Raspberry Pi project

[J4CKO]

I want to get my Pi set up with a temp sensor in my Aquarium that updates a webpage or some other method so I can keep an eye on the temperature, plus any other possibilities for interesting features.

Any suggestions as to where to start, already got the pi and there is loads of space and power in the cabinet below.

WHats the best programming language to use

[J4CKO]

ging84 said:

don't try and write anything from scratch, use an existing monitoring platform like nagios

Cool, use Nagios at work for server monitoring.

[J4CKO]

Going to dig my Pi out tomorrow, it is currently living in an Atari 2600 I built for retro among, finished but never bothered with, will get it up and running again.

First step after that is getting it sensing temps.

I may get a small screen, but am guessing for these kinds of applications you set it up to boot and do its thing without most of the time ?

Once I get it reading the temp will look to broadcast it somehow and maybe to do alert texts to my phone if it goes to high or low, could do with a heartbeat kind of thing in case we lose power do it alerts me if it can't communicate with the pi.

Might use it to turn the lights on and off as well eventually.

Oh and an webcam could be cool

[J4CKO]

Purity14 said:

Personally, Id use an arduino for that.
Id get a small lcd display for an in situ output.
Or add an ethernet shield and get a webserver online.

How come, already got a Pi 2, was sat in my Atar. but I never used it.

I might bung a screen on it and stick it behind the fish tank, techno tank

Any suggestion on a small Pi screen, will prob just use one of those bluetooth mini keyboards to control it, or do you lot just RDP to them ? have a computer in that room


Which distro do you lot use, it currently has Retropie on it, am guessing that isnt ideal !

I am going to read up a bit more on the GPIO side of things

[J4CKO]

Ordered the sensors, breadboard and jumpers.

[J4CKO]

TonyRPH said:

Purity14 said:

Personally, Id use an arduino for that.
Id get a small lcd display for an in situ output.
Or add an ethernet shield and get a webserver online.

I would have done the same.

Using a Pi is overkill - you need an OS, then to write your monitoring app (or scripts for it) when it could all run on an Arduino.

But if the OP is more confortable using a Pi and already has one, well...

Yeah, the PI is sat there, by no means an expert but am familiar with it.

Will have a look at Arduinos, mainly as I want to know more about them.

[J4CKO]

Purity14 said:

Personally, Id use an arduino for that.
Id get a small lcd display for an in situ output.
Or add an ethernet shield and get a webserver online.

I took your advice, ordered an Arduino Uno last night, arrived at lunch time !

Got it set up and just done the LED blink programme so made a modest start, still waiting for the temp sensors.

I kind of like the simplicity of the Arduino

[J4CKO]

Going to order the rest of the bits soon, so setting the scope of what I want to do, using this as my brain dump for future reference.

Arduino to monitor Tank Temperature and PH.

To Switch Lights on and off on a timed basis

Alert me if Temp or PH goes out of bounds via a text

Upload data to a webpage

I would like the Arduino to be powers off the mains but with a battery back up, not sure how that would work with the alerting aspect, as log as it could send an SMS.

Got the Arduino,
Temp probes on the way
research PH monitoring

Need,

Battery back up method
Possibly a Real Time Clock but can get the time from the Network with a Ethernet Shield ?
GSM Sheild, hopefully combined with Ethernet
Display for the temp/Ph
Some veroboard
A bigger Breadboard
Pack of resistors

[J4CKO]

ash73 said:

Don't forget the 4.7kOhm resistor for the temp sensor.

Yeah, will get a job lot and make sure it has that value in, need to remember how to read the values off them again.

Might get a new soldering iron kit, mine is crap, any suggestions ?

[J4CKO]

ash73 said:

Don't forget the 4.7kOhm resistor for the temp sensor.

Yeah, will get a job lot and make sure it has that value in, need to remember how to read the values off them again.

Might get a new soldering iron kit, mine is crap, any suggestions ?

[J4CKO]

TonyRPH said:

@J4CKO

Just to give you a little Arduino inspiration

Oo, whats it doing ?

[J4CKO]

TonyRPH said:

J4CKO said:

Oo, whats it doing ?

It's a DDS (Direct Digital Synthesis) signal generator using an AD9850 chip / module.

It generated sine waves / square waves 1Hz to 40mHz.

More details here

I'm glad there are so many useful examples on the internet, because I wouldn't have had a clue where to start!

I also stumbled across this temperature monitor which is what I think you're wanting to do?

At the risk of sounding like the cat from Red Dwarf "But what is it ? "


My temp sensors have finally arrived, going to make a list and order the rest of the gubbins over the weekend, just been paid !

[J4CKO]

Stuff ordered,

2 mains relays (yeah I know, be careful)
Stater kit, full of all sorts of useful bits
Power lead, instead of the usb for power
Resistors, need a 2700 ohm pull up and not got any so not been able to try the sensors yet.

Will worry about comms side when I have it sensing and displaying temps and controlling the lights, though not sure how to do timings of the lights as it doesnt have a RTC

[J4CKO]

Zad, Am using an Arduino at this point, may still use the Pi, not sure, will get trying stuff when its here.

I am not too bad at soldering, used to work in an electronics place so got taught and got lots of hands on, still do the odd bit, key thing was always a good iron, most are crap.

[J4CKO]

Progress, well for me it was,

Got all the bits arrive so after a bit of faffing about got the LCD screen reading "Hello World !" with a counting timer, seconds since restart, as per one of the Arduino demos.

My soldering skills and kit arent great, but manage to get 16 header pins on the display, tomorrow nigth I will endeavour to get the temp probe up and running and displaying the temperature.

[J4CKO]

spants said:

If you are looking at Ardunios - try an ESP8266 instead.

Faster, built in wifi and can use Arduino code and IDE to program it.
For simple applications, you can upload ESPEASY code. This code is web configured, supports lots of sensors.

For controlling stuff (and dashboards) look at Node Red (runs on Pi etc). There are lots of web services that are free/cheap including IBM Watson Bluemix.
Search for "bluemix recipes" and pi/arduino/esp8266 or whatever. Bluemix is free for 30days then needs a credit card (but most items have a free tier that home users should stay under!).

(Disclaimer - I work for Big Blue)

Will have a look, dont think faster is a consideration for monitoring Tropical Fish but the wifi may be useful if the board is cheaper than buying an Ethernet shield.

Got the temp sensor reading.


Ordered a soldering station from Amazon and some new solder/tips, gets a decent review and should be tonnes better than the old thing I have.

So have ticked off

Temp Sensor reading
Updating the display,

Now need to put those together,

Get it so it can text me, alert for low/high temp/loss of mains power
Set it up with a battery back up
Set up the relays to do the lights
Work out how to time/override the lights

Then package it all up and make it resillient and relaible, got some veroboard coming to make the circuits permanent.

[J4CKO]

ash73 said:

TonyRPH said:

And a video comparing the two Pi Zero vs Chip (the C.H.I.P lost on video playback)

No HDMI? Still, at £10 who cares just buy both and have a play. I ordered an Arduino as it has analogue inputs, I may use it to do all the interfacing; seems a good way to protect the Pi.

OP sounds like you're making good progress!

Yeah, cheers, there was just enough agro to make it a little challenging, but not enough to put me off.

[J4CKO]

Oh my god, thought my soldering iron was ok, got a £50 Maplin soldering station off Amazon, what a revelation, a joy to use and so much more accurate and easy to get things to do what you want, it does what you think it should do, thinner gauge solder thai snt 11 years old helps as well.

[J4CKO]

Am progressing slowly with this, got my garage set up to do the stuff rather than my work desk, have to stand up but there is a pc, decent light, magnifier etc.

Was pondering where to put the display for the fist tank monitor, cut a hole in the cabinet etc etc, was thinking ti might look cool if I put it in the tank but obviously would need to be properly waterproof, do you think it is possible to put a display (not sure what type yet) in something, underwater and run a cable to it, was thinking of using an ethernet cable as it has multiple cores to the pins on the display, my current 2 line one needs like 8 wires so that works but would it be possible to water proof long term, would look cool stuck on the inside but not if it fills with water, electrocutes/poisons all my fish !

[J4CKO]

Thanks Tony, that is useful to know but need to make it waterproof, was thinking, get it all working (the display) and then encase it in epoxy