Various Lights with different profiles overlapping

[SpyLand]

Hi, I just install (latest 5.3 from Github) Reef-pi on a Raspberry pi zero W and I'm trying to figure out how can I have sunrise, sunset, moonlight and some clouds effect using the random, but I can't see how I managed that since I couldn't understand if I overlap the start time and during 100% or in the end I manage that.

I have a two channel (blue and white) 5v PWM LED DIY lamp over my aquarium and I already setup the internal PWM pins (0 and 1) for controlling, but only normal start end works I can add other profiles mixed.
Is there a priority/order on the menu for multiple profiles sharing the same pins and times?
Is what I want to do possible?

Also I found a bug that for some reason I can't disable a channel even I save with the disabled option on it.

Any help will be good since I can't find detailed information anywhere, only the normal start/stop a light.
Thanks.

 

[SpyLand]

@Sral I see, thanks for the information, but the @robsworld78 version is the same?
Looking at the manual from the links the screens have a total different interface.
Is this the same Reef-pi ? I'm confused !?!?

 

[Sral]

@Sral I see, thanks for the information, but the @robsworld78 version is the same?
Looking at the manual from the links the screens have a total different interface.
Is this the same Reef-pi ? I'm confused !?!?

Darnit, you are right, those links were absolutely incorrect, Please ignore them. I'm terribly sorry.

You might look at this manual, section 13 "Lights", but again, as far as I know the Manual was written for Reef-Pi 4.3, not your version of 5.3, so the interface might look a little different and have more features.

If you didn't know, there are some Reef-Pi guides on Adafruit, but they are also a bit outdated. One of the guides handles the configuration and Testing of lights in Reef-Pi.

I hope I didn't confuse you too much. I'll test something on my Reef-Pi and get back to you regarding your issue.

@Ranjib I can confirm on the bug, when I edit a light and "disable" it, it stays enabled.

 

[Sral]

I tried what you wanted:

Something like a daily cycle with some random on top. I plotted these two lights in the dashboard:

When I measure my PWM output with a multimeter I sadly get a value of 16%, not the 12% from the daily cycle + the 16% from the random. So it seems that the lowest light controller wins.

What you want is however entirely possible. If not within Reef-Pi (yet) I can "easily" program you a python or C script that simply takes some dummy lights in Reef-Pi that you can use to easily control the settings, adds them up and sets your actual light.

 

[SpyLand]

I see what you are saying and tested.
I myself went with another approach not using the Diurnal profile since is a fixed one on the curve, but I create various types joined together by time, I mean when one finishes the other starts right way and so on and this is the result:

 

[Sral]

I see, in that case you could add another random proces, that adjusts the light from 70 to 100 in between the start and the end-ramp. Let me know how it turns out and whether you would like to try some of my programming suggestions

 

[SpyLand]

It's what I did.
The Nicrew-day is a random profile from min 50 to 100 max, this is another problem... the visual of the radio buttons on the interface are difficult to see the selected one. Only in edit mode they are ok.

 

[Ranjib]

Hi, I just install (latest 5.3 from Github) Reef-pi on a Raspberry pi zero W and I'm trying to figure out how can I have sunrise, sunset, moonlight and some clouds effect using the random, but I can't see how I managed that since I couldn't understand if I overlap the start time and during 100% or in the end I manage that.

I have a two channel (blue and white) 5v PWM LED DIY lamp over my aquarium and I already setup the internal PWM pins (0 and 1) for controlling, but only normal start end works I can add other profiles mixed.
Is there a priority/order on the menu for multiple profiles sharing the same pins and times?
Is what I want to do possible?

Also I found a bug that for some reason I can't disable a channel even I save with the disabled option on it.

Any help will be good since I can't find detailed information anywhere, only the normal start/stop a light.
Thanks.

Yes I just discovered the channel bug. It’s a ui bug. For the time being you can use a macro or time to enable /disable and entire light as an workaround,till I fix the ui bug

 

[Ranjib]

You can create separate lights with sesame channel and different time interval with the desired profile, then use timers to selectively turn on the relevant on and turn off the rest (can use macro for that )
While ui support is not there , the api support another profile name composite , that allows this natively . A composite profile allows stitching together different profiles at different time span for the same channel.

 

[SpyLand]

You can create separate lights with sesame channel and different time interval with the desired profile, then use timers to selectively turn on the relevant on and turn off the rest (can use macro for that )
While ui support is not there , the api support another profile name composite , that allows this natively . A composite profile allows stitching together different profiles at different time span for the same channel.

Sorry didn't understand the possibility you are saying, but going to do further tests.

Anyway what I did in the beginning is not working since during the hours that one profile is working the others are also pushing PWM to zero since for that time they are off, so the light is always going on and off.

 

[Ranjib]

Sorry didn't understand the possibility you are saying, but going to do further tests.

Anyway what I did in the beginning is not working since during the hours that one profile is working the others are also pushing PWM to zero since for that time they are off, so the light is always going on and off.

Yeah, you can use a macro to selectively disable /enable lights , to deal with it. And macros can be triggered from timers. Or just directly use timers to disable /enable lights. without this if you have multiple profiles enabled, they’ll undo each other’s effect

 

[SpyLand]

Yeah, you can use a macro to selectively disable /enable lights , to deal with it. And macros can be triggered from timers. Or just directly use timers to disable /enable lights. without this if you have multiple profiles enabled, they’ll undo each other’s effect

Not working for me, I create timers to turn on and off after xxxx seconds, but still the profiles are booth working so the light is on and off... on and off.

The first light that makes the sunrise from 0 to 100 is still on and giving 0 PWM on top of the day one, thats why the light is on and off and so on.

 

[SpyLand]

I think now I understand how this "Timers" work, and I thought things ware not working before because of the current time needs to be before the start time on the Timer itself otherwise he doesn't start has that time already passed.

So the Timers sequence needs to be correct and one Timer depends of the others and so on, if the cycle is broken for some reason like a power failure or whatever things start not working correctly and they need some sort of manual all off and them turn on the current Light profile so the cycle gets on the rail again and all goes well.

Maybe I create a Macro so I can run it and resets all on my cycle to normal operation when ever some problem occurs.

Anyway I notice that the graphs on Dashboard when a Timer disables a Light profile they also stop beeing updated with new values, this is normal I presume?

Question, instead of having the Graphs individually for each Light Channels profile, is there a way I can put only the PWM value for Blue Driver and White channel? Like using journal for example?

Is there any information anywhere how to use Journal? I search but didn't found anything.

Thanks.

 

[Ranjib]

I think now I understand how this "Timers" work, and I thought things ware not working before because of the current time needs to be before the start time on the Timer itself otherwise he doesn't start has that time already passed.

So the Timers sequence needs to be correct and one Timer depends of the others and so on, if the cycle is broken for some reason like a power failure or whatever things start not working correctly and they need some sort of manual all off and them turn on the current Light profile so the cycle gets on the rail again and all goes well.

Maybe I create a Macro so I can run it and resets all on my cycle to normal operation when ever some problem occurs.

Anyway I notice that the graphs on Dashboard when a Timer disables a Light profile they also stop beeing updated with new values, this is normal I presume?

Question, instead of having the Graphs individually for each Light Channels profile, is there a way I can put only the PWM value for Blue Driver and White channel? Like using journal for example?

Is there any information anywhere how to use Journal? I search but didn't found anything.

Thanks.

journal is more for manual logging of data, observations like test results. I am unsure if i understand your question correctly, but i think you are referring to passing the pwm value to another thing.? i am trying to understand how yjay will be used in this light profile

 

[Ranjib]

I think now I understand how this "Timers" work, and I thought things ware not working before because of the current time needs to be before the start time on the Timer itself otherwise he doesn't start has that time already passed.

So the Timers sequence needs to be correct and one Timer depends of the others and so on, if the cycle is broken for some reason like a power failure or whatever things start not working correctly and they need some sort of manual all off and them turn on the current Light profile so the cycle gets on the rail again and all goes well.

Maybe I create a Macro so I can run it and resets all on my cycle to normal operation when ever some problem occurs.

Anyway I notice that the graphs on Dashboard when a Timer disables a Light profile they also stop beeing updated with new values, this is normal I presume?

Question, instead of having the Graphs individually for each Light Channels profile, is there a way I can put only the PWM value for Blue Driver and White channel? Like using journal for example?

Is there any information anywhere how to use Journal? I search but didn't found anything.

Thanks.

yes, you are correct about the timer behavior, if you are using the revert back option. If you do not use that and instead use two different timers to switch on and off, then its should be fine. For long running tasks thats more durable setup. I should add this in the doc.

 

[SpyLand]

Hi @Ranjib , answering you:

Regarding the journal I was asking if I can make some sort of graph on dashboard giving the current PWM values for both channels (blue leds and white leds) instead of having one separated graph for each color and profile during the day as I have now that sometimes during the day that one or other profile is set off by the timers I get the normal popup errors:
{"error":"stats for id: '12' not found"} | HTTP 404

Also it will save a lot of Dashboard space since only for blue leds I have now all this profiles and I'm starting creating the rest for the white leds:

About the timers I didn't understand what you mean by the "revert back option" ?
Is this some setting elsewhere to prevent a possible out of sync/sequence timer or light issue?

 

[Sral]

You can create separate lights with sesame channel and different time interval with the desired profile, then use timers to selectively turn on the relevant on and turn off the rest (can use macro for that )
While ui support is not there , the api support another profile name composite , that allows this natively . A composite profile allows stitching together different profiles at different time span for the same channel.

Quick questions regarding this:
- I didn't find light profiles in my 5.3 Reef-Pi API description, they are not mentioned under "Lights"
- What is the intended use of "Channels" for lights ?
----> Currently I can only create single lights on the Pi PWM pins, but not several channels per light. Is that reserved for the PCA9685 driver ?