reef-pi - A raspberry pi based open source reef tank controller exhibit at makerfaire

[Ranjib]

I am exhibiting reef-pi, a raspberry pi based open source controller in Bay Area Maker Fair. I have couple of pico reef tank powered by reef-pi in display. Kids love the corals :-) , got lots of good feedback/interests. Here are some snaps

 

 

 

 

if any of you are attending the Bay Area makerfaire, please drop by and say hi

[Ranjib]

reef-pi exhibit received blue ribbon (editors choice award) at maker faire :-)

Lots of people loved watching reef tanks :/)

most didn't realize these are live corals

 

 

Some of the existing reefers gave feedback on the usability of reef-pi ui

 

[MeepNand]

Wow, I can't believe I missed this- I was there for two days! Do you have any specs/ price list/ store?

[Ranjib]

reef-pi projects home page has all the details , including Bill of Materials and details of the two pico reef tanks with equipments. My goal with this project was to make reef keeping possible in a small space, with less than 600$ (USD) and less than an hour weekly maintenance, while reducing coral fatalities. I have not mentioned individual component prices in the document as they vary always (like the tank price changes anywhere from 30-60$), but overall things should be under 600$ USD. It should be also be possible to bring down the price way down, by removing certain stuff , like touch screen display (70$ USD), some other light (Kessil is 130$ USD, a PAR 38 bulb will be 30$ USD). But I wanted to remove as much complexity (which equipment to choose, what corals etc) as possible, while come up with a combination that will work for the long run (say a tanks life time of average 5 years) while covering some basic use case (like new coral accalmatization will require light dimming).

There are couple of folks who are building the controller after maker faire introduction, documentation will be improved as others will use it, I'll get to know the glitches, and correct them

[seabass]

Impressive project.

[WhiteWulfe]

Definitely love the concept.  Pi 3 only, or is the Zero and older models usable as well?  Can it be ported to ODroid, or even the new Asus Tinker Board? ^_^

 

And just as importantly, can it run on Ubuntu, or does it require Raspian and/or n00bs? Just ask because I'm slowly getting the hang of Ubuntu ^_^;;;;

[Ranjib]

@WhiteWulfe controller software is written in go which compiled against armv7 so it should run on anything from pi zero to beaglebone that has armv7 processor. Since the software compiles down to a single binary it has no dependency on distribution as long as it Linux, which means it will run on ubuntu fine. 

The ui is based on browser / http server, which I access using wifi other than that there's no dependency on network. 

I recommended raspbian because everything is tested using raspbian (display, startup etc). For other setup I might not be able to provide help or know if it works , you have to test it out

Edited May 30, 2017 by Ranjib
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