Troutt's Reef-Pi Build

[Jonathan Troutt]

So PH boards are almost here. Should have them by the end of the week!

 

[Jonathan Troutt]

Hey hey DHL outside themselves this time. I just got shipping notification on Saturday.

Time to order parts!!

 

[Diamond1]

Those look sweet! Hope they work as good as they look.

 

[Ranjib]

Hey hey DHL outside themselves this time. I just got shipping notification on Saturday.

Time to order parts!!

These are the pH boards? sweet.. i have the green ones from Roberto

 

[Jonathan Troutt]

These are the pH boards? sweet.. i have the green ones from Roberto

Yes these are the PH boards. I placed in order for parts. I basically ordered all the cheap parts for everyone and then the 3 expensive components I ordered enough to build 4 boards currently. Will order the rest next pay check

 

[Bigtrout]

You have alot of soldering to do, are you hand soldering all of these?

 

[Jonathan Troutt]

You have alot of soldering to do, are you hand soldering all of these?

I mean I could. But I will probably. Hot plate solder these. Be much easier. I could also do hot air if I’m careful but with some components being so small it could be challenging. Unless I heated the bottom of the board with the hot air but then I’m doing the same thing as a hot plate. I will probably use my hot plate. Lol

Yip hot plate it is plate

 

[Jonathan Troutt]

You have alot of soldering to do, are you hand soldering all of these?

You seem very knowledgeable with all this stuff. I am going experience with building circuits and repairing PCB’s and such. My experience is lacking in designing. I understand the basics and can usually figure stuff out but sometimes need help. As you experienced. You sir helped me tremendously with the whole turning on the drivers with the darlington array! Thank you again for that!

 

[Bigtrout]

No problem, i have the opposite experience...ok at soldering, but im a good troubleshooter and good at designing and making things work, if it cant be hand soldered easily, I dont wanna fool with it. I have enough hobbies that need special equipment

 

[Diamond1]

How big are these boards?
Is there enough room on the corners to drill holes for stand offs?

 

[Jonathan Troutt]

How big are these boards?
Is there enough room on the corners to drill holes for stand offs?

Here an idea sorry cannot find my ruler currently but yes there is room to drill.

 

[Bigtrout]

They look like robertos boards in a different color, and on his thread I believe i read that there was room for holes in the corners.
Might be a little close in the upper left corner by c4, but three holes in a board that size should be ok.

 

[Jonathan Troutt]

They look like robertos boards in a different color, and on his thread I believe i read that there was room for holes in the corners.

Yes same board I just got em in black. I enjoy black. And purple. Almost did purple. But decided on black

 

[Diamond1]

That's next to a wykat board right? I'm trying to figure out if that will work with my main pi or if I have to tie into my lighting controller pi.

 

[Jonathan Troutt]

That's next to a wykat board right? I'm trying to figure out if that will work with my main pi or if I have to tie into my lighting controller pi.

Yes sir that’s a wykat hat above it!

 

[Bigtrout]

That's next to a wykat board right? I'm trying to figure out if that will work with my main pi or if I have to tie into my lighting controller pi.

Too bad Mike Lane is outta his premade boards, his had everything on them , 9 pwm channels via pca9685(6 light and 3 doser), 2 ato, 2 ph, a uln2803 seperately powered, and 8 gpio that could be used with a optoisolated relay(or broken out for whatever And the 5v on the board also powers the rasp pi. Mrs Santa snagged the last one for me.

 

[Diamond1]

Since I'm not going to be using the wykat pwm board I believe I can just tie the ph board into the 4 connectors here. Pretty much plug n play.

 

[Diamond1]

Too bad Mike Lane is outta his premade boards, his had everything on them , 9 pwm channels via pca9685(6 light and 3 doser), 2 ato, 2 ph, a uln2803 seperately powered, and 8 gpio that could be used with a optoisolated relay(or broken out for whatever And the 5v on the board also powers the rasp pi. Mrs Santa snagged the last one for me.

Yeah I really like Michael Lanes boards too.

 

[Bigtrout]

Since I'm not going to be using the wykat pwm board I believe I can just tie the ph board into the 4 connectors here. Pretty much plug n play.

Good thinking!

Does anyone know what ph probe gets used with these boards? I suppose you get what you pay for but what am I going to need to start looking for.
I know that it needs to be one for continuous use...but do all the probes with bnc connectors work pretty much the same?

 

[Diamond1]

I'm pretty sure you can use any ph probe with a bnc connector but like anything else you get what you pay for. My understanding is double junction probes are better. They last longer and are not prone to drifting and they don't need calibration as often.
The proteins and metals in the water can cause a single junction probe to wear out faster than the double junction probes. I'm going to get a cheapo 15 or 20 dollar single junction probe from amazon for testing before I jump up to a 70 or 80 dollar Atlas Scientific probe.