Robert Brown Arduino dew controller build, step by step

[fozzybear]

1 minute ago, Seelive said:

I admire your perseverance -  that PCB was never designed to take any of those diodes 🔨😊

I did not want to go down the route of opening the holes and risk damaging the board. Just persevered one at a time with sandpaper till they fitted. the big one D2 took the longest.

[wormix]

1 hour ago, fozzybear said:

I did not want to go down the route of opening the holes and risk damaging the board. Just persevered one at a time with sandpaper till they fitted. the big one D2 took the longest.

I’m going to attack mine tomorrow - was going to try a sanding drum in the dremel, taking it nice and slow. 

[fozzybear]

Just now, wormix said:

I’m going to attack mine tomorrow - was going to try a sanding drum in the dremel, taking it nice and slow. 

I just used a piece of 80 grit between my fingers and rotated the diodes up an down

[arrayschism]

I just drilled the holes out very slightly, left plenty of copper pad to solder to. Didn't have to touch the diode legs at all.

[wormix]

Just the mosfets to go now - I tried Fozzys technique first - soon ran out of patience and broke the Dremel out with a mild grit sanding drum on low speed.  Worked nicely. 

All other components ordered and arriving imminently, really must get round to printing the case 

Edited November 17, 2020 by wormix

[Dr_Ju_ju]

Make sure you download\install\use the latest code, updated earlier today, both Windows App & Arduino, as I found a few 'features'.... 

[fozzybear]

4 minutes ago, Dr_Ju_ju said:

Make sure you download\install\use the latest code, updated earlier today, both Windows App & Arduino, as I found a few 'features'.... 

Julian,

Cheers for the heads up.

Andy

[Dr_Ju_ju]

FYI, the files were updated again today (Weds) i.e.

Hi Julian
in terms of the temperature probe3 issue,channel 3 would only occur upon a reset of the controller when it was changed to use the temperature probe3.

I have updated the code now such that if the ch3 mode is changed to temperature probe3 from any other mode, then there is no need for a controller reset, and the code now invokes a search for the temperature probe3. I have also finetuned the way that temperature requests and readings are handled for ch3.

Thank you for pointing the issues out. You will also note that I have changed the firmware configuration, hopefully to make this simpler. This configuration is in the file controllerconfig.h and is explained in detail on the new pdf.

There are also quite a few other changes that occured in porting the code to the new configuration. Another improvement relates to the saving of changed data (in previous firmware this may not have occured depending on the type of change). All changes now invoke a 30s wait delay before changes are written to EEPROM.

If you find any issues, please let me know,

regards
Robert

[fozzybear]

Quick update, temporarily rigged up board sensors DHT21 and DS18B20 onboard and probes 1&2 and with new firmware as per Julian and tested out ok albeit probe 1 was 1/2 degree out with the rest of the sensors so far so good next to rig up RCA connectors and board connector switches fuse etc and 12v  

[fozzybear]

Has anyone got the Linux app working on Astroberry Debian. As it is Ubuntu version. I downloaded onto my Rpi Astroberry yet cannot for the life of me get it to work. Any ideas

[JamesF]

3 minutes ago, fozzybear said:

Has anyone got the Linux app working on Astroberry Debian. As it is Ubuntu version. I downloaded onto my Rpi Astroberry yet cannot for the life of me get it to work. Any ideas

I've not looked since I built mine, but at that time I think the controller application was only available for 64-bit Intel environments.  On the assumption that it is an ARM executable that you're trying to run, what error(s) are you getting?

James

[fozzybear]

1 minute ago, JamesF said:

I've not looked since I built mine, but at that time I think the controller application was only available for 64-bit Intel environments.  On the assumption that it is an ARM executable that you're trying to run, what error(s) are you getting?

James

James,

Robert has a Linux version written for Ubuntu. It was compiled in Lazarus Pascal v2.02

https://sourceforge.net/projects/arduinonanodewcontrollerpro/files/myDewControllerPro v300 3channel/CODE LINUX/

When I try and run the executable nothing happens on my RPi

Andy

[fozzybear]

James,

On the 12V supply side for the RCA connectors did you use Dupont connectors at the board end or solder the wires direct to the pins also the 12v input etc fuse, switch and what gauge wire did you use? or use the breadboard wires pre made

Edited November 19, 2020 by fozzybear

[JamesF]

I used Dupont connectors for all of them so I could easily remove the board if I needed to.  I'm not 100% sure about the wire gauge, but I suspect it is 20AWG.

James

[fozzybear]

2 minutes ago, JamesF said:

I used Dupont connectors for all of them so I could easily remove the board if I needed to.  I'm not 100% sure about the wire gauge, but I suspect it is 20AWG.

James

cheers James for the info

[JamesF]

1 hour ago, fozzybear said:

James,

Robert has a Linux version written for Ubuntu. It was compiled in Lazarus Pascal v2.02

https://sourceforge.net/projects/arduinonanodewcontrollerpro/files/myDewControllerPro v300 3channel/CODE LINUX/

When I try and run the executable nothing happens on my RPi

That does appear only to be compiled into an Intel 64-bit executable though, not the ARM 32-bit executable you'd need for the RPi.  I'd guess there's no RPi executable because Lazarus Pascal doesn't appear to be available for the RPi.  Unless I've completely missed something.

However, it does look to be possible to cross-compile for ARM processors (ie. use an Intel-based system to generate ARM executables).  If Robert doesn't have the resources to do that himself and is willing to give me access to the source then I'm happy to have a crack at it once I've got the next release of oacapture out (hopefully that will happen before the end of the first week of December) and contribute the results back to his project.

It does seem odd to me that the executable just fails silently when you try to run it though.  I'd expect some sort of error along the lines of "this executable is for a different CPU".  What output do you get if you run "file X" where X is the name of the executable in question?

James

[fozzybear]

3 minutes ago, JamesF said:

That does appear only to be compiled into an Intel 64-bit executable though, not the ARM 32-bit executable you'd need for the RPi.  I'd guess there's no RPi executable because Lazarus Pascal doesn't appear to be available for the RPi.  Unless I've completely missed something.

However, it does look to be possible to cross-compile for ARM processors (ie. use an Intel-based system to generate ARM executables).  If Robert doesn't have the resources to do that himself and is willing to give me access to the source then I'm happy to have a crack at it once I've got the next release of oacapture out (hopefully that will happen before the end of the first week of December) and contribute the results back to his project.

It does seem odd to me that the executable just fails silently when you try to run it though.  I'd expect some sort of error along the lines of "this executable is for a different CPU".  What output do you get if you run "file X" where X is the name of the executable in question?

James

James

I tried it on my astroberry from the desktop as per Robert's instructions when clicking app nothing happened also tried it on a Stellarmate OS box I have and the same nothing. No messages (popups) So maybe an Ubuntu Desktop intel app. It would be handy to use if using an RPi as the host to control all the Aux devices

Regards

Andy

[JamesF]

Ah, right.  If you're running it from the GUI then yes, I can see that you might not get any errors.  I sometimes forget that people don't use the command line any more

As I say though, if @brown_rb is happy to give me access to the sources then I'll try to build an ARM version using cross-compilation as soon as I have time and donate the executables back to his project.  It's been quite some time (about 35 years!) since I last wrote any Pascal, but actually it may well not be required just to build and I still have a copy of Clancy & Cooper's "Oh! Pascal!" on my bookshelves.  Right between "Programming the Z80" and "Writing UNIX device drivers in C"

James

[fozzybear]

1 minute ago, JamesF said:

Ah, right.  If you're running it from the GUI then yes, I can see that you might not get any errors.  I sometimes forget that people don't use the command line any more

As I say though, if @brown_rb is happy to give me access to the sources then I'll try to build an ARM version using cross-compilation as soon as I have time and donate the executables back to his project.  It's been quite some time (about 35 years!) since I last wrote any Pascal, but actually it may well not be required just to build and I still have a copy of Clancy & Cooper's "Oh! Pascal!" on my bookshelves.  Right between "Programming the Z80" and "Writing UNIX device drivers in C"

James

James

In the meantime I have fired of a PM to Robert as well for access to the source code so he may well read this section of the thread.

Thankyou

Andy

[ennui2342]

I finished my build today (all bar the dew straps). Thanks to @Jonk for selling me the circuit board and of course @brown_rb for the amazing design and software! A couple of things I learnt along the way - the circuit board version I have has the RGB LED pins screen printed incorrectly - easy to tell by changing the fan speed and seeing the colours aren't what you expect. Secondly the code only has the fan 100% or not at all - there's no automated ramping up of the fan - the intermediate values are only available manually. So if you're not planning on playing with the fan speed directly, then the RGB LED is somewhat redundant and could be skipped. Finally I had Adafruit backpacks for my LCD which are a different chipset and need a different display library. After a couple of hours messing about in the code I just spent a few quid and bought the backpack with the appropriate chipset - I'd recommend making sure you have the right type.

-Mark

Edited November 24, 2020 by ennui2342

[wormix]

Finally solderered everything up - need to print the enclosure and I can get this finished. 
 

The Nano was a real challenge and I appear to be at the point where I am now both short and long sighted!

 

 

[stash_old]

On 19/11/2020 at 20:02, JamesF said:

Lazarus Pascal doesn't appear to be available for the RPi.

https://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Lazarus_on_Raspberry_Pi

Plus I think I am right CDC and CCDciel are both written in Pascal and run on Mac,Windows and RPI. Talking to Patrick Chevalley might help he is an expert on Pascal 🙂

 

[fozzybear]

38 minutes ago, stash_old said:

https://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Lazarus_on_Raspberry_Pi

Plus I think I am right CDC and CCDciel are both written in Pascal and run on Mac,Windows and RPI. Talking to Patrick Chevalley might help he is an expert on Pascal 🙂

 

it does work i've tested it and installed on RPI

[fozzybear]

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install fpc
sudo apt-get install lazarus

[CedricTheBrave]

On 24/11/2020 at 14:33, ennui2342 said:

finished my build today (all bar the dew straps). Thanks to @Jonk for selling me the circuit board and of course @brown_rb for the amazing design and software! A couple of things I learnt along the way - the circuit board version I have has the RGB LED pins screen printed incorrectly - easy to tell by changing the fan speed and seeing the colours aren't what you expect. Secondly the code only has the fan 100% or not at all - there's no automated ramping up of the fan - the intermediate values are only available manually. So if you're not planning on playing with the fan speed directly, then the RGB LED is somewhat redundant and could be skipped. Finally I had Adafruit backpacks for my LCD which are a different chipset and need a different display library. After a couple of hours messing about in the code I just spent a few quid and bought the backpack with the appropriate chipset - I'd recommend making sure you have the right type.

-Mark

Mark how do you tell the type of chipset you have/need for the display unit?