Irrigation Controller (up to 16 valves with Shift Registers)

[petewill]

@Sergio Jim (@BulldogLowell) posted some more details above but here is my fritzing project as well. Hopefully you can zoom in where you need to see more.

Fritzing Irrigation Controller Wiring.fzz

[A Former User]

Mmm... I finally assembled the device. But I'm having problems with it. It doesn't activate/deactivates the relays. I'm getting the power for the relay board from the nano itself. Could that be the problem?
Also, my domoticz doesn't receive the off signal from the controller. (doens't turn the light off) and sometimes throws some error telling that can't contact the node.
BTW I tried to contac Bulldogloweel without success :sob:

[petewill]

@Sergio said:

Mmm... I finally assembled the device. But I'm having problems with it. It doesn't activate/deactivates the relays. I'm getting the power for the relay board from the nano itself. Could that be the problem?

Yes, that is most likely the problem. Most of the relays I have used need more power than what the arduino can supply. Try feeding it more power (like from a phone charger).

Also, my domoticz doesn't receive the off signal from the controller. (doens't turn the light off) and sometimes throws some error telling that can't contact the node.

Check the serial monitor with debug enabled. Does this happen every time? It could be radio issues. Do you have a 4.7uf cap on the radio? Is it close enough to your gateway?

[fusion_man]

@BulldogLowell

I need to add a relay for a master valve. This will open when any zone valves open. I think it could be mapped to All On 0(1) but I am not sure how to accomplish this. I don't know the code for that or electrical connection. I also noticed we are about maxed out of data (99%) using ProMini. Any ideas?

[BulldogLowell]

If you are worried about Program Space you can turn off Serial debug to rid yourself of a bunch of overhead in the sketch. I am not using String class so there is PLENTY of RAM and I've been using this for a while with no stack corruption issues:

#define DEBUG_ON   // comment out to surpress serial monitor output

if you propose to turn ON the master valve when each valve is cycled on, then I believe all you need to do is add that valve to the bitmask (logical OR) each time you updateRelays().

void updateRelays(int value)
{
  if(value)
  {
    value |= 0b0000000010000000;  // master is the eighth relay, there are 7 controlled in this example (active HIGH in this example)
  }
  digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, highByte(value));
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, lowByte(value));
  digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
}

not tested

[fusion_man]

@BulldogLowell

By commenting out the DEBUG, it went from 99% to 63% used memory.
The modification to void updateRelays worked very nicely. I only wish the master control valve would remain ON during cycling through each valve (subjected to VALVE_RESET_TIME) as I am using it to control a chemical feed pump to prevent hydrogen proxide (30%) from entering my irrigation system.

Awesome job and I am very pleased with your design.
The only problem I had when building the controller was getting the LCD to communicate.
I added this comment to my program under Instructions.

• If your LCD is unresponsive, download sketch http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=128635.0 then check serial monitor for LCD address. Insert your address below.

[fusion_man]

@BulldogLowell

I ended up going a different approach. I modified the program so I could use Arduino digital pin6 as an output powering my master valve relay. I then added digitalWrite (masterValvePin, HIGH) where you have updateRelays(BITSHIFT_VALVE_NUMBER) to turn ON the valve. To turn off the valve I added a delay then digitalWrite (masterValvePin, LOW) to if (state == STAND_BY_ALL_OFF). This has tested perfectly for my situation.
The only thing missing from the Controller is the ability to add the RainBird rain sensor to the board. I think the way of achieving this is an input to my Vera controller.

[BulldogLowell]

@fusion_man

maybe we can add a rain sensor this season. It is a good idea to include it.

[fusion_man]

@BulldogLowell

I already did and it is up and running. I used A0 as the input for the rain sensor. I can see the rain sensor in Vera as a motion sensor. I didn't post the code as I didn't want to offend the designer. Being a newbie, I didn't know how to handle this update.

[BulldogLowell]

@fusion_man

why not just post your code? I'm sure the guy who wrote the original code won't mind, if you include his original notes and credits.

[Mark Jefford]

Quick question, semi also referenced on the openhab binding.

Looking to use this with Openhab, I have managed to get it to work with the serial gateway, however i don't see a way i can pass out any configuration of a valve time, i can however trigger valves with a runtime of 0 seconds.

Any ideas how i can amend this to either use a fixed runtime in the project (happy to run it in 1min increments trigged from openhab hydro sensor results)

[BulldogLowell]

@Mark-Jefford

In that case, I would just treat each zone as a separate relay/lamp and use Openhab to control the individual ON times... I think.

[johnecy]

can I use pin D6 instead ok pin D8 to control the shift register. I am making the controller on the easy/newbie pc board and there is nothing connected to pin D8 on this board.

[BulldogLowell]

@johnecy

const int latchPin = 8;

I think you should be OK to try that

[johnecy]

@BulldogLowell thanks for the reply i will post pictures when i get it finished

[Mark Jefford]

@BulldogLowell

Gave up with using openhab now using domoticz which is a lot nicer, forced it to hard coded run times by doing this:

else if (message.type == V_VAR1)
{
int variable1 = 5; // atoi(message.data);// RUN_ALL_ZONES time
DEBUG_PRINT(F("Recieved variable1 valve:"));
DEBUG_PRINT(i);
DEBUG_PRINT(F(" = "));
DEBUG_PRINTLN(variable1);
if (variable1 != allZoneTime[i])
{
allZoneTime[i] = variable1;

      zoneTimeUpdate = true;
    }
  }
  else if (message.type == V_VAR2)
  {
    int variable2 = 5; //atoi(message.data);// RUN_SINGLE_ZONE time
    DEBUG_PRINT(F("Recieved variable2 valve:"));
    DEBUG_PRINT(i);
    DEBUG_PRINT(F(" = "));
    DEBUG_PRINTLN(variable2);
    if (variable2 != valveSoloTime[i])
    {
      valveSoloTime[i] = variable2;
      zoneTimeUpdate = true;
    }```

one thing to note the shift register 0b0000000010000000 does not seem to work, will work out a plan around this as i need to run a 12 pump off the relay bank to draw water from the water butt.

[BulldogLowell]

@Mark-Jefford said:

one thing to note the shift register 0b0000000010000000 does not seem to work, will work out a plan around this as i need to run a 12 pump off the relay bank to draw water from the water butt.

Can you explain more? is there a bug?

[Mark Jefford]

@BulldogLowell
Hi! :)

Rather than using valve 8, i am using only a block of 4, but currently have a 2 channel for testing.

My reading into shift registers showed 0b0000000010000000 is 2x 8 bit outputs, B0-B7

tried configuing B0 and B7 to try and activate relay 1, was still seeing 5V on all pins apart from the output pin for the zone in use (EG zone 2 expecting Zone1 to alway be on)

or am i doing this completely wrong? :)

[BulldogLowell]

@Mark-Jefford

hmmm... are your relays ACTIVE HIGH (actuate wiht a 5V signal) or ACTIVE LOW (actuate when brought to ground) type?

[Mark Jefford]

@BulldogLowell

Oh, well this is strange, if i disconnect the pin to the relay, it does not activate when unpowered.

but from the shift register it is +5 when the zone is not active, and 0V when active, so i assume its an active low not active high by your example... surely removing the 5V feed to the relay pin should make it activate.. not sure whats going on there, some sort of black magic :P

My reading of shift registers has made my brain hurt.. do i need to reverse the 0000000010000000 for 1111111101111111?