Rewriting query in query builder

This might be what you're looking for. Obviously, I cannot test it so there might be small syntax errors. But this should be pretty close.

I'm not confident that the UNIX_TIMESTAMP part of the select statement will work as desired. That might be part of why "...it just never works," Please tell us what, if any, error messages the code produces.

PHP Code:

$this->db
       ->select("SELECT p_pedestal.*, dev.dev_name AS device, p_port.title AS port, 
                 UNIX_TIMESTAMP(p_pedestal.created) AS created_t, UNIX_TIMESTAMP(p_pedestal.updated) AS updated_t")
       ->join("p_port", "p_pedestal.port_id = p_port.id", 'LEFT');

if($this->system->isOwner())
{
   $user = strtolower($_SESSION['user']['username']) ;
   //Note use of double quotes on second argument, Need them so $user will evaluate.
   $this->db->join('p_port_user_rel', "p_port_user_rel.username = $user AND p_port_user_rel.port_id = p_pedestal.port_id");
}

$query = $this->db
   ->join('dev', 'p_pedestal.dev_id = dev.dev_id', 'INNER')
   ->order_by('p_pedestal.formatted_address', 'ASC')
   ->get('p_pedestal') ;