Interested in Reef Pi

[Shawn4455]

So I'm interested in Reef Pi, I have intermediate knowledge on software and computers in general, nevertheless, the Raspberry Pi is an old concept for me but never messed with one, especially soldering and whatnot. I have a few questions. My main goal for the reefpi is to watch the temp, ATO, PH?, and maybe dosing, here are my questions, keep in mind I've never built one or have experience in wiring minus stereo, etc.

1. Is this project hard?
2. If I build one, can I use one protoboard for the whole project? Or do I need multiple
3. What other monitoring do you guys rec or "features"
4. Can anyone post their build to give me an idea what the internals would look like completed?

Thanks, everyone! Again, I am tech-savvy and Id love to tackle this, looks like a good time to spend my time off work.

 

[Ranjib]

Its medium to hard complexity if you are new to electronics. I'd suggest using a pre-made hat and ph board from Michale Lane's tindie store, and do the rest by yourself. That should make it relatively easy,

 

[Michael Lane]

reef-pi projects can be a bit addictive. I usually have at least 3 different reef-pi systems running.

Building a reef-pi system really varies in complexity based on your goals. I think monitoring temperature and pH on a single protoboard is definitely possible. Adding ATO monitoring can probably fit on a single board too.

If your goal is learning, I would recommend starting with an rpi (or maybe 2 or 3) and some breadboards. You can use the rpi with breadboards and jumper wire to learn about how each feature is built. You can build each monitoring set up on a different breadboard/rpi and learn how to consolidate the circuits from there.

Monitoring and measuring are good first steps before moving on to controlling components.