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Viewing 25 posts - 4,151 through 4,175 (of 4,191 total)
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  • in reply to: Garage door monitoring and control #23359

    Ray
    Keymaster

    OpenSprinkler does have a few GPIO pins for reading sensor values and actuating devices. For controlling garage door, you may want to look into examples of RF remote control: most garage door remotes work in 434 or 315MHz RF range. You can capture the remote control signal and simulate it using an RF transmitter plus on microcontroller pin. I have a blog post about this:
    http://rayshobby.net/?p=3381

    in reply to: Soil moisture monitoring #23382

    Ray
    Keymaster

    I have not planned to add soil moisture monitoring to OpenSprinkler yet. This is mainly because I suspect most users still prefer a time-based program, with potentially some weather-based refinement. Adding soil moisture sensor will potentially complicate the scheduling, and in case the sensor fails to return correct reading it can be come a source of reliability issues.

    I do have an upcoming product called OpenSprinkler Sip, which is designed for indoor plant watering and it does use a soil moisture sensor. You can take a look at the picture on this webpage:
    http://rayshobby.net/

    in reply to: Weather should include wind #23389

    Ray
    Keymaster

    OK, I’ve added a note about this. Thanks for the suggestion.

    in reply to: long timer setting for Pool pump #23350

    Ray
    Keymaster

    The 540 minutes limit is mainly because the duration time is stored in a signed integer. So the maximum duration is 32767 seconds (roughly 546 minutes). This should be easy to change to twice as much, by using unsigned integer. I will put it on the todo list for the next update.

    Regarding the solution to frequent power loss. The way you described seems to be the best. I just did a test on my controller: setting 1 minute duration with 1 minute interval seems to do what it’s supposed to (except there is a 1-second delay). I cannot reproduce the problem you described as ‘run 1 minute, stop 1 minute’. The 1-second delay can be avoided by deleting the + 1 in the following line:
    unsigned long accumulate_time = curr_time + 1;
    at function ‘void schedule_all_stations’ in interval_program.pde

    in reply to: will not work without access to the internet #23347

    Ray
    Keymaster

    The controller doesn’t need to access the Internet in order to run. But the browser (i.e. http client) you are using to access the controller homepage needs to be able to access the Internet. This is because rendering the controller webpage requires Javascripts that are by default stored on rayshobby server. Alternatively you can store these Javascripts on your local server (such as a raspi as several people have done).

    in reply to: Manual mode with buttons #23329

    Ray
    Keymaster

    @Gyro: the Javascripts have been recently updated. Please check again and let me know if the day is still incorrect.

    Regarding automatically going back to program mode: I suggest you use the run-once program (which automatically goes back to program mode after it’s done), not the manual operation mode (which is mainly used for testing stations and for users who want to use a script to send command to the controller).

    in reply to: Troubleshooting lower voltage on 1 station #23235

    Ray
    Keymaster

    @Gyro: you are right, the fuse is rated at 750mA, so having 4-5 solenoid running at the same time is likely to trigger it. The triacs are rated at 800mA continuous current and 8A impulse current. To be honest, when I designed the circuit, I didn’t realize that the PTC fuse is a slow-action type. So by the time it triggers, the triac may already be destroyed (say, if a solenoid is defective and short circuited). Therefore the PTC fuse may not be very useful.

    in reply to: Voltage Check Issue #23334

    Ray
    Keymaster

    You can send the picture to [email protected]

    in reply to: Voltage Check Issue #23332

    Ray
    Keymaster

    If voltages are correct under USB, that means 5V->3.3V is working fine. The problem is most likely in the 24VAC->5V conversion. The Resistance Between PTC (top leg) and D1 (left leg) doesn’t tell much because these two pins are connected by PCB trace. Here are my suggestions:
    – check if you have any missing component
    – did you insert IC1 (MC34063)?
    – does the PTC fuse feel very hot?
    it would definitely help if you can post an image of the lower-left side of your board (the 24VAC->5V conversion part).

    in reply to: Using a Raspberry Pi with OpenSprinkler #23209

    Ray
    Keymaster

    This should be possible. For exemplar, the OpenSprinkler can be connected to Pi with a cross-over cable, and then Pi is connected to the main router through USB WiFi.

    Just to give everyone a heads up: I am working on an OpenSprinkler Pi edition: basically it’s a shield that’s wired to Pi through the GPIO pins, so the Pi can directly control the shift register and hence the solenoids. The board is essentially a subset of the current OpenSprinkler hardware, with 24VAC->5V power conversion, shift register and triacs, and DS1307 RTC. The 24VAC->5V is capable of outputting 1A current, so it can power a PI board together with a WiFi USB dongle. The hardware has been tested and is working fine. It’s pretty straightforward and the nice thing is that I designed some copper pillars to support the Pi board on top of the shield, so that everything can fit inside the existing OpenSprinkler enclosure. The software is not finished yet: I’ve written a piece of Python code that runs a very simple http server, presenting a list of buttons and allows you to control solenoids manually (very much like the first manual control program for OpenSprinkler which I wrote a long time ago). I am hoping to post about it some time this week and next week. This should probably attract some interests from people who have a Pi at hand.

    Some pictures for the curious:

    in reply to: Program List #23316

    Ray
    Keymaster

    @aradke: you are right, that’s the command to change the water percentage.

    A few weeks ago I posted a more complete list of HTTP GET commands on the website:
    http://rayshobby.net/?page_id=730#httpget
    (click on the PDF link). The commands to change option values (such as the water percentage) are kind of messy and obscure, but hopefully this document will help.


    @grondo
    : the ‘cycle-and-soak’ program is an interesting idea. aradke’s suggestion should work (e.g. a single program for each ‘cycle-and-soak’ station with 20 minutes interval time and 10 minutes water time).

    in reply to: Get station names via API #23331

    Ray
    Keymaster

    There is no server function for this, however, the stations names are returned as a Javascript array called ‘snames’ on most pages (for example, the homepage /, the view stations page /vs, the view programs page /vp, etc).

    in reply to: Applying Opensprinkler to arduino #23323

    Ray
    Keymaster

    Cool, nice to hear that it’s working. Thanks for the update.

    in reply to: Manual mode with buttons #23327

    Ray
    Keymaster

    Wouldn’t it be easier to use a phone or pad to control stations? That way you can walk around the house and test your sprinkler valves. There is also an iPhone app for OpenSprinkler:
    http://rayshobby.net/?p=4973

    in reply to: Powering Ethernet to Wifi device from OpenSprinkler #23324

    Ray
    Keymaster

    Please check this blog post:
    http://rayshobby.net/?p=4233

    in reply to: Applying Opensprinkler to arduino #23320

    Ray
    Keymaster

    There are two places you need to change:
    1. the call to ENC28J60::initialize takes csPin as a parameter, so find where that function is called and change that to your desired number.
    2. inside ENC28J60::initialize function, notice there is a line where selectBit is calculated. This is hackish way to compute selectBit assuming the csPin is a PORB pin. The author of the library probably did this to speed up changing pin values, but you need to verify if this is valid with the csPin you selected. The simplest way is probably to find where selectBit appears, and just change them to use digitalWrite.

    in reply to: No web interface #23318

    Ray
    Keymaster

    Sounds like an issue with your browser not able to access the Javascript. If you type in the following in your browser:
    http://rayshobby.net/scripts/java/svc1.8/home.js
    what do you get? Note that because the Javascripts are stored on the rayshobby server, your browser needs to be able to access the Internet. On the other hand, the controller itself does not need to access the Internet in order to run programs.

    For the noise problem: it’s normal to have an audible noise. But if it’s loud vibrating noise, you should check 1) if the solenoid is ok (the easiest way is to try a few solenoids and see if they all make that kind of noise); and 2) check if you’ve soldered the resistor networks correctly — the two resistor networks (RN2, RN3) above the triacs must be of type 330ohmx4 or 220ohmx4, if the resistance is more than 330ohm, the triac won’t fully open, causing the noise problem.

    in reply to: Program List #23313

    Ray
    Keymaster

    The view program page (http://x.x.x.x/vp) returns the complete list of current programs. You can check the bfill_programdata() function in server.pde to see the relevant Javascript variables.

    in reply to: Bad power supply voltages #23259

    Ray
    Keymaster

    Looks like both the MC34063 switching regulator and MCP1700 linear regulator are damaged. Not sure why that happened. I do have some spare parts I can send you. It will be on the way tomorrow. This will include the two regulators, inductor, and two diodes (R3000 and 1N5819). My suspicion is that you probably only need to replace the two regulators. For diodes, use your multimeter to check the forward drop voltage: R3000 should be around 1.5V to 2V, and 1N5819 should be around 0.2V. If not, replace the diodes as well.

    Be careful desoldering components off PCB: probably the safe way is to clip the leads off the component body first, then you can desolder each lead one by one, or in some cases directly solder a new component on the leftovers of old leads. Do not use too much strength to pull out leads, or you may damage the PCB trace.

    in reply to: Backup and restore functions #23312

    Ray
    Keymaster

    Unfortunately since each firmware upgrade often increases the number of options and changes the format of the program data structure, it’s difficult to automatically save and restore these data on the microcontroller. But these data structures are starting to stabilize and the firmware has remained the same for the past few months, so hopefully users don’t have to do this often.

    in reply to: MAC addresses #23310

    Ray
    Keymaster

    Yes, that’s on my todo list. It’s pretty easy to add an additional option that selects the last field of the MAC. For now, if you need, you can modify the source code and re-flash. The MAC address is specified close to the top of interval_program.pde. Also, in the past I was able to use multiple controllers (with the same MAC) on the same network by using static ip (each controller is given a different ip). This might depend on your router, but I was able to access each individual controller without a problem.

    in reply to: Using a Raspberry Pi with OpenSprinkler #23205

    Ray
    Keymaster

    @Homerih: in case you haven’t checked it already, all information about OpenSprinkler can be found at http://www.opensprinkler.com. It runs an ATmega328 microcontroller itself so you don’t need to attach it to any arduino. The microtronoller runs a full-featured program which serves the webpage, and carries out the water schedules. The webpage requires some Javascripts that are currently hosted on rayshobby.net server. Dan’s Raspi scripts are designed to offload these Javascripts to a Pi server, as well as to log the sprinkler status (which the controller doesn’t do itself). Also, using a Pi to interface with OpenSprinkler makes it easy to introduce weather-based features and anything that requires computation beyond what a simple microcontroller can do.

    in reply to: OpenSprinkler V1.0 Firmware missing #23224

    Ray
    Keymaster

    There is actually a simple way to do this. Please take a look at this blog post:
    http://rayshobby.net/?p=5066

    in reply to: Contrast on LCD #23279

    Ray
    Keymaster

    That’s normal. The switching regulator and the Ethernet controller both dissipate considerable amount of power during operation, so they will feel noticeably warm.

    in reply to: Rain Delay only selectable Stations #23281

    Ray
    Keymaster

    That’s not supported currently. It’s a very good suggestion. I know some people are making use of opensprinkler to control other devices like home lighting, which should be exempt from rain sensor/delay settings. I will put this feature in todo list. Thanks for making the suggestion.

Viewing 25 posts - 4,151 through 4,175 (of 4,191 total)