Instructions for testing OS 3.2 with W5500 Ethernet module

[John K]

Just got the latest firmware installed and can now log into the controller through the W5500 Ethernet connection, with all my programs intact. I will start running things manually over the next week and will let you guys know what I find.

Thanks Ray!

[Wendell]

Still no controller crashes, but I can no longer view the log entries. Whenever I ask OS (app or browser) to display the log entries, the cursor spins for several seconds and then it tells me “Error retrieving log data. Please refresh to try again.”, and refreshing doesn’t work either.

Before I try rebooting, I wanted to find out if there’s anything else I should try.

Is it possible this is related to the 2048 byte buffer issue?

[Ray]

Try to change the log period to a day. Br default it’s 7 days. If you have a lot of log records over 7 days it will not be able to retrieve that many. Restricting it to one day and see if it shows up.

[Wendell]

Yep… that did the trick. So does this mean it’s caused by the 2048 byte buffer issue?

[Ray]

Yes, it’s possibly related. I’ve just posted a script that can be used for diagnosing certain firmware issues:
https://opensprinkler.com/forums/topic/useful-script-for-testing-opensprinkler-api/
you can try the ‘Json log (jl)’ API, start with ‘Today’, then go back to 1 day, 2 days and so on. It’s possible that at some point the json log data gets truncated, becoming invalid. If the 2K theory is correct, you can check the number of characters in the log data at that point and it’s probably more than 2K. Updating your firmware to the Jul18 version should fix this issue.

[Ray]

@bena: it just occurred to me that when your controller lost connection, you should check if the IP address may have changed — maybe your router assigned a different IP to it upon DHCP renew. You can always click B1 on the controller to find out. If the IP indeed changed, you can either set a DHCP reservation on your router to reserve a fixed IP, or set a static IP on OpenSprinkler.

[bena]

Hmm, I’ll double check when it happens again.  The last time I checked, the OpenSprinkler continued to respond to pings on the expected IP address. But theoretically, another device could have taken over the IP and started responding. I don’t think that’s the case, but I’ll check.

[bena]

To confirm my previous observation, in my case the IP address does not change on the OpenSprinkler display after it becomes unresponsive.

[Ray]

@beta: I am not sure what else to try honestly. So far your is the only case where even with W5500 it loses response. I honestly don’t know where to start to diagnose the problem.

[bena]

Actually, your work to debug the ENC28J60 module is helping. As discussed in the other thread, I’ve reverted to the ENC28J60 module with the debug firmware and as you identified it detected late collisions on my network. Since I’m seeing the same behavior with both the ENC28J60 and W5500, I can focus on troubleshooting my cabling for now.

[Wendell]

Sorry this took so long to reply to… got lost in the shuffle. If I reduce the number of days of log entries I ask for it is able to display them. I tried using the API debug script you provided, but I think I might need to go back more than 6 days to see a failure, because I’ve had the system disabled for a couple of days. All I can say is that from within the OS app (iOS or macOS), reducing the number of days eliminates the error.

And BTW, so far no lockups / freezes, so the W5500 sure looks like it has completely solved my crashing problem.

If you figure out what’s going on with the ENC28J60 module, do you think the older 2.3AC hardware might start working again? I have another sprinkler system I would like to convert to OS, and if I can re-use my old hardware that would be great.

Thanks Ray.

[Ray]

Regarding log: there is a variant of the jl API that allows you to retrieve log data from any specified start date and end date. Details can be found in the API document:
https://openthings.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/5000716363-os-api-documents

About ENC28j60: as I said in this post:
https://opensprinkler.com/forums/topic/controller-lockups-crashes/page/4/#post-67707
I’ve done everything I can to debug and the latest version is 2.1.9(7) available for both OS 3.2 and OS 2.3. If this still doesn’t solve the freezing issue, I don’t know what else to try — there is no means for me to debug since I cannot reproduce the problem.

[Wendell]

Okay, it looks like I get to 1883 characters of returned log data when it runs into errors, so I guess the remaining bytes in the 2K buffer are part of the packet formatting?

Does 2.1.9(7) solve this 2K buffer problem when using the W5500? I’m currently running 2.1.9(4).

[Ray]

Per my post here:
https://opensprinkler.com/forums/topic/instructions-for-testing-os-3-2-with-w5500-ethernet-module/#post-67408
is your controller running Jul 18 version of the W5500 firmware? If not, you should update. If you are not sure, use the test API script and check the debug (/db) API, it shows the date the firmware was compiled.

There is no 2.1.9(7) for W5500 yet — all the minor revisions from (5) to (7) are meant to address ENC28J60 and none of them has to do with W5500.

[Wendell]

Ray, I’m currently running the July 12th firmware. I’m having trouble getting my OS back into WiFi mode to update the firmware. If I disconnect the W5500 and power up the controller, it gets stuck in a loop trying to boot from the Ethernet module (which isn’t connected). Pressing B3+B2 doesn’t bring up the menu to reset to AP mode. If I reboot with the Ethernet module connected, B3+B2 does bring up the option to reset to AP mode, but it immediately reboots into the hardwired connection. I’ve tried powering down after the B3+B2 reset and rebooting without the Ethernet module, but it goes back to the endless loop of trying to boot from hardwire. How do I get it to go back to WiFi mode so I can load the July 18 firmware file?

[Ray]

Update: I can confirm this issue: it happens when using W5500 firmware and setting the controller in static IP mode. This is due to the problem that the previous way of detecting Ethernet module for ENC28J60 (checking a register value) does not work for W5500, so even if W5500 is unplugged it ‘thinks’ an Ethernet module is plugged in. That in conjunction with the fact that when you set static IP, it bypasses DHCP process, results in this problem. Setting it back to DHCP mode should resolve the issue (i.e. when the controller cannot establish IP through DHCP, it will revert back to WiFi mode).

There are two ways to reset it back to DHCP:
– if you can still access the controller with W5500 module connected, go to homepage -> Edit Options -> Advanced, and check “Use DHCP”
– if you can’t access the controller, you can use buttons to change the option values. Specifically, power off the controller, then power it back on, as soon as you see the OpenSprinkler logo, press and hold the third pushbutton (B3) and continue holding it until you see the LCD displays “Setup Options”. Then click B3 a few times until you see ‘Use DHCP’? Use B1 or B2 to change the answer to Yes. Then press and hold B3 until the controller reboots itself. This will set it back to DHCP mode.

[Wendell]

That must be it… I do have a static address defined. I’ll set it back to DHCP and try again. Thanks.

[Wendell]

After updating to the July 18th firmware, I can now view large log files, so it looks like the fix you made for importing >2K of program data also fixes the problem with log files larger than 2K! Thanks!

[skyynet]

I use a OS 3.2 DC since April and had the lockup only twice so far. Today I couldn’t access it and even reboot of OS and router didn’t help. I have to go out, open the case and try to access it via WiFi tomorrow. Anyway, I created a support ticket for the W5500 adapter and would give it a try. The W5500 ships in Germany overnight from Amazon.

[John K]

I haven’t gotten back to report my experience after getting W5500 working. Mostly because the majority of my greenhouses that I use these controllers for are empty now…so not running the controller frequently. What I can say so far, have not had an issue yet. I’ve run 1 station every other day or so manually without freezing the controller. Anyone that has followed my case, I typically using several stations at once manually, many times throughout day….freezing would occur seemingly random. Before using W5500, even with this occasional use, I would get a freeze here and there.

So I think I’m good to go…but will know for sure in the spring when I start growing again!

Ray,

Will there be a point where the standard firmware will support both W5500 and ENC28J60 so there is no need for separate firmwares? Just curious

[Ray]

Yes I am looking into combining the two libraries so that the firmware can dynamically choose which one to use based on the detected result.

[Author]

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