I’ve got a pretty similar situation. Mine cuts off after several hours. Ordered a new transformer/adapter that should be in tomorrow. I’ve tried powering with the 3-wire cable plugged in and unplugged. I don’t see any difference so far. Just for safety’s sake I also ordered a new RPi. With the watering restrictions here in TX I don’t want to play around with this too much. I’ll try the other suggested tests this weekend if the power supply doesn’t work.
EDIT: I think (hope) I’m back on solid ground again with this. It appears so. Troubleshooting process (thanks to the previous posts for their suggestions):
- I did the voltage testing suggested here;
- I replaced the RPi with another one (“Oh my gosh, what will I ever do with another RPi?” 😉 ) and that didn’t solve the problem;
- I thought I would try a WiFi extender to make sure I was getting good coverage to the garage. That didn’t work;
- I re-imaged my SD card. This may have fixed it but not positive;
- I ran CAT-6 cable to the garage so I didn’t have to connect to WiFi. I think that this was the ultimate fix. The RPi/OpenSprinkler boards were running really hot with the WiPi WiFi adapter.
It was shutting down within and hour or less. It’s been running about 12 hours now. It’s running much, much cooler now.
I hope this helps someone!
EDIT 2: Wow. It’s running great now. With the help of Dan I was able to get the auto-start working.
Here’s the install in the garage: https://plus.google.com/114571878398957500272/posts/VCuXyqk7zqL
My next projects with respect to the RPi are to:
- Install a moisture sensor
- Connect to the internet to check for rain/freeze
- Install a fun selection of status lights on the board: rain, freeze, pending, sprinkling, and, heck, just some lights that say to the kids, “Lookie here, I’m cool!