Hi everybody! I'm setting up the hydrosys4 system for a large area with 24 watering lines. I want a relay to operate a solenoid valve on each line. I have already put together a system with 16 relays that is in test phase (not connected to valves yet). I would like to connect 8 more relays. The Pi Zero has 28 GPIO pins. Can I use any or all of these pins e.g. Pins 0,1,2,3,7,8,9,10 or are some not able to be used with hydrosys4? I would rather not use an MCP23017 if I don't need to. Please advise.
Switches just manually turn on relays in case one line needs extra water or for checking valves etc.
In the latest SW release there are 16 watering schema groups, the name of this schemas can be customized, so would be easy to remember.
Another thought, could you leave it at a reduced number of watering lines and give users the option of adding more lines themselves if they need to? I'm not sure if this can be done but it would be really good.
Well Angelo, my brain works slowly on these issues. I'm sure I could think of something nice overnight. My first thoughts, not very elegant but intuitive is something like Relay1, Relay2 etc. At least nobody should get confused. That may fit well with your new relay expansion hat too.
Currently you can create 6 main groups with different watering schema, each of this group can then have its own duration and delay. Do you really want to manage all the 32 watering lines separately? looks like a configuration nightmare.
Anyway I agree to increase the number to 16 schemas. Do you have any suggestion about the Names of the watering schema?
Well, there's a lot less wiring required with that board than the way I connected all my relays. Looks like you have made connecting up to 32 relays very simple, good job. I do still wish for an easy way to add more watering lines in the software so that watering times can be different for each relay. :)
Board just arrived, now under testing.
I will keep an eye out for those boards. They will probably save some headaches when wiring up so many connections.
By the way, I'm in the process of testing some extension boards for very big setup, hopefully they will be available in my Tindie shop soon.
Thanks for sharing, I'll update the record to 24 then :)
Hi There,
Looks like a big setup :).
In the preset configurations, I used the 16 GPIO which do not have problems during the boot phase of the raspberry. Some of the GPIO might be temporary ON/OFF during the start phase. If for you it is not a problem, than I do not think there are other limitations. Just be sure to remove the rows in the HardwareSetting relevant to the PIN in case they are already used for other purposes in the preset configuration. (note that PIN 0 does not refer to any GPIO pin so it should not be used).
Previous record I'm aware without using the MCP23017 extension is 19 relays:
https://hydrosys4.wixsite.com/hydrosys4forum/forum/sw-and-settings/watering-plan-activations/p-1/dl-5f736980d96e78001766cf73
Anyway the MCP23017 can be also a good solution in case you need to expand further.