[mattguy]

Does this still fit with the existing clear case cover on?

[mattguy]

Well if the power goes out, I’m figuring that you don’t have a backup power supply just for your sprinkler system, so the sprinklers should also turn off since there isn’t any power being supplied to the solenoids. Now when the power comes back on, the sprinklers should stay off since the opensprinkler Pi needs a command from the pi board to turn the solenoids on which would allow the water to flow. I’m nearly positive this is how it would work, but don’t take my word for it 😛

[mattguy]

Yes they work just fine, in fact that is how I had my system running until I got my opensprinkler pi in the mail. The only problem that I really had with it was that it is normally high so when the raspberry pi goes down or something, your sprinklers come on. Doh! So I would recommend you get the solid state one that is normally low from here – http://www.sainsmart.com/8-channel-5v-solid-state-relay-module-board-omron-ssr-4-pic-arm-avr-dsp-arduino.html

Also you are going to need a shift register because the program isn’t written to use a pin per relay, so you can get those here
http://www.ebay.com/itm/10ea-74hc595-8-bit-shift-regester-ships-from-USA-/250862712322?

All in all, honestly I would just spend the extra $25 to get a opensprinkler pi. I tried going the relay route and spent more $ and time than I would have on the opensprinkler pi (and I still ended up buying it).

[mattguy]

Is there a line in the code that I need to change for the pins? Like in the python pi interval program, I have to change a line in the code for the program to know the difference between pi rev 1 and pi rev 2 for the shift register.

Edit I found it in core.cpp. Is this the only place where the pins are defined?

[mattguy]

Right its possible, but most people dont want a set up like that because they either turn on multiple zones at once or have a master with other zones.

But either way, update your program to the newest version on the github and it’ll fix your problems.

[mattguy]

I just updated to the lastest OSPi program that was just released today and it fixed all the issues I was having. Thanks Dan! You’re the man!

[mattguy]

The latest OSPi program that Dan just released today fixed the issues I was having with the run once program. Thanks for yalls awesome support!

[mattguy]

Well dj some people do run more than one zone at a time so the hardware should be designed to accept any command sent to it from the software. But you’re right there is a very bad bug in the run once programming. I tried running it (luckily I was standing next to the rPi and was able to unplug it before anything could be damaged), and all the zones started flickering on and off like crazy. It started making the transformer buzz and physically vibrate. I’m using a rainbird brand transformer.

I had my rPi setup to use a 8 channel relay board when it did this so using relays doesn’t fix the problem. And yes, even while using the opensprinkler pi board, running the run once program will cause all of the zones to flicker on and off the same way.

[mattguy]

The same thing happens to me when I use the run once program. The valves were going on and off like crazy and then the transformer just started vibrating and buzzing very loudly. Luckily I was standing right next to it so I was able to unplug it before it could damage anything like the rPI, the valves, transformer, or even cause a fire.

Maybe the run once feature should be taken out of the program while it is being fixed.

[mattguy]

I wrote a scheduling program for my sprinkler in PHP, but instead of using cron I used upstart. Upstart is cool because it actually makes it a daemon that you can start say when apache starts, and will restart it if something fails. I just put a loop in my php file that way it never ends. Plus with upstart running the PHP as a daemon you can make it check the database say every 15 seconds instead of every 15 minutes with less resources. Just my two cents 😉

[mattguy]

I am using salbahra’s awesome web interface, so since my rPi has php on it I made some additions to his code to allow me to have custom pages….one of them being a stats page. Check out my screenshot of the stats –

[mattguy]

I’m not sure there is really a secure way to transmit login information to the server, but then again there really isn’t a need for it to be ultra secure. I’ve seen websites that house personal information that have zero security (not good btw!). I think just making it difficult to sniff the traffic should be enough protection. There are two libraries that I know of for the Arduino that are for the tea encryption which is a fast, simple encryption protocol.

Try https://github.com/franksmicro/Arduino/tree/master/libraries/Xtea or https://github.com/Denhart/TEA-encryption-on-arduino

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