AC outlets vs Reboots

wizzlebippi

New member
While I'm liking the RoboTank hardware, the software has me a bit confused. The weirdness with AC outlets toggling when creating or deleting rules is awkward, but not a common occurrence. What has me concerned is why the AC outlets do not resume their previous state after a reboot. For example, I have a light and airpump that are set to manual mode, and RoboTank respects that. I have rules created to toggle off the sump pump, heater, and UV sterilizer for 10 minutes when I press a momentary switch for feeding. RoboTank currently seems to flip a coin as to what state these outlets will be in following a reboot. I have the controller on a battery backup, but I want assurance that when the power comes back up the controller will resume whatever it was doing previously. Is there a setting I can adjust to fix this?
 
While I'm liking the RoboTank hardware, the software has me a bit confused. The weirdness with AC outlets toggling when creating or deleting rules is awkward, but not a common occurrence. What has me concerned is why the AC outlets do not resume their previous state after a reboot. For example, I have a light and airpump that are set to manual mode, and RoboTank respects that. I have rules created to toggle off the sump pump, heater, and UV sterilizer for 10 minutes when I press a momentary switch for feeding. RoboTank currently seems to flip a coin as to what state these outlets will be in following a reboot. I have the controller on a battery backup, but I want assurance that when the power comes back up the controller will resume whatever it was doing previously. Is there a setting I can adjust to fix this?
Hi @wizthats not good, it is supposed to put outlets in the proper state after a reboot. When the controller reboots is checks manual mode, schedules and custom rules to determine the state. Any chance you do have the jumper set on the sensor port for the switch? Depending how you wired the switch you need to set the P-U or P-D jumper just above the green connector. If you use +5v on the switch the jumper should be P-D, if you use GND it should be P-U. If this isn't correct the GPIO will be floating and it could be random.
 
I wired the button using the float switch example from the RoboTank documentation, with the button between +5V and data, as well as the pull down and sensor pins jumpered. I can post a picture of the sensor box sometime this weekend if that helps. Even before adding the button, a reboot would have the same effect.
 
I wired the button using the float switch example from the RoboTank documentation, with the button between +5V and data, as well as the pull down and sensor pins jumpered. I can post a picture of the sensor box sometime this weekend if that helps. Even before adding the button, a reboot would have the same effect.
Sounds like you have everything setup correctly, do you have any schedules or other custom rules setup for these outlets? Can you post a picture of the custom rules you created? Does this happen with all the AC outlets or only the ones controlled by the custom rules?
 
Outlets 1-6 on DB Port 1 seem to be affected. Could be all 8, but I'm only using 1-6. I've mitigated this some with rules, schedules, and sensors, but am still having issues with my main sump pump (DB9 Port 1, AC3. Not sure if there's a better way to dump this, but here it is:

Schedules:
  1. Turns off UV sterilizer at 1pm.
  2. Turns on UV sterilizer at 2pm.
  3. Dosing pump 1 dispenses 5mL at 1pm every day.
  4. Dosing pump 2 dispenses 5mL at 1:30pm every Tuesday and Friday.
  5. Stirrer for dosing pump 2 runs for 20 sec, settles for 20 sec prior to dosing.
Rules:
  1. Heater turns off if water temperature exceeds 81°F for 10 sec.
  2. Sump pump toggle off with 1 sec delay (toggle switch jumpered and wired as float switch).
  3. Sump pump toggle on with 1 sec delay.
  4. Heater and UV Sterilizer Off when sump pump flow below 180gph for >5sec.
  5. Heater and UV Sterilizer On when sump pump flow above 200gph for >5sec with 5min delay (reversable).
  6. Sump pump off for 10min to feed fish (momentary button jumpered and wired as float switch, no delay).
I also have a light and air pump that are set to be always on, and those work fine. The heater, sump pump, and UV sterilizer (AC1-3) are all coin flips for how they end up after reboot. The flowmeter-based heater and UV sterilizer rules seem to fix the state of those two outlets after waiting the 5 sec for debounce. The only mystery is why is the sump pump sometimes off at boot despite the switch being on.
 
Mine does this sometimes as well. I've noticed no pattern or reason. I do have battery backup, so I only deal with this when I purposely reboot it...
*I've also noted that it will sometimes ignore the sump water level sensor and run the pump anyway...
 
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Mine does this sometimes as well. I've noticed no pattern or reason. I do have battery backup, so I only deal with this when I purposely reboot it...
*I've also noted that it will sometimes ignore the sump water level sensor and run the pump anyway...
Helpful for short term interruptions, but not for long term when you're away. Where I live, spring weather can take down the power for a few hours. Assuming my battery is good, it shouldn't be a problem, but I've had storms take out the battery backup's controller or reveal that battery is bad. If I'm away on vacation or working, I'd like the assurance that it will boot up as it shut off.

EDIT. It appears that my feed fish rule is being triggered at boot, causing the sump pump to be shut off for 10 minutes. Through rules and sensors, I seem to be protected.
 
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Outlets 1-6 on DB Port 1 seem to be affected. Could be all 8, but I'm only using 1-6. I've mitigated this some with rules, schedules, and sensors, but am still having issues with my main sump pump (DB9 Port 1, AC3. Not sure if there's a better way to dump this, but here it is:

Schedules:
  1. Turns off UV sterilizer at 1pm.
  2. Turns on UV sterilizer at 2pm.
  3. Dosing pump 1 dispenses 5mL at 1pm every day.
  4. Dosing pump 2 dispenses 5mL at 1:30pm every Tuesday and Friday.
  5. Stirrer for dosing pump 2 runs for 20 sec, settles for 20 sec prior to dosing.
Rules:
  1. Heater turns off if water temperature exceeds 81°F for 10 sec.
  2. Sump pump toggle off with 1 sec delay (toggle switch jumpered and wired as float switch).
  3. Sump pump toggle on with 1 sec delay.
  4. Heater and UV Sterilizer Off when sump pump flow below 180gph for >5sec.
  5. Heater and UV Sterilizer On when sump pump flow above 200gph for >5sec with 5min delay (reversable).
  6. Sump pump off for 10min to feed fish (momentary button jumpered and wired as float switch, no delay).
I also have a light and air pump that are set to be always on, and those work fine. The heater, sump pump, and UV sterilizer (AC1-3) are all coin flips for how they end up after reboot. The flowmeter-based heater and UV sterilizer rules seem to fix the state of those two outlets after waiting the 5 sec for debounce. The only mystery is why is the sump pump sometimes off at boot despite the switch being on.
Thanks for the great details. It's sounding like the flow rate wasn't always at its peak before the custom rule triggered, I can see that happening as it can take a few readings. Adding that 5 second delay gives it enough time to do a couple readings of the flowmeter making sure it has a correct value. It might be good to have a delay set before any rules trigger for startup purposes.

Maybe adding a delay on the momentary switch would prevent it from running. In the log you should be able to see what ran after the reboot. I think I should add a setting "ignore rule during startup" to the rules might be useful.

Do you have everything sorted now?
 
Mine does this sometimes as well. I've noticed no pattern or reason. I do have battery backup, so I only deal with this when I purposely reboot it...
*I've also noted that it will sometimes ignore the sump water level sensor and run the pump anyway...
Any chance you have custom rules setup as well? We definitely need to get that sorted, a reboot could happen at any time.

Is the sump sensor being ignored just at startup or anytime?
 
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