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Yes, if it’s convenient for you please return the other one so we can diagnose what may have happened. I will send you an email offline to arrange for the return.
The 1amp PTC fuse in conjunction with 5.6V zener diode protects the 5V line. There is no fuse to protect short solenoid on the current version of OSPi. If there is a short on the solenoid, usually what happens is that the voltage from the 24VAC transformer will drop instantly which will result in a reset of the system and hence release the solenoid. In the worst case (say if the transformer’s voltage does not drop even in the event of shorting) the traic of the corresponding solenoid will probably be fried and hence you cannot use that station anymore.
When you click on the ‘Programs’ button which will print out the list of programs, does the browser hang? If not, I think the issue is still browser compatibility — the ‘Preview’ uses certain features of HTML5 which may not be supported in all browsers. The other possibility is if the programs you set cause an excessive number of lines being plotted, that can cause the browser to hang. For example, a program that runs every minute can result in a large number of lines being plotted in preview. In any case you may want to reset the controller and start adding programs back one after another and check ‘Preview’ after adding each new program. This way you can pin-point the issue.
I tested VIN-GND voltage when Bone is powered up with a dongle, and it’s within spec. So I am not sure if the problem is due to the power supply not being able to deliver enough current. I wonder if this has to do with EMI from the switching regulator and inductor. If so, using a USB extension cable to place the WiFi dongle away from the board may help. When I get time, I will try some experiments to figure out the exact cause
Sorry to hear that, and thanks for your feedback. Which WiFi dongle are you using?
There are some related discussions about WiFi adapter drivers in another thread:
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=423
You may want to check it out to see if it helps.Another workaround is to use a powered WiFi adapter, such as this one:
http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-WR702N-Wireless-Repeater-150Mpbs/dp/B007PTCFFW/
Basically you can plug it into Bone’s Ethernet jack and it provides a WiFi interface to the Bone. This should work pretty reliably.Regarding your earlier question on having two +5V sources powering the same board, in general you shouldn’t do this. If you want to power Bone from an external power supply only, you can clip off the +5V header pins on OSBo so that it won’t compete with the external power supply. The +5V header pins are number 5 and 6 on P9 (the third column from the right end).
I will have to think about improving the power supply design to make WiFi more reliably for Bone. The 24VAC -> 5VDC regulator circuit is the same on OSPi and OSBo, and it has worked well on OSPi. The Bone probably has higher current or EMI requirements and I will have to investigate further.
Yes, please redo the sd card. There are a few quick things to note: 1) the SD card should be 2GB or less (the code we use for SD card has not been tested with 4GB card or above); 2) all files, such as home.js, modprog.js etc. (from the copy_to_sd folder) should be copied to the top-level directory of the SD card, in other words, the SD card should *not* have a folder called ‘copy_to_sd’.
Try this in your browser:
192.168.2.11/sn0
if you see a string of numbers, that means the controller is alive, and most likely you haven’t correctly copied the files to the SD card as required. Note that firmware 2.0.2 requires the necessary Javascript files to be copied onto SD card.What browser and operating system are you using? Since the preview is plotted in the browser, it shouldn’t cause the controller to crash.
What is E1? If you see a message on the LCD screen, can you please post it here? I don’t know what E1 means.
Did you copy files to the SD card? As I said, there is a README.txt in the firmware folder, please take a look at it. If you don’t know where it is, here is the online copy of the file:
https://github.com/rayshobby/opensprinkler/blob/master/OpenSprinkler%20Controller/software/compiled/hardware%20v2.0/firmware2.0.2/README.txt“error opening firmware2.0.0.hex: No such file or directory”
it’s pretty clear that you are not running the command in the directory where firmware2.0.0.hex is located. You need to run it in the directory where the file exists.Thanks for sharing your solution. Sounds great. I will give it a try and include it in the SD card image.
Make sure you are measuring AC voltage, not DC. 33-34V AC sounds too high for a transformer rated 24V AC. Perhaps cheap multimeters have issues measuring AC accurately (as the AC measurement is supposed to the root mean squared value). In any case, if OSBo runs off it fine, it should be ok.
When you say ‘having difficulty getting my OSBo controller to run stably from AC power’, do you mean the WiFi is unstable (i.e. lose connection) or that OSBo is not powering up? If it’s WiFi, I am not completely surprised: I also occasionally have trouble getting WiFi to stay on. It works better when the controller is placed close to the WiFi router. I think BeagleBone Black is not as forgiving as Raspberry Pi in terms of powering WiFi dongle through its USB port. Adafruit’s BeagleBone tutorial (http://learn.adafruit.com/beaglebone/wifi) mentions repeatedly that it requires a beefy power supply. I suggest that you try to use a wired Ethernet cable first, and see if that makes the system more stable.
You said you put this in Windows command prompt:
avrdude -c usbtiny -p m644 -F -U flash:w:xxx.hex
what is xxx.hex? It should be the actual name of the firmware you want to upload. In your case, firmware2.0.2.hexThere is a README.txt in the folder of each firmware. Please, read it.
To answer your last question: your controller should still be alive. It appears dead probably because you uploaded something wrong. Just try to upload the correct firmware and it should work again.
The other possibility I can think of (that has to do with crashing) is the DS1307 RTC and / or 32.768kHz crystal. I suggest replacing these two and try again. If you don’t have a hot air gun to replace DS1307 RTC, please send an email to [email protected] and we will arrange for a repair for you.
Yes, I am hoping that version 1.3 will be ready in about a month of time. The plan is to include TVS, mini-relay, and a rain sensor terminal to OSPi.
D3 is a 5.6V zener diode. Its purpose is over-voltage protection. Here is what I suggest: desolder D3, and then measure the *resistance* between +5V (VIN) and GND. If the resistance is somewhere in the range between 4.4K to 5K, that means the switching regulator is still likely to work. If not (for example, only a few ohms), the switching regulator has been damaged, and I suggest that you send an email to [email protected] so we can arrange for a replacement.
By the way, we can send you another replacement. If this still doesn’t work, I suggest that you look into getting a new transformer. You can check the store page for recommended transformer:
http://rayshobby.net/cart/opensprinkler/ospi-12Hmm, this is very strange. All boards have been tested and verified to work before shipping, and the fact that it burned without load (i.e. before you connected it to Pi) is even more bizarre. Off my head I don’t know what happened. You did make sure nothing else was connected, and there were no metal pieces or wires surrounding the board that could possibly short things out, right?
Yes, the TVS and relay available on OSBo will also be included in the next version of OSPi. These changes are easy to make, but I am also trying to evaluate the feasibility of plugging in RPi face-down to OSPi, and hope to include this change (if feasible) to the next version as well.
Which version of OSPi do you have? Version 1.0 uses MC34063, and it’s not as robust as LM2596 adopted in versions 1.1 and 1.2. You can send an email to [email protected] and we can arrange for a repair or replacement.
I am not aware of the issue that the pre-configured SD card blocks access to RPi from an external IP address. To make sure: did you set up port forwarding on your router to map an external request to RPi?
@rhldr:
1. go to https://github.com/rayshobby/opensprinkler, and you should see a ‘Download as Zip’ button on the right-hand side.
2. firmware update instructions are on the OpenSprinkler homepage: http://www.opensprinkler.com. Click on 6. Firmware Update link on the left-hand side.
@rwp:
If you just want to flash a pre-compiled firmware, you do not need to install VirtualBox — the VirtualBox approach is meant for users who want to compile or modify the firmware source code. Each firmware is independent and does not rely on previous versions of firmware. As I said above:
firmware update instructions are on the OpenSprinkler homepage: http://www.opensprinkler.com. Click on 6. Firmware Update link on the left-hand side.Sorry about my late response. I would suggest first checking if the controller is running in manual mode (in manual mode, the homepage displays a list of buttons to manually turn on/off stations). In manual mode, the normal sprinkler programs will stop running, until you click on the ‘Manual Off’ button (at the bottom of the homepage) to switch back to program mode.
