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Custom program names have been suggested in the past. Also the ability to re-order the list of programs has also been suggested. Both are definitely doable and on my todo list. Program name will probably need to have limited length because it cuts into the EEPROM usage.
OK, since many users asked about this, I went ahead and did some test myself:
– 12V LED light: works fine, can be directly plugged into OSPi as a normal sprinkler zone (doesn’t even matter polarity because OSPi runs on AC voltage). Note that because the peak voltage of 24V AC is quite high, in practice I suggest connecting two 12V LED lights in series to halve the voltage on each.The downside with LED light is that because it’s internally a diode, it only lights up on the positive cycles of the AC voltage, so it flickrs at 30Hz, which is noticable. You should try it out and see if this may be a concern.
– 24V light bulb: works fine, can be directly plugged into OSPi as a normal sprinkler zone.
– 12V light bulb: should not be directly plugged in, but if you put two of these in series then it should be fine.
The inveral program now supports plug-in architecture, so you can create a new plug-in, which reads in analog sensor values and uses that to trigger some sprinkler event.
Cool, thanks for contributing. If I understand it correctly, this auto-program is in the context of the following thread, is that right?
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=564When posting, you should see below a tab called ‘Upload attachment’. Is it not available on your side? In any case, you can also upload it to a server somewhere, or to Google docs and share a link here.
The hardware upgrade notes are usually published in the Github repository:
https://github.com/rayshobby/opensprinkler/tree/master/OpenSprinkler%20Controller/hardware
Click on each version and you should see a README file that explains the difference from the previous version.In general, the station delay time should be in minutes not seconds.
Well I need to hear confirmations from other users to make this a permanent change. I assume in most cases one only needs a few seconds or couple minutes of delay between stations. I don’t know how often one needs 30 minutes of delay. I can certainly make it more flexible by making the delay time a 16-bit integer, so it can vary between 0 to 65535 seconds.
Latching solenoid only draws power when it opens or closes, and does not draw power when it remains in the same state. It’s sometimes called bistable solenoid. Applying a positive voltage opens the solenoid valve, and reversing the polarity closes the valve. The coil on the solenoid typically has very low resistance (a few ohms) so it momentarily draws a high current, often up to a few amps. You are supposed to only apply an impulse voltage instead of continuous voltage, otherwise it can quickly burn the coil or short the power supply.
Yup, when you plug in 24V AC, the circuit will output 5V DC to power RPi so you don’t need a separate 5V power source. In fact when you have 24V AC on, you probably shouldn’t use another 5V DC power source, to avoid two regulated sources compete with each other.
Rain delay and sensing is ignored when you perform a run-once program or when the controller is in manual mode — it’s only effective with a regular program. If you want to quickly test if it’s working, just create a test program that starts in a minute or two, and then watch if rain sensor affects the program run or not.
That requires some in-depth knowledge about how your garage door opener works, and I suspect the sprinkler zones are not suitable for switching garage doors, at least not without replacing the triac with transistors. The reason is that I assume (this is just a guess) garage door openers operate in DC, and sprinkler valves work in AC. The triac on OpenSprinkler can switch on and off AC voltage but not DC voltage. Of course, if your garage door opener works in AC then it’s likely this can work. If it’s DC, you need to replace the corresponding triac with a NPN transistor (such as 2N3904 for small current, or MPSA14 for high current), or N-Channel MOSFET (such as BS170). Then it can switch DC voltage.
Do note that all current versions of OpenSprinkler have a built-in relay, and it’s included particularly for switching devices like garage door openers. Although the software hasn’t been upgraded to provide built-in support for the relay, it has been tested and is functional. You just have to customize the code a bit to suit your need.
The two wires from 24V AC are connected as follows: one is connected to the COM port, and the other is tied to GND (circuit ground). So I think the ‘other wire’ you are referring to is the GND wire. You can access the GND pin in the pinout area.
I didn’t see any attached schematic. Can you post again?
I don’t think any of the provided OSPi software has built-in support for using analog sensor to trigger sprinkler events. This blog post has instructions of basic use of the PCF8591T ADC:
http://rayshobby.net/?p=6704
If you have some programming experience, it’s not difficult to modify the existing OSPi software to add ADC support. Because different users may want to use different sensors, this part is largely left to users to customize.@Matt C: one thing you may want to try is to set a static IP on the OpenSprinkler. Make sure when you do so, you also set the correct gateway IP (i.e. your router’s IP). The issue you encountered may have to do with the DHCP implementation, particularly expiration of DHCP in the open-source EtherCard library that OpenSprinkler uses. Setting static IP may help avoid the issue.
@scottsh: thanks for posting your story and the picture. As anyone who develops hardware gadgets knows, hardware is the easier part, and it’s the software development that defines a product and takes most of the time. So Kudos to Dan, Richard, Samer, Jonathan, and the community of OSPi users who did the heavy lifting of developing software that makes OSPi a unique, open-source project 🙂
1. My system is running on well water so I need to delay each station in a program by 30-60 minutes for the well water to replete. How can I do that? The Station Delay setting is only 4 minutes (240s) which is not even close to what I need.
If you are comfortable with modifying the firmware code, this is just one or two lines of code change (basically multiplying a parameter by 60), then the station delay time will change from seconds to minutes. I can tell you where to make the change if you want.
The other way is to create multiple programs, essentially putting each station in a different program so you can specify a desired start time for each station. This does not require changing the code, but is certainly very tedious.
2. How the rain sensor work? I hooked up my rain sensor with normal open option checked; wet my rain sensor to simulate rain but the program is still kick-in and running as scheduled. Does the Manual Rain Delay setting playing any part of this?
A rain sensor is basically a rain activated switch. Maybe you didn’t wet the rain sensor enough to make it click. You can simulate rain sensor click by use a wire to short the two pins on the Rain Sensor terminal.
3. Does the firmware keeps a log of past station actives? If it does can we access it?
On OSPi, logging is available. On Arduino-based OpenSprinkler, not yet. Samer’s app (installed version) has a features that allows you to log events. But this is not done on the controller itself, rather, it uses an external server to poll OpenSprinkler and log the events.
Since OpenSprinkler 2.x now has SD card slot, it’s possible to use that for logging, although I haven’t implemented this feature yet.
4. Does the firmware utilizes the weather data to control the future watering schedules? For instance, if the weather predicted to be >50% (a configurable %) rain tomorrow then all scheduled program today should be cancelled…
Again, OSPi can do this already. On Arduino-based OpenSprinkler, not yet.
It’s possible to use OSPi with DC solenoids, but as I said, the one in the link you showed is DC Latching solenoids, and to interface with those it’ complicated. You can find DC non-latching solenoids, and you can use them with OSPi by replacing the on-board triacs with transistors or MOSFETs.
Hi Fred,
Thanks for posting the updates. I am glad that it’s in a more working state than before, although I gathered there are still some issues. Here are some misc. suggestions:
1. I’ve seen some users use the Ethernet over powerline adapters instead of WiFi adapters:
http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-PA2010KIT-Powerline-Adapter-Starter/dp/B00AWRUIY4/
This basically uses the powerline in your house to create a wired network, and seems to work better when WiFi is not reliable (or over many barriers in the house)2. You can set a static IP on the controller (or alternatively leave the controller to use DHCP, but bind a fixed IP to the controller’s MAC on your router). Either way, you can get a fixed IP address. Setting a static IP also makes it faster to re-establish connection when network is temporarily disconnected. The online user manual at http://www.opensprinkler.com explains how to set static IP on the controller.
3. The HTTP port is only settable through the web interface (it’s not settable on the controller because its value can go up to 32768 and it would be quite tedious to use buttons to set it).
Yes, you can power it with USB and test the software features. You just won’t be able to activate any solenoid valve because those require 24V AC power.
You can probably use an OSPi with a RPi camera module to achieve what you described.
There have been discussions about the flow sensor on the forum, notably this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=125
I have just purchased a flow sensor and will experiment with it soon.Cool. Thanks for sharing the technique. To prepare for the Maker Faire, I also figured out a way to mount the PCB onto the bottom part of the case, so I can show the internals of the circuit. It’s by using pairs of #4 screws and nuts. I’ve attached a picture here. #4 seems to be the perfect size to fit through the holes, but #6 would also work, albeit a bit small.
I am curious about the decision to go with the hybrid solution: a Pi + Arduino. Is it because the Pi is running out of pins or has no ADC on board? Assuming the number of pins are sufficient and adding an ADC chip (like OSPi does), why not just use a single Pi to handle all the tasks?
Adding LCD to OSPi has been posted by several users on the forum. I am not sure if anyone is using piFace particularly, but the basic 1602 LCD (or the i2C or serial version of 1602) has been a popular choice too.
@Bambam: I understand the usefulness of having a fully through-hole kit, but given the enclosure size it’s just not possible to fit all the through-hole components in it. Also, the circuit is now complex enough that an all through-hole kit would require a large amount of soldering, and even those who are experienced with soldering would find this tedious. I am in favor of the current hybrid approach: reduces the amount of soldering required while still leaving enough flexibility for hardware modification. Also, the surface mount components I used are pretty large and can be hand soldered or desoldered if needed.
