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

92Miata · Sep 28, 2020

Bigtrout said:
I use a pi zero w, never had a wifi issue, but i have a good wifi router. I did make sure the pi was not in a metal enclosure which would block signal.

Is your stand , enclosure or the combo causimg wifi signal to the pi to be weak perhaps?

It's basically sitting on my desk - router is about 6 feet away. I don't think it's a signal issue.

I think the router was killing the connection because it isn't seeing activity. The router's ui Is awful so I'm not really sure past that.

Ranjib · Sep 29, 2020

I used to have some of these types of issues with my comcast router. But they have never been a big deal. I did install a systemd timer to restart network service every night.
Those problems all went away since I switched to google WiFi.

On a related note, remember it’s possible to run reef-pi as standalone WiFi hotspot. It will not have access to internet this way (assuming no LAN connection present ) , but it should work fine, you just have to connect to the reef-pi hotspot to access the web ui. Its pretty awesome from security perspective,

Kurtzisa · Sep 29, 2020

@Ranjib my ph probe into the calcium reactor didn't work well.
I can't set the hysteresis, every minute the solenoid valve open for one minute and turn off... I think there is something wrong... Maybe a DB wiping could be the solution?
the PH is pretty linear

DeeEmm · Sep 29, 2020

Des Westcott said:
It should be possible using an ATO. A momentary switch is set up as an Input should be able to trigger a Macro. When I last played with that, I could not get an input on an ATO to trigger a Macro in any way. But it should be possible as the options are built in.

Thanks Des. I've set up the ATO to trigger the macro but haven't had a chance to do any bench testing yet.

DeeEmm · Sep 29, 2020

Ranjib said:
Those problems all went away since I switched to google WiFi.

I used to have all kinds of wifi issues that mysteriously fixed themselves when I swapped to Google Wifi.

BenB · Sep 29, 2020

Kurtzisa said:
@Ranjib my ph probe into the calcium reactor didn't work well.
I can't set the hysteresis, every minute the solenoid valve open for one minute and turn off... I think there is something wrong... Maybe a DB wiping could be the solution?
the PH is pretty linear

Your hysteresis is 0 in the picture, I do not think that will work, maybe better change it to 0.1 like Ranjib mentioned!

DeeEmm · Sep 29, 2020

92Miata said:
It's basically sitting on my desk - router is about 6 feet away. I don't think it's a signal issue.

I think the router was killing the connection because it isn't seeing activity. The router's ui Is awful so I'm not really sure past that.

What else do you have on your network? We have a lot of network traffic (CCTV + Home automation ), throw in a couple of phones, ipads, computers and things get busy.

I think that the issue we had was that at peak demand times some devices would drop as the router simply could not handle the traffic. Those generic routers that you buy from officeworks or get free with your broadband connection are really not that good when your network starts to grow.

I think that the Google Wifi has different (roaming) control algorithms due to the way it handles mesh connections and so is less likely to drop connections, especially if the connection hops from one node to the next. We have three nodes set up.

Here's an easy test you can try: In chrome browser type 'speed test' it'll give you a link to test your connection speed.

Do it whilst connected on wifi. Then turn off your wifi and plug in an ethernet cable. Then run it again. Compare the results. It'll soon show up if you have any bandwidth issues.

theatrus · Sep 29, 2020

92Miata said:
It's basically sitting on my desk - router is about 6 feet away. I don't think it's a signal issue.

I think the router was killing the connection because it isn't seeing activity. The router's ui Is awful so I'm not really sure past that.

There are a lot of bad implentations of specs out there for Wifi, especially on home routers. Also, the space is really complex now with multiple power management modes, roaming hand-offs, etc so I'm not too surprised there is some funkiness with idle devices.

If you're 6 feet away, I'd recommend a cable - much more reliable in nearly every case

theatrus · Sep 29, 2020

Bigtrout said:
The octocouplers on those boards let either a 3.3 or a 5 v signal turn on the octocoupler to let the relays work. Yes they could spec 5ma ones but i tested my boards which are the same board as the posters and they run 15-20ma.
The board has a jumper that determines if you run completely isolated or commonly grounded. People wiring things wrong were hosing their arduinos so i think that is the reasoning for isolation.

These boards are kind of a universal fit for arduinos and pi and general experimenting. The relays are the songle ones like in the american DJ power strip so not very robust.

That being said, even though i got a great ebay deal on a crapload of nice phoenix contact 24v mini relays with inductive protection and suppression with din rail sockets to go with them, that I was going to change out if my cheapy board failed. The cheapy relays have been working for 2 years running my heaters and return pump. Maybe its because I run most of the relays normally closed in case reef pi goes nuts. Reef pi has to energize the relays to turn them off so most of the time the relay coils are sitting not energized.

Totally reasonable - its easy to want to gold plate things, but since you have multiple fallbacks like the heater thermostat I think everything is totally fine

92Miata · Sep 29, 2020

theatrus said:
There are a lot of bad implentations of specs out there for Wifi, especially on home routers. Also, the space is really complex now with multiple power management modes, roaming hand-offs, etc so I'm not too surprised there is some funkiness with idle devices.

If you're 6 feet away, I'd recommend a cable - much more reliable in nearly every case

We had some sort of power-surge event last year that damaged or killed everything that was connected to our Comcast lines, and nothing else - cable modem, both routers, a pc motherboard, hdmi ports on multiple tvs, ethernet ports on a couple other things - just a mess. It melted the aluminum casing for the RG6 distributor/amp comcast had put in.

In the interest of expediency, while trying to get Comcast to replace all the stuff that they fried (I'm still fighting with them) - I bought a cheap router, threw it in my office, and used one line from the cable modem (in the garage with the network distribution ) to my office for the uplink, and the other one back down to feed into the distro panel. So between that, my PC, my work laptop (yay, covid), and a networked printer, I'm out of ports near the tank and on the router.

I really just need to buy a mesh setup at some point, and put a gigabit router back in the garage and clean up all the rube-goldberg nonsense.

On a positive note - we're going on about 36 hours now with no connectivity issues. And the pH fluctuation have gone from 7.9->8.1 up to 8.1->8.25 since I added a DIY chaeto reactor and am running it at night. Gonna start moving timers/etc onto the reef-pi next.

DeeEmm · Sep 29, 2020

Finally getting around to testing the input triggering a macro but in testing I have found that I am not getting a reliable signal.

Then I found this comment...

Michael Lane said:
I would recommend using a current limit resistor. I use 220 ohms, but the value isn't critical. The other end of float should be connected to 3.3v since the internal pull down is enabled by default (assuming GPIO 9 or higher).

Are the pins set with the internal Pull-DOWN enabled?

Meaning that I need to raise input potential to trigger the input?

/DM

theatrus · Sep 29, 2020

92Miata said:
We had some sort of power-surge event last year that damaged or killed everything that was connected to our Comcast lines, and nothing else - cable modem, both routers, a pc motherboard, hdmi ports on multiple tvs, ethernet ports on a couple other things - just a mess. It melted the aluminum casing for the RG6 distributor/amp comcast had put in.

In the interest of expediency, while trying to get Comcast to replace all the stuff that they fried (I'm still fighting with them) - I bought a cheap router, threw it in my office, and used one line from the cable modem (in the garage with the network distribution ) to my office for the uplink, and the other one back down to feed into the distro panel. So between that, my PC, my work laptop (yay, covid), and a networked printer, I'm out of ports near the tank and on the router.

I really just need to buy a mesh setup at some point, and put a gigabit router back in the garage and clean up all the rube-goldberg nonsense.

On a positive note - we're going on about 36 hours now with no connectivity issues. And the pH fluctuation have gone from 7.9->8.1 up to 8.1->8.25 since I added a DIY chaeto reactor and am running it at night. Gonna start moving timers/etc onto the reef-pi next.

Wow and ouch. Thats a pretty bad power surge failure or lightning strike. Good luck and I'm glad just forcing activity on the link prevents the disconnects.

I ended up slowly converting everything but the gateway to Ubiquiti gear (5 switches, 4 APs, cameras) running over a mix of 1/10G wired links and MoCA 2.5 adapters. No wireless mesh since the throughput sucks by the nature of it.

Carlo Rios · Sep 29, 2020

Hi don't mean to hack the post but I have questions about temperature sensors. I change my raspberry pi 4 b to an 3b+ because of all the temp sensor problems I been having. My Question is which sensors are better or what brand, fellow reef pi refers have had success whit. And witch one work better whit Pi 3+ thanks. And Reef Pi made my life easier. And my animals life too.

DeeEmm · Sep 30, 2020

The DS18B20 seems to be the most commonly used type, although it would appear that some additional water-proofing is a good idea.

theatrus · Sep 30, 2020

Carlo Rios said:
Hi don't mean to hack the post but I have questions about temperature sensors. I change my raspberry pi 4 b to an 3b+ because of all the temp sensor problems I been having. My Question is which sensors are better or what brand, fellow reef pi refers have had success whit. And witch one work better whit Pi 3+ thanks. And Reef Pi made my life easier. And my animals life too.

Reef-Pi works with DS18B20 1-wire digital temperature probes. There are a lot of probes, but they're a crap-shoot how well they work especially at the common import pricing. Most of the sensor ICs contained in these probes are fake:

GitHub - cpetrich/counterfeit_DS18B20: How to tell original from fake DS18B20 temperature sensors.

How to tell original from fake DS18B20 temperature sensors. - cpetrich/counterfeit_DS18B20

github.com

Previously, the "Drok" probes from Amazon (with the 10ft red silicone jacket) were the go to probes,; they used good steel caps (some sensors were not at all stainless steel), good quality cables, and real sensor ICs.

I wanted to do some value add screening on sensors since a lot of people had problems with sensors in general, so I bought a new lot of Drok probes from Amazon (20 or so) and... ended up having Drok cables with fake sensors AND with out of spec temperature performance (1C out with self-heating). (See: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/r...controller-boards.499890/page-34#post-7998672 )

Most people use the fake sensors as its all there is available, and most actually do actually work, but you may have to try a few to sort out ones which are good in your setup yourself, and verify the temperature performance is correct (which you shouldn't have to do, but here we are). I want to make some better probes with actual Maxim chips, but its going to take a bit longer to qualify them. I'd subscribe to the thread if you're interested.

Ranjib · Sep 30, 2020

Carlo Rios said:
Hi don't mean to hack the post but I have questions about temperature sensors. I change my raspberry pi 4 b to an 3b+ because of all the temp sensor problems I been having. My Question is which sensors are better or what brand, fellow reef pi refers have had success whit. And witch one work better whit Pi 3+ thanks. And Reef Pi made my life easier. And my animals life too.

Ds18b20 from drok or canakit. We have better experience with them, but nothing is full proof. Counterfeit chips are found in some of them still ..

Kurtzisa · Sep 30, 2020

BenB said:
Your hysteresis is 0 in the picture, I do not think that will work, maybe better change it to 0.1 like Ranjib mentioned!

I cannot change the hysteresis, all the numbers I enter, are saved as zero... a DB wipe possible solution?

Ranjib · Sep 30, 2020

Kurtzisa said:
I cannot change the hysteresis, all the numbers I enter, are saved as zero... a DB wipe possible solution?

It’s is a possible solution but It’s also a nuclear option and I will not recommend it since I don’t understand what’s going on, hence not sure whether that will fix it. But if your config is disposable , do it, you can always keep the old dB aside, instead of just deleting it and restore if needed.