8 Channel I/O (8 Relay Version)

Great, I’ve been caught out with touching the screw and no connection before.

I guess the screw must have been so far wound out it was not making contact

You can set up to use an input trigger , lets say you have a RG-11 Rain sensor
You can have the output , open or closed

So we want the RG- 11 output to go high when rain its the sensor and low know rain

This feeds the input on the relay board by using the 5v setup on the relay board

to make a hi or low input trigger ,which will make the relay output switch on or off

This setup is a stand alone ,not connected to the pc

Using with wd setings will triggered the output relay ,
Use as a switch relay on or off .so if wd is set to trigger the I/o board when it rains
The output relay should switch on or off or maybe set a timer in wd for the relay to stay on
for a time limit
Will setup some info on my website with images showing different setups

latest .zip update has now rain and lightning thresholds to open a switch

Hi Brian,

This is really looing good, the temperature has a defined on/off, how does the wind, rain and lightning relay know when to turn off after the parameter has been met or exceeded or is it as simple that when the wind or lightning fall below threshold the relay changes state, and with the rain relay, this resets at midnight?

Couple of yet further suggestions, could the relay indicators be numbered 1 - 8 and the wind have an 5 minute average check box for wind exceeded, just to remove gusts from tripping the relay in and out.

will need to probably have it a user selectable or similar how the rain and strikes and wind thresholds are reset?
eg wind below a certain speed it turns off
and when rain resets to 0 (midnight) or no rain for a period of time etc

I have come up with a way to control the 8 channel relay from a mobile device over the internet…
(i.e to turn/off channels…override)
using Dropbox data store (which is a free to use web service API)
(uses your dropbox account (free to setup))
(i.e utilises a simple database)
I have a test app working…just a demo of changing data in a simple database…which will be used to send what replays to open/close
do you have an android phone?

Yes, I can do just about anything on it but make a call :slight_smile:

This would be a good time for me to test the lightning relay (see Pic).


Hi Brian,

I received the new Hobby Boards 8 pt relay board today. I have had a HB lightning detector running for several year usung the Dallas 1-wire reader wiith WD.

I went to the FAQ and found the 1-wire setup instructions and kind of remembered what I did to get the lightning detector to work. Stopped WD.

Downloaded and installed the new zip version bld 293. I downloaded the drivers ( 64-bit for W7&8 ) and installed since the drivers I had were several years old. Was v403, now v404…

Ran the new version HB1 program. Pressed the search button and found the lightning detector. Copied and pasted the address and pressed save.
Went to the 8pt relay page and it the search, copy, paste and save. Did the test relays and all looked good. The closed the HB1 program.

Restarted the new version WD. The 1-wire program started as normal, along with webcam capture, croncloud, and realtime clientraw FTP.

No HB1 startup.

Tried restarting the computer, with the same results

Manually starteded HB1 program with 1-wire reader still running. 8pt relay does test switch but no automatic operation.
No errors found in the error log.

Questions.
0. What did I miss?

  1. Should HB1 start automatically
  2. Should the 1-wire reader and HB1 both be running
  3. HB1 has no USB/Serial setup - does it get info from the 1-wire setup?

This looks like this board has a lot of possibilities.
Thanks,
Gus


re the start when WD starts
make sure to tick to use the new HB 1 wire reader
in the com port setup in WD (1 wire section)

yes, it gets the serial or usb info from the normal dallas1wirereader.exe
and yes you can run them at the same time

did you click on find sensors again first tab?..so that then it should say allocated the rom to the lightning detector switch found

re the 8 relay…you can tick one or more of the 8 tick buttons and then click on test…to that relay on (1 to 8)
but the board does need power to the round jack (6 to 12 volts or so) for the relays to work

Hi,
I had missing the “Use the new HB 1 wire reader program” box. With that ticked the HB1 program automatically starts and stops with WDisplay.

Pressing the Find Sensors button returns…
Searching…
Switch (windspeed or rain or lightening counter) i-button found ID DE0000000FD6F11D
Lightening detector found and allocated: DE0000000FD6F11D
Lightning count 56
Lightning count 56
( The lightning count appears to be polled every 10 seconds )

Going to the 8 Channel Relay and pressing Search/Allocate button returns…
Relay sensor found, ID 23000000046CC829
Relay sensor allocated to 23000000046CC829

Relays can be operated with the Test and Reset buttons, but the threshold settings and schedule are not operating the relays.

Also added the HB1.exe to the firewall allow list and restarted computer. Nothing changed.

Thanks,
Gus


HI
I need to increase the lightning polling to 1 second

re the relay thresholds:
they work here in testing
(i.e when I manually change the temperature or wind or rain in WD)
but make sure you have the latest WD version in use as well

Hi Brian,

I have the 8pt relay board working,

But I had to remove the LabJack U12 from the program.
The relay board threshold and schedule data is being written in the Labjack area of the wdisplayftp.reg.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\wdisplayftp.ini\12 volt switch to do]
“labjack”=“yes”
“labjack double click”=“no”
“check shedule”=“yes”
“check threshhold”=“yes”
“check threshhold temp to use”=“1”
“check threshhold temp high”=“20”
“check threshhold temp high 2”=“1”
“check threshhold temp low”=“20”
“check threshhold temp low 2”=“1”
“check threshhold hi temp on”=“yes”
“check threshhold hi temp off”=“no”
“check threshhold lo temp on”=“yes”
“check threshhold lo temp off”=“no”
“labjack double click minute”=“no”
“check threshhold wind”=“1”
“check threshhold wind2”=“0”
“check threshhold wind off”=“no”
“check threshhold wind on”=“yes”
“check threshhold wind off2”=“no”
“check threshhold wind on2”=“no”
“use ten min wind”=“no”
“relay to use temp >”=“1”
“relay to use temp <”=“2”
“relay to use windspeed”=“3”
“relay to use schedule”=“8”
“relay to use rain”=“5”
“relay to use strikes”=“5”
“check threshhold rain”=“1”
“check threshhold strikes”=“1”
“check threshhold rain off”=“no”
“check threshhold rain on”=“yes”
“check threshhold strikes off”=“no”
“check threshhold strikes on”=“yes”

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\wdisplayftp.ini\HB one wire]
“allocate extra temp/hum”=“0”
“allocate extra temp/hum2”=“1”
“allocate older temp”=“0”
“allocate older hum”=“0”
“allocate older hum temp”=“1”
“8 wire relay”=“yes”
“rain use”=“no”
“lightning use”=“yes”
“older temp use”=“no”
“older hum use”=“no”
“temp hum use”=“no”
“temp hum use2”=“no”
“hum use”=“no”
“baro use”=“no”
“moisture use”=“no”
“older temperature ROM”=“”
“older humidity ROM”=“”
“temp hum ROM”=“”
“temp hum ROM2”=“”
“baro ROM”=“”
“moisture ROM”=“”
“rain ROM”=“”
“lightning ROM”=“DE0000000FD6F11D”
“relay ROM”=“23000000046CC829”
“rain detector use”=“no”
“Lightening ROM ID3”=“”

Would it be possible to get both to work together?

Thanks,
Gus

ah
that was the problem
you had in use labjack…
yes, I should be able to wrangle both to work OK

ps, good news, I have remote control from phone app working (android app), using a simple Drop Box database
(Drop box is a free to use web service API)

you guys got an android phone that you already can use WDliveapp on?

That would be great. :smiley:
Have the WDliveapp on my cell phone and tablet. A remove control app for the relay board would be nice.
Thanks,
Gus

Yes same here app installed and working

new WD .zip update ready:
new WD update and new HB1wirereader update
also app is now ready to install to android devices
search for it in googleplay:

HB8wirerelaycontrol

(should be aavailable to download in a couple of hours from now)

(have now realised not the best name for the app…oh well)

Click on the setup drop box first in the HB1wirereader.exe first:
it uses your existing dropbox account (or create one…its free)…you sign in to that (one time)
and tick enable

then run the app…click on connect (you will need to sign in to the above Dropbox account )
then change the switches and click on update…10 seconds later those switches should get set in the HB1wirereader.exe running on your pc
cool


Looking good!!! :smiley:

Downloaded and installed latest bld293 zip file.

LabJack and 8 channel relay broad are working together.
All 7 LabJack temp sensors are working
The LabJack switch controlled by temp threshold is operating normally with outside temperature.

Relay board schedule on/off function operates relay
Temp threshold off/on works with indoor temp and with extra temp sensor 6 from LabJack, AI5 setup as input 8
Wind speed threshold operates a relay.

Lightning counter polling is now at 1 sec rate.
Tested lightning detector with the lighter spark and count increased properly in the HB1 reader, The WD lighting counter and graph showed the activity.
Relay did not activate from the spark lightning.
Looks like a disconnect between the counter and relay.

Have downloaded the HB8wirerelaycontrol app and started playing with it.
And it looks like it’s working from my HTC One M8 cellphone
The Samsung Tab4 tablet says that it’s not compatible.

Do have to agree about the name,

Thanks,
Gus

re the lightning count
that should be increasing the value in the registry:

[1 wire reader lightning]
value=

check what the limit is for strikes you have set in the view, lightning setup in WD maybe?

re name yeah…I had it in my head 1 wire and that it was 8 switch relay
oh well

I was thinking of adding option to the HB1wirereader a setting where the app just shows the status of the switch…i.e does not control them…good idea?

Have gone through a restart of the computer and retested lightning.
Lightning is being seen in reader and on WD counter and the graph.
But no relay activation.
How long should the relay be activated?
I have to run outside to test and I may not be fast enough.

Counts threshold for 1 wire = 3
Max counts threshold for 1 wire = 10

Test reported as 22 strikes last minute.

Option to see relay status (postive feedback) would be a great addition.

Thanks,
Gus