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Can you switch the station wire with another station, to check if this is an issue with the triac on that station, or the sprinkler solenoid? The only case I’ve seen before that the station will turn on but not turn off is when someone incorrectly uses a DC power supply instead of 24V AC.
This question has been brought up quite a few times before. Here are two potential solutions:
Solution 1: Make a custom extension cable using an Ethernet cable or something similar. On OSPi, the extension connector has 8 pins, though 3 of them are all connected to ground (to effectively increase the current capacity of the ground wire). So at the very minimum you need 6 wires (using 1 instead of 3 ground wires). This way you can place the expansion board far away from the OSPi. Keep in mind that you also need the COM wire, which is not part of the zone extension cable.
The downside of Solution 1 is that since the extension cable carries logic-level signals, the resistance on the extension cable over long distance can impact the signal quality, and this may be prone to noise and signal interference.
Solution 2: Use an Ethernet cable or something similar as the solenoid cable (the conductor cable you mentioned). The advantage of this over solution 1 is that the cable does not carry logic signals so it’s less prone to noise and signal interference. However, you will need a lot of wires if you have a large number of stations on the other site. Of course this is based on the assumption that a long Ethernet cable is cheaper than the equivalent number of solenoid wires (which I believe is true).
The firmware updater program is written in Qt. There is a known issue of current Qt’s SerialPort class crashing in MacOS 10.9.5 or 10.10 (https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-42037). Fixing it requires re-compiling the SerialPort library, which I haven’t had time to do yet. Good to hear that you got it working on Win7, and thanks for posting the picture. Looks nice!
The OSPi 1.4 (including B+ version) EagleCAD schematic and board design files are now checked into Github:
https://github.com/rayshobby/opensprinkler/tree/master/OpenSprinkler%20Pi/hardwareIn terms of schematic, it’s the same as OSPi 1.3 (other than changing the relay type). If you are still having trouble with your board, try to use the self_test demo (in the /home/ospi/demo folder) which will turn on each station a few seconds one after another.
During the rain delay period, a station that observes rain delay will not be scheduled hence will not run (even if its duration spans beyond the rain delay period).
The ‘lcd dimming’ is the LCD brightness after a certain period of inactivity (20 seconds by default). Just like the LCD brightness, you can set it anywhere between 0 to 255.
It’s officially released (forum post here).
I’ve also seen this happening in the past, and I honestly don’t completely understand the UU mark. But all OSPi boards we sell have passed functional tests, which include RTC test — the tester verifies that the RTC exists, can be programmed with a time and can read back the time correctly.
That’s correct. The ‘end time’ has caused much confusion in the past and it’s not intuitive. So in the new program settings, it has been removed.
As much as I want to include your suggestions, I honestly don’t think this will happen in the near future. There are two main reasons. One, a main advantage of having a web-based controller is that you can use browsers and apps to present information in any way you want. In contrast, the LCD screen is small and limited, I just don’t know how many users really care about seeing detailed information on the LCD (less to say that the sprinkler controller is usually in the garage or some place that isn’t convenient to access). The other reason is that the microcontroller has only 64KB program memory space and 4KB RAM, I would rather use the limited resources to add other more urgent features.
We cannot add additional buttons because that involves not only circuit changes but also changes to the enclosure. The current manually start program feature is pretty straightforward:
1. long press B3 to enter ‘start a program’ option.
2. click B3 to select a test program or any of the preset programs.
3. long press B3 to start the selected program.You can create a program with the custom timers you mentioned, and just ask the landscaper to start that program each time.
I assume that if the start time of the next run is before the rain delay runs out the entire program will not run?
During the rain delay period, only stations which are set to ‘ignore rain’ will run. Other stations will not run.
Sure, you can split the program into 2 (one finishes before midnight, the other starts after midnight).
Just so you know, the post you were reading was referring to an older version of firmware (prior to 2.1.0) — in firmware 2.1.0, there is no ‘end time’ anymore. There are now only the first start time, and two choices of additional start times.
Just to add to what Samer already said: the latest OpenSprinkler firmware 2.1.0 has added a feature to start a test program or any preset program on the controller using the three buttons. You can also perform emergency stop using buttons. Please check the OpenSprinkler user manual, which is now available at:
https://opensprinkler.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/5000403746-opensprinkler-user-manual-firmware-2-1-0-OK, to avoid confusion, I changed my wording to: but the controller will run programs over night. As I said: as long as the program has started, it will finish and will not cut off at midnight.
The preview can be easily fixed to show an overnight-run program on the day that the program starts. For example, if the program starts at 11pm on Oct 24 and runs over to 2am on Oct 25, the preview can be fixed to show this for Oct 24’s preview. But if you check Oct 25’s preview, it won’t be able to show there is an overnight-run program from Oct 24. This is because the preview is calculated on per-day basis, and it doesn’t consider programs whose start times are on the previous day.
@Andrew: Automatic scroll to the current running station: yes, this can be done.
Display the station that’s running: this is a bit tricky because the LCD doesn’t have much room to display. It can certainly scroll or time share, or use a button to toggle the displayed information. To be honest, since OpenSprinkler is mainly a web-based controller, the LCD functions are kept minimal.
The preview currently does not show time span over midnight, but the controller will run programs over night. More technically, as long as the program has started, it will finish and will not cut off at midnight.
We are preparing the release documents right at this moment. You should hold on till the official announcement is sent out later today or tomorrow. FW 2.1.0 beta has been out for a few weeks and we’ve ironed out most issues we can find. So the release version should be pretty stable. Again, just hold on till we send out announcement later today or tomorrow.
Local-only configuration will always be supported. The way this works is that the controller will establish a persistent connection with the cloud server, and monitor requests from the cloud server. At the same time, connections through directly typing in the IP address will still work.
@automate: OK, I see what you mean. As Samer said, the user manual is self-contained and so the ‘Advanced Topics’ section it’s referring to is in the manual itself.
Did you read Advanced Topics — part 1, entitled “Installing a microSD card”?? The last sentence specifically says the firmware is configured to automatically use microSD card for logging.
OK, just so you can take a look at the new user manual, I have attached it here. Some video links are missing but the textual content is pretty much complete. As soon as the user manual is officially released I will delete this attachment so we don’t have multiple copies floating around.
Yes, you are right, the relays are slightly different. Even though they are rated 120VAC, it’s really meant for low-voltage devices like low-voltage landscape light (<36V) and garage door opener. The PCB traces are not designed to handle powerline voltage. So because of that the two relays don't make that much difference.
