RAYSHOBBY.NET

Amid all the fun and exercise of snow shoveling following the heavy snowstorm Nemo, I was able to finish and check in a new firmware update for OpenSprinkler. This new firmware, numbered 1.8.3, is a relatively minor update. You don’t have to update if you don’t need the new features explained below. There are two main changes:

The first is adding back the Sequential option that was available in firmware 1.7 but disabled in 1.8 due to a bug that was tricky to fix. This option allows you to set the controller to run in either sequential mode (where station runs are serialized) or concurrent mode (where stations are allowed to run simultaneously). The support for this option is now added back (with the bug fixed), and the Program Preview Javascripts have also been updated so you can easily check and verify the controller schedules in concurrent running mode. For most people this is probably not that useful, because sprinklers are typically set to run sequentially to maintain water pressure (similar to how people in the same house usually take showers in turn!) But there are times when you may need to run stations in parallel, say, if you want to speed up the overall watering time, or if you want to run master stations in a non-conventional manner, or if you want to use OpenSprinkler to control not only sprinkler valves but also home lighting and other devices. These are all cases where station runs have to overlap with each other. If this feature is useful to you, go ahead and upgrade to 1.8.3.

The second change is a new Device ID option which assigns the last byte of the controller’s MAC address. This new option allows you to run multiple controllers on the same network by giving each controller a different MAC address. Note that OpenSprinkler uses a software MAC, and is programmed with exactly the same MAC on every unit. I know, this sounds lame, but it’s just because I haven’t spent any time to figure out how to flash a random MAC address. Since most users won’t have more than one controller on the same network, it is not a serious issue. With the Device ID, you can easily customize the MAC address, albeit only the last byte. So again, if you find this feature useful, go ahead and upgrade to 1.8.3.

There are a couple of other minor changes. For example, the network status icon has been removed, instead, the LCD now displays no status icon if the network is on, and a question mark if the network is lost. Also, the Run-Once Program data is not stored in EEPROM any more; instead, you have to type in the water duration each time you start the Run-Once program. I know, this sounds a bit inconvenient, but I had to do it to make space for the new features. If you want to upgrade to 1.8.3, please follow the Firmware Update Instructions.

A slight annoyance I found recently is that I couldn’t compile the OpenSprinkler source code any more on my upgraded OS — Linux Mint 14. It turns out that Mint 14, based on Ubuntu 12.10, installs avr-gcc 4.7.2 by default, which apparently broke some of the Ethernet library code. This is quite annoying. My temporary workaround is to install Linux Mint 13 (based on Ubuntu 12.04 and installs avr-gcc 4.5.3 by default) on a VirtualBox in the host system, and then I can compile the code again in the virtual OS. I haven’t found an easy way to downgrade avr-gcc 4.7.2 to 4.5.3, so I will just stick to this option for now. Apparently next time I should really transition to use Arduino 1.x, which comes with its own avr-gcc compiler so I don’t have to worry about the OS installed avr-gcc breaking old code.

OK, that’s all. Back to snow shoveling tomorrow!

Dan K. from California wrote an excellent blog post about how to set up a Raspberry Pi to work with OpenSprinkler. The link to the blog post can be found here:
http://xperimentia.com/2012/12/14/setting-up-a-raspberry-pi-to-work-with-opensprinkler/

and you can download his scripts from the OpenSprinkler GitHub repository (link given in his post). The scripts basically consist of two parts: 1) storing and serving Javascripts required by OpenSprinkler on a Pi server (recall that currently these Javascripts are served on the rayshobby.net server); 2) using Pi to log OpenSprinkler status (this part is based on Dave Gustavson’s PHP scripts). As Raspi is compact, low-cost, and low-power, it is becoming an increasingly popular embedded Linux platform. The combination of Pi with OpenSprinkler also makes it possible to develop sophisticated features in the future like weather-based irrigation control, or leaning-based control like the Nest thermostat. Perhaps it’s time for me to think about an OpenSprinkler Pi Edition 🙂

Recently I’ve received questions about how to check out a previous version of the OpenSprinkler repository. One reason to do so is to recover features that have been eliminated in the most recent firmware, such as the parallel / concurrent running mode. As in any version control tool, GitHub allows you to do this pretty easily. Here is how.

First, go to the OpenSprinkler Github page, at https://github.com/rayshobby/opensprinkler, and click on the ‘XX commits’ link on the right side, shown below:

This brings you to the commit history, which lists all previous versions of the repository. Next, from the commit message or date, figure out the entry that you need to check out. Say, I want to check out firmware 1.7, and I found the entry here:

After clicking on ‘Browse Code’, you will be directed to a new page, which looks just like the homepage but with a different version number. Now, simply click on the ‘.Zip’ icon on the upper left to download the whole repository as a zip file. That’s it. Simple, isn’t it?

As I’ve given you a heads up in the previous post, there is now an iOS app for OpenSprinkler called SprinklerAce, developed by Michael at FeedFriendly.com. I know many people have requested an OpenSprinkler mobile app. I haven’t been able to split time to work on it myself. I am happy that Michael went ahead and wrote the first version. Here I will give a brief overview of the app. For details please refer to the SprinklerAce website.

SprinklerAce is extended from its previous version called IC Sprinkler, which was dedicated to the IrrigationCaddy. IrrigationCaddy is another Internet-based sprinkler controller on the market. It has nice polished UI design, but on the other hand it’s closed-source, has no LCD display, no support for extension board, and a limited set of three programs. Well, what I am trying to say here is that OpenSprinkler is better, more flexible, and actually comes at a lower price tag :). Michael made a clever choice to extend the app to support both OpenSprinkler and IrrigationCaddy, so the same app can be used for both.

Once installed, you will see the SprinklerAce app on your iOS desktop. The app is pretty self-explanatory and simple to use. Below I am going to mix screenshots captured on my iPad and those from the app website. The homepage shows a list of the current controllers. You can add a new controller by providing a name, ip address, port number, and password. You don’t need to input UserName because OpenSprinkler does not require that. You can add many controllers: for example, you may have more than one controller units, or you may create one with internal ip and one with external ip so that you can use it both at home and remotely. Once you click on a specific controller, it will show the list of stations. If you have defined custom station names, they are also supported here.

The app is currently designed to only manually open and close stations with a specified amount of time. Basically it makes use of the OpenSprinkler’s manual operation mode to control sprinkler stations. Program mode is not supported yet, so you won’t be able to add/modify/delete programs in the app (you need to use a web browser to perform program changes). It is mainly used for manual control and troubleshooting purposes. Once a station is turned on, the homepage will show running status and display the remaining water time. Internally the app reads back the OpenSprinkler homepage once every 5 seconds and makes use of the returned data to update its status accordingly. This is somewhat similar to how Dave’s logging script works. For example, if the controller is running a normal program schedule, you will be able to see the station status and remaining time in the app.

That’s it. It’s pretty easy to figure out how to use it. The app doesn’t do a whole lot yet, but hopefully Michael will continue improving it, including adding support for program mode, changing options and stations names. Basically you can view an app as another way to format the webpages: a web browser makes use of Javascripts to format the pages, and currently OpenSprinkler requires these Javascripts to be stored externally due to its limited program memory space; an app can store formatting code natively so it doesn’t need to rely on a whole lot of Javascripts.

Anyways, if you are interested or cannot live without an app :), feel free to give it a try. The app is now available in Apple store and supports both iPhone and iPad.

DISCLAIMER: FeedFriendly.com is an independent company and is not associated with Rayshobby LLC by any means. If you encounter any problem using the app, or has comments/suggestions, please contact them directly.

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