Reef-pi + Home Assistant Build

Ranjib · Sep 21, 2019

sfgabe said:
Update: I've setup a new reef-pi on a Pi Zero to control my freshwater tank (35 gal). It also works with the attached hydroponic garden (pumping water and turning on lights). The previous system was built on a MotionOS system with a bunch of independent scripts that were triggered through curl, but my SD card burnt out and I had to set up from scratch anyway. Reef-pi makes most of that much easier and puts everything in one place.

The only thing lacking at the moment is some basic camera controls - @Ranjib is there a way to adjust the size and rotation of the capture? I'm not familiar with golang but I can see the size parameters are hard coded into the camera/config.go file on github.

I don't mind tinkering with the code if I know where to look. The right orientation is very important for the tanks twitter account (@octo_cam_bot).

Tanks twitter account is of utmost importance

. Currently the arguments for raspistill which controls size orientation etc , are hardocded . But if I recall correctly you can override them. I’ll double check and get back

sfgabe · Oct 13, 2019

Adding this from another thread in case anyone is looking for it (from this thread):

Details on Home Assistant settings:

The !secret reefcontrolpi_cookie is going to be the full string of the cookie (you can get this though chrome "inspect" or any of the other many cookie viewers. It will look like "AUTH=123456...=" You may need to reset this every so often, especially if you update your home assistant installation frequently.

Everything else happens through the Reef-Pi API and the HomeAssistant Rest Sensor. For instance, you can get information about your reef-pi build with this in sensors.yaml:

Code:

- platform: rest
  name: ReefControlPiSysUptime
  username: !secret reefcontrolpi_username
  password: !secret reefcontrolpi_password
  authentication: basic
  json_attributes:
    - name
    - ip
    - uptime
    - cpu_temperature
    - version
  resource: http://reefcontrolpi.local/api/info
  headers:
    Connection: keep-alive
    content-type: application/json
    Referer: http://reefcontrolpi.local/
    Cookie: !secret reefcontrolpi_cookie

To actually control some of the reef-pi switches, etc. you can send the full command through a Home Assistant rest switch template. Here is how I can turn on a specific light setting with this as a switch:

Code:

- platform: rest
  name: Kessil Light Level 1
  resource: http://reefcontrolpi.local/api/lights/1
  username: !secret reefcontrolpi_username
  password: !secret reefcontrolpi_password
  body_on: '{"id":"1","name":"Kessil","channels":{"0":{"name":"Color","min":1,"start_min":10,"max":99,"reverse":true,"pin":0,"color":"","profile":{"type":"fixed","config":{"value":1}}},"1":{"name":"Brightness","min":1,"start_min":10,"max":99,"reverse":true,"pin":1,"color":"","profile":{"type":"fixed","config":{"value":10}}}},"jack":"1"}'
  body_off: '{"id":"1","name":"Kessil","channels":{"0":{"name":"Color","min":1,"start_min":10,"max":99,"reverse":true,"pin":0,"color":"","profile":{"type":"fixed","config":{"value":1}}},"1":{"name":"Brightness","min":1,"start_min":10,"max":90,"reverse":true,"pin":1,"color":"","profile":{"type":"fixed","config":{"value":1}}}},"jack":"1"}'
  is_on_template: '{{ value_json.channels["1"].profile.config.value == 10 }}'
  headers:
    Connection: keep-alive
    content-type: application/json
    Referer: http://reefcontrolpi.local/
    Cookie: !secret reefcontrolpi_cookie

It looks overwhelming but it's just a copy and paste from what you see when you set your desired setting and look at the api return. So in the above example, I've gone to Reef-Pi and set my Kessil Lights to a brightness of 10, then I went to "http://reefcontrolpi.local/api/lights/1" I copy all the output and that is my body_on call. Then do the same for whatever I want to be body_off.

The is_on_template can just cherry pick whichever parameter is really signaling the change as the indicator, but sending the full api call in the on / off setting will be more reliable because you don't end up with a mix and match if you're flipping switches on and off.

Dr. Dendrostein · Oct 13, 2019

sfgabe said:
I control my 2 small aquariums (one 40 gal fresh, one 15 gal nano reef) with a combination of Home Assistant (which also takes care of my apartment), Reef-Pi, and Motioneye.

I wanted the tanks to mirror specific locations as much as possible. For example, I’m querying various sites to get daily water temp, tide, and weather data. I also wanted to be able to monitor everything from outside the house, so it needed to be web accessible.

The reef tank:

Getting temp and ATO sensor data from reef-pi (Raspberry Pi 3B) and publishing via API, which Home Assistant installation can pick up as sensors

Water temperature changes daily according to NOAA data, dropping to lower averages at night, and higher at midday depending on the data coming from a reef in Bali.

Kessil Tuna Blue A80 fades up / down according to sunrise / sunset times, and offset by two hours so the late-waking humans can enjoy the tank.

High and low tides control the Jabao SW2 wavemaker on/off according to a script that increases intensity at mid-tide change for that specific location.

Top off and dosing from two peristaltic pumps on the reef-pi build. These are manual for now, because I'm not sure about speed and volume yet.

The freshwater planted tank:

Getting temp and ato sensor data from scripts on a Raspberry Pi Zero W, and broadcasting to Home Assistant sensors via MQTT

Water temp is targeted to a spot in the Amazon River. Amazon water temp data is hard to find so I had to go with monthly averages in a text file.

Finnex Fugeray Planted turns on / off according to sunrise / sunset times, offset by one hour, CO2 also goes on and off with the lights.

River high and low tides turn an extra pump on/off according to tide change for that location.

a pi-enabled barrel feeder, run from a script on a motioneye action button

a Pimoroni Octocam, which posts time lapse movies to twitter (@Octo_Cam_bot) and photos and stats for each feeding

Most simple power on/off switching is done with Tuya smart home outlets via home assistant. You can read about the hardware details of the Reef-pi controller on Thingiverse, with the enclosure files. Improvement has become a never-ending project but I think it’s pretty cool so I wanted to share. Will update the Github repository as I can.

Some other resources for aquarium control:

Home Assistant Community Thread on Aquarium Control

Reef-pi on Github

Reef-pi tutorials on Adafruit

Reef2Reef: Reef-pi Build Thread

Thingiverse Reef-pi Group for some 3D printed components

Motioneye on the OctoCam Tutorial

MotionEye for external video feeds of the tanks

Twitter @Octo_Cam_Bot

Amazing, comrade. Thanks for sharing.

sfgabe · Oct 16, 2019

Hi @Ranjib I'm trying to get a 3.0 running on my original setup now and I just can't get the PCA9685 card working. It's the same setup I was running 2.3 on, which was working fine. so I know the wiring is good.

First it wouldn't let me add the PCA9685 driver, but I put it in dev mode and was able to add it and edit after I turned dev mode off.

Now I can configure it through the UI but get no response from the board itself.

I tried using the driver with the default 68 address, but my pi shows i2cdetect at 40 and 70 - which I thought were addresses? Or is there something more to that?

Ranjib · Oct 16, 2019

sfgabe said:
Hi @Ranjib I'm trying to get a 3.0 running on my original setup now and I just can't get the PCA9685 card working. It's the same setup I was running 2.3 on, which was working fine. so I know the wiring is good.

First it wouldn't let me add the PCA9685 driver, but I put it in dev mode and was able to add it and edit after I turned dev mode off.

Now I can configure it through the UI but get no response from the board itself.

I tried using the driver with the default 68 address, but my pi shows i2cdetect at 40 and 70 - which I thought were addresses? Or is there something more to that?

3.0 alpha has a pretty unstable pcs9685 driver due to large amount of changes that went in. Can you wait another week , I’m planning to do a beta release . And help us testing that.

sfgabe · Nov 5, 2019

Ranjib said:
3.0 alpha has a pretty unstable pcs9685 driver due to large amount of changes that went in. Can you wait another week , I’m planning to do a beta release . And help us testing that.

For an update, a bunch of my issues were solved once I replaced the PCA9685 board. I now have the nano reef on 3.0 and the freshwater tank on 2.5.

On the reef, I also swapped out a pi3b+ with a new zero. I think the usb and eth ports got a bit corroded because they stopped connecting too. I reconfigured just about all the wiring with a few new bits of equipment, including this great little 12v water pump that is much quieter than the peristaltic for longer ATO refills and fits inside the narrow carboy container opening. For now it's all having a precarious test drive in a shoebox while I fix the 3d printer and get a new housing out of it.

The only issue I'm having now is that I'm getting an error on updating the kessil

Code:

ERROR: lighting-subsystem: Failed to set pwm value. Error: pin 0...

It's on but it doesn't respond to changes. I see the error about "active high" vs "active low" so if I change that it does "take" as a change in the database. But nothing changes in the lighting and I still get the error.

Ranjib · Nov 5, 2019

sfgabe said:
For an update, a bunch of my issues were solved once I replaced the PCA9685 board. I now have the nano reef on 3.0 and the freshwater tank on 2.5.

On the reef, I also swapped out a pi3b+ with a new zero. I think the usb and eth ports got a bit corroded because they stopped connecting too. I reconfigured just about all the wiring with a few new bits of equipment, including this great little 12v water pump that is much quieter than the peristaltic for longer ATO refills and fits inside the narrow carboy container opening. For now it's all having a precarious test drive in a shoebox while I fix the 3d printer and get a new housing out of it.

The only issue I'm having now is that I'm getting an error on updating the kessil

Code:

ERROR: lighting-subsystem: Failed to set pwm value. Error: pin 0...

It's on but it doesn't respond to changes. I see the error about "active high" vs "active low" so if I change that it does "take" as a change in the database. But nothing changes in the lighting and I still get the error.

Thats a neat little pump. Does it work with pwm? i.e. can we control its speed?
The log is truncated? If you can share the error details (the text is missing after error,) that will be awesome.
It does not go away if you reboot?

sfgabe · Nov 5, 2019

Ranjib said:
Thats a neat little pump. Does it work with pwm? i.e. can we control its speed?
The log is truncated? If you can share the error details (the text is missing after error,) that will be awesome.
It does not go away if you reboot?

I haven't tried varying the speed, but it's being powered at 100% on a PWM circuit anyway.

As for the error, it is consistent, even after reboot. I'm getting 2 weird bits in the journal.

This one pops up any time I try to change the settings from the reef-pi UI, it doesn't matter what profile I choose, it seems to be deciding everything is set to 0.

Code:

: 0
Nov 05 22:39:13 reef-pi reef-pi[247]: 2019/11/05 22:39:13 lighting-subsystem: Setting PWM value: 0  at channel: 0
Nov 05 22:39:13 reef-pi reef-pi[247]: 2019/11/05 22:39:13 onTime  0  offTime  0
Nov 05 22:39:13 reef-pi reef-pi[247]: 2019/11/05 22:39:13 lighting subsystem: Setting Light:  Kessil Channel: channel-2 Value: 0
Nov 05 22:39:13 reef-pi reef-pi[247]: 2019/11/05 22:39:13 lighting-subsystem: Setting PWM value: 0  at channel: 1
Nov 05 22:39:13 reef-pi reef-pi[247]: 2019/11/05 22:39:13 onTime  0  offTime  0

This one pops up frequently too. It looks like it's coming from an API request from home assistant, but my API request doesn't specify anything at "15:04:05" so where it comes from is a mystery also.

Code:

Nov 05 22:53:57 reef-pi reef-pi[247]: 2019/11/05 22:53:57 API Request:'  POST /api/lights/3' from: IP.XXX.XX.XXX:46320
Nov 05 22:45:24 reef-pi reef-pi[247]: 2019/11/05 22:45:24 ERROR: lighting-subsystenL failed to load profile for channel channel-1 light Kessil Error: Failed to parse start time. Error:parsing time "" as "15:04:05": cannot parse "" as "15"
Nov 05 22:45:24 reef-pi reef-pi[247]: 2019/11/05 22:45:24 ERROR: lighting-subsystenL failed to load profile for channel channel-2 light Kessil Error: Failed to parse start time. Error:parsing time "" as "15:04:05": cannot parse "" as "15"

sfgabe · Nov 5, 2019

One more question - I have a newly installed sump light that goes on after dark, Does this chart readout (whenever the light is on) suggest there is some kind of interference between the temp probe wiring and the sump light wiring? Or is something else going on? The light isn't near the probe part, so It's definitely not actually effecting the temp in this way.

Screen Shot 2019-11-05 at 11.06.25 PM.png

Ranjib · Nov 5, 2019

sfgabe said:
One more question - I have a newly installed sump light that goes on after dark, Does this chart readout (whenever the light is on) suggest there is some kind of interference between the temp probe wiring and the sump light wiring? Or is something else going on? The light isn't near the probe part, so It's definitely not actually effecting the temp in this way.

The best approach will be to verify this by reproducing.. i.e. turn on/off the light some during daytime when you are present and see if it happens consistently, if so then yeah.

May be all this leading to a key learning that we have to use some better probe /circuit that can deal with such issues.

sfgabe · Nov 7, 2019

Ranjib said:
The best approach will be to verify this by reproducing.. i.e. turn on/off the light some during daytime when you are present and see if it happens consistently, if so then yeah.

May be all this leading to a key learning that we have to use some better probe /circuit that can deal with such issues.

Confirmed this temp variation is caused by something related to the led light on a 5v relay. I moved things around and the sensors aren't near each other so it may be interference at the board level.

Also I solved the mystery of the "15:04:05" error - it's coming from the demo fixed intensity lighting profile. I don't know how to fix it, but I'm guessing it was supposed to be removed from hard-coded info before release. I made a note on the github issue.

I'm not sure if that's what's killing my lighting profile, I checked and double checked connections and wiring, and all looks good there.

sfgabe · Dec 30, 2019

Just an update: I replaced those lights that were causing interference - they were high output LEDs, perhaps they were drawing too much current. I replaced them with this super high tech

installation of a grow light strip for the cheato. Seems to be doing fine again.

sfgabe · Dec 16, 2020

I am now on Reef-Pi 4 and Home Assistant 2020.12 and I just integrated MQTT sensors with the following additions / changes in the HASS sensors yaml (it can also be done through the config window but I prefer seeing the code). I've kept most of the API based sensors and switches because Reef-Pi doesn't seem to be able (yet?) to receive equipment commands via MQTT.

YAML:

# Reef-Pi Temperature

- platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "reef_water_temperature_reading"
  name: ReefControlPiTemp
  value_template: '{{ value | round(2) }}'
  unit_of_measurement: '°F'


# Reef-Pi Lights
- platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "kessil_brightness"
  name: ReefControlPiLightBrightness
  value_template: '{{ value | round(2) }}'


- platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "kessil_color"
  name: ReefControlPiLightColor
  value_template: '{{ value | round(2) }}'


- platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "refugium_light_brightness"
  name: ReefControlPiRefugiumLightBrightness
  value_template: '{{ value | round(2) }}'
  unit_of_measurement: '%'


# Reef-Pi ATO's
- platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "ato_float_sensor_state"
  name: ReefControlPiAtoFloatSensorState
  value_template: '{{ value | round(0) }}'


- platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "ato_float_sensor_usage"
  name: ReefControlPiAtoFloatSensorUsage
  value_template: '{{ value | round(0) }}'


- platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "ato_ato_float_state"
  name: ReefControlPiAto2FloatSensorState
  value_template: '{{ value | round(0) }}'


- platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "ato_ato_float_usage"
  name: ReefControlPiAto2FloatSensorUsage
  value_template: '{{ value | round(0) }}'


- platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "equipment_dummy_ato_state"
  name: ReefControlPiDummyAtoState
  value_template: '{{ value | round(0) }}'


# Reef-Pi System Sensors
- platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "system_load5" #<----- is the 5 a typo in the code?
  name: ReefControlPiSystemLoad
  value_template: '{{ value | round(2) }}'


- platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "system_mem_used"
  name: ReefControlPiSystemMemUsed
  value_template: '{{ value | round(2) }}'


- platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "system_under_voltage"
  name: ReefControlPiSystemUnderVoltage
  value_template: '{{ value | round(2) }}'

Freccialata · Dec 17, 2020

This is what I did (with some suggestions of a friend of mine) some weeks ago (I hope to remeber every step):

1) I installed and set up the Mosquitto Brocker Add on on my Docker;

2) I have used MQTT Explorer (free softare) to see the mqtt data that Reef-pi sent to the Broker.

3) In the config.yaml file I added the following line (It was there... but to help people to better "understand" every step...):
sensor: !include sensors.yaml
climate: !include climate.yaml

4) In the sensors.yaml file, I added the following:

# Dati Acquario
- platform: mqtt
name: Temperatura Acquario DX
state_topic: "temp_dx_reading"
- platform: mqtt
name: Temperatura Raspberry 3B+
state_topic: "temp_raspberry_reading"
- platform: mqtt
name: Temperatura Acquario SX
state_topic: "temp_sx_reading"
- platform: mqtt
name: pH
state_topic: "ph_ph"

5) After a reboot, the sensor were in the "Developer Tool" section of the frontend.

6) I created the climate.yaml file and I added 3 generic thermost:

- platform: generic_thermostat
name: Temperatura SX
heater: switch.meross_acquario_mss425f_switch_3
target_sensor: sensor.temperatura_acquario_sx
ac_mode: false
target_temp: 25.1
cold_tolerance: 0.2
hot_tolerance: 0.2
initial_hvac_mode: "heat"

- platform: generic_thermostat
name: pH
heater: switch.meross_acquario_mss425f_switch_1
target_sensor: sensor.ph
ac_mode: true
target_temp: 6.70
cold_tolerance: 0.03
hot_tolerance: 0.03
initial_hvac_mode: "cool"

- platform: generic_thermostat
name: Temperatura DX
heater: switch.meross_acquario_mss425f_switch_2
target_sensor: sensor.temperatura_acquario_dx
ac_mode: false
target_temp: 25
cold_tolerance: 0.2
hot_tolerance: 0.2
initial_hvac_mode: "heat"

7) Then, I create the grafic "page" of my Fish Tank working on the ui-lovelace.yaml (see attached file)

8) At the end I created some automations that send me a telegram message if:
- temperature is > 27°C
- temperature is < 23°C
- ph is > 7.00 (in progress... I forget to write it)
- ph is < 6.50 (in progress)

I prefer to use a 4 plugs MEROSS smart wifi power strip to control temperature (heating cable and heater) and the CO2 valve.

That's all... any suggestion is welcome.

sfgabe · Dec 17, 2020

Freccialata said:
This is what I did (with some suggestions of a friend of mine) some weeks ago (I hope to remeber every step):

1) I installed and set up the Mosquitto Brocker Add on on my Docker;

2) I have used MQTT Explorer (free softare) to see the mqtt data that Reef-pi sent to the Broker.

3) In the config.yaml file I added the following line (It was there... but to help people to better "understand" every step...):
sensor: !include sensors.yaml
climate: !include climate.yaml

4) In the sensors.yaml file, I added the following:

# Dati Acquario
- platform: mqtt
name: Temperatura Acquario DX
state_topic: "temp_dx_reading"
- platform: mqtt
name: Temperatura Raspberry 3B+
state_topic: "temp_raspberry_reading"
- platform: mqtt
name: Temperatura Acquario SX
state_topic: "temp_sx_reading"
- platform: mqtt
name: pH
state_topic: "ph_ph"

5) After a reboot, the sensor were in the "Developer Tool" section of the frontend.

6) I created the climate.yaml file and I added 3 generic thermost:

- platform: generic_thermostat
name: Temperatura SX
heater: switch.meross_acquario_mss425f_switch_3
target_sensor: sensor.temperatura_acquario_sx
ac_mode: false
target_temp: 25.1
cold_tolerance: 0.2
hot_tolerance: 0.2
initial_hvac_mode: "heat"

- platform: generic_thermostat
name: pH
heater: switch.meross_acquario_mss425f_switch_1
target_sensor: sensor.ph
ac_mode: true
target_temp: 6.70
cold_tolerance: 0.03
hot_tolerance: 0.03
initial_hvac_mode: "cool"

- platform: generic_thermostat
name: Temperatura DX
heater: switch.meross_acquario_mss425f_switch_2
target_sensor: sensor.temperatura_acquario_dx
ac_mode: false
target_temp: 25
cold_tolerance: 0.2
hot_tolerance: 0.2
initial_hvac_mode: "heat"

7) Then, I create the grafic "page" of my Fish Tank working on the ui-lovelace.yaml (see attached file)

8) At the end I created some automations that send me a telegram message if:
- temperature is > 27°C
- temperature is < 23°C
- ph is > 7.00 (in progress... I forget to write it)
- ph is < 6.50 (in progress)

I prefer to use a 4 plugs MEROSS smart wifi power strip to control temperature (heating cable and heater) and the CO2 valve.

That's all... any suggestion is welcome.

Looks like you got a good start. I have a ton of automations getting ocean temp and local sunrise/set times, but they're not really necessary if you're happy with your setup. Are looking for other ways to expand your setup?

Freccialata · Dec 18, 2020

I have a freshwater aquarium... so, I'm not interested in real time sunrise/sunset.
At the moment I'm not interested in automaticat water change, so right now I'm happy with this setup, but any suggestion is welcomed.

My fish tank is the Aquatlantis Fusion Led 120x50.
Led lights are the Aquatlantis Universal Led (first type... they are not the 2.0 model).
I have the Aquatlantis Luminus Smart Led Controller to control lights.
I wish to control the lights with Reef-Pi (but I don't know how to setup them) or Home Assitant (maybe with some shelly 2 dimmer or other similar controllers).

What kind of automation do you have?

sfgabe · Feb 24, 2021

Finally getting around to upgrading my reef-pi setup. I also got a small CNC machine so I made a wooden enclosure with enough panel mount connections for future expansion, including a pH sensor which I should be getting in there this week.

Here's some process shots of the box and mid installation.

sfgabe · Feb 24, 2021

Hey @Ranjib - thank you again for your unwavering dedication to the project.

As you can see in the pic above there are 2 notification leds and I've set them up as equipment switches. Is there a way to set up a notification for higher temps or errors that can turn on an equipment switch? IE: If there's an error the red light goes on, or temp gets too high the green turns on?

Ranjib · Feb 25, 2021

sfgabe said:
Finally getting around to upgrading my reef-pi setup. I also got a small CNC machine so I made a wooden enclosure with enough panel mount connections for future expansion, including a pH sensor which I should be getting in there this week.

Here's some process shots of the box and mid installation.

Looks awesome

Ranjib · Feb 25, 2021

sfgabe said:
Hey @Ranjib - thank you again for your unwavering dedication to the project.

As you can see in the pic above there are 2 notification leds and I've set them up as equipment switches. Is there a way to set up a notification for higher temps or errors that can turn on an equipment switch? IE: If there's an error the red light goes on, or temp gets too high the green turns on?

Yes, this is on my wish list as well. Will be awesome to start a github issue where we can chalk out the details. I can then ship it as part of 5.0