sprinklers_pi – An alternative sprinkler control program

[rszimm]

I’ve got a new version that I’m going to upload tomorrow for beta testing. It has the following additional features:

1. Support for Personal Weather Stations from Weather Underground
2. Support for up to 15 zones.
3. Ability to check on the data pulled from Weather Underground with a diagnostics screen
4. Seasonal adjustment (0-100% of the set time)
5. Home screen shows the configured time on the raspberrypi so as to avoid time zone confusions.
6. Various bug fixes.

I’m still doing some debugging over here, but I should have it up tomorrow sometime.

[rszimm]

Ok, the new version (v1.0.3) is now available.

NOTE1: This is beta code. I’ve been running it for a few days and it seems to work, but run at your own risk!
NOTE2: This WILL delete your old settings. I apologize for that. In the future if I have to rearrange things in the settings file I’ll write a translator. I wanted to get this out there faster.

To install the new version, log into your raspberry pi and run this:

wget stuff.intelligent-isi.com/sprinklers_pi/sprinklers_pi-1.0.3.tar.gz

tar -xzvf sprinklers_pi-1.0.3.tar.gz

cd sprinklers_pi-1.0.3

make

sudo make install

sudo /etc/init.d/sprinklers_pi restart

You should erase your browser cache when you start. I’ve got a fix for that in the works, but it’s not there right now. Just dump the browser cache and all should be fine. In chrome you do this by pressing Ctrl-Shift-Delete, make sure the “empty the cache” checkbox is checked, and click “Clear Browsing Data”. On IE, press Ctrl-Shift-Delete and make sure ‘Temporary Internet Files and website files” is selected. On the iPhone you do this in the Settings->Safari window.

Also note, that resetting your settings means it’ll start up on port 8080, so you might have to repoint your browser to get there if you’ve previously changed the port to 80.

[eddiek2000]

rszimm,

Another kudos to you!! I just set up my android phone to use a tunnel over ssh (connectbot) to connect to my OSPi running your program. I was debating on how best to use the sprinklers_pi web server outside of my LAN and it dawned on me to use port forwarding over ssh. Works like a Champ!! Now I can securely access my sprinkler system from anywhere in the world. 😀

A little background: I have a Linux Firewall/router setup at home to NAT all of my local traffic over our cable modem connection. I know it is a little overkill, but I am a linux geek at heart. :geek:

[rszimm]

Version 1.0.4 is up. Upgrade instructions are in the very first post on this thread. New features include the ability to do seasonal adjustment up to 200% of normal, and a new snazzy table view in the logs screen that will tell you not only when and how long each zone ran, but how the seasonal adjustment and the weather underground adjustment affected the durations.

Have fun!

[eddiek2000]

Finally went live tonight. I gutted my old Rain Bird enclosure:

[attachment=1:mt4ugcnu]RB_enclosure.jpg[/attachment:mt4ugcnu]

and installed the OSPi running sprinklers_pi. I just need to install the latest version, which will take no time at all when I have the chance.

[attachment=0:mt4ugcnu]OSPi.jpg[/attachment:mt4ugcnu]

[mikethechap]

I love the set up. Nice pics. Kind of funny to put it in a gutted Rain Bird box. It adds a note of irony, don’t you think. That said, I fought to get my sprinklers to run dependably using WeatherMatic with a super weather sensor, a Rain Bird, and another really expensive one that uses it’s own moisture sensors in the ground. No aspect of home management has lead to more profanity, frustration and anger. Then Open Sprinkler comes along and it runs better than any of those systems ever ran, far more intuitively, and at less cost. Thanks to these incredible developers. I truly think that the Raspberry Pi has a shot at being another Gutenberg Press.

[eddiek2000]

@mikethechap wrote:

I love the set up. Nice pics. Kind of funny to put it in a gutted Rain Bird box. It adds a note of irony, don’t you think. That said, I fought to get my sprinklers to run dependably using WeatherMatic with a super weather sensor, a Rain Bird, and another really expensive one that uses it’s own moisture sensors in the ground. No aspect of home management has lead to more profanity, frustration and anger. Then Open Sprinkler comes along and it runs better than any of those systems ever ran, far more intuitively, and at less cost. Thanks to these incredible developers. I truly think that the Raspberry Pi has a shot at being another Gutenberg Press.

Thanks! I thought the Rainbird enclosure was appropriate. I have 2 – my original was taken out by lightening and the replacement is available if something happens to the OSPi. This has been my goal for many years and I am thrilled to be able to accomplish it with a RasPi!!! In all actuality, the Rainbird controller could probably be replaced with a raspi without the OS boards. The backplane doesn’t have many wires and with a scope I probably could have reversed engineered the valve/module control. It would have been cheaper and more fun, but also more time consuming. And time is not what I have available lately.

Yep – Ray did an outstanding job designing the OSPi hardware and rszimm has done an INCREDIBLE job with his control software. I literally just upgraded my version of his program in literally 2 minutes. From download, compile, to upgrade. Not an issue, my only warning is to check the settings and ensure your seasonal adjust is not 0. I “think” 0-99 is a reduction in watering time, 100 is as programmed, and 101-200 would add time to the schedule. I upgraded and went looking for the seasonal adjust and found mine set at 0.

[rszimm]

@eddiek2000 wrote:

I “think” 0-99 is a reduction in watering time, 100 is as programmed, and 101-200 would add time to the schedule. I upgraded and went looking for the seasonal adjust and found mine set at 0.

Your intuition is correct!

I don’t know why the seasonal adjust dumped you back to zero on upgrade. That absolutely shouldn’t have happened. Were you upgrading from v1.0.3? Is it possible that you set it to zero before upgrading?

[mikethechap]

Great comments and observations eddiek2000. I put my pi behind a pretty nice surge protector. I’m also going to be adding a fastblow fuse to prevent overcurrent damage. Your comments also made me think that I should have a second setup on hand including a ready to go image of my present SD card.

Because I needed the extra zones (and they weren’t available yet with this c version), I’ve been set up on the interval program and the Web app for about two weeks now. I do like the web app ability for vacations and testing and such. But, one of the other creative mind here came up with a way to fix that for this c version, too. So, I think my plan is to get another SD and flash it with this version and then use that set up: see what works the best. I will say the set up on this version is MUCH more friendly to novices.

These are just amazing options. Seeing what’s in people’s grasp at this point makes me think of other ways I can improve things around the home: adding sensors to check and control for things like water leakage (hot water tank, sprinkler valve stuck open with electronic valve control for emergencies), garage door control, and access control. There are things that could reduce waste, property damage and improve quality of life.

[eddiek2000]

@rszimm wrote:

@eddiek2000 wrote:

I “think” 0-99 is a reduction in watering time, 100 is as programmed, and 101-200 would add time to the schedule. I upgraded and went looking for the seasonal adjust and found mine set at 0.

Your intuition is correct!

I don’t know why the seasonal adjust dumped you back to zero on upgrade. That absolutely shouldn’t have happened. Were you upgrading from v1.0.3? Is it possible that you set it to zero before upgrading?

I cheated and upgraded from the test version v1.0.2. Figured I would give it a shot before starting from scratch.

[mikethechap]

Tried to wget the program tonight but unable to get through… I’ll try again tomorrow. Everything else including WiringPi downloaded fine.

Thanks for your work on this. I’m looking forward to trying it.

EDIT: I had to put sudo before issuing the wget command. After that it did fine. Thanks for the help. The issue of running as root may be confusing to those of us who are not so familiar with linux.

Additionally, maybe related to the same issues, I’m getting errors when I try this:

CODE: SELECT ALL

tar -xzvf sprinklers_pi-1.0.4.tar.gz

This is the error report:

tar (child): sprinklers_pi.1.0.4.tqr.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory

tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now

tar: Child returned status 2

tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

Do I need to change directory before I run the tar command? Which directory?

I hope this isn’t seen as criticism in any way. In fact, I think of it as testing so that people who would love to have something like this won’t be put off by any difficulty.

[rszimm]

I’ve created a wiki for this project at: https://github.com/rszimm/sprinklers_pi/wiki
I’ve also uploaded the source code to github at: https://github.com/rszimm/sprinklers_pi

[eddiek2000]

@rszimm wrote:

I’ve created a wiki for this project at: https://github.com/rszimm/sprinklers_pi/wiki
I’ve also uploaded the source code to github at: https://github.com/rszimm/sprinklers_pi

I have been testing the crap out of this lately. The logs are very nice feature. I especially like the new table log. 2 more feature requests though:

1) Can disabled schedules be available for a “Quick Schedule” run?
I set up a “Valve Test” schedule for a 2 minute interval per zone. The “Valve Test” schedule needs to be enabled in order for it to be usable/selectable in a “Quick Schedule”/one shot run. Also, when it is enabled, it defaults to midnight being the start time and you cannot disable the time. I am sure this is by design. Therefore having the ability to run disabled schedules would be good.

2) An advance button would be awesome, if possible.
When I close out my system, I run each zone a few times with the “valve test” – usually 2 minutes. As each zones empties out and is only blowing air, I manually advance the system to the next zone. Saving the head from turning dry for too long.

I honestly think these are the end on my wish list. This product is truly AWESOME!!

I know you are busy, so if you don’t have a chance I can probably knock out #1. #2 will require me to spend a little more intimate time with the code and is probably not too big of a problem.

Thanks!
Ed

[KanyonKris]

Excellent work!

A minor observation: On the home page the Zones line has a bubble with 15 in it that doesn’t seem to change. It would be nice if this indicated the number of active zones.

[nhorvath]

What does the “Interval” setting do on the Schedule page? What do the numbers on the slider refer to? Sorry if I’m just missing an obvious answer but I’m new to the opensprinkler thing and it looks like your software was the best out there for it so I’m just getting started with it!

[KanyonKris]

@nhorvath wrote:

What does the “Interval” setting do on the Schedule page? What do the numbers on the slider refer to?

Interval means how many days between waterings. So 1 would water every day, 2 would water every other day, 3 every 3rd day, etc.

[nhorvath]

@KanyonKris wrote:

@nhorvath wrote:

What does the “Interval” setting do on the Schedule page? What do the numbers on the slider refer to?

Interval means how many days between waterings. So 1 would water every day, 2 would water every other day, 3 every 3rd day, etc.

Thanks for the answer! I suspected that’s what it might be it but I wasn’t sure.

[rszimm]

v1.0.5 is now up.

Some changes:
1. Fixed bug where certain characters in name fields were not handled correctly. We should be UTF-8 compatible now.
2. Fixed bug where editing on some enabled times was not allowed.
3. Added ability to quickschedule disabled schedules (they show up with the moniker “(disabled)”, but they can be run)

Upgrade instructions are on the wiki or in the first post in the thread. Have fun!

[KanyonKris]

Thanks for the 1.0.5 update, installed with no problems, bugs fixed for me.

Feedback: How do I know when the next watering event will be? I know when a zone is running the home page shows a sprinkler graphic with the zone name and time remaining. When nothing is currently running I’d like to see the next scheduled event on the home page. Something like:

“Normal watering” schedule will run tomorrow at 4:15 AM
or
Zone 1 “Front yard” is scheduled to run today at 10:00 PM

[rszimm]

KanyonKris:

It’s something I’ve been pondering. There’s actually a “secret” screen that you can browse to at /ShowEvent which will show you the event queue. That’ll give you an idea as to what’s coming up for the day, but it ends at midnight. (plus it’s very hard to understand unless you’re intimately familiar with the event structure)

This is something that’s high on the to-do list.

[KanyonKris]

I’m not clear on how the Seasonal Adjust in the Settings interacts with the weather based adjustments.

I see in the code you posted on the wiki that weather adjustments start with 100% then add or subtract the 3 weather factors to come up with a percentage between 0 and 200. So if Weather Adjust is enabled for a schedule does it take precedence over the Seasonal Adjust from the Settings page, or are the two used together some how?

Just a thought, should the two adjustments be combined? For example, if Seasonal Adjust is set to 70% then the weather adjustment could take 70 and add or subtract the weather factors to come up with a final aggregate adjustment.

BTW, the github wiki says the humidity adjustment is 1/2% but the formula does 1%. I updated the wiki to say 1% (and expanded the explanation of each of the 3 factors). If you want 1/2%, which seems more appropriate, the code should divide by 4 instead of 2.

[rszimm]

Thanks for updating the wiki!

The two adjustments are both applied. So if one is set at 50% and the other comes up to 200%, the overall adjustment is simply 100% (or no change)

[KanyonKris]

rszimm, I updated the wiki to add your note about how the two adjustments are used together.

Another question, I checked the EventStatus and it shows:

2 Events
00:03:21 2013/9/18 (4)
Event [00] Time:04:00(240) Command 3 data 0,0
Event [01] Time:05:00(300) Command 3 data 0,1

My schedule runs twice. What does the number in parenthesis mean? If it’s run time, is the weather adjustment applied to both times/runs?

[perico]

Hi.

It would be possible to run the zones in concurrent mode?. When I was testing it I noticed that only one valve can be on at once.

Thank you and congratullations for your work!!

[solar411]

Just installed 1.0.5 and having a problem. When I got in to create a schedule everything looks fine, I set a time and save the schedule. When I go back into the schedule the time is no longer enabled and defaulted back to 12:00am.

I set the schedule to enabled, type = day, select M,W,F, click enable and input 6:30am, set the duration to 10, weather adjust = off and click save. Then when I go back in all the times are back to default. ❓

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