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Start time, stop time, and interval time together determine how many times a program runs during a day. Keep in mind that a program can run more than once during a day. The firmware user manual explains how the controller runs a program (http://rayshobby.net/?page_id=730#program)
For example, a program that ‘start at 8am, water every 4 hours, and stop after 4pm’ will run at 8am, noon, 4pm.
I admit the end time is confusing, so there is already plan to change the program parameters to ‘start time, repeat every, and repeat count’. This way it’s easier to set how many times the program runs during a day.
2Gb microSD cards are hard to come by these days
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Unfortunately because of the tinyFAT library that the firmware uses, it cannot work with cards above 2GB in size. Note that in the post above I included a link to example 2GB card. These are still widely available on Amazon.Again, I have followed the steps, successfully replaced the files and folders and I still cannot connect to upgrade my 2.1v from 2.0.4 to 2.0.6.
Can you be more specific what problems you’ve encountered? Such as cannot run the updater program, or cannot find the device, or error during upgrade?
First, because the webpage does not refresh automatically, to check update on the sensor status, you need to refresh the page.
Second, if you are using the same sensor as I blogged about before, that one is normally closed. So the ‘normally open’ checkbox should be off (I thought it’s by default set to off, but I could be wrong).
Next, the current firmware (2.0.5) handles rain delay / rain sense in this way: once rain delay is activated or rain is detected through rain sensor, it stops the current running program, and once the program stops it will not resume even if rain is deactivated during the program run.
Very cool. If you want, you can send the file to [email protected] and I will upload it to a server somewhere and share the link here. Or you can upload it and share the link here. Thanks for creating the model.
Indeed OSPi supports weather-based control. Support for OpenSprinkler 2.1 is also being planned. The difference is that OpenSprinkler 2.1 is based on microcontroller which doesn’t have the capability to process weather data directly, so it will need to go through a cloud server that parses the weather data and returns simplified data to the controller.
Dan is probably the best person to answer this question, but I can provide a starting point. If you look at OSPi.py, there is a function called:
timing_loop():
I believe that’s the main loop.p.s. I get lots of requests from users about customizing the software. A lot of the customizations are actually very easy to implement if you have some programming skills. If you are not familiar with programming, I think this provides a good motivation to learn programming 🙂
If you are talking about the microcontroller-based opensprinkler, it’s not running Linux so you can’t log in. The pi-based opensprinkler (OSPi) runs Linux and you can log in.
If you purchased 2 months ago you should have version 2.1u. Especially since you have firmware 2.0.3 — only hardware 2.x runs firmware 2.x.x, the earlier 1.4 cannot run firmware 2.x.x. If you are not sure, you can open the enclosure and the version number is printed on the PCB.
Anyways, I assume you have 2.1u. To enter bootloader, unplug USB, then press and hold B2 while plugging in USB, and release within 1-2 seconds. Note that the screen should remain off — if the screen lights up, it didn’t enter bootloader successfully and you should try again. On Mac you don’t need to install driver. The device manager should show a USBasp device. If it still doesn’t work, you might want to check if the USB connector is soldered correctly (i.e. no solder bridges etc.).
1. Can you split the extender lines, so as to connect 2 extenders, in parallel? It appears that you use I2C as your communication protocol, but I didn’t see a means of addressing, so we can’t tell for sure. This isn’t as crucial, but would be nice.
I’ve never thought about it, but now you asked it, I think it’s fine to connect two expansion boards in parallel. It’s simple shift register cascading, so no I2C communication. Keep in mind that this means the two expansion boards will always be synchronized — always outputs the same.
2. How far can you chain extenders? By modifying the firmware we can have many extenders, and in another question it was stated that an extender could be about 50ft from the base station, but can another extender be another 50ft? This element is crucial for us, as we cannot run long lines to solenoids.
This is a commonly asked questions. Frankly I haven’t done careful study about it. The issue is that because the extension cable carries straightforward logic signals, it’s prone to interference if you run it over a very long distance. The software does refresh every second, so if the signal gets interfered at one moment it shouldn’t persist. So it’s probably fine to chain several expansion boards over 50 ft each.
OK, that would require some firmware change. If you just want to do this in a ad-hoc way (i.e. set some specific stations to pulse instead of constant on) it should be pretty easy.
Just to clarify: the pre-configured SD card image are loaded with the version of the program when the SD card image was created. A new image will be made soon now that the program update is released. In the meantime you can use your existing SD card and just do a git pull as Dan suggested.
It’s certainly possible, and should fit well with the next generation firmware where the concept of ‘station attributes’ will be introduced.
@HFTobeason : can you turn off NTP sync and Auto Reconnect and try again?
For users who encountered freezing issues: try to turn NTP sync off and Auto Reconnect off as suggested above, and see if this solves the problem. It’s important to find out what’s causing the freezing, as this is not something we have been able to reproduce on our side. Being a small, open-source team, we don’t have the resources to do comprehensive testing, so we have to rely on users to do various experiments to find out the cause of the issue. If the NTP sync or Auto Reconnect turns out to be the culprit, the implementation can definitely be improved. Thanks!
Alas, sorry to hear that. 24V AC is indeed a somewhat dangerous voltage to work with. In fact, since many adapters output close to 28V AC voltage, and the peak is 1.414 times that, so the peak voltage can be as high as 40V, and that’s beyond the 36V safe zone. If you put your figure across the transformer wires, you can often feel the tingling on your fingers…
I can only see the interval page.
Do you mean the homepage of the interval program? That is the default program set to run (assuming you are using the pre-configured SD card image). What page are you looking for?
You can probably insert code in the inner loop, and check the flow meter reading. If flow meter reading falls below limit, call the stop_all_stations function to deactivate all valves.
Your case is the correct one. Please take a look at the user manual for assembly instructions:
http://rayshobby.net/docs/ospi14_manual.pdf
Because of the limited space, you can’t directly use a full-size SD card. micro to SD adapter is included in the kit. Any micro SD card of 4GB or above should work fine. If you already have a full-size SD card, you can flash the image, make sure it works, and then cut it in half:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=31609
There are also other low-profile SD card adapters available for RPi.Oops, didn’t read your second post before replying. You’ve figured out the terminal block and fuse part.
and I would like to have a few spare fuses on hand. The parts list doesn’t list a part number. Anyone know fuse part number?
The one used on OSBo is a 2A 250VAC fast acting fuse (with solder pins). You can search on Digikey for similar ones with higher current rating — just make sure it comes with leads because there is no fuse holder on the board.
1) How many simultaneous solenoids can I activate?
As long as your input power supply has sufficient power rating, you can activate as many as you want. Each zone has a 800mA max current limit. There is, however, an on-board 2A fuse. In case you activated too many valves that triggered the fuse, you can always solder a wire to bypass the fuse.
2) The images online show a set of blue screw terminals for the mini relay contacts.
I don’t have the part number. These pins are designed to match standard 5mm or 5.08mm spacing terminal blocks. We do have some of these 3-pin terminal blocks in stock (sourced from China so I don’t have US part number). You can send an email to [email protected] to ask about it.
I have no experience with python, but I have coded in BASIC, C, and PERL.
The interval_program is written in Python, the sprinklers_pi program is written with wiringPi (which is similar to Arduino, a Java-based language). There is one very simple demo (selftest) written in C. You can use that as a starting point to see how to activate valves.
Question n°1: it it true that it can’t be installed, please?
Actually I think it can. The OSPi 1.4 enclosure does not fully expose the microUSB port, but you can always use a dremel or even a diagonal cutter to enlarge the opening so that you can insert a micro USB cable through the enclosure.
Question n° 2: I wonder if it can work as UPS just for the Raspberry Pi.
Looks fine. It’s not clear to me whether this is a switching regulator or a simple linear regulator. If it’s linear, the efficiency will be pretty bad and it will dissipates a lot of power in heat.
Question n°3: which energy source would be used by the Raspberry Pi, please?
I have not checked the Raspberry Pi schematic so I don’t know how it works when you have multiple power sources. My guess is that it has internal mosfets to select a single power source if multiple are present. But in the worst case, you can always use a Schottky diode connected in series with one power source to avoid two power sources competing with each other.
