Winter Workshop 21/22

[Penri]

Terry

Just to confirm our telephone conversation, the solenoid needs water mains pressure to work properly, provided you feel and/or hear something happening, when it's dry, there's a good chance that's it's working.

I tried the spare solenoid I have on the bench and it still seems to open and close at 6V, this was operating dry or course.

The pinout information you were looking for is on the forum in Sensor & Control Assy Development and Build thread under Hardware Discussion. The post you require was made on 12Mar20.


Penri

[TerryJC]

All of the kit is now with Hamish, so that he can look at the Lady Hanham software and integrate it if necessary.

[hamishmb]

Yep, I will reply here again when I have news. I have a fair amount of WMT stuff to do first though, and a router to set up - it may be a little while.

Note:

The G2 Probe connector was quite loose and spun when I put the connector in. I opened the box, checked the cables over in case of damage and then reseated the O-ring and tightened. It still spins a bit because I don't have the right tool to tighten the connector down - just a note of something to fix before physical installation back at WMT.

[TerryJC]

The G2 Probe connector was quite loose and spun when I put the connector in. I opened the box, checked the cables over in case of damage and then reseated the O-ring and tightened. It still spins a bit because I don't have the right tool to tighten the connector down - just a note of something to fix before physical installation back at WMT.

That's odd. It was OK when I used it. The retaining nut must have loosened as I removed the probe connector.

[TerryJC]

Penri and I did some fault finding at WMT this afternoon to discover why the river wasn't working properly. Here is what we found:

1. The 12 V supply to the Wendy Butts and Stage Butts Pis was shorted out, so nothing was working on that side of the system. The fault was traced to a short in the Stage Butts SAC. We have removed it for repair in my Workshop.
2. Although Sump Pi was powered and working, the Level Sensor readings were not being updated. A reboot sorted that.
3. I could not communicate with either the Wendy Butts or Stage Butts Gate Valve. The Wendy Butts valve proved to be dead, although power was getting to its input terminals. We have removed it for repair in my Workshop, but left the Stage Butts valve until the SAC is fixed.

When I left the system was working after a fashion, although it can do nothing more than monitor levels in the Sump and Wendy Butts and turn on the Butts pump if the Sump gets too full.

[hamishmb]

That's unfortunate!

Hopefully our new solution for improved weather protection should help with reliability.

[TerryJC]

Although Sump Pi was powered and working, the Level Sensor readings were not being updated. A reboot sorted that.

When Penri arrived at the WMT this morning, the river had stopped running. I checked the logs and sure enough, the Sump ran out of water at approx 2355 and the pump was turned off.

The problem was that in the intervening period the river had emptied itself into the sump and it was full (and had presumably been overflowing for some time). Penri turned on the Manual control and the river settled down again. The bad news is that SumpPi failed to register the changes in level (the readings had been 275 mm since last night) and the main circulation pump remained turned off. A reboot made it work again.

So we have a problem. For some reason SumpPi doesn't recover from an extremely low level situation and appears to either:

• Stops measuring and uses the last known reading.
• No longer obtain the correct reading for some reason.

This has to be a software issue, since a reboot solves it. Hamish can you shed any light on what's happening?

PS. I suspect that this issue has been there for a long time, but didn't emerge because we rarely completely ran out of water.

[hamishmb]

Hmm, interesting.

I feel like we'd definitely have seen this before if it was a software issue, but who knows. I thought the probe installed at the sump was one of the ones that needed to be looked at, but perhaps I'm remembering that wrong. Either way, as you say, it must be software.

I'd probably need to look at the logs to see what might have happened. I must say, I'm not even sure what version of the software Sump Pi is running at this point.

Is it accessible over the VPN yet?

[hamishmb]

I have made a new river system status thread: viewtopic.php?t=319

[TerryJC]

I'd probably need to look at the logs to see what might have happened. I must say, I'm not even sure what version of the software Sump Pi is running at this point.

Is it accessible over the VPN yet?

Yes. That is how I rebooted SumpPi this morning.