Phidgets Plugin Discussion

Posted on
Wed Jul 29, 2015 12:16 pm
UrbanFarmer offline
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Re: Phidgets Plugin Discussion

Progress.

I did as you suggested and that part worked. I now have 4 devices set up, one for each relay and can manually toggle them when selected in the Device Panel.

But, I still am unable to set up a timer as the only action that I can make work at all is the "Action/Device Action/Phidget Controls/Control a InterfaceKit Digital Output Device (Phidget Controls)"

The Edit Action allows me to select one of the Phidgets that I set up under devices and asks for the output 0-3. But then asks for an "Output Action" and I am presented with Pulse On/Off or Pulse Off/On and a ms time which if selected 999 or less works. This is not what I need. I need to be able to turn on the relay and maybe an hour later turn it off.

So, I am once again stuck.

Thank you for your support,

Oliver

Posted on
Wed Jul 29, 2015 2:31 pm
berkinet offline
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Re: Phidgets Plugin Discussion

UrbanFarmer wrote:
...The Edit Action allows me to select one of the Phidgets that I set up under devices and asks for the output 0-3. But then asks for an "Output Action" and I am presented with Pulse On/Off or Pulse Off/On and a ms time which if selected 999 or less works. This is not what I need. I need to be able to turn on the relay and maybe an hour later turn it off....
The Phidgets plugin does not offer a timed on option (Other than the pulse). To accomplish what you are trying to do you need to use a timer from the Timers and Pesters plugin which is included with Indigo.

Using Timers and Pesters, you will be able to create a timer to turn on/off your Phidget output device (or any other Indigo device) - exactly what you want.

Posted on
Wed Jul 29, 2015 3:38 pm
UrbanFarmer offline
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Re: Phidgets Plugin Discussion

As it turns out, Timers and Pesters doesn't work because you cannot select the devices I set up per your previous post.

But, they are not needed as Actions/Device Actions/"Light/ Appliance control"/ Turn Off (or Turn On) does allow me to select the Phidget Devices I set up (0-3) and the regular timers work just fine.

Thank you for your support through my journey.

Oliver

Posted on
Wed Jul 29, 2015 3:45 pm
berkinet offline
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Re: Phidgets Plugin Discussion

UrbanFarmer wrote:
... [Timers and Pesters] are not needed as Actions/Device Actions/"Light/ Appliance control"/ Turn Off (or Turn On) does allow me to select the Phidget Devices I set up (0-3) and the regular timers work just fine.
yup, that's the key. The Phidgets output devices are no different than any other Indigo on/off relay type device. Glad you got it working.

BTW, out of curiosity, what are you controlling with the relays?

Posted on
Wed Jul 29, 2015 3:57 pm
UrbanFarmer offline
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Re: Phidgets Plugin Discussion

This is going to be used in a 15,000 square foot (75' x 200') Indoor Aquaponics Farm in South Texas. It will control water valves, filter back flush, lighting, all on repetitive cycles. I used Insteon for the demo 500 foot sq. farm here in Southern California and found it very unreliable. Some of the light power supplies are very line noisy and once those lights were on I had lots of red lines in the log. I needed a hard wired systems or at least a more robust wireless system, like WiFi for the 200 foot building length (2 story). My next step is to connect the 1014 to the SBC3 (which is connected to an Airport Express) and hopefully that will go smoothly. I have the SBC3 already configured with fixed IP etc.

Thanks again for your support,

Oliver

Posted on
Fri Jul 31, 2015 1:31 am
berkinet offline
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Re: Phidgets Plugin Discussion

UrbanFarmer wrote:
This is going to be used in a 15,000 square foot (75' x 200') Indoor Aquaponics Farm in South Texas. It will control water valves, filter back flush, lighting, all on repetitive cycles....

One small caveat. The Phidgets Single Board Computers (SBCs) have been know to simply "go away" from time to time. This problem was probably due to memory leaks and was mostly with the SBC1 & SBC2. However, it is probably a good idea to program the SBC to reboot at least once a week (use the cron for that). The Plugin will notice the loss of the InterfaceKit(s) and wait for them to reappear.

And, a comment: If this is something you are thinking of commercializing, it may be worth the effort to program the actions directly on the SBC so Indigo is not involved, or is only involved to monitor and perhaps manually intervene. The SBC supports Python and there is excellent Phidgets support for Python, so such a project would be fairly simple for someone with the requisite skills.

Posted on
Sat Aug 08, 2015 10:59 am
gtreece offline
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Re: Phidgets Plugin Discussion

berkinet wrote:
One small caveat. The Phidgets Single Board Computers (SBCs) have been know to simply "go away" from time to time. This problem was probably due to memory leaks and was mostly with the SBC1 & SBC2. However, it is probably a good idea to program the SBC to reboot at least once a week (use the cron for that). The Plugin will notice the loss of the InterfaceKit(s) and wait for them to reappear.


I had an SBC2 that this happened with a lot (almost every day). After much trial and error, it seemed to be most related to environmental temperature where the SBC was located. I eventually did some environmental control (managed by Indigo and the SBC), to keep the temp below 85 degrees F, and the problem diminished significantly. May have just been my specific scenario, but it didn't seem to take much heat to shut down communications. I now have an SBC3, and have not noticed the same issue.

Posted on
Sat Oct 31, 2015 9:06 pm
UrbanFarmer offline
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Re: Phidgets Plugin Discussion

I purchased a 1124 Precision Temperature Sensors and plugged it into analog port 6 on the SBC-3.

I configured InterfaceKit Sensor for the device and set it to Analog 6.

I keep getting the same reading and and error in the log in red:

Phidgets Plugin ifKit Error readSensorInput for device 1018-1-SBC , value 391
Phidgets Plugin ifKit Error readSensorInput for device 1018-1-SBC , value 25.7692

What else do i need to do to get it to work?

Oliver

Posted on
Sun Nov 01, 2015 11:09 am
berkinet offline
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Re: Phidgets Plugin Discussion

UrbanFarmer wrote:
I purchased a 1124 Precision Temperature Sensors and plugged it into analog port 6 on the SBC-3.

I configured InterfaceKit Sensor for the device and set it to Analog 6.... ...What else do i need to do to get it to work?

You need to create a separate device for each analog input, digital input, and digital output you wish to use on the InterfaceKit. To do this for your 1124 sensor, create a Phidgets InterfaceKit Sensor device. Configure it for the InterfaceKit and analog port you attached the sensor to. Then define the device as the 1124 temperature sensor.

Posted on
Sun Nov 01, 2015 11:25 am
hamw offline
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Re: Phidgets and water meters

For those of you who have a monitored water meter, I just posted a script for detection of catastrophic water leaks. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Looks like it would be a good project for a plug-in if someone wanted to tackle it… :-)

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=14955

Posted on
Mon Dec 28, 2015 9:28 pm
hamw offline
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Re: Phidgets Plugin Discussion

I have installed 3 Phidgets 1125 temp humidity sensors for my crawl spaces. They appear to work fine but I have two issues.

First, I compared the temp registration to a NIST traceable thermometer. The Phidgets device reads 4 degrees low. This is with the short standard Phidgets cable attached. The humidity appears to read about 4 percent below that of my Oregon Scientific sensors, which are all within one percent of each other. These are minor issues but I'd like to calibrate the 1125s if possible. i've tried adjusting the sensitivity on the Bonjour web service monitor but don't seem to have success. The individual sensors don't seem adjustable.

Second, the three sensors don't update very regularly, meaning sometimes hours. I'm surprised at this as it makes monitoring of the humidity difficult. Is this normal behavior? I'm used to the Oregon Scientific ones that update every 50 sec or so.

Any ideas?

Posted on
Tue Dec 29, 2015 1:48 pm
berkinet offline
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Re: Phidgets Plugin Discussion

hamw wrote:
...These are minor issues but I'd like to calibrate the 1125s if possible. i've tried adjusting the sensitivity on the Bonjour web service monitor but don't seem to have success. The individual sensors don't seem adjustable.

There its no direct means to adjust the reading of a Phidgets sensor (perhaps next time I get into the code I can add a correction factor). However, you can define the device as a 0999c and enter a custom formula. You can find the base formula for your phidget on the product page for the 1125.

hamw wrote:
Second, the three sensors don't update very regularly, meaning sometimes hours. I'm surprised at this as it makes monitoring of the humidity difficult. Is this normal behavior? I'm used to the Oregon Scientific ones that update every 50 sec or so.

The delta required to report a change is controlled by the Sensor Trigger Threshold setting for the Analog port your sensor is connected to. You can adjust this under the device settings for your InterfaceKit. Note the numbers represent the change in input voltage - 5/1024, or 0.004v - not the reported temp, humidity, etc. Since the temp sensor has a range of 110°C (-30°-+80°) a change of 1 point in sensitivity equated too around 0.1°C. Thus, if you set the sensitivity to 10, the InterfaceKit would only report when the temp had changed 1 degree.

Posted on
Tue Jan 05, 2016 7:58 pm
hamw offline
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Re: Phidgets Plugin Discussion

That worked, thanks!

Posted on
Sun Jan 17, 2016 5:28 pm
UrbanFarmer offline
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Joined: Nov 16, 2012

Phidgets Plugin Discussion 1048 Setup

I'm about to purchase a 1048 (4 input temp module) but I cannot find it listed in any of the device types. So. how do I select it if it is not listed? I see others have it working and am wondering how they did that.

Oliver

Posted on
Sun Jan 17, 2016 9:30 pm
UrbanFarmer offline
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Joined: Nov 16, 2012

Re: Phidgets Plugin Discussion

I think I've found it under "Phidget Stand Alone Device" - "PhidgetTemperatureSensor 4 Input"

Once I receive the 1048 I will set it up under that selection.

Oliver

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