[Ray]

The firmware by default makes a call every 4 hours I believe. But the weather script caches the call result so across a day you will get the same watering percentage no matter how often you make the weather call. The main reason for this is that we want a consistent watering percentage across a day — if the number changes every time the call is made this can become confusing. Another reason for the caching is to reduce the number of weather queries — keep in mind that we pay for all the weather queries, users don’t pay any subscription fee etc. For us, weather quires are not free and can be quite expensive if we don’t control the number of calls.

If you’ve installed it on your own server, and do not have the caching, then the number will change more often.

[Ray]

The DC-powered OpenSprinkler is designed to work with 24VAC sprinkler valves as well. The way it works is to simulate the behavior of solenoid valves under AC. Specifically it generates a relatively high impulse voltage to engage the valve, then lowers it to input voltage to provide holding current.

From your picture it looks like you also use wired Ethernet module? I think the problem is that under 12VDC input voltage, there is quite a bit of power dissipation — the DC controller uses a linear regulator to drop the input voltage to 5VDC. With wired Ethernet module, the current consumption is quite high (about 250mA), so this produces a power dissipation of (12-5)*0.25 = 1.75 Watt power dissipation, which probably burned out the linear regulator. The DC-powered controller usually should work with a low-voltage input adapter, the ones we include here for the US market is 7.5VDC. So while it can accept 12VDC, the problem is that 12VDC plus the wired Ethernet module becomes a problem. I apologize for the issue because we didn’t anticipate this usage situation when designing the controller.

So the short term solution is to use a lower-voltage adapter, like 7.5VDC or 9VDC. We will be redesigning the DC driver board to use a switching regulator which would work much more efficiently with high input voltage.

[Ray]

There has been an implementation of this in the “scheduler-feature” branch of the opensprinkler firmware code:
https://github.com/OpenSprinkler/OpenSprinkler-Firmware/tree/scheduler-feature
it hasn’t been integrated into the master branch yet because it’s still pending testing.

[Ray]

Thanks for posting the update.

[Ray]

Good to know. Thanks for sharing!

[Ray]

Hi, the latest firmware 2.1.9(7) supports LED dimming. In fact, if you go to Edit Options -> Advanced -> LCD brightness, you can change that to 0, that way after 20 seconds of inactivity it will turn completely off. Pressing any button will activate the screen again. If you set the brightness to anything above 0 it will dim to that brightness after inactivity, but the difference may not be that obvious.

Besides, as you noticed, the OLED used on OpenSprinkler 3 is a very common inexpensive one that’s widely available for just a few bucks. So in the case the OLED burns out eventually, it’s fairly cheap to replace.

[Ray]

Cool, indeed looks very nice!

[Ray]

https://opensprinkler.com/forums/topic/more-cler-support-pages-based-on-hardware-version/#post-69724
Firmware 2.1.7 is already the latest for your hardware version.

[Ray]

What’s your app version? The latest app version, which fixes the issues we reported, is app version 2.2.4. You can find the app version by going to the homepage, swipe left to right to open the left-side menu, then ‘About’.

[Ray]

All up to date information is at:
support.opensprinkler.com
Version 2.2 was discontinued a long time ago. The current firmware supports hardware 2.3, 3.0 and above, and OSPi.

[Ray]

If you are already on firmware 2.1.9(7) then my guess is that this is likely due to a bad Ethernet module. You can submit a support ticket and we can arrange for sending you a new module, or if you want it faster you can get one from Amazon. It’s called enc28j60, get the 2×5 pin version (some are 2×6 pins which are not compatible).

[Ray]

At the bottom of the screen, where it says “configured as extender”, click that and you should be able to switch it back to original.

If your controller has buttons, it’s also possible to turn it off by using buttons to change option values. How to use buttons to change option values is explains in the opensprinkler user manual.

[Ray]

Did you mean two columns? You said two rows. Because the UI is designed primarily for mobile usage, it’s very difficult to fit two columns on one screen, especially for stations names that are relatively long.

You can customize the UI yourself: just replicate the UI code, make changes to the javascript, and then simply open the www/index.html in a browser to see the effect of your changes.

[Ray]

Have you tried to update your firmware to the latest 2.1.9(7)? You said yours is 2.1.9(3) which is several minor revisions ago.

[Ray]

I am not entirely sure what causes the corruption, it might be a flash memory corruption issue. But in all cases I’ve seen, the corruption can be fixed by sending a API command to correct the json variable that’s corrupted. For example, if station 1 name is corrupted, you can use openSprinkler API to send a command to reset station 1 name and this should fix the issue.

[Ray]

What adjustment method did you use? Rain delay is activated either manually (e.g. the user can trigger a rain delay manually), or by using the auto rain delay adjustment method. I don’t think eTo will cause a rain delay, it only adjust the watering percentage.

[Ray]

Well, many customers want longer master adjustment times, like 10 minutes, so we have to balance between the range and granularity. Again, if you are able to compile the firmware, this is one line of change in the program code.

[Ray]

Please refer to my response here:
https://opensprinkler.com/forums/topic/time-not-correct-on-opensprinkler-pi/#post-69599

[Ray]

If you want a fixed sunrise / sunset time, wouldn’t that be the same as setting a fixed start time? The point of sunrise / sunset times are that they are dynamic. If you don’t want them to be dynamic, you can simply calculate the fixed start time and/or run time and use those.

[Ray]

Sure, I understand the motivation behind this requested change. Will put it on todo list. If you are able to compile the firmware yourself, this will be a rather simple change in the program code.

[Ray]

For OSPi: the OpenSprinkler firmware doesn’t manage time keeping directly, you should take a look at the Raspbian configuration manual to see how to configure it to obtain the correct time from NTP

For OS 2.3: if you are not on the latest firmware, which is 2.1.9(7), please update to the latest firmware as the NTP server from some older firmwares are no longer valid.

[Ray]

Here are how the pins are supposed to be connected: imaging flipping your RPi down, with the male pins facing the female pins on OSPi, and that the Ethernet jack is pointing to the right, then your RPi’s 2×13 pins plug into exactly the first (from left) 2×13 pins on OSPi. In other words, with the RPi facing down, the RPi pins and OSPi pins align on the left.

[Ray]

Samer can answer this question more accurately, but I believe it’s built with Apache Cordova.

[Ray]

Cool, thanks for sharing!

[Ray]

v3 controller only works with expander version 3, so unfortunately the previous expanders (2.x) will not work with v3 controller.

[Author]

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