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also need this feature, here in the mile high city we still get spring snow that wont come close to freezing the ground and the sprinkler system, but it will blow sprinkler heads apart or at least make a giant icy mess if you attempt to use them.
A temperature setpoint to not turn on the sprinklers would be good enough.
our last spring snow storm the high of the day was 68 degrees @ midnight, then we got 2ft of heavy wet snow fall that was entirely melted within another 48h.. this was in late April when I already had turned on the system to help the grass seed I had planted.
I just got a new droid today and tested that SSL + Auth does work wonderfully with Nginx sitting infront of the python interval program.. havent tried iphone; my wife dont let me mess with it often 😆
opensprinkler dont have a ground, if you want you could attach it to one of the screws holding the circuit board to the case or wire it to RJ45 surge supressor like I did.
true; then you’d need a configuration option for stations if they require master or not; kinda like the rain sensor.. this would be very useful for garden/greenhouse/hydroponic irrigation…
My greenhouse plans involve a goldfish pond for retaining water with a auto top off for the pond; this should slowly change out the fish pond and use there waste nitrate for the plants.. all the greenhouse stations will work off a solar powered pump… sooner or later (next spring I hope) if this isint in the software I’ll figure out how to to do it and send dan a patch heh
can you connect to https directly? port 80 in my example just redirects to https on port 443 and nothing else.
You want to port forward 443 to your OpenSprinkler and connect to https://yourdomain.dyndns.org
Firehol shuts down access on port 8080 and forces you to use 443 w/SSL, if you trust your local network (wifi?) and only forward https to the OSpi/OSbo that is optional.. if its in a DMZ then you want to enable firehol.
Also with the new heartbleed bug everyone has heard about make sure you update from the repos, as you can see nothing is invincible but now that its public large botnets are looking for it.
I will test again and report back; IIRC I was using nginx wssl & password auth like my wiki.. I’ll try it w/out SSL and see if I have any better luck.
The latest OSPi software comes with a module for triggering the relay’, and its GPIO is defined internally as pin_relay; but yeah making this automatic with the start of a program would require a lil modification..
It seems like it would be a decent idea to have an option to configure the master station to be the onboard relay though; It shouldn’t be too hard to implement.. maby Dan can help you out as he is the resident python expert, I dont think a module can hook into the interval loop so it would be a hack to the core code.
can you connect on local network? (ie, Wifi on same network as OpenSprinkler)
If your on the local network trying to connect to the external IP this will only work if your router supports NAT Loopback. If it does not do NAT loopback you will have to use the internal IP when at home and the external IP when connecting remotely… you will never connect to the external IP internally without this feature in your router.
This is the transformer I use; cost $19 shipped thru amazon prime.
I got it for the screw terminals, and I like that it can be secured to the outlet w/a screw… plus it has a ground, built in PTC and a nice LED, its an all around winner and I am impressed w/its quality.I am probably not the best case but of the 4 laptops I have around me, all different kinds only 1 has a 2prong.. My MacBook and ToughBook and my wife’s old HP Laptop all have a ground, her new work thinkpad however does not.. I believe a vintage 90’s laptop I just tossed out did not have a ground either but that thing didnt have any radios in it at all.
Ive put wget -q “http://127.0.0.1:8080/cv?pw=&rsn=1” -O /dev/null into my rc.local to see if it shuts the valves off on the next occurrence, I’ll also test w/out interval loading and see if its hardware.. but I’d think it’d occur instantly, before beagle is booted?
ah yes the device filesystem would have still been available; so the watchdog process would have still been alive and still pinging the timer.
I doubt you exceeded the operating temperature specs:SanDisk SD, SDHC, microSD and microSDHC memory cards are capable of withstanding operating temperatures from -13ºF to 185ºF
I’d assume the card went bad; you can try moving /tmp /var/log /var/run and /var/apt/cache to tmpfs filesystems to lower the amount of writes to flash dramatically. I’d also invest in a quality card; definitely not the cheapest one in town.
You can configure the watchdog daemon to execute this simple script thats included:
add to watchdog.conf
check-binary = /usr/share/doc/watchdog/examples/systemcheck.shexecute:
sudo chmod +x /usr/share/doc/watchdog/examples/systemcheck.sh
sudo /etc/init.d/watchdog restartThis would have detected your failure as it could not have opened a new shell when the disk died.. causing the watchdog daemon to hang and miss its heartbeat. I have personally verified that if a valve is open when the watchdog timer triggers a reset the valve will close.
I’ll try to come up with a sane watchdog config for most of our use cases and document it on the Wiki, perhaps I can write a script that monitors the valve status and if there open for longer than XXX it first tries to shut them down; and if that fails reboot.
ok so I have an issue where I restart OSBo; usually forcibly by watchdog timer, pulling power because hung on boot, etc.. its not 100% consistant but when the system boots back up and gets to the userspace (the moment I can login w/ssh) my first station kicks on automatically; I presume this is when the interval program is starting up.
I hit it several times now; almost bricked my self with a bad watchdog timer config rebooting in a loop.. every few reboots the valve would come back on until I went out and pulled the common wire; then with some fast typing fixed my watchdog before it reset.. (good news is it shut back down when the watchdog timer reset the system a few moments later, as one would hope)
The interval program has no idea that station 1 is on; but if I press ‘stop all stations’ the station shuts down, without manual intervention I assume it will run until the next schedule starts.
Not sure what is triggering this, I am thinking a stop_stations() needs to be called when the interval program is initialized just to ensure all valves are closed incase something is awry.
awesome thanks, I went ahead and appended the OSPi and OSBo wiki pages to include a small blurb about configuring the OS timezone.
Read the Wiki, its documented near the top: http://rayshobby.net/mediawiki/index.php?title=Set_Up_RPi,_RTC,_WiFi,_Data_Log
did you have the watchdog application installed and setup? If your Pi restarted it should have reset all its GPIO which would have closed your valves.
Wont work on current board but mebe for future ones we can use the RTC w/a hardware timer to cut power to the stations when triggered, then anytime a watering program goes off we set that timer to either a big default or the time the program is supposed to conclude; then if anything prevents the microcontroller from completing the program the RTC will be a failsafe to shutdown the stations.
And yeah email alerts could be used for alot of that; but lets just say internet is down/unavailable… or were using it to close the garage door in which case it would be to alert anyone who’s in the garage that the door is about to close.
hrmm, I always figured tz-config was pretty accurate with as often as they update it; I wonder if people simply did not know how ot change there OS TimeZone; if so it’d be better to fix it with documentation and not revert features.
Question Dan, why does the python interval program use a hardset timezone offset and not use the OS’s supplied one? If one were to run this year round to automate other tasks than yard irrigation, it’d be great if there was one less thing around the house that had to be adjusted twice a year for daylight savings time 👿
If we must be subjected to this insane bi-annual time shift, at least our more intelligent devices should be smart enough to compensate for some of the insanity. 😆
An onboard buzzer would be a nice addition. Since the Pi/Bo dont have LCD screens it would be a good alternative to physically notify someone to an issue/error they need to look at.. For example; after a successful boot and beep once if using internet time and twice if using RTC; if year is less than 2010 chirp every 20s; or if network is not available, a flood/freeze has been detected, garage door is about to close so play a tone, etc..
edit* If your going to toss a temp sensor onboard you might look at the BMP180 and putting it on the i2c bus w/the RTC, I believe it is very accurate and has a barometer which might be more useful than humidity, also has a native kernel module and the watchdog daemon should work with it without much fuss. (reboot if temps exceed XXX)
this is similar to what I was seeing when I setup my own image from scratch and did not have the Python GPIO Libraries installed.. you might check that you have them installed and there permissions are ok.
but just today someone resolved a problem like this that turned out to be the ribbon cable for Pi; so that is the most likely culprit.
might consider using a BR battery then opposed to a CR; my concern with the battery is temperature range… a winter out in a greenhouse (or even a detached garage) in colorado will likely drop down below the -4F thats the lower limit of the battery.. once they sit at -20 for a week or so they tend to perform poorly afterwords then die prematurely.
The BR is rated to -22F which is more reasonable (although Ive seen it get lower than that outside here); I switched to supercaps for RTC’s when making circuit for a high altitude balloon… all sorts of battery issues @ 120k altitude & -40 degrees.. We also use em for the GPS in OpenPilot, where thousands of dollars in damages and possibly injury can happen if GPS lock is lost from a brownout… They take up less space on the circuit board, are lighter and more rugged (no loose battery after a plane/balloon crash).. as a result of many great successes with supercaps its my go-to over an onboard battery.
The problem I see is when the battery dies nobody will notice until after there is a failure; depending on scenario a small power outage in middle of heat wave (when the electrical grid is the least reliable) might destroy a crop if the timers dont come back when the power does; or land you a ticket from local govt for not following irrigation restrictions.
I dont know how old my analogue sprinkler controller was; I suspect over 20 years… and it ate up batteries in my garage. I’d like to think my OpenSprinkler will be in service for the next 20 years, but changing the battery in it is even more of a pain than in my old controller since I’d basically have to unmount and disassemble the entire thing.
In my tests with a very high frequency/accurate crystal & RTC with the biggest supercap digikey offers; I was able to maintain time for at a minimum of 10 days without power, it was really close to 2 weeks total; which should more than cover any reasonable unplanned power outage.. If your without electricity that long I dont think your sprinklers are much of a priority; you have bigger issues.. Yes people whom unplug there controller over the winter will have to restore time in the spring but they also wont have any reason to question the reliability of the battery after a prolonged usage in extreme temperatures,. I figure since manual action is required to plug it back in there is obviously someone around to verify that internet is online and the time got set correctly.
And now, adding a ground-plane with unused copper on the pcb, connecting the pcb ground to that and providing a header for access.. My Transformer has a ground connection, my old 20+ year old controller had a ground connection, if you make it available people will use it. I have a lot of expensive radios and computer equipment in my server room and as good policy I dont allow anything connected to an outside wire to enter my room that hasent been grounded before it enters my room. I will install a ethernet surge protector with a STP ethernet cable connected to my OSBo and and ground it to the transformer ground; this meets my requirements, and should also provide a proper ground to the Beagle; that rain sensor mounted to my gutter, connected to the beagle, wired to my server room makes me nervous.. Come to think of it; regardless of having a ground on the OSpi its best to install an ethernet surge device if your using wired ethernet, but my next point:
Right now the USB port on the microcontroller is floating ground, I suspect if this was grounded properlly WiFi USB may be less susceptible to noise from the AC coil and power running nearby.. I know laptops with usb radios have all sorts of issues until you plug it into the wall and give it a ground.. You can run a USB Spectrum analyzer or USB-SDR and see an improvement just by plugging a laptop into mains vs running off battery w/floating ground (I am also a HAM with a bit of experience).. I bet if you had a HID ballast nearby (Common in indoor gardens and Garages) with the current design you’d have a hell of a time with wireless and analogue sensor inputs using a floating ground like this, Ive ran into that problem before trying to setup some aquarium automation that was near a Metal Halide lamp. The RF noise from the ballast resulted in erratic and worthless temp readings and flakey bluetooth communications; when I grounded the board properly those problems disappeared.
*edit* looking at the board you could attach the ground to the board mounting holes with some exposed copper and anyone needing to ground the board can attach to the mounting screw, simple and not really prone to user-hookup error.
PS: I noticed after the fact there’s a 5v header already on my OSbo; how much current of 5v would be safe to a small hub like this: http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=103&cp_id=10307&cs_id=1030702&p_id=10065&seq=1&format=2 ? If you could get over 2A of power to a hub it’d open the doors to a whole bunch of USB options/modules.
any chance of getting an option for the hosted controller that makes it easy to disable login all together? Once you have locked it down like this it seems kinda painful to keep entering passwords for little reason.
Getting the mobile apps to work behind a password protected proxy will be great.. I’ll try Client TLS tomorrow when I can get some time on the phone, if its using the safari backend it has no problem logging into my client-tls authenticated web servers.
There is a configuration option Master station that you set. The master station is triggered when any other station is triggered so you can activate pumps/main valves/etc.
You can use the Master Off Adjust option to have the Master station shutoff up to a minute prior to the Watering Station; this gives your supply lines time to reach head pressure.
The Master On Adjust option you would want to set to a small delay; this ensures your station valve is always fully open before the main valve is popped open and reduces the initial pressure surge.
All 3 options if used together will accomplish what you want; I believe they have been implemented for use cases just like this.
If your relay or your master valve is 24v AC it will work fine as long as its not a giant 2A coil relay for motors; replace one or the other with a comparable one that can be triggered by OpenSprinkler directly, should you run into any troubles.
From the Manual:
Master station: Master is a station that turns on when other stations are running. It can be used on a water pump or main valve, such that the pump or valve will turn on automatically when any other station is open. The default value is 0, which means no master station. A value larger than 0 selects a master station: any stations from 1 to 8 can be assigned as a master station.
Master on adjust: adjust the time (0 to +60 seconds) that master will turn on when a station opens. For example, +5 means the master will turn on 5 seconds after a station opens. Default 0.
Master off adjust: adjusted the time (-60 to 60 seconds) that master will turn off when a station closes. For example, -5 means the master will turn off 5 seconds before a station closes. Default 0.Well; umm.. I guess pull your Pi out of the OS Board put some header pins (Ray sent me some with my OSBo) or jumper wires in the same pins connected to the OSBo and using a multimeter see if your getting any output (3.3v DC) with all the stations enabled.. verify output is gone with stations disabled.. This should verify your Pi is sending a signal. Sorry I dont have a pi so I dont know exactly what pins your looking for but it shouldent be too hard to figure out.
If your pi is sending a signal than its likely the OSPi board is faulty; if your not getting a signal out the Pi either you have a software issue or a faulty-pi
