Troutt's Reef-Pi Build

UNLEASH THE FULL POTENTIAL OF YOUR REEF
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Jonathan Troutt said:
@theatrus

New raspberry pi solves my issue. Both PCA9685 modules are good. Some how I damaged the i2c bus on the first raspberry pi.....bummer.

At least I got it up and running.

@Diamond1
my lights work exactly like yours do. I was thinking about how to wire my lights to my reef-pi.

I have a abundance of ethernet cat5e cable laying around. I was thinking I could use it for this purpose. I feel like it would be perfect. 8 wires, 4 for each driver. Get a jack and mount it right to the back of my light and the same for my enclosure for my reef-pi.

My only question is the wires are a small gauge obviously I know I wouldn't have an issue with the PWM and GND. But would running 12v through a relay and back to on/off be a problem for cat5e?
Click to expand...


I have no problems with the cat 5 cable I'm using. The amperage is less than 1 amp at 12v dc so it works with no issues. Also I'm only running about 3 feet of cable so i don't have any noticeable voltage drop that would cause more amps to be drawn and heat the wire up.
Cat 6 would probably be better for the extra insulation but I haven't noticed any interference between the 12v and the pwm signal or any other interference from outside sources including the power cable from the light itself.
Cat5 is used for POE (power over ethernet) devices like surveillance cameras that use 5v 2.5 Amp or 12v 1 Amp dc power so I think it should be good for our lights.

I suck at figuring out circuits. That's why I used the relays. It was a quick solution and switching a 12v dc line with a 120v 15 amp relay seemed a safe bet without doing the math.
 
Tidal Gardens
Diamond1 said:
I have no problems with the cat 5 cable I'm using. The amperage is less than 1 amp at 12v dc so it works with no issues. Also I'm only running about 3 feet of cable so i don't have any noticeable voltage drop that would cause more amps to be drawn and heat the wire up.
Cat 6 would probably be better for the extra insulation but I haven't noticed any interference between the 12v and the pwm signal or any other interference from outside sources including the power cable from the light itself.
Cat5 is used for POE (power over ethernet) devices like surveillance cameras that use 5v 2.5 Amp or 12v 1 Amp dc power so I think it should be good for our lights.

I suck at figuring out circuits. That's why I used the relays. It was a quick solution and switching a 12v dc line with a 120v 15 amp relay seemed a safe bet without doing the math.
Click to expand...


Using a darlington it should be as simple as instead of running the outputs to the relay you run them to the on/off plug in the drivers.

Think about it this way the ULQ2803a is an 8 switch array. You are already feeding it 12v to power the relays when the raspberry pi says hey with 3.3v. Which ever input says hey the corresponding output says well here is 12v. You are energizing relays. I will be turning on drivers.

Using the relays you are using a group of switches to control a group of switches to flip a switch.
 
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Diamond1 said:
Glad to hear you figured out what was up with the pca 9685.

R.I.P. Raspberry pi.
I have smoked a couple messing around.
Click to expand...
Yeah it’s unfortunate I would like to fix it but I don’t see any noticeable damage.
 
Jonathan Troutt said:
Using a darlington it should be as simple as instead of running the outputs to the relay you run them to the on/off plug in the drivers.

Think about it this way the ULQ2803a is an 8 switch array. You are already feeding it 12v to power the relays when the raspberry pi says hey with 3.3v. Which ever input says hey the corresponding output says well here is 12v. You are energizing relays. I will be turning on drivers.

Using the relays you are using a group of switches to control a group of switches to flip a switch.
Click to expand...
With a bunch of 1 and zeros.
Don't know why but this made me laugh. I like your analogy!
 
Jonathan Troutt said:
Yeah it’s unfortunate I would like to fix it but I don’t see any noticeable damage.
Click to expand...

Most likely destroyed the actual GPIO pin structure - there really is no way of fixing this. Since the RPi is built on a smaller semiconductor process all of the ports get more and more fragile.
 
@Diamond1 hey man my drivers have this pot labeled min set. (See pic) was wondering if yours do as well

I can lower the brightness of my leds at minimum and it doesn’t effect the brightsness at high percentages. I would like to figure out what the rest of the pots do.

image.jpg
 
Diamond1 said:
No mine don't have anything adjustable like that.
Is that something like a buck converter to control the min and max wattage?
Click to expand...

You know I haven’t done any measuring when turning the pot. I will find out tomorrow when I open it back up.

I am also going to adding a moonlight channel to both lights. Should be able to drive them straight from the darlington. I’m excited for this weekend should be productive for reef-pi
 
Nutramar Foods
Jonathan Troutt said:
So I have decided since I have them on hand I am just going to use a darlington transistor array. Should work perfect for what I am trying to do. Will post pictures when it is done!!
Click to expand...
I was just going to mention using a uln2003 or 2803 if you already had one on hand, they are easy to use since most of the bias resistors etc are already built in.
 
Alrighty got the hole cut and the frame in for my lcd.

Plastic welded in place and then using plastic putty to smooth everything out. Waiting on first coat of putty to dry the sand and then one more coat.

After that the lid is going to be sprayed probably black or maybe a dark blue

A3167717-2706-4763-8BA7-5FA33770BC0F.jpeg
 
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Diamond1 said:
No I haven't tested that but I'm using a 2.5 amp 12v and a 2.5 amp 5volt for power supplies while I'm testing some things.
The 5v supply is a little bit under powered so I just ordered this and I'll be swapping this out for the current power supply and leaving the 12v for dosing pumps.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005T6UJBU/ref=ox_sc_mini_detail?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Click to expand...
Cant go wrong with a meanwell power supply, im thinking of doing the same thing, and 8 bux is cheaper than the crappy 2 amp wallwarts!
 
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@Diamond1 that’s fair

Hey let me ask you this question. With the wykat boards. I don’t have u1 yet so that spot is open but the darlington transistors are not putting out the right voltage. I see voltage on the output pins but less than a volt on the 5v darlington that drive my power outlets and just a tad over a volt for the one that is supposed to drive my led drivers.

I cut the trace that originally cut the trace on the board that fed one of the darlingtons 5v and hard wired a 12v line to that pin. Not sure what is going on.
 
www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com
That sounds right...the darlington does not output voltage, it sinks current to ground!
So when u have an pi output to the darlington ON the darlington pulls its output to ground(actually pulls it to .7 volts or so)

What type of relay board do you have? I can explain better if i knew your relay setup
 
Bigtrout said:
That sounds right...the darlington does not output voltage, it sinks current to ground!
So when u have an pi output to the darlington ON the darlington pulls its output to ground(actually pulls it to .7 volts or so)
Click to expand...


Wow I’m confused muhahaha. Ok. So I figured I could use the darling as a switch to turn on my drivers. My drivers require a it’s on/off to be at 12v to turn on. Can I not use a darlington for this purpose?
 

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