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

[Mikeneedsahobby]

Yeah. My ATO runs just fine as well and I've had my AWC working for over a year now. All good.

HOWEVER, I want to set up physical button to trigger a specific Macro. To run my "Feed" Macro. This should be possible if you can trigger a Macro from an ATO. The ability is there in there in the UI to chose whether you want your ATO to trigger Equipment or a Macro. I'm just unable to get it to do it.

Got it! Makes sense.

 

[Ranjib]

Hey, Ranjib, I did want to take a moment (or more than a moment, perhaps a minute) to say thank you. I just fired up my Raspberry PI 3B+ which had been sitting on my desk for a year and I really appreciate what you've done for the community with this project. So, Thank You!

Thank you

 

[Martin Lowry]

Hey smart electrical people. I have a question about transistors.

The background. I have found that the jebao dp4s doser is not strong enough for my ato and awc needs. (Water storage in basement half the house away from the tank). I am planning to switch to a kamoer khs 12v dosing head. The dp4 pulls about 0.15a at 12v The kamoer pulls 0.8a at 12v. I currently have a @Michael Lane dosing adapter that uses a uln2803a transistor.

I believe the uln2803a is rated for 0.5a output per channel. Can I tie two channels in parallel on input and output sides two get 1.0a? Is this enough for a motor with 0.8a requirement? Or should I tie three channels together?

if none of this will work can you suggest a transistor to use with the kamoer pump?

thanks.

Not sure if it will help but I just setup my ATO and AWC trash cans in the basement and I used Neptune Systems PMUP v2's ($39.99 or 49.99 with the 24v power pack) as they claim 14' head.

 

[Martin Lowry]

using reef-pi for couple of non reef tank related use case

anyone into model railroad ??

Nice! Is it N or HO gauge? I have a 4'x10' HO setup in the basement with little to no landscaping done as yet. I think it's going to be a multi-year project. How are you using Reef-Pi with your layout?

 

[Ranjib]

Nice! Is it N or HO gauge? I have a 4'x10' HO setup in the basement with little to no landscaping done as yet. I think it's going to be a multi-year project. How are you using Reef-Pi with your layout?

N scale. Buiilt to spend the next few years fun times with my son. Funny, my reef keeping journey (and reef-pi) started with him, 5 years back .

Using reef-pi to do basic DC controls that the bachman controller do, forward/reverse and speed control. The mp3 driver in reef-pi was added for this , my son uses it to make the train sound (crossing , horn etc). I intend to use it for IR motion sensors (Crossing) and street lights (timers, and broken lights flickering etc) as well, but that's far down the road. No plan for encoder/dcc yet. My setup is not exactly model railroad, as in I'm not recreating a specific time and location, but the parts, techniques are same, except you may see paw petrol of some weird kids stuff in there.. because you know.. Ryan thinks that cool

 

[Martin Lowry]

N scale. Buiilt to spend the next few years fun times with my son. Funny, my reef keeping journey (and reef-pi) started with him, 5 years back .

Using reef-pi to do basic DC controls that the bachman controller do, forward/reverse and speed control. The mp3 driver in reef-pi was added for this , my son uses it to make the train sound (crossing , horn etc). I intend to use it for IR motion sensors (Crossing) and street lights (timers, and broken lights flickering etc) as well, but that's far down the road. No plan for encoder/dcc yet. My setup is not exactly model railroad, as in I'm not recreating a specific time and location, but the parts, techniques are same, except you may see paw petrol of some weird kids stuff in there.. because you know.. Ryan thinks that cool

Awesome! We started with a Bachman DCC box set. My Son liked it so much that we then made the layout table in the basement and added a Digitrax DCC throttle. Then added a Digitrax USB module and PC running some open Source railroad software. Then we added a WiFi module and we can now use Tablet or Smart Phone running the Engine Driver app as throttles for the Loco's and operating switch with DCC encoders in them. Seems like the sky's the limit with this DCC stuff. The problem we found is designing the track layout so we can run multiple Loco's at the same time without crashes. Progress has slowed as my boy's are into gaming and that takes allot of their time.

 

[StlSalt]

I added my temp sensor to the Raspberry Pi, but I must have configured something wrong. It says my temp is 185 in the reef-pi dashboard. Any ideas why?

 

[elysics]

I added my temp sensor to the Raspberry Pi, but I must have configured something wrong. It says my temp is 185 in the reef-pi dashboard. Any ideas why?

Is your sensor cable crossing or in the vicinity of any power cables?

 

[StlSalt]

Is your sensor cable crossing or in the vicinity of any power cables?

No I'm an idiot. Still learning the GPIO pins. I had the ground on the wrong pin. It's reporting properly now.

 

[StlSalt]

Double post

 

[Malaclypse13]

Thank you for the kind words and sharing the specific issue with the macro. Is the macro reversible?

Thanks for the response! I think Des Wescott referenced an earlier post about this specific problem, I did not know this was a known issue, guess I my search skills need a little work.

The macro is not reversible, though it's simple enough I could probably write a dedicated one for the timer that will do what I need it to. Thinking in reverse is going to be a bit of a twist, but that should be fine.

 

[Malaclypse13]

Hi

It's an old issue.

Timers triggering Macro's and Macro's triggering other Macro's can only trigger them in reverse. The Macro has to have the "make reversible" box ticked and then the Macro has to be written in reverse. Both in order and and state. I've written a detailed post of this before - I'll see if I can find it.

Thanks for the hint, I'll use the handy search feature to see if I can dig it up and go from there.

 

[Des Westcott]

Here's my original post from 19 Feb 2020

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/r...ler-based-on-raspberry-pi.289256/post-7104116

 

[DetroitReefer]

This is amazing and fantastic! Thanks so much for this!

 

[ZoixDark]

I looked (and i could be blind) to see if this would be a good project for me. I didn't see if there was a heart beat alert like the Apex. Is there a way to set up the reef-pi to get an alert if it loses internet connection to your phone/email/app?

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

I looked (and i could be blind) to see if this would be a good project for me. I didn't see if there was a heart beat alert like the Apex. Is there a way to set up the reef-pi to get an alert if it loses internet connection to your phone/email/app?

Yes. Through adafruit. If you send data there, you can have adafruit send you an email or alert if it doesn’t get an update on time.

 

[ZoixDark]

Yes. Through adafruit. If you send data there, you can have adafruit send you an email or alert if it doesn’t get an update on time.

nice. is there a guide/documents for setting that up?

 

[Mikeneedsahobby]

Telemetry | reef-pi - An opensource reef tank controller based on Raspberry Pi

Telemetry features in reef-pi allow users to capture, visualize and alert on sensor or controller health data. Telemetry functionality help in avoiding tank accidents due to equipment failure (such as a bad heater cooking up a reef tank) or to understand long-term trends in tank parameters. This...

reef-pi.github.io

It’s pretty easy to setup to send data. The heart beat alert is a bit burried in adafruit. I describe it in this post.

So the cats are doing good. The one that was starving when rescued is putting weight on well. So far they haven’t run off the trolls.... Reef-pi working perfect still.

Wood floor done. It looks good.
.
I keep reading about people having reef-pi failures. If others can have failures I probably could too. I think I want to be alerted if something is not right. Reef-pi has a built in email alert function but what if I have a high level failure; Like power goes out at my house. I think I want something watching the reef-pi and will let me know if it isn't there. Luckily there is an adafruit.io telemetry function in reef-pi that does just that. Tonight I am going to try to get it to work.

First I am heading over to adafruit.io to see if I can sign up for an account. ....

so that was painless. I have an account, now what... I think I'll search on ranjib's tutorials. .. yep he has a tutorial. ! : )

So on the adafruit site. click on the "IO" thing on top. then view aio key. put this stuff in the reef-pi config/telemetry area. Press update and reload.

check for feeds on the adafruit site. It works!

so now create a dashboard on adafruit. There is no tutorial here. I just clicked stuff until I got stuff. You can do it too! I ended using a line chart for every feed.

I didn't easily see how to send and email from adafruit if it doesn't see the reef-pi. I will keep looking.

okay, so it appears triggers in adafruit.io can send email if something is outside a limit. I could use this for too hot or too cold. but I still don't know how to get an email if adafruit isn't given new data. i'll keep looking.

okay finally found it. I clicked on feeds and then the CPU usage feed. On the right is something called notifications. I clicked this and it was easy to setup an email if no update is received after 10 minutes. ... now I'm going to shut reef-pi off and see if I get
an email... wish me luck.

It worked!!!

 

[ZoixDark]

Telemetry | reef-pi - An opensource reef tank controller based on Raspberry Pi

Telemetry features in reef-pi allow users to capture, visualize and alert on sensor or controller health data. Telemetry functionality help in avoiding tank accidents due to equipment failure (such as a bad heater cooking up a reef tank) or to understand long-term trends in tank parameters. This...

reef-pi.github.io

It’s pretty easy to setup to send data. The heart beat alert is a bit burried in adafruit. I describe it in this post.

Awesome. Bookmarked.

 

[AbjectMaelstroM]

@Ranjib looking to update to 4.1 from 4.0, how does the update work from the UI?

Is the process documented somewhere?