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Confused: Reef-Pi or Robo-Tank Software?
#1
Hi, I got excited reading about Robo-Tank and have been reading about reef-pi and watching videos.  

Now, I'm reading about Robo-Tank 6.0 which is....different software?  Obviously it runs on Robo Tank hardware....but will all robo tank hardware run reef-pi? 

What is the difference between the two software packages?  Why is Robo-Tank being developed when Reef-Pi seems to have been the software used when Robo-tank first started? 

Thanks!
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  • Rob F
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#2
Hi Rothy, welcome to the forum.

Those are good questions. Reef-pi does run on all my hardware, at this point most people are using it as it's been proven reliable.

I've actually been doing this over 6 years now, my original controller was Arduino based, the hardware for it was the same except the brains was an Arduino instead of a Raspberry Pi, both are similar as in they have inputs and outputs. A couple years ago I had to make the tough decision (although obvious) to stop developing the Arduino based controller as it involved more hardware (2 Arduinos, w5100, display) so the cost was over $400 and climbing. At that point the price was close to a basic Apex system and it had almost no web access and felt old school as the display wasn't instant so I was hardly selling any. In hindsight my mistake was not using a Raspberry Pi from the get go.

When I decided to put things on pause a few people mentioned to me that I should sell the hardware for reef-pi which I had mixed feeling about. As I love doing this I decided to contact Ranjib to see if he had a problem with it but he welcomed me with open arms. So I converted my previous controller to fit a Pi and have been running things like this the last couple years.

As for the app I'm working on, I'm calling it 6.x as 5.x was the last version for the Arduino controller, my end goal for this is to be similar to it. There are quite a few reasons why I'm developing it. Originally I was hoping to figure out the code for reef-pi so I could contribute and create an interface for it however I don't know the language and the code has no comments on what it does, even if I could over come that I don't think my code would be migrated into the official package as I don't understand the proper structure, I'm self taught and sure it shows. I've done lots of programming over the years so I'm confident it's just not what you would get from a pro I guess.

Other reasons I'm doing this is it's not prudent to rely on reef-pi as I plan/hope to do this for another 10+ years easy. As I don't understand the code I don't know what's truly happening behind the scenes which can lead to some uncomfortable moments when I get asked questions I just don't know, don't look good nor feel good selling a controller and not knowing all the ins and outs. There's a couple other minor reasons and I'm a guy full of ideas and kind of like doing things my way. So yeah it's nothing against reef-pi, I think it's great software but as I'm doing this as a long term business I need more control is what it basically comes down to.
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