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Update: information on this blog post is outdated. Please check the latest instructions in the OSPi v1.4 user manual.


Good news to OSPi users: a pre-configured SD card image is now available for download at the following url:

NOTE: OSPi v1.4 requires either a microSD card or a low-profile SD card (due to the limited space in the enclosure). A microSD card adapter for RPi is included in the kit.

The image is compressed from an existing OSPi installation that contains Dan’s interval_program, Rich’s sprinklers_pi program, Samer’s OpenSprinkler mobile app, and the Google Calendar-based scheduling program. Download it, burn it to an SD card, and pop it in to your Raspberry Pi. Then you will be ready to go right away. No more pulling your hair or banging your head against the wall (well, hopefully :))!

The process to burn the image to an SD card is the same as burning a raspbian image to SD card. If you’ve used Raspberry Pi before, you’ve probably done this already, maybe even multiple times. If not, you should check the detailed online instructions here: http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup

Here is a quick summary:

  • Decompress the image file to your computer.
  • Insert an SD card (4GB or above). Make sure you back up any important file on the SD card as the procedure below will overwrite the content on the SD card.
  • Depending on what operating system you use:
    • On Windows, use the Win32DiskImager software.
    • On Mac, use the ‘dd’ command in a terminal, for example: sudo dd bs=1M if=name_of_the_image_file of=/dev/partition_to_burn_to
    • On Linux, the same, use the ‘dd’ command on a terminal, for example: sudo dd bs=1M if=name_of_the_image_file of=/dev/partition_to_burn_to
    • VERY VERY IMPORTANT: make sure you have selected the correct drive name (or partition name) to burn the image to!!! If you’ve selected the wrong drive, you might end up wiping out your computer’s hard drive, and I am sure you will be back pulling your hair again!!! Double check before you press enter or click on confirm.

Once the SD card is ready, pop it in to your Raspberry Pi. Since WiFi is not configured yet, you should first connect it directly to your router using a wired Ethernet cable. Alternatively, if you are a Linux user, insert the SD card to your computer, and you directly edit the WiFi SSID and password in file /etc/network/interfaces on the SD card (not your computer!). This way when you pop it in to RPi, it will automatically connect to your WiFi network.

In your home router’s configuration page, find out the IP address assigned to the Raspberry Pi. Next, open a browser, and type in:
http://x.x.x.x
where x.x.x.x is your Raspberry Pi’s IP address. You should see a page with further instructions, such as setting up time zone, WiFi etc. If you can see this page, congratulations, you’ve succeeded!

Dan Kimberling’s interval_program is set as the default program to run on start-up. Type in the following url in a browser:
http://x.x.x.x:8080
(again, x.x.x.x is your Raspberry Pi’s IP address) and you should see the web interface of the interval_program.

The OpenSprinkler mobile app is also pre-installed to the SD card, which is available at:
http://x.x.x.x/sprinklers

You can also switch to run Rich Zimmerman’s sprinklers_pi program on start-up. To do so, ssh (or use a monitor and keyboard) to your Raspberry Pi (the system uses the default user name pi and password raspberry) and run the script in a terminal: sudo /home/pi/select_program. Once you’ve switched to the sprinklers_pi program, you can access its web interface at the same http://x.x.x.x:8080.

These have all been explained in the one-page instruction. For questions, comments, and suggestions, please post them at the Rayshobby Forum: http://rayshobby.net/phpBB3. Thanks!

4gsd

29 Responses to “OpenSprinkler Pi (OSPi) Pre-Configured SD Card Image for Download”

  1. Pedro Moreira says:

    Hi,

    I’m trying to download the ospi preConfigured SD card image, but the download stops midway through. Do you have an alternative download site?

    Tks,
    Pedro M.

    • ray says:

      The file is hosted on Google Docs. We do not provide alternative download site. Just try again. Also, you may want to check if your Ethernet connection is reliable. If not, use software like flashget which can resume the download after disconnection.

  2. Troy says:

    I have tried everything to get my WIFI USB dongle to work with the pre-configured image but have had no success. Before trying to use this OS image I was using the latest Raspbian distro and had no problems using my WIFI USB dongle. I’m using the Edimax EW-7811Un 150 Mbps Wireless 11n Nano Size USB Adapter. I have tried “sudo apt-get update”, “sudo apt-get upgrade”, and manually replacing drivers. Any help is appreciated.

    • ray says:

      Did you set the WiFi user name and password? If so, how did you set it?

      • Troy says:

        If I understand your question correctly, I tried used the WIFI Config tool that shows up on the desktop. This is how I setup the WIFI on the standard Raspbian release and I was successful. In the OSPi version of Raspbian the WIFI config tool doesn’t seem to detect my WIFI dongle.

      • ray says:

        I haven not tried the WIFI config tool, but I can’t think of any reason why it wouldn’t work. Have you tried to edit /etc/network/interfaces directly with your WFI ssid and password? That worked for me.

  3. Phil says:

    I am having the same problem. I bought the miniature dongle from Adafruit and can’t get it to work with the disk image. It does work with the standard NOOBs release so I’m pretty sure that the drivers are not in this image. I tried to set it up both ways; the wifi config on the x desktop doesn’t find the dongle and editing the interfaces file leaves me with “no DHCP offers received”. Being a real NOOB I’m not sure how to add those drivers. Any thoughts?

  4. Marc says:

    Same problem here. Had to manually edit network interfaces as Ray mentioned. Got the edimax to work. Unfortunately it would intermittly drop the network connection and I would have to reboot the RPi to restablish the connection. I gave up on wifi and went to powerline network adapter. Works great, Mounted whole setup under crawl space and have not lost a network connection since ( four weeks so far).

    • ray says:

      OK, thanks for the feedback. The WiFi distance and signal strength may cause disconnection problems. But a powerline network adapter as you said is definitely more reliable.

    • Chris says:

      I had a similar issue with my Tenda, but manually editing the config file worked for me too.
      Everything I’ve read about RasPi USB ports is “Just use a hub with separate power instead”. It could just be a brownout issue.

  5. Nick Bright says:

    I would add, since I didn’t see it mentioned here, that the new case requires a micro-SD card to be able to fit the cover on. It was shipped with an adapter for the pi.

    • Nick Bright says:

      Any recommendations on which brand to purchase?

      • ray says:

        Thanks for the comment. The microSD card is mentioned in the OSPi v1.4 user manual. I’ve now also added a note above about OSPi v1.4. The minimum requirement for the microSD card is that it should be at least 4GB in size. If performance matters, get the SanDisk Ultra (class 10); otherwise the much cheaper Kingston class 4 microSD card also works.

  6. George says:

    Is there a way to update to the latest OSPi without downloading the whole image? Do I just need to do a git pull in the main directory and also in the interval program directory?

    • ray says:

      You can do a git pull in the OSPi directory. There is no need to burn the image again — the image is for first-time users.

  7. Matteo says:

    Hi Ray!
    Thank you indeed for the pre-configured SD card image.
    Maybe you might consider the possibility to add the SHA1SUM of the image.
    In this way, anyone could check if the downloaded image is OK or not.
    By the way, I had the following value:

    SHA1SUM sdimage.zip: d96f03d0c5249516cc929980c4558fb838bd7d78

    I hope it’s the correct value!
    Bye!
    Matteo

    • ray says:

      Yup, your checksum is correct. I’ve added SHA1SUM and MD5SUM above for users to easily check. Thanks for the suggestion.

      • Matteo says:

        Hi!
        I guess there are 2 mistakes.
        1: you wrote SHASUM instaed of SHA1SUM.
        2: MD5SUM and SHA1SUM hashes are the same.
        Bye!

      • ray says:

        Isn’t shasum the command you run in Linux to get sha2sum? About md5: it’s fixed now. Thanks.

      • Matteo says:

        Yes, shasum is the command you can use in Linux terminal.
        I’ve always used sha1sum or sha256sum or sha512sum commands.
        Looking at the shasum manual, they write:

        SYNOPSIS
        Usage: shasum [OPTION]… [FILE]…
        Print or check SHA checksums.
        With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

        -a, –algorithm 1 (default), 224, 256, 384, 512, 512224, 512256
        …..

        As you can see, the algorithm 1 is the default one, so shasum or sha1sum commands give the same hash.
        Actually you should specify which algorithm has been used alongside of the hash.

        Writing SHA1SUM: d96f03d0c5249516cc929980c4558fb838bd7d78 is more correct.

        Bye!

      • ray says:

        OK, that’s good to know. I’ve changed it to SHA1SUM.

  8. Airmax says:

    If I burn this image to a 8 Gb SD card, “df” shows me:

    rootfs 3615464 2981812 461360 87% / used
    /dev/root 3615464 2981812 461360 87% /

    How can I use the whole 8 Gb of my SD card? With this configuration I can not run apt-get upgrade, as the free storage es not enough

  9. Ash says:

    What have I done wrong,

    I am trying to build up a fresh SD card for my system, but I have download the above image 3 times now and every time I try to extract it I get a unknown archive or folder error. I have tried WinRar and 7zip with the same result (on a windows 7 machine). What have I missed?

    Cheers

  10. ray says:

    Did you check your the checksum to see if the file may be corrupted? Also, as noted in the beginning of the page, do not download the file on this page, instead, use the file download link in the updated user manual.

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