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You can’t activate master zone independently. Master zone can only be activated by another zone that is associated with it. You can use a dummy zone, set it to activate master 1 (or 2, whichever you need). Then when you activate that dummy zone, it activates the master.
First, could you clarify if the firmware you installed is version 2.3.3? That’s not a firmware that we released (our most recent one is 2.2.0(3)).
Second, when you send curl command, and the http get link has & sympbols in them, you need to wrap the command in quotes like “http://blah.blah “, otherwise those & would be interpreted differently by command line.
Click the lower-right corner icon, then ‘Show Disabled’. Also, ‘Show Disabled’ is available in Edit Options -> Station Handling.
All APIs use the station index and not the name, because names can be duplicate and indices are unique. The master controller does NOT query the remote controller for its zone names. Once you set up the master/remote configuration, you should only modify zones on the master controller and generally should not modify anything on the remote controller. If you want to name a remote station differently, do it on the master controller. As I said, a remote controller should be regarded as just a passive ‘expander’ for the master controller.
The firmware already uses a pool of predefined NTP servers, all defined using hostnames:
https://github.com/OpenSprinkler/OpenSprinkler-Firmware/blob/master/opensprinkler_server.cpp#L2285The custom IP address is just for users who want to use their own NTP server (typically their router) to avoid accessing the Internet. It’s certainly possible to modify the firmware (and UI) to allow hostname for the custom NTP server too, but the predefined set of servers are typically sufficient for most users.
The MQTT feature currently only supports publishing (i.e. for notification etc.), it does NOT support subscribing yet (i.e. receiving command). It’s quite easy to add support for subscription, but it hasn’t been done yet.
If you run a command using curl, you should put the command around “”, otherwise it will cut off at special characters like &. In fact, you should also use the -g option because characters like [ will also throw it off because it’s a globbing character. For example:
curl -g "https://demo.opensprinkler.com/mp?pid=0&uwt=0"
should work (note that the demo website is not password protected so I ignored the pw= parameters. Also note that the password needs to be a md5 checksum, so your ‘opendoor’ will not work. Instead, you should use the md5 checksum of opendoor, which is a6d82bced638de3def1e9bbb4983225cWhen a controller is set up as remote controller, it does not run its own programs. It only listens to the master controller. Conceptually a remote controller mimics a physical extension to the master controller (like an expander), but it’s not hardwired directly to the master controller. So the water level on the remote controller is irrelevant. Only the water level on the master controller applies. The master controller sends command to the remote controller to turn zones on and off, and those commands carry the specific zone run time.
If you want the remote controller to apply its own specific water level, then you cannot directly use the default master-controller feature. You can either modify the firmware to implement what you want, or you have to write an external script to send command to the remote controller.
You need to modify the code. Most noticeably, the ETo algorithm will throw an error if the weather data source is pws:
https://github.com/OpenSprinkler/OpenSprinkler-Weather/blob/master/routes/adjustmentMethods/EToAdjustmentMethod.ts#L201) At the time the ET algorithm was implemented, solar radiation was not a required field by WU. So while some WU stations report solar radiations, a lot didn’t. I am not sure about what’s the current situation, whether it’s required now or not, but if you are able to host your own weather service, then
2) You can modify the weather code to allow using ET with WU. In fact, users who host their own weather service primarily because they want to customize the weather code. So what you were asking regarding the ‘difference’ is mainly that you can modify the code and enable ET with WU, or you can customize it in any other way you want. I am not familiar with Ecowitt. The OpenSprinkler weather code:
https://github.com/OpenSprinkler/OpenSprinkler-Weather
supports several weather providers, it’s relatively easy to add additional providers, as long as you have their APIs.The NTP IP in the settings do not apply to OSPi — on OSPi and any Linux-based system, the firmware uses the system time. So these options values are ignored. However, it does use the time zone obtained from the OpenSprinkler server to calculate the local time.
I thought the solar sync only works with Hunter’s own controllers. It is not a on-off type of sensor, it sends some kind of encrypted signal that encodes the solar radiation data. I don’t think this can work with OpenSprinkler or OpenSprinkler Pi.
I can’t find the electric spec sheet of GVA-24. Everywhere I looked, it just says 24V, it doesn’t even specify if this is AC or DC.
Each channel can drive up to 1 amp. Are you sure your valve draws 0.6A at holding state? Most sprinkler valves draw about 0.2 to 0.25A at holding state (and 0.6A impulse, which is only for a split second when it opens). In any case, the power adapter should be ok to drive a single 0.6A valve as long as you have only one open at a time. You can always buy a 24VAC adapter with larger current rating if needed.
So exactly how many is ‘more than 2 valves’? The 500mA transformer might be able to run 3 or 4 at the same time, but it’s definitely pushing the limit. If you want to run more than 2 simultaneously, you should buy a 24VAC transformer with higher current capacity. We recommend jameco.com, you can search 24VAC transformer, make sure it’s ‘AC to AC’ transformer. Each open valve draws about 200mA, so if you want to open 4 at a time, you need about 1 amp current. We don’t recommend running more than 4 at the same time — if you do want that, you should get an external relay to help drive more current. The circuit on OpenSprinkler is not designed to drive a large amount of current.
Transformer with higher current rating will NOT damage the controller — as long as it outputs 24VAC. Current rating means how much current the transformer is capable of delivering. The actual current draw depends on how much the solenoids need. It’s analogous to say that just because your power socket is rated 15A doesn’t mean it’s pumping 15A all the time — how much is actually delivered depends on how much the device needs, or if a device is connected at all. 15A just means it’s capable of delivering 15A if needed.
The maximum length of MQTT user name and password are both 32:
https://github.com/OpenSprinkler/OpenSprinkler-Firmware/blob/master/mqtt.cpp#L78
It’s certainly possible to increase these further, but 98-character password? That seems excessively long. Is that even necessary?I forgot to mention: not sure if this is anything useful to you: although you should’t insert multiple zones into one port, you CAN, however, insert one zone simultaneously into multiple ports (i.e. you split the wire into multiple, so that you can insert them to multiple ports). This allows the same physical zone to be opened by multiple logic zones, so that if any of the ports opens, the physical zone opens. This has been used by some customers in situations where the same zone needs to be associated with different pump/master zones in different programs. For example, if a physical zone A needs to trigger master 1 in program 1, but master 2 in program 2, the current firmware does not allow you to dynamically change associated masters on the fly. But if you insert zone A simultaneously to say, port 5 and 7, and have zone 5 associate with master 1, and zone 7 associate with master 2, then in program 1 you can schedule zone 5 and program 2 schedule zone 7. This way, both programs will result in physical zone A to open, but they trigger different master zones.
OK, now I am able to see the valve’s datasheet, it DOES look like your valve has a lower holding current than typical ones we’ve seen. Yours has a holding current of 91mA (vs. 250mA typical), and inrush current of 290mA (vs. 600mA typical). So it’s about a third of traditional valves. I guess that explains putting all 7 wires into one port works for you. Well I still think it’s a bit risky to put all 7 in one port, but if you can do with 4 zones in one port, that should be relatively safe.
Yes, using a higher current rating transformer means you can run multiple zones at the same time, but not all inserted into one single port. It’s similar to say your house may have a electric panel of 200A, but each individual power socket usually only drives up to 15A. You don’t insert all appliances into one single socket.
I did think about the possible new feature of ‘virtual zones’ where a virtual zone means it maps to several physical zones simultaneously. This is relatively easy to do in firmware, but it will involve some amount of UI work. I will have some free time in the summer and will consider implementing this as a new feature.
Did you mean to insert all 7 wires into one single port? Or did you mean insert 1 wire to each port and run them in parallel? I can’t imagine how the former could work, or if it does for a short period of time, how it can work more than a few minutes. If you look at the datasheet of the triac:
https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/848/Z0103MN-1846818.pdf
the maximum amount of current it can drive is 1A. If you evenly divide that by 7 valves, each only gets 140mA, which is way below the holding current of a sprinkler valve. This is waiting for trouble to happen, either the triac will burn out, or the solenoids will not reliably open because of the low holding current. Maybe your valve draws less current? Is it a special type of valve that draws less current than other valves? The link you provided cannot be opened so I can’t check its spec sheet.I am still puzzled by why can’t you use 7 ports and have the zones run in parallel. Is it because you don’t have enough zone ports? You can always get a zone expander to add more zone ports. In the firmware you can set these zones all to parallel, and that way you create a program, run each zone 1 hour, they will all turn on at the same time, so they all finish together. I just don’t understand why this is not a feasible option?
Well you can always write a script yourself and send command to OpenSprinkler to open zones in any pattern you’d like. A single firmware is not going to fit everyone’s need. The reason we make the whole product open-source is to give users the freedom of modify the software in any way they want.
Also, the firmware supports up to 40 programs, so technically you can create many programs to define when does each group of zones start. So in theory you can use multiple programs to do anything you want. It is certainly tedious and difficult to update this group of programs, but it should be able to achieve what you need.
If you want to hardwire multiple zones to the same port, please note that a single port can support no more than 2 parallel solenoids. Each solenoid draws 250 to 300mA holding current, and 500 to 700mA impulse current. The triac on each zone cannot drive more than 800mA to 1Amp max, so it can’t do more than 2 zones. You can always use an external relay, which can drive amps or even tens of amps. That way one single zone switches the relay, and the relay in turn switches high current load.
The firmware actually already rejects water time that’s too short:
https://github.com/OpenSprinkler/OpenSprinkler-Firmware/blob/master/main.cpp#L734
specifically it won’t water if the watering percentage is less than 20% AND the water time ends up being less than 10 seconds. The logic of the first condition is that if the watering percentage is high, that indicates the user intentionally wants to water a short duration.Of course this can be easily made into editable options: like if you want the threshold to be 20 seconds instead of 10 that can be easily changed. We can add this as an option. In the mean time, if you are interested in giving it a try, you can modify that line of code and recompile the firmware yourself.
I am not sure what you mean by “Due to the lack of being able to to this in the OSPI firmware,” — if you assign a zone to the parallel group, it can run at the same time with any other zone. So if you assign all 7 zones to the Parallel group, they can all run at the same time. Again, I would not recommend running this many zones together, so you will have to do it at your own risk (we’ve never tested running this many zones at the same time over long period of time). If your power adapter can supply this much current, it should be ok.
That’s an accessory that’s developed for our German distributor only so far. We will probably start carrying it ourselves once the firmware portion of it and UI have been fully tested. The circuit is made of two ADS1115 analog to I2C chips, adding a total of 8 ADC channels.
Click the gears icon next to each zone, it will bring up the zone attribute dialog. There you can choose whether you want to ignore sensor or not. All firmware features are explained in the OpenSprinkler firmware introduction video as well as the full user manual:
https://openthings.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/5000860920-videos-introduction-to-opensprinkler-v3
https://openthings.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/5000716364-opensprinkler-user-manuals
