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You are right, the self-test ignores master valve setting. To be honest, it’s mainly for us internally to test the circuit and make sure all zones function. You are recommended to use the Run-Once Program, or manual mode for testing valves. These both observe the master valve setting.
The fully assembled OS are covered under 90-day warranty. Please send an email to [email protected] to arrange for a replacement.
The station delay is in units of seconds. But it’s pretty easy to modify one line of code to change it to units of minutes. Specifically, in ospi.py, around line 151:
accumulate_time += gv.sd # add station delay
just change that to
accumulate_time += gv.sd * 60 # add station delay
I think this is the only change you need to do.About master on adjust time — currently it only supports a positive value. Technically it’s because the the master valve is associated with other stations, so it’s scheduled after other stations have been scheduled. Therefore, it can’t ‘go back in time’ and turn on before other stations are turned on. There are ways to work around it though. Here is one possibility: in ospi.py, around line 135, the function
def schedule_stations(stations)
this is where stations are scheduled (i.e. stations that should turn on are assigned a start time and stop time). You can push the start and stop time by 180 (3 minutes), and that will cause the master valve to be on 3 minutes before any other station turns on. I haven’t tried this myself so I don’t know if there are other changes you need to make. But the idea should work.The stereo plug valve unfortunately do not work with OSBee. That valve has two coils and three pins. The control mechanism is different from the two wire type (my blog post documents how to control it). I think this type has been discontinued — only Orbit made it, all others use the two wire type.
For OSPi 1.2, the cable is likely to be the problem. I suggest using a multimeter to check the pin-to-pin connection on each wire of the 8-pin cable.
7.5kW, 10HP? That’s a beefy pump. The Orbit one clearly doesn’t work. You may have to search ‘pump start relay 10HP’ and see the available options.
@rjalex: your understanding is correct.
The algorithm first checks if the current time is between start time and end time (inclusive). If so, it then checks if the current time minus start time is a multiple of interval time (i.e. if (current time – start time) / interval is an integer, 0 included). If so, the program is scheduled to run.
Because 1.3u does not have a built-in fuse, one simple way to add a fuse is to connect it in series on the COM wire. So COM terminal -> fuse -> COM wire.
Regarding ‘an indicator that a station is not working’ — a shorted solenoid can be easily detected electrically (or at least manually by measuring the coil resistance). But there might be mechanical issues like solenoid getting stuck etc. Ultimately if there is a soil moisture sensor, that can tell you if the plant is getting the water it needed.
Because OS (using latest firmware) and OSPi both support logging now, the lastrun can probably be removed. But I agree that it’s a nicer presentation to show the last run time for each zone. OSPi with interval program 2.x actually already does this and presents a nice visual view of the station runs.
One possibility is to create a separate file (e.g. weather.txt) and log the changes in rain sensor status. This should be pretty easy to do. Will try to push this to the next firmware update.
I took a quick look at the datasheet and looks like the pump runs on either 230V or 380V. It can’t be directly connected to OpenSprinkler as a station (because each station only outputs 24V AC). Instead, you will need a pump start relay. If you are in the US, you can buy a pump start relay on Amazon or local home improvement stores. For example, this seems to work well:
http://www.amazon.com/Orbit-57009-Sprinkler-System-Horsepower/dp/B000I19I5E
Do make sure to check the horse-power ratings.Sorry to hear that. Two reasons I can think of, that may cause the transformers to be damaged, are either surge / over-voltage, or there is a persistent shorting somewhere. The latter is probably more likely, given that you have 4 transformers damaged. One thing I suggest you to check is whether there may be a shorted or semi-shorted solenoid somewhere. You can use a multimeter to measure the resistance of each sprinkler solenoid (the simplest way, without taking down the wirings, is to measure the resistance from COM to each individual station wire). Normal 24V AC solenoids should have about 30 to 50 ohm resistance. If the resistance is too low (like below 10ohm), you should replace that solenoid.
The on/off adjust are normally left as zero (the default values). You are right that these parameters can be used to fine tune water pressure / reducing hammering problems. I frankly don’t know what are the rule-of-thumb values. I think (I am not an expert on this topic 🙂 controllers that do not provide this as an option just use zero.
Make sure you update your iPhone app because the logging feature in the app is added fairly recently (I think). When you open the app, there should be a ‘logging’ button at the app homepage.
If you type in http://x.x.x.x/16234.txt in a browser and gets a access denied message, that means no log file has been created for that day. You can always check the content of the SD card by inserting it into your computer. In any case, the logging data is supposed to be accessed through the app.
If your router is not Internet connected, you should turn off the NTP sync option. Once this option is off, you can also manually set a time if it doesn’t already have the correct time. These can be done using the web interface.
Alternatively, if your router can function as NTP sync server, you can change the NTP ip on the controller to use your router’s ip. The NTP ip can only be changed on the controller (by pressing and holding B3 while powering up).
Ah, glad to hear you’ve fixed it. Sorry, there are too many versions that I can’t keep my own head clear about them :). I checked the PCB of 1.3u and you are right: on this version you need to solder a wire from the Rain Sensor pin to A1 — this was left as an option so if you don’t need rain sensor you have one extra analog pin to do something else. Anyways, thanks for figuring it out on your own.
Well I can’t think of any obvious reason. All OSPi boards have been tested using real sprinkler solenoids and verified to function correctly. I suggest you send an email to [email protected] to arrange for an exchange so we can check that’s going on with the board.
Hmm, this is puzzling, especially since you have successfully updated the firmware once before. I can’t think of any obvious reason. The message you encountered means the operating system cannot detect the USBasp device. If you have access to another computer you may want to try it on another computer. Also, I am wondering if this has to do with USB 3.0 (I doubt that, because I have a fairly recent Macbook Air and I can successfully upgrade firmware using it).
Well there are on-board components that are powered by the +5V line, particularly the relay and the DS1307 RTC. If you don’t use them, they do not have to be powered. The other components are all on the 3.3V line. Cutting off pins from RPi is fine, but I personally think removing the PTC fuse is a better solution and does not require such permanent change to RPi as cutting off pins.
@TechFan: could you try a different USB port and different USB cable? I assume you did make sure the screen remains OFF following the bootloading procedure.
If you have a soldering iron, the easiest way is to remove the green PTC fuse on OSPi v1.4. Once the fuse is removed, the on-board 5V will be disconnected from RPi. Here is an example picture of the PTC fuse:
http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/pict/1809917938554040_1.jpg
To de-solder it, just apply soldering iron on one end of the fuse, and when it gets heated up, both ends will become loose, then you can remove it with a tweezer.If you click on ‘stop all stations’ that event will not be logged (because technically this directly turns off valves without modifying the timing values). It can certainly be added, I am just explaining here why it’s not being logged currently.
For those who haven’t been able to upgrade, here are some notes that may help (most of these are already mentioned in the instructions and the GUI)
1. Make sure to check if you have OpenSprinkler 2.1 or 2.0, they have different procedures:
– OS 2.1: the 24VAC terminal block is orange-colored, to enter bootloading mode, unplug all power, then press and hold button B2 while plugging in a USB cable, and release B2 after 2 seconds. The LCD screen must remain OFF, if the LCD lights up, you need to repeat the above step.– OS 2.0: the 24VAC terminal block is green-colored. There is NO need to enter bootloading: just select OpenSprinkler 2.0 from the dropdown list, and click on Upload.
2. Driver (for Windows):
– OS 2.1: requires USBasp driver. Windows 7 64-bit and Windows 8 require signed drivers. To get around it, it’s probably the easiest to boot Windows into a mode that disables driver signature enforcement. For Windows 7, I think you can press F8 during system booting process, and select the correct option that disables driver signature enforcement. For Windows 8, you can follow the instructions here: http://letsmakerobots.com/node/36841Note that because the driver is unsigned, you need to install the driver every time you re-boot. And you also have to re-install the driver even when you plug the device into a different USB port! (Cheers, Microsoft!) Frankly, when I designed OS 2.1, I never thought the driver issue would be so annoying. If I had known this, I would definitely opt to use a different bootloader.
– OS 2.0: requires USBtinyISP driver. Adafruit has released a signed driver for USBtinyISP, please use their updated driver: https://learn.adafruit.com/usbtinyisp/drivers
