Reef Pi Noob - Robo Tank Build

[xiholdtruex]

A little update it has been running great so far, was having a issue where the wifi kept droping so I just hard wired it , just adjusted my settings to control my heater and I am in the process of upgrading my tank from the 29 bio cube to a 90g so im moving it over and trying to figure out this cable management is driving me crazy lol waiting for my longer temp sensor to come in, my next thing to add to the robot tank is the ato once I get everything settled, have the optical sensors just need the pump and mounts, here is a picture of the mess haha

 

[Dukereefnz]

Really enjoying your robo tank build, I am also do the same, do you mind if i add some questions etc. It would be good to have the info for robo tank in one thread.

 

[Weasel1960]

Really enjoying your robo tank build, I am also do the same, do you mind if i add some questions etc. It would be good to have the info for robo tank in one thread.

Also following for future use.

 

[xiholdtruex]

Really enjoying your robo tank build, I am also do the same, do you mind if i add some questions etc. It would be good to have the info for robo tank in one thread.

all good with me !

 

[Dukereefnz]

I have built the Robo-tank Pi4 controller, having never built a circuit board in my life.
So this was a learning thing, a friend said... FLUX... so I purchased Rosin soldering flux, apply the flux where you want to solder, hit it with the soldering iron, add solder, easy as. Soo much easier with flux. And yes there are many options, just ask for electronic soldering flux. They say no need to clean up the flux, but I like to and use CRC contact cleaner.

Really nothing to it... looks harder than it is.
Being old and blind and p-issed LOL, it can be hard to see so I use a magnifying glass... do not normally wear glasses but can not see FA up close.

Building a power box... OH and I should add... my tip for holding things when you solder them is tape, insulation tape. Works great. Put the part on the board, tape it down and solder a part, adjust if needed, (not often) and your good to go.

I had a small soldering iron (10w), worked out it did not produce enough heat, so this new one, was cheap 40watt and came with a light for my blind, p-issed old eyes! After soldering a joint you want to see a nice shinny joint. Not a dull joint, which could COULD be a cold joint and cause problems.

Add flux, heat part and add solder, clean up... that is my experience which is very / to none but seemed to work.
I had a friend who know his s-hit check my soldering and he fixed some joints on the PI4 board as my old soldering iron was not heating enough. Yes

Old (new) - iron... told that is what you want.. LOL -Not - 10watt. - just does the does the job at full power.. most likely i will never use it again.

Only thing this it is good for is teenage pimples popping... my 17yr old pizza head would not let me near..lol
Enter new, more powerful option with LED lights... what more could you wish for?

and here is where I am at, building a power box...

and parts....3D printed.. 2 sets for $80 from a reefer. Cases not perfect but OK.. took 14hrs for the main top each.

 

[Dukereefnz]

Power sockets just snap in, everything lines up mint... very impressed with the drawing, printing job could have been better but you get what you pay for.!

My dosing pump just run on my desk.. as scheduled...LOL -just testing everything.

 

[Dukereefnz]

- Yes one row of power out lets where are the wrong way around!

ready for next stage

 

[Ranjib]

Looking good

 

[robsworld78]

I have built the Robo-tank Pi4 controller, having never built a circuit board in my life.
So this was a learning thing, a friend said... FLUX... so I purchased Rosin soldering flux, apply the flux where you want to solder, hit it with the soldering iron, add solder, easy as. Soo much easier with flux. And yes there are many options, just ask for electronic soldering flux. They say no need to clean up the flux, but I like to and use CRC contact cleaner.

Really nothing to it... looks harder than it is.
Being old and blind and p-issed LOL, it can be hard to see so I use a magnifying glass... do not normally wear glasses but can not see FA up close.

Building a power box... OH and I should add... my tip for holding things when you solder them is tape, insulation tape. Works great. Put the part on the board, tape it down and solder a part, adjust if needed, (not often) and your good to go.

I had a small soldering iron (10w), worked out it did not produce enough heat, so this new one, was cheap 40watt and came with a light for my blind, p-issed old eyes! After soldering a joint you want to see a nice shinny joint. Not a dull joint, which could COULD be a cold joint and cause problems.

Add flux, heat part and add solder, clean up... that is my experience which is very / to none but seemed to work.
I had a friend who know his s-hit check my soldering and he fixed some joints on the PI4 board as my old soldering iron was not heating enough. Yes

Old (new) - iron... told that is what you want.. LOL -Not - 10watt. - just does the does the job at full power.. most likely i will never use it again.

Only thing this it is good for is teenage pimples popping... my 17yr old pizza head would not let me near..lol
Enter new, more powerful option with LED lights... what more could you wish for?

and here is where I am at, building a power box...

and parts....3D printed.. 2 sets for $80 from a reefer. Cases not perfect but OK.. took 14hrs for the main top each.

Looking good and I hear you on the eyes, mine have gone to crap and can't read components now without a magnifying glass, scary stuff. Hope you enjoy it.

 

[xiholdtruex]

was tinkering tonight and decided to put together the ato part fo the Robo tank....... had one pump bad I use to use it with kalk, but had 3 others new in box , swapped it out. setup the outlets for the dc ports and tested working perfect. Just waiting on the usb male to male connector and its all set.

 

[Ranjib]

was tinkering tonight and decided to put together the ato part fo the Robo tank....... had one pump bad I use to use it with kalk, but had 3 others new in box , swapped it out. setup the outlets for the dc ports and tested working perfect. Just waiting on the usb male to male connector and its all set.

Nice. I use the "Disable ATO on alert" feature for extra safety

 

[xiholdtruex]

Nice. I use the "Disable ATO on alert" feature for extra safety

Im definitely enabling , I have had atos in the past give me some scares lol there seems to be enough redunduncies with the reef pi program to allow me to sleep like a baby lol

There was something I was thinking about the other day and was wondering is there was a way to add a leak sensor to it? so that if it detects water it can kill a return pump due to a failure of another component cause a overflow of water.

 

[Ranjib]

Im definitely enabling , I have had atos in the past give me some scares lol there seems to be enough redunduncies with the reef pi program to allow me to sleep like a baby lol

There was something I was thinking about the other day and was wondering is there was a way to add a leak sensor to it? so that if it detects water it can kill a return pump due to a failure of another component cause a overflow of water.

You can. A leak detector is similar in function as ato (as in it sends on or off signal to reef-pi). You can model it as an ato and configure it to disable the other ato or pump or whatever you want using a dedicated macro

 

[robsworld78]

Im definitely enabling , I have had atos in the past give me some scares lol there seems to be enough redunduncies with the reef pi program to allow me to sleep like a baby lol

There was something I was thinking about the other day and was wondering is there was a way to add a leak sensor to it? so that if it detects water it can kill a return pump due to a failure of another component cause a overflow of water.

You can get creative, connect a 12v loud speaker to a DC port and use a macro to turn on the alarm, send an email and shut down equipment.

 

[xiholdtruex]

You can get creative, connect a 12v loud speaker to a DC port and use a macro to turn on the alarm, send an email and shut down equipment.

I was looking at the macros and was like I need to have more quite in the house to figure this out lol im going to so buy a car alarm siren and hook it up

 

[xiholdtruex]

Usb cable came in today. Finished setting up the ato configurations on the reef pi and turned on the ato setting. I was there sitting watching it fill up and noticed it was not stopping. im like hmm what is this. when it almost reached the float shut off I ran and shut it off. I did not realize the check frequency was how often the optical sensor checks for water.

FYI for everyone the default frequency is 120 secs lol so I almost dumped around 5g of ro water into my sump lol

needless to say I set it to 5secs and shut off the ato till the water goes down a little lol

this was my excitement for the night .....

 

[Ranjib]

Usb cable came in today. Finished setting up the ato configurations on the reef pi and turned on the ato setting. I was there sitting watching it fill up and noticed it was not stopping. im like hmm what is this. when it almost reached the float shut off I ran and shut it off. I did not realize the check frequency was how often the optical sensor checks for water.

FYI for everyone the default frequency is 120 secs lol so I almost dumped around 5g of ro water into my sump lol

needless to say I set it to 5secs and shut off the ato till the water goes down a little lol

this was my excitement for the night .....

If possible use a low gph pump. I use peristaltic pump, which is almost like a doser.

 

[xiholdtruex]

If possible use a low gph pump. I use peristaltic pump, which is almost like a doser.

It completely passed my mind, since I was just compiling it from parts I had here from previous diy stuff.

going to order a few of those 12v peristaltic pump heads to play with. going to setup a kalkwasser setup with one.

 

[xiholdtruex]

trying to help friend setup the ph probe. everything seems good but it keeps giving him this error. any ideas?

 

[xiholdtruex]

found these tiny buzzers which I plan to setup as a "alarm" or alert for the ato as well as the reservoir when its running dry. was going to get a siren but my wife decided it would give us all a heart attack at 2 am if I forget lol they look almost like the ones I see on appliances all day in the field for alerting when timers are up so should be decently audible.