Short success storry for a change;-)

[mw46d]

I talked to Ray today @ MakerFaire and he suggested that I could post a succes storry as well. Our OpenSprinkler Pi is now running very reliably for about three weeks;-) In addition to the `sprinklers’ I’m using a photo resistor and an extra relay to control our lights in front of the garage. I’ve also a temperature/humitity sensor set up, but that’s not used for anything yet:-( A little writeup with some picture lives @ http://marcoscorner.walther-family.org/2014/04/opensprinker-pi-hardware-complete/

Thanks,
— Marco

[scottsh]

Thanks for sharing! I really like seeing what other people have done with their OSPi setups.

I like that LCD display. I’ve been thinking of adding something like that as well for the same reason (display of some basic status info.)

I’m also thinking of adding some kind of ‘All Stop’ button to the system somehow so that somebody other than me can shut things off if needed.

Scott

[Ray]

@Marco: thank you so much for posting. Really enjoyed talking to you at the Maker Faire!

@Scott: I have been trying to get my hands on the RPi compute module and re-design OSPi using the compute module. If this is feasible, it will allow LCD to be added to OSPi just like the Arduino-based OpenSprinkler. I am quite excited about this and hope it will happen soon!

[wdem]

This is cool. How did you connect the screen between the RPi and the OSPi boards. I want to add a small touchscreen to my install (currently waiting for the OSPi for delivery, and already planning mods), and most of the screens I’ve found need to plug in directly into the GPIO pins on the RPi. I figure that I can program the screen to indicate which zone is active and have some buttons for all stop, and manual on/off for each zone — so that kids can play in the sprinklers.

I want to find a way to run a cable from the GPIO (between the OSPi and RPi) to effective stack the modules and allow for screen mounting on the front of the case.

[scottsh]

@ray wrote:

@Scott: I have been trying to get my hands on the RPi compute module and re-design OSPi using the compute module. If this is feasible, it will allow LCD to be added to OSPi just like the Arduino-based OpenSprinkler. I am quite excited about this and hope it will happen soon!

I thought the same thing when I saw the compute module. It should allow for a much cleaner OSPi, although I thought it might increase your costs slightly. You have to include that SODIMM connector plus the USB/Ethernet ports on your board now.

Scott

[mw46d]

@Scott there are other LCD modules out there. Adafruit sells one 16×2 with five buttons or the one I used (20×4 without buttons from SainSmart) and many others. Just make sure you find one with an I2C connection. Otherwise things get more complicated.

@wdem, I did not;-) I connected the LCD module to the I2C connector of the OSPi board;-) But you could probably modify the cables between the RPi & OSPi to handle both.

root@ospi:~# i2cdetect -y 1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f
00: — — — — — — — — — — — — —
10: — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
20: — — — — — — — 27 — — — — — — — —
30: — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
40: — — — — — — — — 48 — — — — — — —
50: — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
60: — — — — — — — — UU — — — — — — —
70: — — — — — — — —

The 0x27 is the I2C address of the LCD display.

You could probably solder the OSPI cables directly on a GPIO connector for your `other’ module.

[scottsh]

Sharing my own success story.

I’ve known I wanted an internet-controlled irrigation controller for years. But, every time I’ve looked in the past I found super-expensive commercial solutions or hobby ideas poorly executed. This spring I saw an ad for a very sexy looking device but unfortunately it only supported 8 zones. Good thing, because it caused me to renew my search and I stumbled into Ray and his very well executed design. At first I was into the Arduino OpSp, but when I saw he had an RPi version that would be easier for me to program, I knew that was the right one for me.

I ordered it up, plus one of the new 16-zone expansion boards and waited impatiently. 😀 I wasn’t comfortable trusting the mini-Wifi adapter in the RPi because I had heard of so many problems with it. Like others, I elected to use an out of service wireless router converted to a wireless bridge thanks to DD-WRT. I’ve used these things all over my house in the past, so this was done in a couple of hours.

When the OSPi finally arrived, I pulled the old Rain Bird unit out of service by removing the control panel + the circuit board behind it. I was honestly surprised at how easy it was to wire up the OSPi to the existing wiring. No stripping or rework was required, and I was able to remove a zone and connect it to the provided connection blocks very easily without forgetting which wire was which zone. When I was done, I excitedly stood in the garage, powered it all up, then used my phone to connect and manually turn on a zone. I was grinning from ear to ear when those sprinklers came on without a hitch.

https://flic.kr/p/nGR7V2

Here is a photo of my setup. It’s nice that I can just close the door on that wiring mess. But, eventually I would like to add a small display to show status plus a button that will execute either ‘Stop All Stations’ or maybe a ‘Pause’ function. Having a button that the lawn guy can use might be helpful.

[Ray]

@scottsh: thanks for posting your story and the picture. As anyone who develops hardware gadgets knows, hardware is the easier part, and it’s the software development that defines a product and takes most of the time. So Kudos to Dan, Richard, Samer, Jonathan, and the community of OSPi users who did the heavy lifting of developing software that makes OSPi a unique, open-source project 🙂

[mw46d]

@Scott, did you try to measure which voltage your original transformator delivers? Maybe you could use that instead of the wallwart? Just an idea.

Thanks,
— Marco

[scottsh]

@mw46d wrote:

@Scott, did you try to measure which voltage your original transformator delivers? Maybe you could use that instead of the wallwart? Just an idea.

Thanks,
— Marco

I haven’t yet. It says it is 24V AC but since I had a working transformer I went ahead and used it. That’s on the list of further optimizations to do.

[Author]

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