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A system that allows Monitoring of Raspberry PI('s) and it's running Minecraft Server(s)
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README.md

PI-server-rack

A system that allows Monitoring of Raspberry PI('s) and it's running Minecraft Server(s) on PC and Mac as well as controlling their cooling

Why?

Because I can. Overcomplicated stupid projects are a lot of fun.

What it is about

The system contains of three parts. Those are the PC Module, RPi Master Module and RPi Slave Module

To "briefly" explain the concenpt:

  • The idea is to have a small server rack containing two Raspberry PI's (PI 4B & PI 1.2B+)
  • We will call the PI 4B the Master and the PI 1.2B+ will now be the Slave
  • The Master hosts all the information of its own system (such as CPU temps, frequency, etc.) and the ones from the Slave.
  • The PC (or Mac) runs a program that, every cycle, requests all the data from the Master to essentially work as a Monitoring program for both PI's
  • Let's introduce the fan control:
    • We have a large 80mm Fan that cools both PI's and a smaller 40mm fan that primarily cools the Master (it requires more cooling due to it being overclocked and its hosted Minecraft servers)
    • The small fan works as following:
      • The small fan is either on at 100% or off at 0%.
      • As soon as the Master's CPU reaches 50°C the small fan starts to spin
      • The fan requires a 5V. therefore the additional fancontrol circuit:
        • As soon as the dedicated GPIO pin on the Master turns on, the transistor switches on and powers the fan with 5V from the 5V GPIO pin.
    • The large fan works as following:
      • The small fan is either at 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% power
      • As it cools both PI's, it needs to prioritize the cooling requirements of both PI's it always chooses the higher cooling requirment
  • Now the Minecraft server(s):
    • The Master hosts two Minecraft servers and currently implemented is the support for a single Minecraft server.
    • The Master collects a variety of informations about the server of choice and throws it together with its other system information to form an array (or list in python) with all the information which then "travels" to the PC

Required for this to work without any modifications are:

  • 1x PC or macboock
  • 2x Raspberry PI's with GPIO Pins (Model A, A+, B or B+), any version works (I use a Raspberry PI 4 B and Raspberry PI 1.2 B+) and needed power, ethernet, etc. -connections
  • 2x cooling fan (I used 1x 5V & 1x 12V fan), external 12V power source (or matching one for the large fan)
  • 6x GPIO cables
  • fan control pcb with control circuit (The needed circuit is described here)

PC Module

The PC module requests all kinds of system information from both Raspberry PI'S making use of FTP. The Raspberry PI hosts an FTP server from which the PC fetches the text file output.txt containing all infos.

RPi Master Module

The Rpi Master Module (or Raspberry Pi Master module) gets all sorts of informations from its own system and Minecraft Servers and writes them to the output.txt file. It also gets fanspeed requirments from the RPi Slave Module making use of binary signal transmission over 2 GPIO pins. This module then controls the fan speeds.

RPi Slave Module

The Rpio Slave Module transmits its fanspeed requirments over 2 GPIO pins to the RPi Master Module.

Setup

Raspberry PI basic setup

  1. Install a UNIX operating of your choice onto both PI's
  2. If both PI's are different, declare the more powerful one as the master and install an FTP server on it
  3. Install pytho3 on both PI's
  4. Go to the releases page and download the latest release.
  5. Copy the single programs to their dedicated devices
  6. Make the programs run automatically on launch (optional)
  7. Edit IP adresses, ports, usernames, passwords, configs, etc... on all 3 programs
  8. Connect 2 GPIO pins from the Slave on pins GPIO_17 and GPIO_18 to the Master pins GPIO_17 and GPIO_18 (17 to 17 and 18 to 18)
  9. Connect the GPIO pins GPIO_4 and 3.3V OUt on both PI'S and pin GPIO_24, GPIO_25 and 5V out of the Master with the fan control circuit board. For pin mapping, view here.
  10. Connect the cooling fans like shown here

Fan control circuit

This setup includes a custom designed and built circuit board that manages the cooling fans. The board has the following circuit:

image

Description

  • S1: Status Pin for Master PI. Connected to GPIO_4
  • S2: Status Pin for Slave PI. Connected to GPIO_4
  • P1: Power Pin for Master PI. Connected to 3.3V Out
  • P2: Power Pin for Slave PI. Connected to 3.3V Out
  • + 1: 12V external Power supply for large cooling fan
  • + 2: 5V Power supply for small coolimg fan. Connected to 5V Out on Master PI
  • - 1: Ground for 12V external power supply
  • - 2: Ground for 5V Out on Master PI
  • ~ 1: Modulation Pin for large cooling fan. Connected to GPIO_24 on Master PI
  • ~ 2: Modulation Pin for small cooling fan. Connected to GPIO_25 on Master PI
  • XOR 1: XOR-Gate 1. Determines Master PI status
  • XOR 2: XOR-Gate 2. Determines slave PI status
  • TR1, TR2, TR3: NPN Transistors

In-more-depth explanation

//TODO