Robo-Tank Build Journal

rueric · Apr 24, 2021

Following this thread ^ I'm starting my journey into reef-pi as well and possibly going for the robotank too.
I have a background in IT but not much with electrical work so this stuff still makes me a bit nervous.
Looking to place an order for the Robotank DIY Deluxe soon, Rob I'll try and catch you when you're free so I can ask some rapid-fire super noob questions to help fill in some knowledge gaps on my end.
I'm primarily looking for the following capabilities, Temp/PH/Doser

swisschris104 · Apr 27, 2021

rueric said:
Following this thread ^ I'm starting my journey into reef-pi as well and possibly going for the robotank too.
I have a background in IT but not much with electrical work so this stuff still makes me a bit nervous.
Looking to place an order for the Robotank DIY Deluxe soon, Rob I'll try and catch you when you're free so I can ask some rapid-fire super noob questions to help fill in some knowledge gaps on my end.
I'm primarily looking for the following capabilities, Temp/PH/Doser

Thanks,

It can easily handle those things. I am posting update now.

swisschris104 · Apr 27, 2021

Robo Tank Update 4/28/2019

Got the 60G cube up and running so I am now starting to get Reef-Pi configured and everything setup. Sorry, I have been a bit busy, so just kinda threw this together.

Lights

I am using Nicrew lights which have the 0-10vdc 3.5mm port on them.
I spent way too much money trying to get this to work. I was buying TRS cables on amazon and when I would cut the cable it would be unusable wires inside. I went to a local store called 5 below and bought as 6-foot cable there and the ground was just exposed/non insulated copper strands, which turned out to not be a such a good ground. In the future I will buy a cable on amazon that is just TRS to bare wire/open end like this: amazon(dot)com/dp/B0813CQYRV
I ultimately got this working buy using a small TRS cable that I had lying and soldering a longer cable onto it, because I was sick of spending money on it, but it worked out
Remember to change the switches on the Robo-Tank Board, or you will have flickering

(Blurry pic, but top two switches off, and bottom two on)
In Reef-PI I configured the Two Pins as a single jack so that I could control both the blue and white lights under a single lighting profile
Created the lighting profile using sine
- Blues come on at 9:00AM and turns off at 9:00PM, Whites come one at 10:00AM and Turns off at 8:00PM
- To find the Minimum of the lights I just had to play with the values and see what the lowest value that I could put where the lights will turn on and work properly. (Blues were 20, whites were 10)
Sine gradually increase intensity until middle of time schedule, and slowly ramps down from there (Like normal sun light.) Refer to this Github page: https://github.com/reef-pi/reef-pi/issues/859
Lights have been working perfectly thus far with no issues(besides annoying fans -_- ).

Equipment:

Mounted the power box using 15-pound Velcro, and it held fine, however I did not put it in a safe spot, sprung a leak and had to remove it (it did not get wet). The Velcro came from the back of the power box so I will have to remount that.

Labeled all power bricks
Outlet power box works as you would expect, as I said before just use the thumbscrews on the db9 cable.
DC1 – 3 will require you to add a jumper wire (-)to(+) in the float switch connector for them to function.

Temperature:

Completely plug and play.
I got a few errors via emails saying but I think I may just have a bad probe that was going in and out. Issue stopped occurring on its own. Not sure what this behavior would have on the heater that is being controlled by the temp probe.
Using two sensors, one in sump and one if overflow on tank

Dosing pumps/ATO Pumps

I ended up getting 4 pumps instead of one. Even If I do not use them all right now. It will save me the hassle if one dies, and if I ever want to add more It won’t be a pain.
To mount these pumps, I bought a 2x4 and drilled holes into them for the dosing pumps and ato pump to fit.
After mounting and screwing them in I soldered the wires that would be used to the (-) and (+) on the pumps
I then labeled what each cable using label maker and put scotch tape over them just so they do not just fall off
Final Results:
I have not setup dosing pumps in reef-pi yet, however during my testing I found that 50% speed = 1 ml a sec

FOR ATO
The pump is mounted to the top of the 2x4
I am using DC1 for the ATO pump, so there is a backup float switch that will turn ATO pump off if optical sensor fails or something goes haywire
For the mount I am using the 3d printed optical and float sensor mount that you can 3D print. The problem I ran into was finding Reef-safe magnets. So for now I just got normal magnets and coated them in silicon to keep them reef-safe.
I purchased a different sensor holder instead, but it is coming from china, so it will take a while to get to me. Since it doesn’t use magnet, it should hopefully probe to be more reliable from me knocking it over or moving it.
I am using a 2 gallon cereal container as ATO and mixing Kalk in the ATO (I will drill hold in top to hold the hose)
Configured ATO using the following
- Planning to turn on disable on alert.
- Planning to change check frequency to 3-5 seconds
Purchased Soft tube holder to hold the ATO hose that returns water to tank (You want the ATO tube to be higher than the water level in ATO reservoir)

PH

Ran into one problem more problem with PH, worked with rob and he quickly figured out the cause and got it resolved for all future boards. He will be shipping me out another board.

Other:

I wired a magnetic switch and light to dc2 so when I open the door the light turns on. Was easier to do this with Robo tank than adding another power brick plugged into the wall
I have not got the point of setting up Macros, Timers, or dosing pumps yet, just because setting up a new tank and getting it to run quietly with no leaks without setting up controller is already a lot of work but will have that done soon. I plan to cut that 2x4 holding the dosing pumps and being able to fit a container.
I decided not to hook my small wavemaker to PWM channels on board, just because I never adjust them and I am fine with using controller when wanting to increase the flow, just because i can use reef-pi doesn't mean i should
I also purchased this silencer for filter socks, they should come in soon

Will be getting this dosing container

robsworld78 · Apr 28, 2021

Sounding good, thanks for posting that cable, that'll be easy to work with as the wires are stripped too.

Here's some plastic coated magnets, they should be safe. I have some and they have no funny smell or anything.

Search Results+

www.magnet4sale.com

rueric · Apr 28, 2021

What motors are you using for the ATO pumps?

swisschris104 · Apr 28, 2021

robsworld78 said:
Sounding good, thanks for posting that cable, that'll be easy to work with as the wires are stripped too.

Here's some plastic coated magnets, they should be safe. I have some and they have no funny smell or anything.

Search Results+

www.magnet4sale.com

Aha thanks perfect. I was looking for these magnets. just ordered some!

swisschris104 · Apr 28, 2021

rueric said:
What motors are you using for the ATO pumps?

A R385 Diaphragm Pump:

https://www.amazon(dot)com/gp/product/B0744FWNFR/

swisschris104 · May 13, 2021

Small update (Since i have not really done much)

PH

Got board and PH is working properly now.
You might notice the weird number at the top. There is just a long decimal after calibration, however this is a known issue with reef-pi not rounding after calibration

ATO

Nothing has changed with configuration. It has been working with no issues.
Found a new container on amazon that holds about 4 gallons, which works much better

(The big jumps were caused by me messing around in the tank)

(https://www.amazon(dot)com/gp/product/B07LGNV26V/)

Auto Feeder:
Got the Eheim Auto Feeder
Used the following guide to figure out where to solider cables to use with reef-pi: https://www.robo-tank.ca/Connect_Eheim_Auto_Feeder

(Board with no cable added)

(Cables added )

(Video of it plugged in and powered on)

Macros and Timers

I could not get timers to activate macros, I tried the reversing the macros but could not get it to work, so i gave up and created individual timers for each task for now, and some manual activated macros that i will run when manually dosing

Temp Sensor

My sensors keep throwing error every few days that says "Temperature sensor failure. Errorpen /sys/bus/w1/devices/28-0301a279e986/w1_slave: no such file or directory"
I will be switching to Spark Fun DS18B20 sensor - Hopefully this works, if it does I will be buying a 2nd.

Whats next:

Leak detector
Dosing (maybe, right now i am using kalk and dont need to dose two part, but will dose trace)
Optical sensor for overflow to make sure water levels don't rise too much (going to be adding gate valve to drain)
Flow sensor on return from reactor (Since it is easier to set up)
Flow sensor on return piping if all goes well with flow sensor on reactor

Dukereefnz · May 17, 2021

Well done, let us know about the temp sensor.

rueric · Jun 21, 2021

Hi, still following this thread. Have you set up your ATO yet using the Non-optical water sensor/optical sensor/float valve?
What macro are you using if any?

swisschris104 · Jun 25, 2021

rueric said:
Hi, still following this thread. Have you set up your ATO yet using the Non-optical water sensor/optical sensor/float valve?
What macro are you using if any?

Hey sorry for late reply. I silicones the optical sensor and haven’t had any issues so I don’t think I will change it.

swisschris104 · Jun 25, 2021

Dukereefnz said:
Well done, let us know about the temp sensor.

I got the sensor but haven’t installed it yet. :/. Planning to this weekend and will let you know how it goes.

Ranjib · Jul 10, 2021

Looking awesome so far

. Thank you for sharing

mytdbm · Nov 8, 2021

Thanks for sharing. Great info.
Any updates on your Robo-tank setup. Just ordered it. Reading to learn as much as I can before it gets delivered. So much to learn.

swisschris104 · Nov 17, 2021

mytdbm said:
Thanks for sharing. Great info.
Any updates on your Robo-tank setup. Just ordered it. Reading to learn as much as I can before it gets delivered. So much to learn.

The tank has literally been on autopilot. Everything is still working and my ATO is not working. I tried changing senors, reversing port, and everything but couldn't figure it out.

To work past this I decided to just set up a timer in reef-pi to run the ATO pump for 2 seconds every 30 minutes and it keeps me topped off perfectly and make sure my Kalk is spread out evenly 24/7, and no big jumps in PH.

I had a lot of SPS in the tank and they all died due to my negligence in taking care of the tank, but the reef-pi was able to keep all my softies, LPS, and tough SPS alive.

I am happy with my purchase and setup. I barely have to touch the thing anymore, or change anything. I will be moving in May and will be tearing down the tank and resetting up, so I may document that process in this thread, and add the additional things I want such as

KASA powerstrip
UV
Leak detectors

At this point, I am just waiting for a software update for reef-pi to try

robsworld78 · Nov 24, 2021

swisschris104 said:
The tank has literally been on autopilot. Everything is still working and my ATO is not working. I tried changing senors, reversing port, and everything but couldn't figure it out.

To work past this I decided to just set up a timer in reef-pi to run the ATO pump for 2 seconds every 30 minutes and it keeps me topped off perfectly and make sure my Kalk is spread out evenly 24/7, and no big jumps in PH.

I had a lot of SPS in the tank and they all died due to my negligence in taking care of the tank, but the reef-pi was able to keep all my softies, LPS, and tough SPS alive.

I am happy with my purchase and setup. I barely have to touch the thing anymore, or change anything. I will be moving in May and will be tearing down the tank and resetting up, so I may document that process in this thread, and add the additional things I want such as

KASA powerstrip
UV
Leak detectors

At this point, I am just waiting for a software update for reef-pi to try

For your ATO did I supply the USB cable or did you get one? I think back then I wasn't sending them, turns out there's 3 different pinouts for USB cables and the one needed seems least available. I'll send you a cable if that's it.

MikeSpike · Dec 16, 2021

swisschris104 said:
I've been playing around with getting a few more things functioning, but i wont bore you guys with that right now. New board should hopefully be in by end of next week at the same time as i should be getting new tank, so it works out.

For now I will show you how i am using iOS webclips to make the reef-pi website appear as an "full screen app" on my phone. Hope someone finds this useful

Reef-Pi "IOS App”.

Go to https://routinehub.co/shortcut/8519/ (There may be a)from your iPhone

Choose Get shortcut

The shortcuts app should automatically open and you have to choose “Add Untrusted Shorcut”
(You are unable to add untrusted shortcuts unless you enable allow untrusted shortcuts in your iphone settings)

Download a image that you want to use as the your icon

Run the “Make app from URL” shortcut (shortcut that you just installed)

Enter the information when prompted (You don’t have to use the same as me, if you have port forwarding setup use you WAN IP or FQDN instead of private IP so it works from anywhere)

Click done and it will redirect you to a website/download. Allow the website to download the profile

Go to settings -> General -> Profiles ..Click the downloaded profile and choose installon the top right. I will just install the fullscreen webclip. You are not installing some sort of MDM profile that will have partial control over your phone

The "app" will now appear on your home screen ()

It is just fullscreen copy of the website, but it just looks nicer than accessing it through web browser and easier to get to

Randomly just came across this. This is genius!!

swisschris104 · Dec 22, 2021

robsworld78 said:
For your ATO did I supply the USB cable or did you get one? I think back then I wasn't sending them, turns out there's 3 different pinouts for USB cables and the one needed seems least available. I'll send you a cable if that's it.

Thanks, I think i got the right straight-through USB cable, but just in casesdo you know of a amazon link of the correct cable. No need to send a cable. Thanks though!

swisschris104 · Dec 22, 2021

MikeSpike said:
Randomly just came across this. This is genius!!

Thank you. I am happy to hear that. Glad that thread is still useful to people!

robsworld78 · Dec 22, 2021

swisschris104 said:
Thanks, I think i got the right straight-through USB cable, but just in casesdo you know of a amazon link of the correct cable. No need to send a cable. Thanks though!

Unfortunately it's a guessing game as none state the pinouts. I get mine in Canada but it's their own brand so it would be cheaper for me to send one. If do you need one don't hesitate to contact me, it's no problem. Thankfully this is a problem of the past.