Weather Diagnostics not working

[mhendu]

I’ve got an OpenSprinkler 2.0 and recently updated to firmware 2.1.7. I’ve set the OpenSprinkler to use the Zimmerman method and have successfully configured Weather Underground with my API key (verify is green and I get accurate weather data for my location on the home page). I’m in Texas and we just had a thunderstorm. When I click on Weather Diagnostics I see that today’s precipitation shows as 0.11″ (versus 0.08″ when I click on the weather icon on the home page). The current % watering shows as 100%, and last weather call and last successful weather call are both blank.

Also (separate issue, maybe related) – the time of day I had to set to +1 to display the correct time (when I am 6 hours behind GMT).

Any help would be appreciated.

[Ray]

Last weather call being blank is strange: that means the controller isn’t even making the weather calls. I don’t know why that happens. If you reboot the controller, do you at least see a time stamp for the last weather call? The last successful weather call indicates when it received the result of the weather query.

The firmware automatically sends a query to detect your time zone, so you shouldn’t need to change the time zone manually. I think it’s related in a sense that it seems the controller is just not receiving any incoming packets. It might have to do with your network setup: do you run a firewall or something that could potentially block incoming packets?

[mhendu]

I’ve rebooted the controller several times but no success. Prior to upgrading the firmware I was on the firmware that shipped with the OpenSprinkler 2.0, if that helps – much different UI. The new firmware seems a little buggy, like the controller isn’t quite powerful enough maybe – sometimes when I change settings they don’t save correctly the first time, and when I try to look at the logs it just spins but doesn’t pull anything up. The controller is connected to a network bridge, which connects to the rest of my network over WiFi. It picks up an IP address just fine, shows weather information on the home screen that is correct, gives me a green indicator that my API key is verified, etc. I don’t have a firewall or other setup that would block the controller off from the Internet.

[Ray]

As I said, I cannot explain why the last weather call is blank — unless if the firmware is not running at all, it should at least send the query, if it doesn’t receive the query result.

If you want to go back to an earlier firmware, you can do so easily by using the firmware updater, and before update, check the drop-down box to select an earlier version of firmware, then update.

[mhendu]

I downgraded the firmware to 2.1.6 but am still running into the same issues. Any other thoughts as to why I get weather data on the home page but not via Weather Diagnostics? Anything else I should try?

[Ray]

Can I ask you to confirm if you are still seeing a blank for the ‘Last Weather Call’ (note, I am not asking about ‘Last Successful Weather Call’)? The only thing I can think of that would explain an invalid Last Weather Call time stamp is either your controller is not connected to router, or your controller is in remote controller mode:
https://github.com/OpenSprinkler/OpenSprinkler-Firmware/blob/master/main.cpp#L722
in all other cases, it would at least have a valid Last Weather Call time stamp (even if that call turns out to be unsuccessful in the end).

[mhendu]

Yes, still no ‘Last Weather Call’ and no ‘Last Successful Weather Call’ listed.

What’s ‘remote controller mode’ and how would I find out if that’s set?

I’m not really sure how the controller wouldn’t be connected to the router if I can access it via WiFi and if it’s obtaining weather data on the home page. Maybe I’m missing something.

[Ray]

The only reason it won’t send out a Last Weather Call at all would be if the controller detects that it cannot reach the router — in other words, if it can’t reach the router, it thinks that the controller is offline hence will not send any network requests. I am surprised that you can reach the controller while it still thinks it’s offline. I really can’t explain why this is happening.

To tell if it’s in remote controller mode — when you access the controller, it will display a Remote Controller mode banner at the bottom of the homepage. Also, you can check this on the controller itself — if it’s in remote controller mode, there will be an icon displayed on the LCD, looking like a satellite receiver.

[mhendu]

I see neither of those things. However, the LCD display does say ‘Connecting…’ at the bottom, if that helps.

[Ray]

That clearly indicates that the controller has not established a connection with your router yet, no wonder why it’s not sending weather requests. But now I am puzzled how you can still access the controller if it’s not connected yet…

[Author]

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