[Ray]

Are you trying to access OpenSprinkler from all three devices at once? Try to close the browser on the first Android device, and try one device at a time, see if this helps. Because OpenSprinkler runs an Arduino-based embedded server, it’s far less powerful than a Linux computer at handling simultaneous requests.

[Ray]

Well I can’t reproduce the issue. I imported the configurations you sent to me and ran it for a day. The program ran correctly and I didn’t find any issue with the running time.

[Ray]

Please refer to this thread for troubleshooting firmware upgrade on OS 2.1:
https://opensprinkler.com/forums/topic/firmware-update-problems-hardware-version-2-1/

Just repeating what I already said in that thread:

1) Unplug 24VAC, unplug USB (if it’s already connected)
2) Plug one end of the USB cable to your computer
3) Press and hold button B2, plug the other end of USB to OpenSprinkler
4) Release B2 1~2 seconds after USB is plugged in

The LCD screen should remain off. If it lights up, that means you have to hold B2 a bit longer. The device should show up as a USBasp device, and if you are in Windows, you will be promoted to install driver if driver is not already installed.

[Ray]

We are trying to figure out the cause of the weather data not updating, and introduce a fail-safe approach, such as re-initialize network if weather query has failed to return any result more than n times in a roll.

[Ray]

Thanks for making the changes. Because the assumption (that master valve can only be from 1-8) was made ever since the beginning, I won’t be surprised there are bugs (like the one you reported) that need to be fixed. It’s probably not a bug per se — since the master valve was limited to 1-8, (1<

[Ray]

When you select the hardware version, the updater program will automatically select the latest firmware by default. However, you can manually select a previous version of firmware (for the reason that if you don’t like the latest firmware you can downgrade to a previous version).

[Ray]

1) All fully assembled OpenSprinkler units come with a 128MB microSD card. While this is not very large, each log file on average is just a couple kilo-bytes at most. So 128MB means you can store somewhere around 60,000 days of record, and that’s more than 100 years.

As more files are stored, it may increase the computation time to query each file. So far I don’t think there is any obvious slow down on my unit.

2) There is a search function in the forum. You have to go to the top level (opensprinkler.com/forums) and you should see the search button.

3) Regarding marking a thread as solved, there is probably a way. I will let Samer chime in to see if he has any suggestions.

[Ray]

The current firmware logs the average watering percentage of each day. Go to ‘View Logs’, click on ‘Table’ view, and notice that when you click on each day, the top bar shows ‘Average Water Level’ each day. We can certainly log more frequently (because the percentage can change over a day) but so far most users seem to be ok with one average number per day.

[Ray]

In Linux, you can actually bypass the updater program (it’s just a GUI) and run command line directly. The command that it runs internally is:
avrdude -c usbasp -p m644p -U flash:w:xxx.hex
where xxx.hex is the firmware file name. Make sure you are flashing the correct firmware (for example, if you have hardware 2.1, all available firmwares for that version are under the OpenSprinkler_v2.1 subfolder). Just enter bootloader, and run the above command. The updater is simply a GUI wrapper for the above command.

[Ray]

The logging data is stored onto the microSD card inside OpenSprinkler. The mobile app and web UI support reading and displaying logging data. If you want to retrieve the raw logging data you can take a look at the API documentation:
https://opensprinkler.freshdesk.com/solution/categories/5000022938/folders/5000147084/articles/5000522597-api-documentation-firmware-2-1-1-current-

[Ray]

It’s not uncommon you will observe non-zero, stray voltages if you don’t have actual solenoids connected to the terminal blocks. However, once you connect solenoids the closed stations should read 0 volt. In other words, the stray voltages will go away under load.

[Ray]

Thanks for the tutorial. I haven’t got my own RPi 2 yet, but I am curious if you encountered any issue running the unified firmware with RPi 2?

[Ray]

Just tried your location and it seems to have obtained the correct time zone and time. Try this: restart your OpenSprinkler (you can do so via the web interface), and see if it can obtain the correct time zone and time. This might be due to an issue we saw recently that some controllers are dropping time zone query results after being on for a few days. Restarting the controller will usually solve the issue (at least temporarily). We haven’t figured out the exact cause but have been implementing a solution to re-initialize network if it hasn’t received time zone query for a while.

[Ray]

Yes, I am pretty sure you can use your current expansion board.

[Ray]

The new Pi 2 requires much higher current and I don’t think OSPi 1.1 can supply the amount of current required by Pi 2.

[Ray]

1) Can you tell me the location you set in OpenSprinkler options? The firmware uses the location to query the cloud server and get time zone (including DST). If you let me know the location, I can check.

2) Firmware 2.1.3 allows overlapping programs, and sequential stations will be guaranteed to be serialized. However, because this firmware does not use a station queue, each station is only allowed one schedule at a time. So if a station is requested to run when it’s already running (or already has an existing schedule), the new request will be ignored. This will affect repeating programs — for example, if you set a program to run station 1 for 1 hour, and repeat every 2 hours. Let’s say the watering percentage today is 250%, so the run time becomes 2.5 hours. The second time it’s requested to run (after 2 hours), the same station has’t finished the previous run, so the second request will be ignored. However, if by the second time it’s requested to run, station 1 has already finished the previous run, then it will be scheduled. Hope this makes sense.

If different programs run different stations, then you shouldn’t expect any problem. It’s only a potential issue if different programs run the same station (or one single program is set to repeat).

[Ray]

Yes, I got your email! Sorry about the delay, this has been a very busy week. I will reply this weekend. Thanks.

[Ray]

Sorry about the confusion — those instructions (“Note that OpenSprinkler does not use a bootloader, so please do not upload any bootloader to it”) are outdated. It was for OpenSprinkler 2.0 which doesn’t use bootloader. All later versions (2.1, 2.2, 2.3) use a bootloader. Still it’s good to be cautious about the bootloader because you should be explicitly aware of this bootloader you are uploading.

Note that OpenSprinkler 2.2 uses optiboot bootloader (only OS 2.1 uses USBasp). The optiboot bootloader for ATmega644 can be found at:
http://code.google.com/p/optiboot/downloads/list

[Ray]

log.txt is in the osFWUpdater folder — the folder where the program resides.

[Ray]

For programming a blank ATmega644, please check this thread:
https://opensprinkler.com/forums/topic/question-about-blank-atmega644-programming/

In short, a blank ATmega644 does not have a bootloader, and hence you will need to program the bootloader to ATmega644 first (through the 2×3 ISP headers, using an ISP programmer such as USBasp or USBtiny). This is necessary if you want to upload a program through OpenSprinkler’s USB port. On the other hand, if you already have an ISP programmer, you can directly upload the firmware to the microcontroller without going through OpenSprinklers USB port.

[Ray]

I understand that there are many users who still like the DIY kit. Unfortunately we have discontinued it and only MicroCenter has some available stock. Are you sure you can’t order from them online? You could also ask a friend to buy from MicroCenter and mail to you.

[Ray]

You don’t need to use a keyboard, mouse and monitor to set it up. You can use a different computer to ssh to your RPi and set it up that way.

Even if you use the pre-configured SD card image, you likely have to set up a few things in the beginning, such as time zone, and WiFi user name/password.

[Ray]

We have planned to remove the support for the relay feature: in terms of hardware the new OS units do not have the built-in relay any more; and in terms of software, the relay support will also be removed at some point (although the current firmware still supports it).

Since you can hear the relay click, that means it’s activating correctly. Also you said manually shorting the two wires triggers the garage door action, so those wires are also fine. This leaves only two possibilities: soldering joints, and the relay itself. It’s possible that the relay is defective, so while the coil can activate, the contact points no longer connect reliably. You can use a multimeter to do continuity checking of the two relay pins (that connect to your garage door wires). When the relay is activated, the two pins should be shorted, simulating shorting the two wires.

Do you know how long the relay clicks each time you activate S8? It’s supposed to be a pulse (i.e. the relay should turn on for a short amount of time and turns off). The timing can be controlled by the ‘Relay Pulse’ option (under Advanced Tab in Edit Stations page). If it clicks too briefly, it might not be sufficient to trigger the garage door. If it just stays on, that might also cause issues. I think 2000ms is a good number to try.

[Ray]

I did think about adding support for multiple master stations a little while back. But lacking experience with common use cases, I couldn’t decide. Here are two questions to get started:
1) How many master stations? Two should be easy to support, but would you ever need more than two?
2) Does each station always activate only one of the master stations? Do you need some stations to activate more than one master valves?

[Ray]

Yes, orders since the past couple of weeks have all been upgraded to v2.3.

[Author]

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