac pump a bit larger then your needs and dial it with a Valve /return water back to the sump . I run a REEFLOW Hammer Head But my sump is 150 gallons and in the Basement..
a Return pump Just has to work and Work always ..

 

[dmolavi]

I'm interested in the range of the dimmer input. e.g., is it 0-10V? 0-12V? 0-5V? etc. By measuring across the two fixed terminals in the potentiometer we know the full range of the dimmer input.

I had to plug in the dimmer tonight, and noticed an immediate drop in the light output, even when it was set to 100%. Presumably this is because that while the driver outputs 12V, the dimmer maxes out at 10V, a 16% reduction. This tells me the lights could be driven to 12V on a dimmer, since that's what they get, undimmed. But the percentage calc for dimming is easier on a 0-10V scale than on a 0-12V scale...

 

[Ryan115]

So,. you get periodic spikes of CPU at 40%, but the overall trend is well 20% (second graph). Do you have lot of timers or things that all trigger at the same time? like 0 second.. whats the interval between the spikes in the first graph?

30-45 minutes between spikes.
I have one timer that runs every 4 hours and the rest are just for my lights.
ATO is on 60sec interval and heater is temp is 5 minute interval.
I do have all of the PWM pins on the PCA9685 mapped out for testing, but are mostly all static values. Will the I2C commands take up that much?

 

[dmolavi]

I dont know . I think it should be, but unless we know someone has tested it or have some idea around what its requirement.. hard to say

If it's of any use, I have an extra controller for a Jebao RW4 (similar to the PP8, but with wireless to sync 2 pumps). I also have the JBWave controller and it's latest firmware, based on an ATMega...

 

[Ranjib]

30-45 minutes between spikes.
I have one timer that runs every 4 hours and the rest are just for my lights.
ATO is on 60sec interval and heater is temp is 5 minute interval.
I do have all of the PWM pins on the PCA9685 mapped out for testing, but are mostly all static values. Will the I2C commands take up that much?

Should not be. But it’s worth checking the cpu with those channels unused. Light imtensites are set every 1 minute , so I would expect spikes every minute if they were the culprit

 

[Ranjib]

Cross posting the base board stuff , just got my hands on this , thanks to @theatrus
Totally awesome . Gonna focus on the driver development soon

 

[Ranjib]

It will be awesome if anyone with 3d printing experience can help us design an open source 3d enclosure for this board. I think it will be very popular

 

[Erica-Renee]

Cross posting the base board stuff , just got my hands on this , thanks to @theatrus
Totally awesome . Gonna focus on the driver development soon

This is beyond Amazing..

 

[sfgabe]

For anyone interested I added a build thread for my Home Assistant / Reef-pi hybrid tanks here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/reef-pi-home-assistant-build.525856/

 

[KGTD]

Hello Ranjib,

Thank you so much for creating reef-pi. I'm new to fishkeeping but I've been a nerd forever, so I immediately jumped in to learning how to automate.

I have a reef-pi setup that is currently doing temperature monitoring for me. I want implement heater control with 433mhz power outlets. I've done some research and once I have the hardware and libraries for my Pi, I would just need to run a shell command to turn an outlet on/off. Is that something you ever plan to add? If not, any suggestions on where to look in the code so I could hack this myself?

 

[Ranjib]

Hello Ranjib,

Thank you so much for creating reef-pi. I'm new to fishkeeping but I've been a nerd forever, so I immediately jumped in to learning how to automate.

I have a reef-pi setup that is currently doing temperature monitoring for me. I want implement heater control with 433mhz power outlets. I've done some research and once I have the hardware and libraries for my Pi, I would just need to run a shell command to turn an outlet on/off. Is that something you ever plan to add? If not, any suggestions on where to look in the code so I could hack this myself?

Not right now. We have plans to consider supporting smart outlet like things but only after the main planned things are done. I am currently working on a common hardware layer with @theatrus , it will make supporting things like this easier in future

 

[Ranjib]

Hello Ranjib,

Thank you so much for creating reef-pi. I'm new to fishkeeping but I've been a nerd forever, so I immediately jumped in to learning how to automate.

I have a reef-pi setup that is currently doing temperature monitoring for me. I want implement heater control with 433mhz power outlets. I've done some research and once I have the hardware and libraries for my Pi, I would just need to run a shell command to turn an outlet on/off. Is that something you ever plan to add? If not, any suggestions on where to look in the code so I could hack this myself?

Welcome to reef2reef

 

[b4tn]

Question regarding light settings. I am finding it hard to adjust the ramping that I want in 2 hour increments. Is there any plan to add more granularity to the lighting times?

 

[Ranjib]

Question regarding light settings. I am finding it hard to adjust the ramping that I want in 2 hour increments. Is there any plan to add more granularity to the lighting times?

yes. I want to support custom profile, as part of 3.0 .

 

[b4tn]

Once you get it, you got it!!! Easy as pie once you understand the concept.

@ScottBrew I am all excited. I just figured out I can reduce from 10 doser rules down to 2 by using a "," ie.. dose at 5,10,15,20,1 lol

 

[rushbattle]

yes. I want to support custom profile, as part of 3.0 .

I am hoping the code for the lights and the wavemaker are the same and have fine granularity. I need to control all of my pumps on 3 aquariums with 0-10V but I refuse to buy an Apex to do so. The only thing holding me back is the code in reef-pi for now, I think?

 

[Ranjib]

I am hoping the code for the lights and the wavemaker are the same and have fine granularity. I need to control all of my pumps on 3 aquariums with 0-10V but I refuse to buy an Apex to do so. The only thing holding me back is the code in reef-pi for now, I think?

Something to note here is that though you define the intensity in two hours interval, they get applied every minute with linear interpolation. Then theres the diurnal profile as well...

 

[rushbattle]

Something to note here is that though you define the intensity in two hours interval, they get applied every minute with linear interpolation. Then theres the diurnal profile as well...

Right, I was just referring to my wish that you only have to do the coding work on one and translate to the other module, not write from scratch for both.

 

[stefanm]

A couple of questions,

Which pi do I need to run the following;
1) chiller and heater (2 no. Ds18b20)
2) 8 power outlets including the chiller and heater
3) 4 no. Dosing pumps

Running headless via a smartphone.