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

[Des Westcott]

Where it falls apart for me is that the ATO plug is 4 wires, the float switch is two. I wasn't sure if the other two wires were related to the relay circuit.



So in this case you are setting up the relay as a separate power bar/outlet, that makes sense to me, although it confuses me even more about why the ATO would need 4 wires...



I'm into some homemade 4-year old corn whiskey myself, which probably isn't helping...

The float switch can be wired into the gnd and IOxx Pins on the jst plug for the ATO. The other two wires aren’t needed

 

[Des Westcott]

im going with home made old fashioned this time, with Gentleman Jack (i prefer bourbon over rye).
The 4 wires are intended for phote electrics probes (such as the one by dfrobot, mentioned in the adafruit guide). You can use the first two wires of those 4 wires for float switch.
I'll let @Michael Lane confirm.

See below from @Michael Lane. These optical sensors can be bought very cheaply without the "control boards" that the DFRobot ones come with. I'm running one in parallel with a float switch to test reliability. Some reports I've read seem to say that they suffer a weak point and possible water ingress where the wire enters the sensor. I'm testing a solution to that and I'll report back on my Reef-Pi build thread.

*Quote* I've also confirmed that the optical switches work as long as you put a resistor (around 400 - 500 ohms) inline with the LED wire. I also had to set the Inlet as reversed since the output is high when the sensor is dry, and low when it's wet. Here's how I connected it.

*End Quote*

 

[Des Westcott]

BTW @Ranjib, since I've been doing Auto Water Changes, I have been wondering more and more about monitoring Salinity / SG / EC. Any idea if this could be incorporated into Reef-Pi? Is a reasonable probe / sensor even available?

 

[Michael Lane]

For dosing. I’m using cheap jaebo dosers and may have come across the need to dose less than 1 ml. My pumps are calibrated so that 1 second at 85% duty cycle gets me 1 ml. Is it safe to say that if I run 42% duty cycle I should get close to .5ml?

That makes sense, but I'm doubtful it would work. The DC motors have a lower threshold to turn on, and I've found that mine seem to need at least 50% to turn. I tend to tweak time and schedule in order to keep my levels where I want them, so dosing half as often would be the approach I take. Then again, I have an hourly dosing schedule now...

 

[Michael Lane]

@Alaa Des Westcott's answer is correct. I need to pull these diagrams together and post them with the FAQ.

@raketemensch I like individual build threads so I can refer to specific build details. The goby hat does not require it's own power; it can use power from the rpi.

The JST wire colors may not match the temperature sensor wire colors. A few people have had questions about that, so I think I'll rearrange the ports on the next redesign to make temp sensors a little easier.

The ATO port can accommodate multiple kinds of ATO sensors. Depending on the type of sensor, you may not have to use all pins. Let me know if it's still an issue; I can draw a wiring diagram if it would be helpful.

 

[Alaa]

@Alaa Des Westcott's answer is correct. I need to pull these diagrams together and post them with the FAQ.

HI, I can't really tell now as i have a strange situation, my raspberry pi appears to be dead i connected the HAT yesterday, using the raspberry pi power supply, tested the voltage and found 5.1 V on the 5V power port on the HAT, and the power pins on the GPIO breakout side, and 2.3 V on the HAT 12 volt power port (i don't know if it should read like that) i didn't try to access reef pi or raspberry pi through the browser as it was late.
Today i turned on pi and nothing happened, it seamed to be dead only the red led indicator on with no blinking from the green one, i connected through HDMI and got nothing, tried to remove and re-insert the micro-SD with no luck,

it was working last weekend with prema-porto with 3 temp, 16 (2x8) relays and three ATO

I have another pi I'll setup and try to test
did i do anything wrong testing the voltage on the Pi-HAT

 

[Alaa]

Hi, @Michael Lane, Pi-Hat pin continuity test
before i setup and test the new ras-pi with pi-HAT i tested the pins for continuity, and this is what i got
5 v pin connected properly to pH1, pH2, ATO1, ATO2, ATO3, 5v pin on GPIO breakout
ground connected properly all ground points on the board
3.3v pin NOT connected to any temp ports, or any other pin on the board
GPIO 4 connected to all temp ports
i don't know if the 3.3 v should be like this showing no continuity because of the 470k resistor or this is a bad connection
do i use this board on my new res-pi

 

[lmm1967]

Is there a guide discussing or recommending advantages / disadvantages to different Rapsberry PI hardware for the primary device?

 

[Bigtrout]

Is there a guide discussing or recommending advantages / disadvantages to different Rapsberry PI hardware for the primary device?

Dont think there is a guide discussing this simply because a $10 pi zero W is plenty to do anything you want. Any pi with better specs is almost overkill requiring more power for little additional benefit unless you have to connect to a monitor and dont run headless. I look at my reef pi exclusively thru the webgui so the pi zero w is plenty

I run a pi zero w and have 3 temp sensors, 4 lighting channels and 8 outlets 2 inputs, and a slew of macros. Memory usage hovers at 8 percent and cpu usage is practically nil at .15 percent

 

[lmm1967]

Dont think there is a guide discussing this simply because a $10 pi zero W is plenty to do anything you want. Any pi with better specs is almost overkill requiring more power for little additional benefit unless you have to connect to a monitor and dont run headless. I look at my reef pi exclusively thru the webgui so the pi zero w is plenty

I run a pi zero w and have 3 temp sensors, 4 lighting channels and 8 outlets 2 inputs, and a slew of macros. Memory usage hovers at 8 percent and cpu usage is practically nil at .15 percent

Thank You!

 

[Bigtrout]

Thank You!

Glad to help. What are you trying to do with reef-pi? If you decide to start a build, make your own build thread. Its easier to get help on your dedicated thread than to ask here. This thread is huge!

 

[lmm1967]

I will start a thread up.

Temp monitoring / controlling
PH monitoring
ATO
Dosing
Remote access & control.
Control on/off of pumps / skimmers

My lighting setup is easy - on/off is the extent of it so that is done using alexa & smart plugs
Flow inside the tank is simply on/off as well - at least today.

The above things for 3 tank setups.
One is comprised of a frag tank, display tank & sump.
One 30 gallon cube - mini mixed reef
One fish only (and only 1 fish) 180 gallon tank

 

[Bigtrout]

I will start a thread up.

Temp monitoring / controlling
PH monitoring
ATO
Dosing
Remote access & control.
Control on/off of pumps / skimmers

My lighting setup is easy - on/off is the extent of it so that is done using alexa & smart plugs
Flow inside the tank is simply on/off as well - at least today.

The above things for 3 tank setups.
One is comprised of a frag tank, display tank & sump.
One 30 gallon cube - mini mixed reef
One fish only (and only 1 fish) 180 gallon tank

Sounds like fun. Look into a goby hat from @Michael Lane or @theatrus makes a base board. With possibly 3 reef-pi setups thats alot of soldering if you do it all yourself. You may be able to run 2 tanks from one pi if they are next to each other.
Each hat has it own features, so see what fits what you want to do with it but the hat saves alot of soldering and makes a good jump start to getting a working reef pi setup.
I myself run a ML hat and use a seperate reef-pi ph board that was designed for reef pi. The results have been great!

 

[Alaa]

Hi, @Michael Lane, Pi-Hat pin continuity test
before i setup and test the new ras-pi with pi-HAT i tested the pins for continuity, and this is what i got
5 v pin connected properly to pH1, pH2, ATO1, ATO2, ATO3, 5v pin on GPIO breakout
ground connected properly all ground points on the board
3.3v pin NOT connected to any temp ports, or any other pin on the board
GPIO 4 connected to all temp ports
i don't know if the 3.3 v should be like this showing no continuity because of the 470k resistor or this is a bad connection
do i use this board on my new res-pi

sorry i got it, temp +ve pin is connected using the other 3.3v outlet (no 17) so i assume it is safe to plug the HAT and retest but that is another day

 

[Ranjib]

Is there a guide discussing or recommending advantages / disadvantages to different Rapsberry PI hardware for the primary device?

Nothing specifically for reef-pi. The pros/cons are very similar to most other projects based on Raspberry Pi. Here is the summary:
- Pizero w: cheap, smallest power footprint (140ma) & small form factor, yet powerful enough to run reef-pi. Bad for running graphics/desktop, bad for beginners (no standard USB & LAN connector)
- Pi 3/B+: Powerful enough to run desktop along side reef-pi. Ease of use for beginners because of onboard USB and LAN ports. Consume more power, takes more space and costs more.

- Pi 3 A: Somewhere in the middle.


Given this, I think its wiser to discuss what your computer skill levels are and what type of build you are aiming for, along side any monetary constrain (though i think this is perhaps the least concerning part) for deducing the best choice for your build

 

[Ranjib]

I will start a thread up.

Temp monitoring / controlling
PH monitoring
ATO
Dosing
Remote access & control.
Control on/off of pumps / skimmers

My lighting setup is easy - on/off is the extent of it so that is done using alexa & smart plugs
Flow inside the tank is simply on/off as well - at least today.

The above things for 3 tank setups.
One is comprised of a frag tank, display tank & sump.
One 30 gallon cube - mini mixed reef
One fish only (and only 1 fish) 180 gallon tank

If you are comfortable with command line/computers then pi zero should be enough. You can use Kasa smart plugs (HS103, 110, 105, 300) with reef-pi.

 

[Phildago]

Hey guys, I just got my reef pi up and running. The first piece of equipment I was hoping to control is my dosing pump. I have a jebao dp-3 currently dosing for my tank, and I was hoping I could hook it up. I know most people use the slave models for their builds, but I'm having a hard time finding out if the master could also be controlled? Does anybody know if it's possible?

 

[marekd1]

Yup, I just looked at the FAQ, and it clearly states:



I'll have to experiment to find the right colors with these probes. Glad I didn't solder yet :]

Here are the connection points:

RASP-PIGPIO4 to PIN2 DQ
RASP-PI PIN1 (3V) to PIN3 VDD
RASP-PIN6 (GDN) to PIN1 GDN

Pullup Resistor between PIN 2 and PIN3

 

[marekd1]

Hey guys, I just got my reef pi up and running. The first piece of equipment I was hoping to control is my dosing pump. I have a jebao dp-3 currently dosing for my tank, and I was hoping I could hook it up. I know most people use the slave models for their builds, but I'm having a hard time finding out if the master could also be controlled? Does anybody know if it's possible?

Definitely possible but all depends how comfortable you are with soldering. The easiest way would be just to connect 4 channel 5 V relay board. You could follow the same guide as for the slave but motors would be connecting to the relay so you would need to remove the existing connections from the control board

 

[Phildago]

Definitely possible but all depends how comfortable you are with soldering. The easiest way would be just to connect 4 channel 5 V relay board. You could follow the same guide as for the slave but motors would be connecting to the relay so you would need to remove the existing connections from the control board

I'm comfortable with soldering as long as nothing is super small and closely located near other important connections... My main fear with soldering is accidentally burning something else nearby, but I'm good with basic soldering connections