[Ray]

Oops, I didn’t mean to imply that’s what actually happened. Sorry if I made the wrong impression 🙂

[Ray]

Hi,

Sorry to hear that. It sounds like the controller has a damage. The symptom looks similar to a couple of cases I’ve seen in the past, which were caused by plugging the 24VAC into the COM or Rain Sensor port. I know this is a design issue — the ports all use the same type of terminal block, making it easy to plug to the wrong port. This is being addressed in the next revision, where the 24VAC port will use a terminal block with a different color and pin spacing.

Please send it back to the following address and we will take a look at it. Thanks.
Rayshobby
5 Valley Lane
Amherst, MA 01002

[Ray]

1 and 2 are both in the options, but you need to set them on the controller — these two options are not available on the web interface yet. To enter option setup on the controller, turn off the controller, then press pushbutton B3 while powering it back on. Click B3 to cycle through all options, B1/B2 to change values, and then press and hold B3 to save the values.

It’s certainly possible to expose these options on the web interface, I just haven’t had time to change that part of the code yet.

[Ray]

I think so. The typical solution is to use a cross-over cable, but I think modern network drivers also allow you to use a standard Ethernet cable to do so.

[Ray]

You should check if this sensor is ‘normally open’ or ‘normally closed’. You can set the type accordingly in the OpenSprinkler options.

[Ray]

I assume you have OpenSprinkler 1.x hardware. If you increase the MAX_EXT_BOARDS, the program will require more RAM to store the station status and information etc. Unfortunately ATmega328 only has 1KB RAM space, and I am pretty sure increasing MAX_EXT_BOARDS to 4 will cause the RAM consumption to exceed 1KB, causing the mcu to fail to start.

[Ray]

One thing you may want to try is to switch the TX and RX. It’s often confusing whether the TX pin on the serial converter should be connected to the TXD or RXD on the microcontroller.

I have not had any experience using Max232. I’ve been using the PL2383 USB-to-serial converter for debugging with OpenSprinkler and it works pretty well. We have this in store:
http://rayshobby.net/cart/usb-pl2303
To use it you just need to plug in the ground (black) wire to OS ground, and the RX (white) wire to OS TXD pin. Then use a serial monitor (either Arduino’s serial monitor, or putty, or gtkterms etc.) to receive messages. The only downside with pl2303 is that on Windows you need to install driver.

[Ray]

It’s not entirely clear to me how you want to wire them up. Are you basically trying to connect OS with a manual switch in parallel, in order for either to control the valve? Could you provide a diagram of the wiring?

[Ray]

Thanks for sharing. I find it particularly interesting that you found SSRs that can directly switch the sprinkler solenoids. Many existing solutions use an optocoupler (triac output) plus a triac for each station, mainly because the optocoupler itself cannot switch high current. The SSRs you found have sufficient output current, and yet are pretty small.

[Ray]

I apologize for the confusion, note that the recommended WiFi adapters for OpenSprinkler are listed on the product webpage:
http://rayshobby.net/cart/opensprinkler/os-20
as well as the online user manual:
http://rayshobby.net/?page_id=3775#network

Edimax is a USB WiFi dongle. It can’t work with OpenSprinkler (microcontroller version) because it requires a USB host device.

[Ray]

There is a power switch on the controller. You can turn the controller off by sliding the power switch up.

If you are looking for a ‘software’ disable, there is no super convenient way yet. You can use the ‘stop operation’ button, but the stop operation bit is currently now saved in non-volatile memory, so if you restart the controller that bit will be lost. An alternative way is to go through each program and set each program to be disabled. In any case, the ‘stop operation’ bit can be easily saved in non-volatile memory, and I will make sure to include this in future updates.

[Ray]

To use the hosted app, you need to provide your router’s external IP address (or a dynamic DNS name if you’ve set up dynamic DNS for your router).

[Ray]

To Pablo and Dan,

Thanks for your suggestions. Since OpenSprinkler (microcontroller) and OSPi are based on different hardware and processors, it’s not always possible to keep the software features in sync. I agree that a comparison table would clarify a lot of confusions. But as the OSPi software is undergoing frequent changes (thanks to Dan’s continued contributions), it’s not always easy to keep the comparison table accurate and up to date.

I admit that I am lagging behind on feature development on the microcontroller version, but I am working on getting a new firmware released as soon as I can. The biggest upgrade in the new release is to enable the built-in SD card functionality on the 2.0 hardware, which will allow the controller to serve Javascripts locally, store program data on the SD card, and store logging data on the SD card as well. Some of these changes (e.g. serving files locally) have been implemented, and some are still in progress.

Another heads up is that I have finished the first prototype of OpenSprinkler Beagle (for BeagleBone Black). I don’t have much experience as to comparing Beagle with RPi, say in terms of reliability, but I know some users prefer Beagle for various reasons.

Speaking of embedded Linux, the Arduino team seems to be pushing in this direction. After the Arduino Yun, two new platforms have been announced: Galileo and TRE. Will definitely keep an eye on these new developments.

[Ray]

@tritron: note that there are two different versions of OpenSprinkler, one is based on the Arduino microccontroller and has buttons and LCD, the other is based on the Raspberry Pi (it’s called OpenSprinkler Pi, or OSPi for short), which does not have buttons and LCD.

[Ray]

I don’t think you need an external 24VAC to 5VDC converter: OpenSprinkler has a built-in switching regulator that does the 24VAC to 5VDC conversion. The 5V output is accessible from the VIN pin (in the pinout area).

[Ray]

@nhorvath wrote:

I developed my own relay board for the raspberry pi because I had 9 zones and didn’t want to have to use an opensprinklerpi + expansion just for the one extra zone. I posted the design on github in case anyone else wanted to use it: https://github.com/nhorvath/sprinklers_pi/tree/master/hardware/Sprinkler%20Controller

Nice design. Thanks for sharing. You may want to make this a separate post to get it more noticeable, or post it under the Hardware section.

[Ray]

28.6 should be fine. So I would suggest replacing IC1 first and replace the transformer later if necessary.

[Ray]

Looks like IC1 is damaged and needs to be replaced. Make sure your sprinkler transformer’s output is no more than 28V AC as that will likely to exceed the limit of IC1. Keep me updated if the issue has been fixed. Thanks.

[Ray]

Indeed the rain delay data is not recorded in EEPROM, so it doesn’t get preserved if a restart happens in the middle. This should be pretty easy to implement though.

[Ray]

There is, but it will most likely be semi-assembled, with some pre-soldered SMT components and the rest through-hole components for users to solder.

[Ray]

I think this is possible. OpenSprinkler uses Microchip’s ENC28J60 Ethernet controller, which is one of the lowest cost Ethernet controller. It does not have hardware Tcp/Ip stack, so the downside is that the stack has to be implemented in software. But with respect to IPv6, this is also the advantage: that is, it’s just a matter of changing the software to incorporate IPv6. I’ve seen a couple of online posts that discuss this. Google ‘ENC28J60 IPv6’ to see related posts.

[Ray]

I figured that it’s probably due to implementation differences in browsers. I tested both Chrome and Firefox and seem they both print ‘GMT’. I didn’t bother to test IE as I know the homepage doesn’t look pretty in IE and I am not a fan of IE 🙂

[Ray]

I was just about to comment that it’s probably due to unreliable connection of the battery, and saw that you’ve figured it out 🙂

[Ray]

The four pins on the RJ45 jack shouldn’t be the problem — they are for the two LEDs on the RJ45 jack, so not connecting them merely causes the LEDs to remain off and shouldn’t matter with the power circuitry. Since your VIN to GND resistance is still very low (29 ohm as you described), it suggests that there is still a shorting / damage somewhere on the VIN line. Try yo remove IC1 and see if that changes anything.

[Ray]

Hi Jerry, I suggest connecting each MOV between S0x and Gnd. This way, when lightning creates a high voltage across the solenoid wire and the circuit ground, the MOV will conduct to protect the circuitry.

[Author]

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