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I have a setup where I am controlling a light for my seedling starting area. During the time that the light is on (roughly 14 hours a day) I would like to be able to turn an aquarium pump on to water. With the light on, when I turn the pump on the light program turns itself off. I have unchecked the sequential box and have experimented with the individual duration option, but each time I turn the pump on during the time the light program is running the light program is cancelled. I am using the an exact version of the 74HC595 Shift Register DIY relay interface described in the Wiki to control my solid state 12 volt relays.
Is what I am attempting to do even possible with the SIP Software? It may be that the output to the shift registers does not include the already running program bit, in which case might this not be a new feature that allows better flexibility as a controller?
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It should work as you describe.
I will do some testing here.
Dan
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2021 Apr 13, 04:22 PM
(This post was last modified: 2021 Apr 13, 04:36 PM by dan.)
I ran a test with the shift register interface and a mechanical relay board (I don't have any solid state relays.) and have 2 stations running in concurrent mode.
When the second station came on, the first station, which was already running, was not affected. Everything seems to be working as expected.
How are you powering your relays? If they are powered from the Raspi it may help to power the relays from a separate power supply.
You could test by running both stations in manual mode. If they both run at the same time your power should be OK. Double check that SIP is in concurrent mode.
Dan
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Dan,
Thanks for getting back to me. This morning when I submitted my question I had the situation where the lights were running from a program (14 hrs) and the pump was started from a Run Once, which stopped the program running the lights. After receiving your second reply I tried creating a New Program (pump) to run concurrently with the light Program and that worked fine. So I believe it is the Run Once instance that is crashing the light program. No big deal now that I know.
As always, great program. I am running three instances of SIP and they are amazing.
Rich
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Rich,
Thanks for the feedback.
The Run once programs do stop any other running programs. SIP's documentation does not mention that.
I plan to update the docks on the SIP wiki and will add that info to the section about the Run Once program page.
There should probably also be a warning note on the Run Once page itself.
Just an added note:
I have an automated watering system for a small grow setup. Instead of using a pump to deliver water to the plants I have a reservoir that is placed above the level of the plants and use a small DC valve to control water flow (gravity fed system).
Dan
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