Maximum Number of Zones

[HereComesTheRain]

@Rob,

Lets do a little experiment. 

In the picture in from the Wiki there is a purple wire connected to pin 13 on all the hc595

Can you pull that wire from the Pi and connect this wire to GND? And test again?

Pin 13 of the HC595 is inverted OE (Output Enable). According to the datasheet, if this pin is high the output of the HC595 goes in "high impedance" mode which essentially means it neither high or low. 

I have unfortunately no spare HC595 to test so everything I suggest is based on theory.

--Gerard

Hi Gerard.

Pulled the purple wire from the Pi that was connected to pin 13 and put in the top rail ground.   Unplugged and plugged the fan from the outlet and the same results but more pronounced.  All optocoupler LEDs were energized.

Pulled the wires going from the BOTTOM RAIL to the GND and JD-VCC on the RELAY MODULES.

Have not yet removed the GND wire from the TOP RAIL to the BOTTOM RAIL nor the short blue wires going from the SHIFT REGISTER GND to the BOTTOM RAIL GND.

Shall I go ahead, like you have been telling me to, and remove those GND wires and run the test again?  Did not want to change too many things at once and not know what solves the problem.

What should I order 47uF 16V, 25V or 50V? 

I have a pack of 0.1uF capacitors and a pack of 10k Ohm Resistors. Anything else I should order?

Thanks again for your time and assistance.

---

A shutdown button has been considered but not added for the reason Gerard mentioned. If SIP is killed from a remote location there would be no way to restart.



Dan

Yes a shutdown button would be great.  For those whose SIP/Pi device is located outside it could be a great time saver not having to trek "over the hill and thru the woods" just to power off the SIP/Pi.

You could display a popup confirming they are about to turn off their Pi, while you are at it you could display a second popup.

If people have remote access to their SIP/Pi they most likely have remote access to their network and could easily access a smart plug. (~$5.00 U.S. on a not to be named online retailer.)

If they accidentally shutdown their SIP/Pi they could remotely power off and power on the smart plug rebooting the SIP/Pi in the process.

I look forward to the feature.  Nudge Nudge.  

Keep up the good work.

[astrogerard]

Please first resolve the power connection issue. The hc595 should get 5v and GND from the Pi e.q. the top power rail.
The second power supply should only go to JD_VCC and adjacent GND.
If that is done, read on.


The capacitor voltage isn't that important. 16V is sufficient but if the environment is likely to be very hot in the summer than a higher voltage cap could be a little bit easier for the cap in those stressful times. It's a little bit bigger cap though.
What else to order? Well, it depends what you want to do. Solving this issue and never touch electronics again or wanting to learn more about it and optimize the setup in the years to come? Having an assortment of resistors and caps is always good.
The first thing I would do is once the prototype works is removing the breadboard with the long noisy wires and move the hc595' to a more permanent place on a perfboard. I always have several perfboards in stock and use them a lot. The cost nearly nothing and you can make nice stable circuits on it. And you can practice you soldering skills if needed. :-) By the time you want to move that way it is better to start another topic.

For the shutdown button I honestly see no use. If I repeatedly wanted to shutdown a system I would make a desktop shortcut to putty with a commandline to execute. Effectively a "one-click-shutdown".

[HereComesTheRain]

Please first resolve the power connection issue. The hc595 should get 5v and GND from the Pi e.q. the top power rail.
The second power supply should only go to JD_VCC and adjacent GND.

Hi.

Removed the secondary power supply from the BOTTOM POWER RAIL.

Removed the GND wire from the TOP to BOTTOM POWER RAIL.

Removed the GND wire from the SHIFT REGISTER(s) to the BOTTOM POWER RAIL.

Removed the PURPLE wire from PIN 13 of SHIFT REGISTER to TOP RAIL GND.

Reconnected PURPLE wire from Pi to PIN 13 of SHIFT REGISTER.

DID NOT connect power to JD-VCC and GND of RELAY MODULES.

Turned the Pi on and waited for everything to boot up and get running.

Unplugged and plugged in the USB fan connected to the UPS surge protected outlet.

The optocoupler(s) did not trigger.  

Accessed SIP web interface and scheduled a RUN ONCE for one of the zones.  The associated optocoupler DID NOT trigger.  Tried several with no success.

Powered everything down and reattached the GND wires from the SHIFT REGISTER(s) to the BOTTOM POWER RAIL and the GND from the TOP to BOTTOM POWER RAIL.

Turned the Pi on and waited for everything to boot up and get running.

Accessed SIP web interface and scheduled a RUN ONCE for one of the zones.  The associated optocoupler TRIGGERED.  

Unfortunately when I unplugged and plugged in the USB fan connected to the UPS surge protected outlet the optocoupler(s) started to trigger.

Should I remove the GND(s) again and remove the PURPLE wire from PIN 11 of the Pi and reconnect PIN 13 of the SHIFT REGISTER to the TOP POWER RAIL GND?

Here is a picture of my current configuration.

[dan]

Not an answer to your last question but a compromise on the issue of a power-off button.
I whipped up a shutdown_button plugin that provides a button for stopping SIP.

If you really want a button to stop the software you will need to install the plugin and access the button through the PLUGINS menu.

Dan

P.S.
If you are not connecting the top ground rail to the bottom one you will need to figure out a way to connect the ground connections of the shift registers to the top ground rail.

[HereComesTheRain]

If you really want a button to stop the software you will need to install the plugin and access the button through the PLUGINS menu.

Hi Dan

Installed the SHUTDOWN PLUGIN but can't find the SHUTDOWN BUTTON.  Where is it located?

PLUGINS --> MANAGE PLUGINS does not show a SHUTDOWN BUTTON.  shutdown_button Enabled is checked.

Does this shutdown/halt the Pi so that I can safely unplug the Pi?

Thank you for your efforts.

[dan]

After enabling the plugin you should see a new "shutdown button" line in the drop-down menu when you click the PLUGINS button. clicking that line should open a page with the "stop SIP" button. clicking that button runs the "poweroff" command to stop any running software so that you can safely unplug the pi.

[HereComesTheRain]

After enabling the plugin you should see a new "shutdown button" line in the drop-down menu when you click the PLUGINS button. clicking that line should open a page with the "stop SIP" button. clicking that button runs the "poweroff" command to stop any running software so that you can safely unplug the pi.

It must not be enabled. 

The only thing that shows up is MANAGE PLUGINS and SYSTEM UPDATE. 

There is a check mark in the enabled column for the shutdown_button.

Tried on iOS, Mac OS Safari and Firefox.

Looking in /home/pi/SIP/plugins and found shutdown_button.py and shutdown_button.pyc and in /home/pi/SIP/plugins/manifests found shutdown_button.manifest.

Have rebooted the Pi, I have cleared cookies and cache, I have quit browsers.

Will try deleting the shutdown plugin and reinstalling.

Disabling, deleting and reinstalling the shutdown_button did not resolve the issue.

---

You can use jumper wires. They can be made from 14 gauge hookup wire or you can use wires from a jumper wire kit like:
https://www.amazon.com/AUSTOR-Lengths-As...6522&psc=1

Here is an example:

@dan I just noticed in the photo you posted that there is no jumper wire between E and F between the second and third SHIFT REGISTER.

Is that the correct configuration and if so should I remove them from my configuration?

If it is removed I do not see how the first OPTOCOUPLER of each of the RELAY MODULES could be activated. 

Please view photo in post #64

[dan]

Found a bug in the plugin. re-install should fix it.
Trying to do too many things at once.

[HereComesTheRain]

Found a bug in the plugin. re-install should fix it.
Trying to do too many things at once.

Thanks for doing this.

It is an option that I think others will appreciate especially when they are initially building their SIP system.

Have already used the SHUTDOWN BUTTON twice.  

[astrogerard]

Removed the secondary power supply from the BOTTOM POWER RAIL. 
Good. 

Removed the GND wire from the TOP to BOTTOM POWER RAIL.
Good

Removed the GND wire from the SHIFT REGISTER(s) to the BOTTOM POWER RAIL.
Good, but you should connect it to the upper GND rail, otherwise the hc595 doesn't get power

Removed the PURPLE wire from PIN 13 of SHIFT REGISTER to TOP RAIL GND.
Reconnected PURPLE wire from Pi to PIN 13 of SHIFT REGISTER.
That's up to you. When using these registers there is no need to disable them so you could hard-enable them bij pulling P13 low or let the software control the status. Personally I would hard-wire it just to elliminate a potential unwanted external factor.


DID NOT connect power to JD-VCC and GND of RELAY MODULES.
Good, only when the (opto)led's works flawless the proceed to the next step

Turned the Pi on and waited for everything to boot up and get running.
Unplugged and plugged in the USB fan connected to the UPS surge protected outlet.
The optocoupler(s) did not trigger.  
Accessed SIP web interface and scheduled a RUN ONCE for one of the zones.  The associated optocoupler DID NOT trigger.  Tried several with no success.
Expected, you didn't connect the hc595 to the GND of the Pi

Powered everything down and reattached the GND wires from the SHIFT REGISTER(s) to the BOTTOM POWER RAIL and the GND from the TOP to BOTTOM POWER RAIL.
Turned the Pi on and waited for everything to boot up and get running.
Accessed SIP web interface and scheduled a RUN ONCE for one of the zones.  The associated optocoupler TRIGGERED.  
Electrically ok but looking at the detailed foto it's a lot of spahgetti wiring. Remember, all wires are also antenna's and when not decoupled they pick up a lot of noise and spikes which can result in unwanted triggers/commands to the registers.

Unfortunately when I unplugged and plugged in the USB fan connected to the UPS surge protected outlet the optocoupler(s) started to trigger.
We have to figure out which wires (antennas) pick up these signals. I'm thinking of:
- is it coming through the psu/adapters?  Most adapters have a bad or no EMI filtering. The UPS does surge protection but I doubt if ther is sufficient EMI filtering. You could test this by putting all non essential psu's away (far in front) of the ups.
- The power wires to the Pi are close to the ups, fan and other components. Decoupling (with 0.1 caps) might help
- Although Dan acknowledges the Pi pin initialisation I'm not so sure if the internal pull-up resistors are enabled. To be sure you coud add on pin 11, 12, 14 on the hc595' a resistor of 4k7 or 5k6 to +5v 
- On your foto I can't see my earlier suggestion of the 100 Ohm resistor in series with pin 12 of the hc595. Together with the previous suggestion  (and neatly ordering the spahgetti) I'm really interested in the results. 


--Gerard