ddodge
Junior Member
Posts: 75 
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Post by ddodge on Feb 11, 2019 16:46:40 GMT -8
Hello. I recently purchased the OurWeather Solar Power Extender Kit 0021-OWSEK-01 from SDL to use with my WeatherPlus all in One Weather Station Controller board. When I first hooked things up, the solar panels were generating voltage and appeared to be charging the battery. I had the whole system running for about a day using only the battery and solar cells. All seemed to be fine. I wanted to let it run all weekend by itself on a cloudy day to see how it reacted. Evidently, over the weekend, the battery ran out and was not being charged enough by the solar panels because the system shutdown. I am trying to run the system using only the battery and solar cells AND using auxiliary power from a USB power supply to provide additional power. The documentation indicates that the whole system “should” work using the USB power while the battery is charging. However, it does not seem to power the weatherboard. I have tried several different USB power bricks along with plugging it directly into a laptop. I did notice that when I move the on/off switch on the SunAirPlus board, the blue light on the WeatherPlus board comes on momentarily. Same with the blue light on the USB power control board. Could the switch be bad??? Enclosed is a picture (most sensors removed to make it easier to see connections) showing the 2 LEDs in the upper right corner and the 2 LEDs by the solar panel power plug Using USB cable to connect the WeatherPlus board to my laptop for power, my LED display shows the following:
3.65 / -763.2 .90v / 0.0ma 4.98v / 2.8ma
Full data stream is: {"variables": {"OurWeatherTime": "2019-02-11 19:42:23", "FullDataString": "0.00,nan,22.15,217731.00,-52.55,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0,2019-02-11 19:42:23,DodgeWeather,0,4,3.65,-753.60,0.97,0.00,4.98,2.40,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,0.00,V:1,WXLMB ,0,,,0,,,0", "FirmwareVersion": "035", "IndoorTemperature": 22.15, "BarometricPressure": 217731.00, "Altitude": -52.55, "OutdoorTemperature": 0.00, "OutdoorHumidity": nan, "CurrentWindSpeed": 0.00, "CurrentWindGust": 0.00, "CurrentWindDirection": 0.00, "EnglishOrMetric": 0, "RainTotal": 0.00, "WindSpeedMin": 0.00, "WindSpeedMax": 0.00, "WindGustMin": 0.00, "WindGustMax": 0.00, "WindDirectionMin": 0.00, "WindDirectionMax": 0.00, "AirQualitySensor": 0, "ThunderBoardLast": ",,0,,,0", "ThunderBoardParams": "2,1,7,1,3,3", "ESP8266HeapSize": 29816}, "id": "1", "name": "OurWeather", "hardware": "esp8266", "connected": true}
As you can see in the picture, the 2 LEDs in the upper right are lit. The other 2 LEDs - only the RED LED is lit
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Post by SDL on Feb 11, 2019 18:35:49 GMT -8
Hmm. I would think the hysteresis is turning off the USB PowerControl board in that situation. Using the grove connector, read the spec for the truth table and override the hysteresis by using enable and control.
BP
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ddodge
Junior Member
Posts: 75
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Post by ddodge on Feb 12, 2019 3:02:35 GMT -8
Interesting development: After making my post, I left the system setup with external power being supplied to the SunAir board. When I got up this morning and checked, all the lights on the various connected boards were lit up: USB power control, grove digital extender, watch dog and OurWeather board. The LED display was blank. The trigger wire on the watch dog was NOT connected. When I connected the watch dog trigger and it "triggered", OurWeather booted up and the system started running. So it "looks" like the battery may have been so discharged it would not run? Time to do some coding and "pat the dog" now......
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Post by SDL on Feb 13, 2019 14:04:33 GMT -8
I would guess you have the correct diagnosis. We found that the OurWeather board would restart after a power shutdown reliability, but maybe something has changed. That's why we didn't supply a WatchDog board with the solar extender kit for OurWeather.
BP
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ddodge
Junior Member
Posts: 75
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Post by ddodge on Feb 15, 2019 6:11:56 GMT -8
Update: A couple days ago, I let the system run all night w/o external power. In the morning, the system was down. I figured the battery was drained so I let it just sit there and allow it to charge up assuming then that once there was enough charge in the battery, the SunAirPlus and the USB PowerControl would send power to the OurWeather board and the system would start up by it self. It was a nice sunny day and the solar panels are in full sun. By 4pm that day (10 hours later), there was still no power going to the system. When I wiggled the USB junction between the SunAirPlus and the USB PowerControl, all the board lights started to flash. It took a while but I found a sweet spot where the lights stayed on and the system started running. Not a good situation to have an intermittent connection. I tried a USB extension (male/female ends) between the SunAirPlus and the USB PowerControl. Did not work. I took the USB PowerControl away and plugged the USB cord from OurWeather Plus directly into the SunAirPlus and things worked fine. Therefore, I have to believe the PowerControl board is bad. If that is the case, then I would need to RMA it. Thoughts?
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Post by lbendlin on Feb 15, 2019 6:27:54 GMT -8
What's the voltage reading on the battery? (Assuming you have the Power Control pin wired to that)
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ddodge
Junior Member
Posts: 75
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Post by ddodge on Feb 15, 2019 11:07:41 GMT -8
Currently, the system is running on solar and battery only. The USB Power control is NOT connected.
Current readings are:
Battery 3.5v / -67.6Ma
Solar 4.71v / 217.6Ma
Load 4.97v / 95.2Ma
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Post by lbendlin on Feb 15, 2019 12:21:23 GMT -8
I think the USB Control board will switch off when the battery voltage is under 3.7V (for comparison the SunControl board with integrated switch sets the limit somewhere at 3.45V)
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ddodge
Junior Member
Posts: 75
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Post by ddodge on Feb 15, 2019 16:27:21 GMT -8
I think it's a loose connection. when I reinstall the control board, the 2 LED lights in the upper right will flicker and sometime go off completely, other times they are both on. Also causes the LED power lights on the boards to flicker quickly and go off
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Post by SDL on Feb 16, 2019 11:38:53 GMT -8
Boy, that does sound like a loose connection. Update us when you figure it out.
BP
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