Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I am not familiar with the 4GLTE router, but I won’t be surprised if itself is within a local network. What I mean is that the WAN IP shown on your router might not be accessible on the Internet — it’s not a public IP, but a local IP within Verizon’s network. The router’s WAN IP can be found on the router’s configuration / status page. Check if this is different from ‘whatsmyip’ result you get.
Not sure what else to try. Clearly the microcontroller and Ethernet controller are both running fine, so VCC is clearly ok. The infinite resistance should be ok (the reading may vary depending on the multimeter, as long as the voltage is about 3.3V it’s fine). The LCD you received has been tested and verified to work.
The LCD backlight and contrast are each controlled by a microcontroller PWM pin. The fact that you see backlight on means at least one of the PWM pins is sending signal correctly to the LCD (otherwise the LCD will remain dark). So this leaves some of the other LCD pins to check. One thing I suggest you do is to measure the voltage on each of the LCD pins: if you look at the LCD, there are 16 pins, labeled VSS, VDD, VO etc. VSS is ground. Could you measure the voltage from each of the pins 2 to 15 to ground, and write down the voltage value? This way I can compare to the reference voltage and tell which pin is having a problem.
Are you sure the booster pump is rated at 2A? It seems rather high. You can probably connect three stations in parallel to provide that much current; another option is to make use of the on-board relay (which is rated at 120V / 2A).
This means the problem is not in the LCD, it’s somewhere else. Perhaps the LCD contrast value has been changed for some reason. Try to perform a reset: turn off controller, press and hold button B3 while plugging in a USB cable (or power the controller on), do you see any display text? If so, click B3 until you see the ‘Reset All?’ option, and click B1 or B2 to select Yes. Then press and hold B3 until the unit restarts.
@R_W: very interesting. Thanks for the pointer. A while back I was working on reverse engineering a wireless rain gauge (http://www.acurite.com/environment/rain-gauge/acurite-digital-rain-gauge-with-self-emptying-wireless-rain-collector-00875.html) which uses similar reed-based measurement, and it wirelessly transmits 433MHz signals to a display unit. The signal can be easily captured using a 433MHz RF receiver. I was never able to figure out how the signal is encoded. But anyways, it’s good to know the gauge without the wireless part exists and is very inexpensive. Unless if the click frequency is super high, I think it’s possible to just use a GPIO pin to poll the clicks.
It’s likely, because the symptom does match a previous case where the DS3231 RTC has to be replaced. It might also have to do with the PCB layout. Most DIY kits are made with DS1307. There was a small batch where DS3231 was adopted (to evaluate if it’s a better alternative). We built several example boards and they all worked well, so I assumed it’s all fine. A support email has been replied to you. Sorry again about the issue.
The warning and error you saw are all normal. These have to do with the behavior of the USBasp bootloader upon reset. You can ignore these messages.
A little while back there was a similar case where the time resets back every minute. I suspect this is because the RTC has a problem starting its internal oscillator. I need to investigate if this is a chip problem or software (the code was written for DS1307 but the same code should also work for DS3231). Anyways, you can send an email to [email protected]. If you have s hot air gun, we will send you a new DS3231 chip so you can replace it yourself; if not, you can send your kit back to us and we will get it replaced for you. Sorry about the issue.
@rok: if the cable becomes unreliable, you can send an email to [email protected] to request a new set of cables.
@dan: cool, thanks for releasing the new plugin architecture!
my first station kicks on automatically; I presume this is when the interval program is starting up.
Does the station kick on even when no program is running? If it stays on that’s unusual.
I’ve noticed that on OSBo during system reboot the valves will pop very momentarily. I have yet to investigate what caused this. It’s known that 74HC595 shift register initializes to undefined states, that’s why there is an output enable (OE) signal line which controls when the output from the shift register will become ‘visible’. Before the OE pin is pulled low, all outputs are disabled (i.e. high impedance state). That’s why upon reset, all valves will be released, and no valve will be activated until the software pulls the OE pin low.
On the microcontroller-based OpenSprinkler, the shift register gets refreshed every second (by calling the apply_station_bits function). I assume this is the same in the Python program. If this is the case (and station_bits are all initialized to 0 at the beginning), it should turn off all valves when the program starts running. Dan can probably confirm this.
Is there any solution for that with the existing ospi boards?
There isn’t a watchdog timer on OSPi currently. This has been brought up in the past, but I think it’s probably best addressed by the internal watchdog timer on the RPi (just noticed nayr gave suggestions on how to properly configure the watchdog timer).
might consider using a BR battery then opposed to a CR; my concern with the battery is temperature range.
OK, agreed, consideration of temperature range is a good point.
My Transformer has a ground connection,
I’ve only seen one transformer (made by RainBird) that has three wires. The majority of transformers I’ve seen use only two wires and I don’t think there is any ground wire (also considering that the secondary coil is isolated from the primary coil).
I know laptops with usb radios have all sorts of issues until you plug it into the wall and give it a ground..
OK, I didn’t know about this, but isn’t that a lot of laptop power adapters use two-prong plug?
PS: I noticed after the fact there’s a 5v header already on my OSbo; how much current of 5v would be safe to a small hub like this: http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=1 … 1&format=2 ? If you could get over 2A of power to a hub it’d open the doors to a whole bunch of USB options/modules.
The switching circuit on OSPi/OSBo is not designed to provide more than 700 to 800mA of current. The LM2596 chip can, but the inductor / diode should be upgraded to provide more current.
Seems to be an RTC related issue. Can you check to see if yours has a DS1307 RTC (small, 8-pin) or DS3231 (large, 16 pin)?
OK, thanks for the update. You said ‘if I touch this joint with a pick, it starts connecting.’ That’s a strong indication of some soldering related issue, or perhaps the chips are not inserted in properly.
One thing I suggest you do is to turn the unit on and measure the voltage from each pin of ENC28J60 to ground. I know this is a tedious test, but it’s the only thing I can think of that would provide more information about what’s going on. There are 28 pins on the chip, start from the top-left pin, goes down, then move to the lower right pin and goes up. That way you get 28 voltage readings. If you can post these readings here, I can compare it with reference and see if there is anything obvious I can tell.
Thanks for your suggestions and ideas.
SuperCAP instead of Battery for RTC so it never needs replacing.
I am not too worried about it: the DS1307 RTC consumes very little current in backup mode, and a CR1220 single battery should last for at least 5-7 years.
A more powerful 5v supply (2A perhaps) and a set of headers available for 5v out, can then solder jumper wire with a barrel plug onto it and have it power a small usb hub.. this will help people with powerful wifi usb chips and/or those who want to connect several usb devices without any reliability/stability issues.
Sure. The LM2596 switching regulator adopted in the current design can actually output up to 3A current, but a more careful design, including PCB traces and component selection, should be used if you want to reach that limit.
Header for a TPM36 Temperature Sensor on the board; mebe included so we can monitor system temperature if installed in a Greenhouse etc.
OK, good point.
A PTC Fuse instead.
There are actually two fuses on board currently, one fact-acting 2A fuse on the 24V AC line, and one 1A PTC fuse on the 5V line.
Signal Converter so we can plug some analogue sensors in and not worry about the input voltage.
Good point.
Circuitry to cutoff the external 5v rail to the Microcontroller if its powered externally/usb so people can troubleshot bad power supplies.
A SMD switch can be used for this and it should be pretty easy to add to 1.4.
AC in with Ground, Microcontroller ground tied in so any ESD coming in the sprinkler control lines does not try to go out ethernet/usb, also help cut down on RF interference.. my Elk power supply has a ground it’d be nice to use.
This would probably require a sprinkler transformer that has a ground wire. Many transformers I’ve seen use 2-prong plug and the output is 2 wires too. I’ve seen one or two transformers that have three wires (I think RainBird has one). But they are relatively uncommon.
I also want to add a few serial ports for AtlasScientic Sensor stamps: https://www.atlas-scientific.com/embedded.html but this is more for my own project where I am attempting to maintain PH and TDS automatically and getting it all into the footprint might mean I sacrifice some other circuitry.. but this could also be done with a via USB conveniently if I can power a hub from the board. (Bluetooth or FT232)
This is a little beyond my plan, so I will leave it to you to add these extra functionality 🙂
Ah, didn’t realize 1.3 files are not in. Just checked them in to Github. One quick note, to avoid confusion: the 10 TVSs are all bidirectional (part number SMBJ48CA). Even though the schematic shows them with a diode symbol, they are bidirectional so non-polar.
Yes the long-term plan is to have OSPi / OSBo to interface with nRF24L01 in order to control OSBee. There are some design decisions I haven’t figured out yet. The most likely plan is to release a USB gadget (like the dongle you mentioned) which can plug into a computer / Pi / Bone and have software send control commands. I designed prototype of this a couple months ago (calling it USB RF toy currently), and I will blog about it soon.
What kind of valve did you use for testing? Can you post the brand / model number, or if not, a picture of it?
Sorry that I lost track on this thread. Has the issue been solved? The other possibility I can think of would be the 8-pin ribbon cable — use a multimeter to check the connectivity on each line of the cable (the cable connectors have small openings that expose the metal pieces, you can use a multimeter probe to touch these and measure connectivity). Cable issues have happened in the past, so I won’t be surprised if one or two lines on the cable are disconnected. Also double check if you’ve plugged in the cable in the correct orientation.
I did some quick search and it seems many low-voltage landscape lights are rated 12V (either AC or DC). I believe these can work with 24V AC if you connect two such bulbs in series. Alternatively you can connect a diode (such as 1N4007) in series to block half of the AC waves, thus effectively reducing the average voltage to 12V. Another alternative is to find 12V LED lights — because LED lights are inherently diodes, they should be able to work directly with 24V AC (I would recommend adding a power resistor in series for some added protection).
The triac (BT1308W) on OSPi can only supply a maximum of 800mA continuous current per channel. In practice this may be lower due to factors such as the base current. I am curious what type of solenoid valve you have — typical sprinkler valves have an operating current of 150mA to 250mA. I’ve never seen a valve that takes as much as 1A current.
There are two work-arounds:
1) you can combine several zones in parallel to increase the current limit. For example, combine zones 1 to 3 together to triple the current output. The downside is that you need to set zones 1 to 3 to always turn on at the same time, and also this wastes 2 zones.2) alternatively you can replace the BT1308W by a more powerful triac, such as BT137 / BT138. Keep in mind that if you ever run more than 2A current, it will trigger the on-board fuse, so you may have to replace it with something bigger, or simply short the fuse to bypass it.
My suggestion is to first check if the microcontroller is up running. There are a couple of things you can do to verify this, for example,
– plug the unit into your router and power it on, wait for a couple of minutes, does it get an ip address (since LCD is not working, you need to check this on the router’s configuration page, typically under Client List).
– press and hold pushbutton B2 while plugging in the USB cable, then release B2 after 1 to 2 seconds after USB cable is plugged in — does the screen remain off? At this time it should appear as an USBasp device on your computer.If any of the above succeeds, it means the miccrocontroller is up running and the problem is most likely in the LCD. You can send an email to [email protected] to arrange for a replacement. If the above fails, you may want to recheck if the microcontroller is inserted correctly, whether the crystals are soldered correctly etc.
1) To enter bootloading mode you need to unplug power, and press and hold pushbutton B2 while plugging in a USB cable. Then release B2 within 1-2 seconds after the USB is plugged in. This way the controller will appear as a USBasp device. The screen should remain off. If the screen lights up, the controller will not appear as a USB device, and you need to repeat the procedure above.
2) The ‘Disabled’ message means the controller operated has been disabled. You can re-enable it either by pressing and holding pushbutton B1 for 2-3 seconds (until the ‘Disabled’ message goes away), or you can enable the operation through the web interface. These have all been explained in the user manual, available at http://www.opensprinkler.com -> user manual.
