Reef-Pi The All In One Pi Challenge

[stefanm]

You need to enable the pca 9685 under settings and reboot.

Under outlets you need to set each pump head with the corresponding pin on the pi, these then need to be set as on under equipment.

 

[AquaRaider44]

You need to enable the pca 9685 under settings and reboot.

Under outlets you need to set each pump head with the corresponding pin on the pi, these then need to be set as on under equipment.

If I'm using the 0-3 pins on the pca9685 what corisponding pins do I use on the pi for the setup?

 

[stefanm]

If I'm using the 0-3 pins on the pca9685 what corisponding pins do I use on the pi for the setup?

That's correct, you also need 4 pins on for each channel to the motor driver, in my case it's 17,18,22 and 23, please see the screenshots.

 

[AquaRaider44]

That's correct, you also need 4 pins on for each channel to the motor driver, in my case it's 17,18,22 and 23, please see the screenshots.

do you actually connect these pins on the pi to anything or just use 4 fake pins which aren't in use?

 

[AquaRaider44]

That's correct, you also need 4 pins on for each channel to the motor driver, in my case it's 17,18,22 and 23, please see the screenshots.

 

[stefanm]

Actually connect them, you only need one per motor as it's for motor direction, in Ranjib's circuit he had used two pins per motor.

 

[AquaRaider44]

Actually connect them, you only need one per motor as it's for motor direction, in Ranjib's circuit he had used two pins per motor.

See I'm not sure where to connect to as I'm only using pca9685 and the uln2803

 

[stefanm]

See I'm not sure where to connect to as I'm only using pca9685 and the uln2803

Your schematic would be helpful, the uln2803 is what you are using as the motor driver?

 

[stefanm]

How are you giving 12volts out if your input is from the PCA, that will only give 5 volts?

 

[AquaRaider44]

Your schematic would be helpful, the uln2803 is what you are using as the motor driver?

I'm going to make a schematic if I can get this frizinh tj work

 

[stefanm]

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/264117/dc-motor-control-uln2803

I guess you are doing something like this, although this is Arduino the wiring should be the same, which I think yours is?

 

[AquaRaider44]

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/264117/dc-motor-control-uln2803

I guess you are doing something like this, although this is Arduino the wiring should be the same, which I think yours is?

my setup is similar to this. nearly exact.

 

[AquaRaider44]

How to test if the PCA 9685 or ULN 2803 is working properly? because when I bypass them and directly jump from the output side of the ULN which goes to the dosing signal wires to ground the doser works. this rail is grounded on a wire on the back which you cant see.

 

[Ranjib]

See I'm not sure where to connect to as I'm only using pca9685 and the uln2803

Can you cross check your setup with this : https://learn.adafruit.com/reef-pi-guide-5-dosing-controller/circuit-construction
Use the pca9685 to replace pi pin 18 and 19 pwm output, rest all 4 pins need to be connected to pi gpio for on /off /directional control. Connect one pair to gnd and another pair to 3.3 v rail.
In short, your en1 and en2 pin needs pwm output while in1/in2 /in3/in4 needs 3.3v or gnd .

 

[Ranjib]

How to test if the PCA 9685 or ULN 2803 is working properly? because when I bypass them and directly jump from the output side of the ULN which goes to the dosing signal wires to ground the doser works. this rail is grounded on a wire on the back which you cant see.

With everything soldered already it’s complicated. I’ll say to test the pca9685 , declare a jack with another pin (5 for example) , declare a light or doser with that jack and then set the speed/intensity to 50%, and then you can check the voltage with multimeter

 

[AquaRaider44]

Can you cross check your setup with this : https://learn.adafruit.com/reef-pi-guide-5-dosing-controller/circuit-construction
Use the pca9685 to replace pi pin 18 and 19 pwm output, rest all 4 pins need to be connected to pi gpio for on /off /directional control. Connect one pair to gnd and another pair to 3.3 v rail.
In short, your en1 and en2 pin needs pwm output while in1/in2 /in3/in4 needs 3.3v or gnd .

With everything soldered already it’s complicated. I’ll say to test the pca9685 , declare a jack with another pin (5 for example) , declare a light or doser with that jack and then set the speed/intensity to 50%, and then you can check the voltage with multimeter

@Ranjib thank you so much I just found a really weird bug. I'm not sure if it's my fault or not. So all these times I tried to run the doser at 100% speed and when I just tried 50% speed it actually worked. The doser works at all speeds from 1% to 99% but not 100%. Any ideas on what would cause this?

 

[stefanm]

@Ranjib thank you so much I just found a really weird bug. I'm not sure if it's my fault or not. So all these times I tried to run the doser at 100% speed and when I just tried 50% speed it actually worked. The doser works at all speeds from 1% to 99% but not 100%. Any ideas on what would cause this?

I forgot to state, it won't do anything at 100% it has to be 99% or less....that ''bug" was mentioned somewhere on the main thread, I knew of it before I built mine.

I run my dosers at 60% 2 seconds per hour gives 23 ml of solution per day using Randy's recipe 1, half an hour apart for alk and calcium, I'll set my magnesium up tomorrow as I have a good equilibrium now ( I hope).

 

[AquaRaider44]

I forgot to state, it won't do anything at 100% it has to be 99% or less....that ''bug" was mentioned somewhere on the main thread, I knew of it before I built mine.

I run my dosers at 60% 2 seconds per hour gives 23 ml of solution per day using Randy's recipe 1, half an hour apart for alk and calcium, I'll set my magnesium up tomorrow as I have a good equilibrium now ( I hope).

Why tf doesn't it warn this anywhere in the build lol. Or put out a dang fix asap. It seriously cant be that hard. I spent so many hours last night and today on this.

 

[stefanm]

Why tf doesn't it warn this anywhere in the build lol. Or put out a dang fix asap. It seriously cant be that hard. I spent so many hours last night and today on this.

Lol, it's quite annoying, I actually meant to mention that earlier, look on the bright side it works and all is well that ends well, for me getting the dp4s working made a huge difference in my tank, it's actually made me lazy with maintenance, though I don't do much anyway...

 

[Ranjib]

Agree, I think we forget this. Can you file a bug in GitHub , that way I can make sure I address this as part of next 2.4 build