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  3. Irrigation Controller (up to 16 valves with Shift Registers)

Irrigation Controller (up to 16 valves with Shift Registers)

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  • P Offline
    P Offline
    petewill
    Admin
    wrote on last edited by
    #38

    @BulldogLowell said:

    You could try a bigger pullup resistor, maybe the pin floats for a brief moment or it is somehow energized...

    Ok, I'll do some testing with that. I don't think I'll get the chance today but I should be able to do some tomorrow. It works perfectly after the first start up so hopefully a bigger resistor will help.

    My "How To" home automation video channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq_Evyh5PQALx4m4CQuxqkA

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    • P petewill

      @BulldogLowell said:

      You could try a bigger pullup resistor, maybe the pin floats for a brief moment or it is somehow energized...

      Ok, I'll do some testing with that. I don't think I'll get the chance today but I should be able to do some tomorrow. It works perfectly after the first start up so hopefully a bigger resistor will help.

      B Offline
      B Offline
      BulldogLowell
      Contest Winner
      wrote on last edited by
      #39

      @petewill

      yeah, I see in the code that the pushbutton is using interrupt pin, but still needs to be set to input

      pinMode(PushButton, INPUT_PULLUP);
      

      start there, sorry!

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      • P Offline
        P Offline
        petewill
        Admin
        wrote on last edited by
        #40

        @BulldogLowell said:

        yeah, I see in the code that the pushbutton is using interrupt pin, but still needs to be set to input

        I thought I added it already with this:

        pinMode(waterButtonPin, INPUT_PULLUP);
        
        

        Is that correct? Maybe that's my problem...

        My "How To" home automation video channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq_Evyh5PQALx4m4CQuxqkA

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        • P Offline
          P Offline
          petewill
          Admin
          wrote on last edited by
          #41

          @BulldogLowell said:

          were you not getting a compile error? on the PushButton variable being undeclared?

          Ok, I still think I have some things to learn about interrupts. I thought PushButton was the method being called when the interrupt was triggered. I didn't think it was the pin. I thought the pin was the first item 1 in this case. But, I thought 1 isn't even the pin. It's the interrupt number which is pin 3 in the case of a Pro Mini. I also thought I needed to declare the pinMode even if it's already in the interrupt. So confusing... Am I totally off?

          My "How To" home automation video channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq_Evyh5PQALx4m4CQuxqkA

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          • P petewill

            @BulldogLowell said:

            were you not getting a compile error? on the PushButton variable being undeclared?

            Ok, I still think I have some things to learn about interrupts. I thought PushButton was the method being called when the interrupt was triggered. I didn't think it was the pin. I thought the pin was the first item 1 in this case. But, I thought 1 isn't even the pin. It's the interrupt number which is pin 3 in the case of a Pro Mini. I also thought I needed to declare the pinMode even if it's already in the interrupt. So confusing... Am I totally off?

            B Offline
            B Offline
            BulldogLowell
            Contest Winner
            wrote on last edited by
            #42

            @petewill

            post deleted, my bad! your understanding is 100% correct!

            your PushButton is the ISR, so you are right

            Try the extra pullup or pull-down

            really sorry for confusing you! I'm mega jet lagged

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            • P Offline
              P Offline
              petewill
              Admin
              wrote on last edited by
              #43

              @BulldogLowell said:

              I'm mega jet lagged

              Totally understandable :)

              Ok, I'll try the other options discussed above and post back. Thanks.

              My "How To" home automation video channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq_Evyh5PQALx4m4CQuxqkA

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              • P Offline
                P Offline
                petewill
                Admin
                wrote on last edited by
                #44

                @BulldogLowell said:

                Try the extra pullup

                Well, I had almost no time to work on MySensors stuff this weekend. :( I did do a quick test last night and it seems the external pullup worked! I power cycled the node 3 times and each time it worked flawlessly. I'll continue to test but so far so good. Thank you!

                My "How To" home automation video channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq_Evyh5PQALx4m4CQuxqkA

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                • P petewill

                  @BulldogLowell said:

                  Try the extra pullup

                  Well, I had almost no time to work on MySensors stuff this weekend. :( I did do a quick test last night and it seems the external pullup worked! I power cycled the node 3 times and each time it worked flawlessly. I'll continue to test but so far so good. Thank you!

                  B Offline
                  B Offline
                  BulldogLowell
                  Contest Winner
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #45

                  @petewill

                  glad to hear that worked!

                  :thumbsup:

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                  • B BulldogLowell

                    I put together an extension of the multi-Relay controller for use as a controller for your irrigation project if you have more zones than available pins on your Arduino.

                    This sketch features the following:

                    • Allows you to cycle through All zones or individual zone control.
                    • Use the (n+1)th device to activate each zone in numeric sequence (zero to n) using
                      Variable1 as the "ON" time in minutes in each of the vera devices created.
                    • Use the individual zone controller to activate a single zone. This feature uses
                      Variable2 as the "ON" time for each individual device/zone.
                    • Connect according to pinout in the sketch and uses an 74HC595 (or equiv) Shift Register as to
                      allow the MySensors standard radio configuration and still leave available digital pins
                    • Compiles to ~12,000 Bytes, so will run on any Arduino
                    • Turning on any zone will stop the current process and begin that particular process.
                    • Turning off any zone will stop the current process and turn off all zones.
                    • Sketch must collect your desired intervals so it takes several minutes to startup.
                    • If you change your desired time intervals for your zones, simply restart your arduino
                      and it will self update to reflect those changes.

                    Example, I am using with 8 relays:

                    This will create 9 devices. Zero through 7 are the individual relays. Eight is the Sequencer, so to speak (refer to attachment).

                    Once you create this and add it using the gateway, go to each of zero through 7 and edit Variable1 and Variable2 for what time you want to use for the Sequencer or Zone respectively. Then save the settings. Then, restart your arduino; your arduino will extract these settings and save them to an array.

                    When you turn on device 8 (aka the Sequencer) the relays will actuate in order from zero to seven, each one staying on for the period entered in the Variable1 field. There is a 5 second delay at the start of a new zone to allow for the valves to hydraulically reset.

                    When you turn on any of devices zero through 7, it will run that zone only for the period of time entered in Variable2.

                    Selecting any new zone (0-8) will stop the current process and start as per above.

                    Hope you have a use for it. If you see any opportunity to improve, or find a bug, let me know.

                    Jim
                    modified. Attached wrong file, whoops!

                    Sprinkler.ino

                    S Offline
                    S Offline
                    Sparkman
                    Hero Member
                    wrote on last edited by Sparkman
                    #46

                    @BulldogLowell Thanks for posting this. A sprinkler controller to replace my Rainbird controller is next on my list of projects.

                    For those looking for a good and relatively cheap soil moisture sensor, these ones are pretty good and use a capacitive sensor: http://www.ebay.com/itm/261675851824. They transmit on 433 MHz. I currently use them with RFXCom and HomeSeer, but for those that don't have RFXCom, the protocol should be relatively easy to reverse engineer and then use directly with MySensors and a 433MHz receiver. I've also bought a few from here: https://www.plantcaretools.com/en/webshop/wireless-moisture-sensor-en-detail. Both sellers were good to deal with. The only drawback to them is that the antenna (and therefore range) is not very good, but there is an easy mod to improve that: http://www.domoticz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2712

                    Cheers
                    Al

                    DrJeffD 1 Reply Last reply
                    1
                    • H Offline
                      H Offline
                      hek
                      Admin
                      wrote on last edited by hek
                      #47

                      Added your project to the main site togeter with @petewill excellent new video.

                      http://www.mysensors.org/build/irrigation

                      https://youtu.be/l4GPRTsuHkI

                      B C 2 Replies Last reply
                      2
                      • H hek

                        Added your project to the main site togeter with @petewill excellent new video.

                        http://www.mysensors.org/build/irrigation

                        https://youtu.be/l4GPRTsuHkI

                        B Offline
                        B Offline
                        BulldogLowell
                        Contest Winner
                        wrote on last edited by BulldogLowell
                        #48

                        Cool @hek!

                        Well done @petewill So easy for folks to follow along your outstanding video!

                        MySensors Community Rocks!

                        DrJeffD 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • P Offline
                          P Offline
                          petewill
                          Admin
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #49

                          @BulldogLowell said:

                          MySensors Community Rocks!

                          Agreed!!! Thanks to both @BulldogLowell and @hek for making this possible. I love seeing it hanging on my wall every time I go into the basement :)

                          My "How To" home automation video channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq_Evyh5PQALx4m4CQuxqkA

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • R Offline
                            R Offline
                            RJ_Make
                            Hero Member
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #50

                            Great Work Guys!!

                            RJ_Make

                            1 Reply Last reply
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                            • S Sparkman

                              @BulldogLowell Thanks for posting this. A sprinkler controller to replace my Rainbird controller is next on my list of projects.

                              For those looking for a good and relatively cheap soil moisture sensor, these ones are pretty good and use a capacitive sensor: http://www.ebay.com/itm/261675851824. They transmit on 433 MHz. I currently use them with RFXCom and HomeSeer, but for those that don't have RFXCom, the protocol should be relatively easy to reverse engineer and then use directly with MySensors and a 433MHz receiver. I've also bought a few from here: https://www.plantcaretools.com/en/webshop/wireless-moisture-sensor-en-detail. Both sellers were good to deal with. The only drawback to them is that the antenna (and therefore range) is not very good, but there is an easy mod to improve that: http://www.domoticz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2712

                              Cheers
                              Al

                              DrJeffD Offline
                              DrJeffD Offline
                              DrJeff
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #51

                              @Sparkman I like the sensors, I just built some and was dbating the way to make smaller, what kind of battery life do those moisture sensors have?

                              @petewill Time to change my current 16 valve arduino sprinklers to a little smarter version like yours! I love this community.
                              You have been coming on with some awesome videos and contributions!

                              P S 2 Replies Last reply
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                              • DrJeffD DrJeff

                                @Sparkman I like the sensors, I just built some and was dbating the way to make smaller, what kind of battery life do those moisture sensors have?

                                @petewill Time to change my current 16 valve arduino sprinklers to a little smarter version like yours! I love this community.
                                You have been coming on with some awesome videos and contributions!

                                P Offline
                                P Offline
                                petewill
                                Admin
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #52

                                @DrJeff I agree this is a great community! So much fun!

                                Thanks for the kind words! All credit for this project goes to @BulldogLowell though. I just made the video :)

                                My "How To" home automation video channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq_Evyh5PQALx4m4CQuxqkA

                                1 Reply Last reply
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                                • B BulldogLowell

                                  Cool @hek!

                                  Well done @petewill So easy for folks to follow along your outstanding video!

                                  MySensors Community Rocks!

                                  DrJeffD Offline
                                  DrJeffD Offline
                                  DrJeff
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #53

                                  @BulldogLowell Sorry For not giving the credit where it is due! Major Props @BulldogLowell !

                                  B 1 Reply Last reply
                                  1
                                  • DrJeffD DrJeff

                                    @Sparkman I like the sensors, I just built some and was dbating the way to make smaller, what kind of battery life do those moisture sensors have?

                                    @petewill Time to change my current 16 valve arduino sprinklers to a little smarter version like yours! I love this community.
                                    You have been coming on with some awesome videos and contributions!

                                    S Offline
                                    S Offline
                                    Sparkman
                                    Hero Member
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #54

                                    @DrJeff said:

                                    @Sparkman I like the sensors, I just built some and was dbating the way to make smaller, what kind of battery life do those moisture sensors have?

                                    They've been running for about 9 months on the first set of batteries (2xAAA) so far and are still going strong.

                                    Cheers
                                    Al

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • DrJeffD DrJeff

                                      @BulldogLowell Sorry For not giving the credit where it is due! Major Props @BulldogLowell !

                                      B Offline
                                      B Offline
                                      BulldogLowell
                                      Contest Winner
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #55

                                      Thanks @DrJeff

                                      I just made an irrigation controller... @petewill made it for everyone!

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • T Offline
                                        T Offline
                                        tbowmo
                                        Admin
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #56

                                        just for inspiration, here's another irrigation controller video (no, it's not mine.. but one of my friends that made it)

                                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRU0xrd8dn0

                                        :)

                                        P DrJeffD 2 Replies Last reply
                                        0
                                        • DidiD Offline
                                          DidiD Offline
                                          Didi
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #57

                                          Wow 48 channels thats awesome

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