Reef-pi Hardware Now Available

[Rob F]

Is the reefpi capable of using a touchscreen?

If I’m not got the specs correct I can still use the old relay bars with this controller? And also my SSR when I finally finish them?
How many dosing pumps can a reefpi handle?

I think so but don't have a definite answer yet. You can access using a phone which is touchscreen so I don't see why it wouldn't. Once I have a definite answer I'll let you know.

You can use the old relay boards and SSRs, it uses the same type of I/O as Robo-Tank, there's also a setting so you can reverse the logic like Robo-Tank. 

There's basically no limit on dosing pumps, outlets, LED channels and sensors, additional PCA9685's can be added which can be built on to do other things. At some point I'll have some expansions or you can add extra things yourself.

The deluxe board is similar to Robo-Tank board, Robo-Tank could do 4 DC, 4 Dosing + 1 Feeder, the Reef-pi deluxe board can do 10 total but in any combination as the ports are the same. This was a setting I was planning to add to Robo-Tank. The standard board has the circuits to do 5 DC devices. 

Reef-pi is flexible, in the software you assign a pin to something so you can assign all pins as dosing pumps as long as the pin has a MOSFET or relay attached to control the pump. It's the same idea as an Arduino, just the code is different but you have the same type of pins to work with.

As someone who's developed software for nearly 25 years, I think you're moving in the right direction. The world of open source, with contributions from developers all over the world, is going to be near impossible to compete with. There's more and more solutions out there now, so the collective effort of the community is going to be needed: apex of course, and now this year Leviathan. There's a lot of Pros to the approach you're taking.  Personally, I think where your expertise will shine is in providing easy to use functionality and board additions for open source. Not everyone has the time or inclination to wire breadboards and the like and do it from scratch.

That being said, I think to keep the trust of those of us that have invested in the development and progress of above expertise, I would suggest offering a discount to existing owners over new customers, and creating some very clear upgrade cost paths for the different versions and functionality tables. What I think all of us want to know in detail, is how we achieve the existing functionality that we already have hardware wise, and how much it will cost.

I'd suggest making a Migration page on the main site, and a Migration forum section.  Make pages on the main site with tables showing the migration path and links to forum posts about each item that is not a straightforward "out of the box" migration.  Add forum posts with tables that have the previous classic deluxe and basic, and the new Pi deluxe and basic

Example:  Version Comparison with links to migration posts and associated costs on how to make the conversion for each section


Example:  Feature Comparison with links to migration posts and associated costs on how to make the conversion for each section

Thanks for the ideas and examples midwestE, it's a good idea. Leviathan is the reason I'm attempting this again, I still had plans but was pretty close to shutting everything down as the momentum was long gone and question if I'll ever get it back but after 10s of thousands of hours what's another 1,000 lol. Website is like a ghost town so it'll be hard but it's worth a shot.  

When the Kickstarter launched a couple people sent me the link and I was shocked to see Leviathan was only boards for Reef-pi, I didn't think a person could do that. Over the years I've been asked several times if my hardware works with Reef-pi but I would always say I can't do that. Once I saw this I looked into it more and seemed legit. So I got a Pi, loaded up Reef-pi and was impressed. I thought maybe I should offer some hardware and try and contribute to it instead of reinventing the wheel. Ultimately I would love to create a fixed interface for Reef-pi similar to mine.

It's a little funny, while researching what boards I could make I hit the pH wall again, looked like I had to push Atlas circuits again, there good but so expensive. I just made my own and I can't even use it. Then someone pointed me to an open-source pH / ORP circuit that was designed for Reef-pi. I didn't feel comfortable copying it and selling so I looked through the contributors on the GitHub to see if I could contact someone.

The main developer didn't have a contact but another contributor Ranjib Dey did. So I contacted him and said I was going to make some boards for Reef-pi and was wondering if I was allowed to manufacture and sell the pH circuit. Well his response was more than I expected and he wished all the best for my business, I didn't mention Robo-Tank though, just my name. Then a few days later I'm playing in Reef-pi and go to the about tab and wow I see Ranjib Dey as the developer, what... Now that I have things on the website I'm going to email him again with a link and see what he thinks about me trying to add another UI template and doing what I'm doing. I was always planning this but didn't know who the main developer was.