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Ray, I couldn’t agree with you more. For some reason, the color change remained a mystery to me. In the process of preparing all of the programs and putting them in order, I never recognized what triggered a color change. Maybe if they were highlighted when active it would have registered.
I’m writing this with a certain amount of egg on my face. It turns out that My OpenSprinkler Controller V 1.4X, in service since 2013, is alive and well. The connectivity problem was caused by a failing Trendnet Powerline Carrier Adapter, which went from intermittent to dead over several weeks. It should have been easy to isolate, but in my haste, I may have swapped out the adapter with another with a similar problem, or even worse, I may have put the same one back in. The troubleshooting was further complicated by trying to hook up a laptop, thinking it was just like connecting to one of my IP Cams, and not needing any special drivers or setup that I didn’t provide.
Once inside and connected to my router, as Ray suggested, it was immediately clear that things were working normally. It is back outside operating as before, and will probably again live through the 115+F temps that are coming again soon. The second good news it that I’ll have a backup that I can put in place with minimal effort.Ray, Thanks for the suggestion. I plan to bring the controller in the house and hook it up as you suggest, in the next week or so. It is still running OK, so there isn’t a crisis. I have my doubts that it will do any good though. During the past winter, there were a couple of times that I thought it may have stopped operating, but the winter schedule is sparse, without the frequent operation as the summer. The power line adapters have more than once seemed unreliable, but I have the feeling that this time it is for real, because none of the swaps I made produced any results. I just took a laptop and cable out to the controller and hooked it up. The data light on the controller jack and the laptop both light, but I could not connect as I have done before. There is a lot of data flashes when I power up the controller, and the IP address is what I expect, but no connection. If what I reported gives you any kind of a hint, please pass it along.
I was pretty much resigned to ordering a new controller, but on a lark I looked on eBay and found a V2.3 DC, which I bought. It is what I would have likely have ordered anyway. I’m not giving up on my original OS though. I don’t know if I have the program settings recorded anywhere, and it will be a pain without them. I would like to get the old one working. Although I have plenty of old controllers here, I would like to have a backup OpenSprinkler rather than one of the antiques I have around here.
DougMy experience with tablets and smart phone apps as well as my own habits tells me that hardly anybody writes user manuals or help files any more because nobody reads them! They are becoming the dinosaurs of present technology. It’s not that they aren’t needed for some complex items, but terms like this shouldn’t be a mystery for native English speakers
If the parameter WATER LEVEL was labeled as % WATERING or some other verb form, then most native English speakers would quickly comprehend, what it refers to.
I can sympathize with the OP because I had the same question, and I’ve been around irrigation controllers for a while.
My wireless Davis weather station is still doing front-line duty since I purchased it new in 2004.
I just use my OS hardware. I see things I would like to change, but I don’t even think about programming. I already have too many sink-holes for my free time. I wish I did have the time and experience though!Good luck with your project.
The rain gauge sounds exactly like the one on my Davis Vantage Pro weather station. Each tip of the bucket measures 0.01″.
The following is just some info about an outdoor OS installation really sees some hot conditions.
My OpenSprinkler sits in a metal box on the NW side of the house in Phoenix, AZ. It is shielded from direct sun.
I measured the temperature in the box and under the cover of OS some weeks ago when temp was in the low 100s. If I remember correctly, the temp rise under the cover was around 9 degrees F above the temp inside the box, and the inside the box was a couple degrees above ambient max.Since the max temps were certain to be a lot higher, I removed clear plastic cover from OS. Last week, my Davis weather station recorded a max temp of 118,116, 112, 111,111,111 deg F on consecutive days, and OS seemed to survive OK. The temperature within the box was probably very close to the max temp. I checked OS this AM and noticed the preview function showed that the time was about 5 hours fast. I don’t know if there were any disruptions; we were gone the hottest days. The time error really makes no difference in my installation, and a remote reboot corrected the time. At lower temps, the clock seemed to hold reasonably well.
There are three components dissipating power in the metal enclosure at all times, a small transformer, an X-10 Appliance module, and OS. The X10 module is connected to a powerline carrier adapter which is turned off except for a couple hours in the morning when it energizes the Ethernet adapter. I never measured the steady state power dissipated in the box, but the transformer and X10 module dissipate 1 watt each plus what ever OS dissipates.
I’m going to monitor the clock every few days to see how it holds. There was never a significant error earlier at lower temperatures.
If the INTERVAL referred to above is the INTERVAL that defines the number of days before the program runs again, then I heartily second the motion for allowing an interval of 0 (or 1).
I was bummed out when I tried to set an interval program from once every two days to once every day, and found I had to switch to a day-of-week program to accomplish it. There is nothing easier than adjusting the interval to achieve seasonal changes, and having to switch gears to a day-of-week type program to achieve it seems unnecessary and very klunky. I believe in my case I got an error message when I changed the interval from 2 to 1. Zero doesn’t seem like it applies in this sense of Interval. Am I referring to the same parameter?
I was going to write a few weeks ago, but haven’t even had time to even check in and read the posts.
FWIW, OpenSprinkler is doing just fine in its metal box outside at 108+ degrees in the shade. I removed the plastic cover to give it the maximum convection coolingIt sounds like it could be the same problem I ran into.
see this link: http://rayshobby.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=86&p=329&hilit=colliding#p329
Sequential only applies within one program, not between all your programs. You have to make sure there are no programs that have different valves open at the same time. There’s a way to check for conflicts suggested in the link. I believe having Sequental ON will prevent a conflicting valve from running. If Sequential is OFF, then multiple valves may run simultaneously (if I remember correctly). If you don’t want more than one valve on at a time, then you have to adjust the times. If you can have several valves on, then there’s not a problem if sequential is OFF.
Hope this helps.I had every expectation that If I read the user manual close enough that I would find that I was expecting OpenSprinkler to do things that were clearly not possible.
While the Geek in me would have taken the time to ready the User Manual carefully, the Everyday-User in me cares more about What it WILL do and WON’T do rather than WHY/HOW it does what it does.
When you take into account the exceptional capabilities of OpenSprinkler to allow 30+ programs, Complex Day of Week programs, Interval programs, and Multiple Watering Periods per program, you don’t have to have to have more than a few valves to control before you can find yourself with programs that interfere with one another. If your watering system doesn’t support having multiple valves open at the same time, then it can be tedious to make sure that there aren’t any conflicts. And then, when a person has it all worked out, all it takes is some seasonal changes and it can start all over.
Given my brief experience with OpenSprinkler, the one thing that occurs to me that would easily permit spotting conflicts is a Global Program Preview feature. Such a preview would temporarily set all programs set to operate on the same day and turn off the Sequential feature. With this as a preview, it becomes easy to see where there are conflicts and the user can make adjustments.
Ingo,
I’m curious as to what you are watering, and where you are located. Your needs sound much different than mine.Here in the SW USA. I have different needs between the seasons, and the changes are necessary for the interval between watering and to a lesser degree, the valve run-time. In the summer, I need to water citrus trees about every 7 days. In the winter once every 30 days is adequate. During the Spring/Fall the needs are in between. I have other types of vegetation with different seasonal requirements. For others, I’ll probably just change the watering interval
Thanks to the huge number of programs that OpenSprinkler can handle, I’ll probably just set up multiple programs and then enable/disable them as the season changes.
At the risk of driving Ray nuts with requests, a copy program feature would be nice. As long as I’m at it, the ability to save and restore the programs would be nice too.
Ray, Thanks for the info. The transformer I’m using is one from a recent Orbit 4 station controller, and it is likely fused. I’ve never had a wiring problem, so I think I’ll live dangerously and skip the fuse. I’m glad you removed the resettable fuse as it would likely be a headache here. I expect the temp in the box will be about 120 deg F during the summer, with the transformer, controller, and a power line Ethernet adapter adding heat and an outdoor temp of 110+ deg F. And that is without any direct sunlight on the box.
The first reply above suggests installing a fuse in series to protect the transformer/controller if there is a short in the wiring to one of the solenoids. I have 5 other irrigation controllers, and 4 out of 5 have a 1 Amp fuse in them, so other controller manufacturers have seen a need for them. In the case of the fifth one, the transformer may have become the fuse device. Over the decades, I’ve seen more fuses fail due to old age than due to a problem in the equipment they were protecting, so I view fuses as both a solution and potential problem.
Is there any fuse-type protection on the OpenSprinkler board? If there isn’t, is there any type of solid-state fuse that would do the job, or is a wire-fuse still the most economical device? Some of the 24V transformers that people might have lying around might be more likely to blow something on the board than self destruct without some form of protection.Where’s a good place to find an inline fuse holder these days, if that is the best solution available?
I know nothing about hardware versions of OpenSprinkler, but I have a couple thoughts about the rest of your post.
In my experience, hardware like OS isn’t going to be bothered by a few hours in a below freezing environment. Here, outside of Phoenix, AZ, below-freezing temps are common during the Winter. This year, we had a couple nights of 23 deg F. I have two small Orbit controllers that live in a metal box fastened to the North side of my house. The controllers have been through several winters and have never missed a beat. With the power dissipation of the transformer and the electronics itself, and the very few hours that is spent at the lowest temp, the controllers are probably not even remotely close to being stressed.
Summer, on the other hand, can bring conditions that can be troublesome. If there is direct sun on the enclosure for many hours, little wind and very low dew point, the temperature inside the box may become uncomfortable for the electronics. In my situation, I put some 1/2 foam inside the box to minimize the temperature rise for the short time that the sun hits the controller enclosure. During the really hot part of the summer, and especially if we are traveling, I put another object in front of the enclosure to shield it from any direct sunlight. I’ve never had a problem.
An alternate to Wi-Fi that works very well is to install a powerline carrier Ethernet adapter along with the controller inside the enclosure. If you don’t want to leave the adapter running, you can use an remote control power switch (radio control type) or an X-10 appliance module, to turn the network adapter on when you want to use it.
Duh! I completely missed the fact that the TIME field specifies Start and End of the program period. I guess I assumed it was Start time only and I managed to ignore the extra fields. I can certainly live with the way it is.
But, IF there were a choice, I would prefer something like I mentioned, because specifying the number of cycles explicitly describes what you desire, with zero chance of error. Achieving the desired results through a calculation that implicitly defines them would be a distant second choice for me. As a user, the program end-time is one of things I don’t expect to have to care about (other than making sure the day doesn’t end before the cycle finishes).
