Published April 8, 2016

8 Watering Incidence, 16 Zone Sprinkler System Circuit

This is a custom garden watering system replacement circuitry for multiple sprinkler boxes, phase 1, with flow meter addition.

IntermediateWork in progress4 hours1,221

8 Watering Incidence, 16 Zone Sprinkler System Circuit

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Texas Instruments Shift Register- Serial to Parallel

Adafruit Standard LCD - 16x2 White on Blue

Rotary potentiometer (generic)

5 mm LED: Green

5 mm LED: Red

5 mm LED Blue

Resistor 221 ohm

flow sensor

Story

Overview

A few years ago I put in a custom watering system in my backyard, allowing me much more control of the watering in my garden. It was so successful, that not only did it grow my plants exceptionally well, it saved me around $200 over the course of a summer, directly in the water bill.

As pleased as I was, and as rapidly as I regained my investment dollars in savings, it wasn't enough. I write software and herd databases for a living, and ever curious, and so I've been reading articles about the Raspberry Pi and Arduino for the last year, and finally decided to make the jump into some home automation.

Part 1

I have several projects in mind, but this is a replacement for 2 sprinkler controller boxes that I have in use on my residential property, with a total of 14 zones (coding allows for 16), and this pathway will allow me to extend this project with weather monitoring, flow meter, etc. Extensions being for data gathering for a whole variety of analysis and system behavior modification, but first the replacement circuitry, and programming of the base before getting too fancy. This IS my first project like this since taking a circuits class in college some 20 years ago, so better not get TOO excited.

The basis for most of the logic in this project is the 74CH595 shift register logic chip. The project uses five. Three chips for informational (read: eye candy) LEDs, and 2 chips for the valve 'work'. The PowerLED is just that, an indicator that the system has power, and finally the LCD is to be used to give greater detail than an LED can by itself.

Most of the code is variations on things I found on the SunFounder, Adafruit, and RaspberryPi websites, and their tutorials, as well as some forum reading. So props out to them for making things so accessible.

Part 2

I'm not new to Linux, but had forgotten how much I did know. I hadn't used it much in probably 10 years, as I spend most of my time in SSMS. I was completely new to Python, so any thoughts on coding improvement are welcome, to be honest, I haven't done more in python than make it DO what I want. I may rewrite it in C++ and just stay in that language.

It's been entertaining, and I've already ordered more parts, and have my backyard looking like it could be used for miniature trench warfare, working on a separate, manual labor intensive (read: shovel work), non-electrical portion of this project.

I hope you enjoy.

Code

#!/usr/bin/env python
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import time
import sys
import os

#Flow Sensor
FLOW_SENSOR = 31

calibrationFactor = 4.8
global count
count = 0
global maxcount
maxcount = 0



# LCD PIN OUT
# The wiring for the LCD is as follows:
# 1 : GND
# 2 : 5V
# 3 : Contrast (0-5V)*
# 4 : RS (Register Select)
# 5 : R/W (Read Write)       - GROUND THIS PIN
# 6 : Enable or Strobe
# 7 : Data Bit 0             - NOT USED
# 8 : Data Bit 1             - NOT USED
# 9 : Data Bit 2             - NOT USED
# 10: Data Bit 3             - NOT USED
# 11: Data Bit 4
# 12: Data Bit 5
# 13: Data Bit 6
# 14: Data Bit 7
# 15: LCD Backlight +5V**
# 16: LCD Backlight GND

#LCD SETUP 4 bit mode
# Define GPIO to LCD mapping
LCD_RS = 33
LCD_E  = 35
LCD_D4 = 36
LCD_D5 = 37
LCD_D6 = 38
LCD_D7 = 40
LED_ON = 32
# Define some device constants
LCD_WIDTH = 16    # Maximum characters per line
LCD_CHR = True
LCD_CMD = False
LCD_LINE_1 = 0x80 # LCD RAM address for the 1st line
LCD_LINE_2 = 0xC0 # LCD RAM address for the 2nd line
# Timing constants
E_PULSE = 0.00005
E_DELAY = 0.00005

# session LED Chip (8 sessions)
SDI3 = 15
RCLK3 = 16
SRCLK3 = 18
# map to chip outputs
LedGroup1 = [0x01,0x02,0x04,0x08,0x10,0x20,0x40,0x80]

# zone LED chips (16 zones)
SDI   = 11
RCLK  = 12
SRCLK = 13
# relay chips
SDI2   = 19
RCLK2  = 21
SRCLK2 = 22

# map to chip outputs
WhichLeds = [0x01,0x02,0x04,0x08,0x10,0x20,0x40,0x80,0x100,0x200,0x400,0x800,0x1000,0x2000,0x4000,0x8000]

def setup():
	# LED's (incidence and zone)
	GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BOARD)	# Number GPIOs by its physical location
	GPIO.setup(FLOW_SENSOR, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down=GPIO.PUD_UP)
	GPIO.setup(SDI, GPIO.OUT)	# input for zone LED's  1-16
	GPIO.setup(SDI2, GPIO.OUT)	# input for Relay's 1-16
	GPIO.setup(SDI3, GPIO.OUT)	# input for watering incidence 1-8
	GPIO.setup(RCLK, GPIO.OUT)
	GPIO.setup(RCLK2, GPIO.OUT)
	GPIO.setup(RCLK3, GPIO.OUT)
	GPIO.setup(SRCLK, GPIO.OUT)
	GPIO.setup(SRCLK2, GPIO.OUT)
	GPIO.setup(SRCLK3, GPIO.OUT)
	GPIO.setup(LCD_E, GPIO.OUT)  # E
        GPIO.setup(LCD_RS, GPIO.OUT) # RS
        GPIO.setup(LCD_D4, GPIO.OUT) # DB4
        GPIO.setup(LCD_D5, GPIO.OUT) # DB5
        GPIO.setup(LCD_D6, GPIO.OUT) # DB6
        GPIO.setup(LCD_D7, GPIO.OUT) # DB7
        GPIO.setup(LED_ON, GPIO.OUT) # Backlight enable

	# LCD inputs
	# set initial States
	GPIO.output(SDI, GPIO.LOW)
	GPIO.output(RCLK, GPIO.LOW)
	GPIO.output(SRCLK, GPIO.LOW)
	GPIO.output(SDI2, GPIO.LOW)
	GPIO.output(RCLK2, GPIO.LOW)
	GPIO.output(SRCLK2, GPIO.LOW)
	GPIO.output(SDI3, GPIO.LOW)
	GPIO.output(RCLK3, GPIO.LOW)
	GPIO.output(SRCLK3, GPIO.LOW)
	# Initialise display
	lcd_byte(0x33,LCD_CMD)
	lcd_byte(0x32,LCD_CMD)
	lcd_byte(0x28,LCD_CMD)
	lcd_byte(0x0C,LCD_CMD)
	lcd_byte(0x06,LCD_CMD)
	lcd_byte(0x01,LCD_CMD)

def countPulseReset():
  global count
  count = 0

def countPulse(channel):
  global count
  count = count + 1


def lcd_string(message,style):
	# Send string to display
	# style=1 Left justified
	# style=2 Centred
	# style=3 Right justified
	if style==1:
		message = message.ljust(LCD_WIDTH," ")
	elif style==2:
		message = message.center(LCD_WIDTH," ")
	elif style==3:
		message = message.rjust(LCD_WIDTH," ")
	
	for i in range(LCD_WIDTH):
		lcd_byte(ord(message[i]),LCD_CHR)

def lcd_byte(bits, mode):
	# Send byte to data pins
	# bits = data
	# mode = True  for character
	#        False for command

	GPIO.output(LCD_RS, mode) # RS
	# High bits
	GPIO.output(LCD_D4, False)
	GPIO.output(LCD_D5, False)
	GPIO.output(LCD_D6, False)
	GPIO.output(LCD_D7, False)
	if bits&0x10==0x10:
		GPIO.output(LCD_D4, True)
	if bits&0x20==0x20:
		GPIO.output(LCD_D5, True)
	if bits&0x40==0x40:
		GPIO.output(LCD_D6, True)
	if bits&0x80==0x80:
		GPIO.output(LCD_D7, True)
	# Toggle 'Enable' pin
	time.sleep(E_DELAY)
	GPIO.output(LCD_E, True)
	time.sleep(E_PULSE)
	GPIO.output(LCD_E, False)
	time.sleep(E_DELAY)
	# Low bits
	GPIO.output(LCD_D4, False)
	GPIO.output(LCD_D5, False)
	GPIO.output(LCD_D6, False)
	GPIO.output(LCD_D7, False)
	if bits&0x01==0x01:
		GPIO.output(LCD_D4, True)
	if bits&0x02==0x02:
		GPIO.output(LCD_D5, True)
	if bits&0x04==0x04:
		GPIO.output(LCD_D6, True)
	if bits&0x08==0x08:
		GPIO.output(LCD_D7, True)
	# Toggle 'Enable' pin
	time.sleep(E_DELAY)
	GPIO.output(LCD_E, True)
	time.sleep(E_PULSE)
	GPIO.output(LCD_E, False)
	time.sleep(E_DELAY)

def zones_in(dat):
#	print dat
	for bit in range(0, 16):
		GPIO.output(SDI, 0x8000 & (dat << bit))
		GPIO.output(SDI2, 0x8000 & (dat << bit))
		GPIO.output(SRCLK, GPIO.HIGH)
		GPIO.output(SRCLK2, GPIO.HIGH)
		time.sleep(0.01)
		GPIO.output(SRCLK, GPIO.LOW)
		GPIO.output(SRCLK2, GPIO.LOW)

def zones_out():
	GPIO.output(RCLK, GPIO.HIGH)
	GPIO.output(RCLK2, GPIO.HIGH)
	time.sleep(0.01)
	GPIO.output(RCLK, GPIO.LOW)
	GPIO.output(RCLK2, GPIO.LOW)

def zones_clear():
	for bit in range (0,16):
		GPIO.output(SDI, 0x8000 & ( 0 << bit))
		GPIO.output(SDI2, 0x8000 & ( 0 << bit)) 
		GPIO.output(SRCLK, GPIO.HIGH)
		GPIO.output(SRCLK2, GPIO.HIGH)
		time.sleep(0.01)
		GPIO.output(SRCLK, GPIO.LOW)
		GPIO.output(SRCLK2, GPIO.LOW)

def runs_in(dat):
#	print "DAT: " + str(dat)
	for bit in range(0, 8):
		GPIO.output(SDI3, 0x80 & (dat << bit))
		GPIO.output(SRCLK3, GPIO.HIGH)
		time.sleep(0.01)
		GPIO.output(SRCLK3, GPIO.LOW)

def runs_out():
	GPIO.output(RCLK3, GPIO.HIGH)
	time.sleep(0.1)
	GPIO.output(RCLK3, GPIO.LOW)

def runs_clear():
	GPIO.output(SDI3, GPIO.LOW)
	for bit in range(0,8):
		GPIO.output(SDI3, 0x80 & ( 0 << bit))
		GPIO.output(SRCLK3, GPIO.HIGH)
		time.sleep(0.01)
		GPIO.output(SRCLK3, GPIO.LOW)

def doRun():
	INCIDENCE = ""
#	setRunVariables()
#
        f = open("/home/pi/doRun.txt")
        runInfo = f.readline()
        f.close()
        print runInfo
        runArray = runInfo.split(" ")
        print "runArray: " + runArray[0]
        INCIDENCE = runArray[0]
        print "INCIDENCE: " + INCIDENCE
        try:
                ZONE1Time = runArray[1]
        except:
                ZONE1Time = 0
        try:
                ZONE2Time = runArray[2]
        except:
                ZONE2Time = 0
        try:
                ZONE3Time = runArray[3]
        except:
                ZONE3Time = 0
        try:
                ZONE4Time = runArray[4]
        except:
                ZONE4Time = 0
        try:
                ZONE5Time = runArray[5]
        except:
                ZONE5Time = 0
        try:
                ZONE6Time = runArray[6]
        except:
                ZONE6Time = 0
        try:
                ZONE7Time = runArray[7]
        except:
                ZONE7Time = 0
        try:
                ZONE8Time = runArray[8]
        except:
                ZONE8Time = 0
        try:
                ZONE9Time = runArray[9]
        except:
                ZONE9Time = 0
        try:
                ZONE10Time = runArray[10]
        except:
                ZONE10Time = 0
        try:
                ZONE11Time = runArray[11]
        except:
                ZONE11Time = 0
        try:
                ZONE12Time = runArray[12]
        except:
                ZONE12Time = 0
        try:
                ZONE13Time = runArray[13]
        except:
                ZONE13Time = 0
        try:
                ZONE14Time = runArray[14]
        except:
                ZONE14Time = 0
        try:
                ZONE15Time = runArray[15]
        except:
                ZONE15Time = 0
        try:
                ZONE16Time = runArray[16]
        except:
                ZONE16Time = 0
        ZoneArray = [ZONE1Time, ZONE2Time, ZONE3Time, ZONE4Time, ZONE5Time, ZONE6Time, ZONE7Time, ZONE8Time, ZONE9Time, ZONE10Time, ZONE11Time, ZONE12Time, ZONE13Time, ZONE14Time, ZONE15Time, ZONE16Time]

        #print ZONE1Time
        #print ZONE2Time
        #print ZONE3Time
        #print ZONE4Time
        #print ZONE5Time
        #print ZONE6Time
        #print ZONE7Time
        #print ZONE8Time
        #print ZONE9Time
        #print ZONE10Time
        #print ZONE11Time
        #print ZONE12Time
        #print ZONE13Time
        #print ZONE14Time
        #print ZONE15Time
        #print ZONE16Time
	print "INCIDENCE RETURN: " + INCIDENCE
	# Toggle backlight on-off-on
	GPIO.output(LED_ON, True)
#	time.sleep(1)
#	GPIO.output(LED_ON, False)
#	time.sleep(1)
#	GPIO.output(LED_ON, True)
	time.sleep(1)
	lcd_byte(LCD_LINE_1, LCD_CMD)
	lcd_string("",2)
	lcd_byte(LCD_LINE_2, LCD_CMD)
	lcd_string("",2)
	# Send some centred test
	lcd_byte(LCD_LINE_1, LCD_CMD)
	lcd_string("Run: " + str(INCIDENCE),2)
	lcd_byte(LCD_LINE_2, LCD_CMD)
	lcd_string("",2)
#	time.sleep(2)
#	for i in range(0, len(LedGroup1)):
	print "Run: " + INCIDENCE
	print str(int(INCIDENCE))
#	runs_in(LedGroup1[i])
	runs_in(LedGroup1[int(INCIDENCE)-1])
	runs_out()
	print "run set"
	time.sleep(1)
	for i in range(0, len(WhichLeds)):
		if int(ZoneArray[i]) > 0:
			zone = str(int(i + 1))
			lcd_byte(LCD_LINE_1, LCD_CMD)
			lcd_string("Run: "+ INCIDENCE + " Zone:" + zone,2)
			print "Zone: " + zone + " Seconds: " +  ZoneArray[i]
			zones_in(WhichLeds[i])
			zones_out()
			runs_clear()
			runs_out()
			runs_in(LedGroup1[int(INCIDENCE)-1])
			runs_out()
			ztime = int(ZoneArray[i])
#			print "Zone Time: " + ZoneArray[i] + " seconds"
			global maxcount
			maxcount = 0
			for i in range(0, int(ZoneArray[i])):
				lcd_byte(LCD_LINE_2, LCD_CMD)
				lcd_string("Seconds: " + str(ztime),2)
				#print str(ztime)
				ztime = int(ztime-1)
				countPulseReset()
				GPIO.add_event_detect(FLOW_SENSOR, GPIO.FALLING, callback=countPulse)
				time.sleep(1)
				GPIO.remove_event_detect(FLOW_SENSOR)
				if count > maxcount:
					maxcount = count
				#print "Count: " + str(count)
				# hold position open until time length finished.
				print "Zone Max Count: " + str(maxcount)
			flowLperM = maxcount / calibrationFactor
			flowRate = str(float("{0:.2f}".format(flowLperM)))
			print "Flow L/m: " + flowRate
#			flowRate = int(ZoneArray[i]) 

	lcd_byte(LCD_LINE_1, LCD_CMD)
	lcd_string("",2)
	lcd_byte(LCD_LINE_2, LCD_CMD)
	lcd_string("",2)
#	time.sleep(5)
	GPIO.output(LED_ON, False)

def print_msg():
        print 'Program is running...'
        print 'Please press Ctrl+C to end the program...'


def destroy():   # When program ending, the function is executed. 
	GPIO.cleanup()

if __name__ == '__main__': # Program starting from here 
	print_msg()
	setup() 
	zones_clear()
	zones_out()
	runs_clear()
	runs_out()
	try:
		while True:
			if (os.path.isfile("/home/pi/doRun.txt")):
				print "doing run"
				doRun()
				os.remove("/home/pi/doRun.txt")
			INCIDENCE = ""
			runs_clear()
			runs_out()
			zones_clear()
			zones_out()
			print "sleeping 10 seconds waiting for file"
			time.sleep(10)
	except KeyboardInterrupt:  
		destroy()

Credits

Rich Noordam

10 projects • 33 followers

Many interests, computing obviously being one of them. MS SQL Server Database Administration, Reporting, Data Science, and more.

8 Watering Incidence, 16 Zone Sprinkler System Circuit

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Story

Overview

Part 1

Part 2

Schematics

8 Run Incidence 16 Zone Sprinkler Fritz

Code

sprinkler system base code

example of 'doRun.txt'

Credits

Rich Noordam

Comments

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8 Watering Incidence, 16 Zone Sprinkler System Circuit

8 Watering Incidence, 16 Zone Sprinkler System Circuit

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Story

Overview

Part 1

Part 2

Schematics

8 Run Incidence 16 Zone Sprinkler Fritz

Code

sprinkler system base code

example of 'doRun.txt'

Credits

Rich Noordam

Comments

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