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I have my first ever Opensprinkler – an OSPi 1.43 on a raspberry pi 2, updated to the latest opensprinkler version firmware 2.1.7. It’s all running from the one 24V AC adaptor I bought at a local electronics shop (Jaycar). Just got the ospi this weekend and put it together, everything seems perfect except this one issue.
When the schedule stops, the voltage only drops if there’s no valve connected to that circuit/”station”. I ran the multi-meter over it and I’ve tried stations 1 and 2. Both exhibit the same behaviour. I doubt the other 6 would be any different 😛
With the valve connected, the station runs up to 24v and once the schedule time elapses it stays at 24v. Valve therefore doesn’t close.
Without the valve connected, the station go to 24v and when the schedule ends it immediately drops to 0v.I have Toro valves, labelled 8VA Toro 24V. When I schedule them they pop open nicely, but they won’t close until I pull the power from the OSPi. I’m going out tomorrow to pick up a different valve to see if it’s any different, but anyone got any ideas?
I managed to get a different solenoid valve today – from the same company. Bit of a limited supply here. It’s exhibiting the exact same thing, once the station/circuit is on at 24v ac it won’t go down to 0 and won’t shut off.
It does it perfectly when the station has nothing connected so I doubt it’s an issue with the software. Hardware seems unlikely. Double checked the wiring nothing seems wrong. Have I missed a simple instruction somewhere? If there’s something obviously wrong with the pic attached please point it out 😀
Picture attached – new solenoid on the left (station 4), original on the right (station 2). I used both COM ports because it was easier and they’re wired to the same circuit in the instructions.
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Using the online instructions I wiped my SD card and went to the preconfigured SD card image for ospi. same thing happens.
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Instructions say not to use latching solenoids – it’s my understanding the two I have are not latching types but I’m not 100% sure. They’re basically the common ones from the big chain store here (Bunnings Australia).
They are both 24v and activate/open with 24V.
Neither of them mentioned Latching anywhere.Other than that I’m lost – I really hope nothings wrong with the board because I’d have to ship it back from good old down under and the kangaroos might nick off with it from the post 😉
last post before I hit the hay for the night. This is the generic AC adaptor I bought – it’s within the limits, correct?
I noticed the pi gets warm and the Pope 25mm big valve gets slightly warm even though I hadn’t activated it. Nothing like the heat it produces when it’s on but not sure if that was relevant for troubleshooting.
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Your power adapter is clearly a DC adapter — it outputs 24V DC not AC (you can tell that because what follows from the 24V mark is a straight line, whereas if it outputs AC voltage it should be a wiggly line). Also, the label show polarity + / – and if it was AC it should not have polarity. This is the source of the problem. You must use an adapter with AC output voltage, not DC.
Haha that’s amazing. I literally didn’t realise that and since it said AC adaptor I just went with it as most of the other adaptors I have say “xxV DC @ xxA”. I was sure I’d missed something obvious but I’m teaching myself this stuff and apparently you do learn something new every day!
Thanks for the tips, I’ll head back to the electronics place today and I’ll pay closer attention to the details! (And double check with the shop staff LOL) Thank you!
Yep have a 24V AC output adaptor and it is opening and closing the valves fine now. Just confirming for any other people in the future that might find this thread after having the same issue – check your adaptor 🙂
A DC adaptor makes the Opensprinkler look like it’ll work because it starts it up fine and opens the valves but it needs the proper AC adaptor to open AND close them, which is kind of the useful part of the sprinkler system 😀
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