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+--- Thread: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.5 (/thread-1243.html)
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.3 - Rob F - 03-09-2022
If the tablet has a modern web browser it should work. If you can run full screen it should look like an app. I think this is better as you don't need to run the desktop OS on the Pi.
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.3 - gandalf - 03-14-2022
Rob, do you have good news for us waiting for the v6.4 ?
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.3 - Rob F - 03-14-2022
Almost, I've been putting in the hours and have been close a couple times to releasing it, I think it should finally happen this week. I've got quite a few issues sorted and it now supports the RTC which is nice. As soon as I release this one I'll be jumping into the dosing system. The wheels are definitely turning.
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.3 - gandalf - 03-14-2022
great
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.3 - rott - 03-17-2022
Rob i lost the green connector for the boards i need 2 and 3 pin connector
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.3 - simonv92 - 03-17-2022
(02-10-2022, 03:52 PM)simonv92 Wrote: Hi Rob,
just an information... e-mail alerts are working right now?
Thank you very much!
Hi Rob, I've done some more tests and email alert works just fine :) I've tested it for controller restart and for Rules trigger.
Another question... I know it's a new software... Do you think that it'll will be possible to integrate Robo-Tank with Home Assistant? I've found an integration to import data from Reef-Pi into Home assistant. It'll be very nice doing the same with Robo-Tank...
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.3 - Rob F - 03-17-2022
Great, thanks for confirming. It will be a while till I get to things like home assistant. At some point I would like to add an API which should allow it to integrate with other systems.
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.4 - Rob F - 03-18-2022
Finally just released v6.4 and updated the original install post here.
https://www.robo-tank.ca/forum/Thread-Robo-Tank-v6-0-is-Ready-Now-v6-4?pid=6596#pid6596
To update go to "Settings" then "System" and press the "Check for Update" button.
Unfortunately not a lot of cool features this update but all very important, next should be more fun.
The biggest change is v2 and v3 controller compatibility, this took some work despite what it may appear. If you change controller version the main table managing all the pin is reorganized so all settings, schedules, rules etc are still connected to the correct port although it uses a different pin. It's kind of sad the work it took knowing how little it'll be used but I want everything to be as smooth as possible. When you change versions it also reconfigures the /boot/config.txt file so extra DS18B20 ports work when needed. When you view the sensor extension for v3 on the "Ports Configure" page there's an extra option for a DS18B20 sensor which will enable another 1-wire bus on the Pi, I expect will be highly used and people won't realize the trouble it would have been without that little feature so that'll be great.
I added support for a real time clock or RTC, it works with a DS1307 or DS3231. V2 and v3 controller have this onboard so it'll just start working after updating. When you plug one in the system will automatically detect it and do what it needs to, nothing to configure, only need to set the date/time on the "System Settings" page and you're good. You can enable/disable it there as well, the date in the header will update automatically and show the correct date. If this is enabled but no RTC is seen you'll get a date in 1969 or a new one will show year 2000. I also changed the Date/Time at top right corner of page, this was fetching the local system time so it was possible not to match what the c++ program was running at. Now the time displayed in the browser is from the c++ program. After you set the date/time for the RTC power cycle the controller so you can verify the date and time was retained and the backup battery is good. If it goes back to the year 2000 there's an issue with the battery.
I also removed the wiringPi library as it's been deprecated for a while now. Now I'm using the sysfs system built into Linux however this is deprecated as well but will be supported for many years ahead. By the sounds of it doesn't seem like the system replacing this is quite ready. I love this change however it sadly broke the DHT22 code. Originally this was tough to get working as the calculation is time based and I've not been able to get it working using sysfs. So yeah hope nobody is using the DHT22, for sure I will be working on this just didn't want to hold the update any longer.
I also added the "Invert" logic option for AC and DC ports, I thought this was already there but not so. I didn't add it to the light channels yet as I'm planning to change those again.
There were also some various UI issues and bugs that were found or reported, thanks to everyone who's been testing it and reporting problems, may of issues I may never know about if you don't report them. At some point I'm going to put a button in settings page to report an issue, it'll simply send an email to me if you have them enabled. I'm thinking this as when it happens is the best time to report it and that would be handy. There are still a few minor issues I need to address but they are mostly rare cases so I'll save some for next update.
Let me know how it goes and if you spot any issues.
Here's a copy and paste of what's in the database, I've been version changes if I remember, one day a list will appear when the update screen loads.
- DC Ports - When put in manual mode the red dot on icon would disappear after a page refresh although it still remained in manual mode
- System - removed wiringPi library to control GPIOs, now reading/writing GPIOs using sysfs
- Dashboard - changed bottom dock to snap to bottom of browser
- System - Added v2 and v3 controller compatibility
- AC Outlets - Added ability to Invert output logic
- DC Ports - Added ability to Invert output logic
- Setup Wizard - Fixed form to configure new pca9685
- RTC - Added support for DS1307 and DS3231 real time clocks
- PCA9685 - system wouldn't allow more than one
- Interface - Date and time on webpage now gets updated from backend instead of using computer date and time
- Startup Wizard - Fixed DS18B20 scan and added controller version option
For contexts this is the Configure Ports page when v1 controller is selected.
![[Image: configure_ports.PNG]](https://www.robo-tank.ca/pictures/screenshots_app/Updated_Version/configure_ports.PNG)
This is the Configure Ports page when v2 controller is selected.
![[Image: configure_ports10.PNG]](https://www.robo-tank.ca/pictures/screenshots_app/Updated_Version/configure_ports10.PNG)
This is the Configure Ports page when v3 controller is selected. When you click the icons on the left the large clickable view will appear.
![[Image: configure_ports8.PNG]](https://www.robo-tank.ca/pictures/screenshots_app/Updated_Version/configure_ports8.PNG)
This is the popup displayed when configuring a port on the v3 sensor extension for a DS18B20.
![[Image: configure_ports9.PNG]](https://www.robo-tank.ca/pictures/screenshots_app/Updated_Version/configure_ports9.PNG)
This is the System Settings page with the new settings, one for the RTC to enable/disable and set date/time and an option for controller version. The controller does need to reboot for controller selection but not for any RTC settings.
![[Image: system2.PNG]](https://www.robo-tank.ca/pictures/screenshots_app/Updated_Version/system2.PNG)
And this is the screen when you set the date and time from above image.
![[Image: settings_date.PNG]](https://www.robo-tank.ca/pictures/screenshots_app/Updated_Version/settings_date.PNG)
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.4 - gandalf - 03-18-2022
great news
did you add the bug fixes i've provided to you or should i port them to V6.4? as i'm using the dosing feature on a real tank, without the fixes the dosing won't work as expected
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.4 - SyberSects - 03-18-2022
(03-18-2022, 03:11 AM)gandalf Wrote: great newsjust curious. what bug? i've been using the dosing feature for about 2 months with.. as far as i can tell.. no issues?
did you add the bug fixes i've provided to you or should i port them to V6.4? as i'm using the dosing feature on a real tank, without the fixes the dosing won't work as expected
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.4 - gandalf - 03-18-2022
(03-18-2022, 04:40 AM)SyberSects Wrote:(03-18-2022, 03:11 AM)gandalf Wrote: great newsjust curious. what bug? i've been using the dosing feature for about 2 months with.. as far as i can tell.. no issues?
did you add the bug fixes i've provided to you or should i port them to V6.4? as i'm using the dosing feature on a real tank, without the fixes the dosing won't work as expected
If you need to dose high volumes with low speed pumps (in example the Kamoer KFS), the milliseconds needed as doseRunTime is a number higher than the max allowed value in the robo-tank server, it will overflow being used as a negative value, thus the pump will always run because the server isn't unable to handle the running time and stop the pump.
Also it was impossible to set more than 2000ms as ms/ml and in my case I have 3750ms and so on. Some little bug (except the previous one that is critial) making the usage of dosing feature not perfect with some high-precision pumps
I'm dosing 17.70ml daily of a Triton mix (decimal values as dose amount was another fix made by me) at 3750ms/ml, thus 66.375seconds.
With standard v6.3 or lower, it breaks as doseRunTime is a short integer, so 2^15 = 32767. You can't dose anything more than 32seconds or the pump will spin forever.
My fix increase this to unsigned int, so 4294967295 milliseconds and I saw that is merged in v6.4
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.4 - SyberSects - 03-18-2022
Interesting. I do recall, While calibrating having this issue. if i attempted to calibrate to 100ml. I could only do like 40 or 50. mine is like 750 ms/ml or some such. I decided to spread my dosing out hourly for as long as needed. I dose tropic Marin's balling set. I do like 4ml/hr. Part's A and C dose 8 times a day and B doses 14 times a day at the moment. Still fine tuning for stable numbers but its pretty close as is. i sit around 8.5 dkh and around 430 calcium. I am trying to slowly push dkh up closer to 9.5-10.
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.4 - gandalf - 03-18-2022
Yes spreading would be a workaround, but as currently is not possible to spread dosing automatically, you have to schedule multiple dosage for each pump. Not eactly intuitive.
Hopefully the bug is fixed and I can dose the full dose at once.
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.4 - SyberSects - 03-18-2022
Yea. This was actually a complaint of mine as well. I thought maybe a schedule system with a easy click on off 24 hour grid or something might do the trick. Or maybe how many times daily? How often? Starting when? And it just maths it all out for you.
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.4 - gandalf - 03-18-2022
(02-07-2022, 02:53 PM)Rob F Wrote: Can you try plugging it into an AC outlet on a different circuit to see if it goes away.
(03-18-2022, 05:37 AM)SyberSects Wrote: Yea. This was actually a complaint of mine as well. I thought maybe a schedule system with a easy click on off 24 hour grid or something might do the trick. Or maybe how many times daily? How often? Starting when? And it just maths it all out for you.
i think this is planned for the next release.
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.4 - gandalf - 03-18-2022
v6.4 doesn't work properly.
the robotank service is restarting in a loop due to mysql connection error:
Mar 18 17:33:15 x mariadbd[16401]: 2022-03-18 17:33:15 22 [Warning] Aborted connection 22 to db: 'robotank' user: 'root' host: 'localhost' (Got an error reading communication packets)
the solution is to restart the mysql service, but then on next robotank restart, the same issue happens.
Also, if dosing pumps are spinning, theere isn't a way to stop them. even restarting the robotank service doesn't stop them. (and why a simple manual dose has started the pump for an unlimited amount of time ? )
DB issue was solved by removing stale items (dosing pumps in my case) after the upgrade to v6. The pin reassignment has left some things with empty values in database.
Also, the graphs doesn't work anymore.
(where is the last execution date for a schedule ? Do you keep it in memory ? In example a shcedule to run every 3 days, after a controller restart will be trigger as first run ?)
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.4 - Rob F - 03-18-2022
Yeah that bug was a variable size issue, it's the only thing I changed. I didn't add decimal to dose amount as I'm going to be redoing it soon.
Hope you got things solved gandalf, you might need to do a fresh install coming from 6.0.
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.4 - gandalf - 03-19-2022
i'm still not sure everything is working as expected...
fresh install is not a solution as i'll loose charts data and i have to reconfigure everything.
charts still doesn't work, there are some errors in JavaScript code, missing variables or so.
for next versions please put update queries to plain SQL files and not hardcored in cpp. much easier to handle in case of manual upgrades
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.4 - Rob F - 03-19-2022
That's odd, it seems to be working ok on my side and at least one other person. I did find a bug with the RTC time, maybe somehow that was messing it up. In the database go to systemSettings and change version and versionLatest with 6.3, then power cycle and run the update again.
Where are you seeing these errors? I haven't changed anything in the charting or sensor reading files.
The SQL queries can be copied and pasted from the update file, you'll have to get them from there if you want to manually update.
RE: Robo-Tank v6.0 is Ready - Now v6.4 - gandalf - 03-20-2022
i can't re-run the update because it override my changes. if you tell me which file you fixed, i update only that
the errors are in the web page, probably related to the bad update lefting stale records in database, similiar to what happened to the dosing pumps. i think it's related to the pin mapping After setting the controller type to v2
for the queries, yes i've taken them from the code that's why i'm suggesting to save the update queries in an SQL files that the update procedure will run