Robo-Tank v6.6 is Ready

[Rob F]

For a fresh install click this link - https://www.robo-tank.ca/forum/thread-1786.html
Hello, so it's finally here, v6.6, sorry it took so long. I think this year there will be many more updates to come so please stick with me.  If you come across anything not working as it should, even if it's simple interface issue please let me know. 

Important: This update required two reboots as I enable the RTC using Raspian which confuses the flow. When you update after a minute or so the page should reload and a dropdown will likely show saying update is complete however it's not. It'll appear to work if you refresh the page but it'll lose connection again as it reboots without warning. It's best to simply hit update button and wait 5 minutes so you don't get confused with no connection. Then do the CTRL + SHIFT+ R on keyboard a few times to refresh the cache, even if it loads you have to do this.

Let's start with the good, issued fixed.

1. This was something I overlooked that was serious, I found the issue when looking into why the system log had so many entries for custom rules being triggered, some of you made me aware of this and I was experiencing it myself which helped. The log was continually showing a custom rule turned off an outlet over and over without ever turning it on, based on the code that should never happen. Turned out it was a DS18B20 temperature sensor issue. I'm sure a lot of you have experienced a temp sensor disappearing from the homepage for a second before it reappears. This happens because I made adjustments to how often the 1wire bus search is done, once I did that sensors would randomly disappear. Reason I did this is for the auto detect system, I didn't like having to unplug a temp sensor and it doesn't disappear for a minute or two, instead it only takes a few seconds to know it's missing. Anyways due to this when a sensor disappears and there are more than one plugged in all the values shift in the variable array in the code. When that happens the custom rule sees a value from a different sensor then it expected which could trigger the custom rule. To fix this when a sensor disappears it's array location for the temperature is filled with an error code so the custom rule says ok the sensor is missing lets not go crazy. Now whenever you unplug a temperature sensor the custom rules are ignored in the backend which is great.
   
2. If pH was being used in a custom rule it wouldn't work, now they should.
   
3. There were a few problems with the schedules but nothing serious. First you were able to add a schedule without assigning a day so it did nothing but take up space. 2nd, if you created a schedule and used the "repeat every X days" and selected 1 it wouldn't run the first day it was created. And finally if a schedule was disabled and you filtered the schedule list it would disappear until you reloaded the page. 
   
4. There were a few other minor UI improvements, bugs fixed and some improvements in various backend code that I didn't record.
   

Here's a list of changes and improvements.

• Schedules - Now when a schedule or custom rule is created or edited the frontend list doesn't update until the backend responds saying changes were received and saved. Previously it waited half a second before redrawing the list.
  
• Schedules - Removed "Off" option when creating a schedule for a dosing pump.
  
• Schedules - Added validation when editing a schedule, without that it was possible to save without important data and crash the program.
  
• System Logs - Added the port custom name to source field so it's easier to know the source.
  
• Real Time Clock - Removed the setting to enable / disable the RTC however you can still set the date/time for it. Now the RTC is managed by the Pi operating system, if no internet is present it will use the RTC. Could someone please give this a good testing? In theory if you disconnect the internet from the Pi and set the date/time to something wrong you should see that as the working date/time.
  

The big change was with the dosing system, I completely reworked it, now stirrers are supported, dose in decimals and group scheduling, I think it's much better now. As I get more feedback I'll revisit it again down the road.

Here you can see it looks similar, you can edit the name, click the reservoir to change the color, refill reservoir, manual dose and view details. The difference is the number above each reservoir, that was previously how many doses were remaining but now it's how many milliliters are left in the reservoir. 



Now when you click the "Manual Dose" button it'll prompt for how much you want to dose. You can see a different when dosing 0.01 vs 0.1 milliliters.



Now you also get a prompt when you fill up the reservoir. I also added a setting to disable the reservoir so the pump runs even if the system thinks the reservoir is empty.



When you click the "View Details" button the other pumps disappear and it expands showing all the schedules. You can still view these from the main schedule screen. Notice the description in the pic says "Tester - 1 of 24" etc, these were created using the new group schedule feature, later I'll have groups collapse so they're easier to navigate. 



When you click "Add Single Schedule" button it takes you to the main schedule page, down the road I will integrate this into the screen above, I got lazy. When you save it will take you back to dosing screen. Now you can enter how many milliliters to dose for each schedule you create instead of one setting for everything.



When you click "Add Group Schedule" you can add a group of schedules like I mentioned previously. That group had 24 schedules which is why is said 1 of 24 etc.

With this you first select the total number of milliliters you want to dose and select a start and finish time. Then you have two options.

1. Dose X milliliters per dose which will do the following. Example: 120 mL total between 6am and 6pm dosing 10 mL per dose would give you 12 schedules or 10 mL per hour.
   
2. X number of doses during time frame. Example: 120 mL total between 6am and 6pm split between 12 doses. This would also you give 10 mL per hour.
   

If you click the "Stirrer" button you get the following screen. Here's all the settings for the stirrer. 

1. First box you can see checkbox to enable the stirrer and a drop down to select a port. To add stirrers to the system you go to the "Configure Ports" screen, select the port AC or DC that you want to plug in stirrer and change the "function" to "dosing pump stirrer". If you have 3 ports setup as stirrers they will all appear in the drop down unless one or more stirrers are assigned to another dosing pump. This makes sure you can't accidiently assign the same stirrer to multiple pumps. 
   
2. Next box you can set the speed of the stirrer if using a DC port, if you use AC port it won't do anything. When you move the slider the stirrer will turn on so you can instant feedback on the speed.
   
3. Next box is how long the stirrer runs.
   
4. Last box is how long to let the reservoir settle. When a dose is activated the stirrer will immediately turn on for X seconds, when it turns off it'll pause for X seconds before running the pump.
   

If you click the "Calibrate" button you get the following screen, this is the same however now you can adjust the speed of the pump if using a DC port. I felt this was a good spot for it as it's likely to be adjusted during calibration. Like the stirrer when you click on the slider the pump will start running so it's easier to tune. It's possible this could be bad in some scenarios so I may add a checkbox so the pump doesn't start when adjusting.



And finally when you click the last button "Settings" you get the following screen. 

1. First box you can adjust the reservoir capacity, when you release the up/down buttons it'll show a popup asking if you want to refill the reservoir. I did this as it's possible you want to adjust the size but not refill it. It's also a bit of pain, if you press up 5 times in a row you get 5 popups. Down the road I'll allow a user to override the milliliters remaining with any number.
   
2. Next is "Minimum Delay Between Doses", this is basically a fail safe so the system doesn't overdose for whatever reason. I need a better title for this, if you set it to 120 minutes that means the pump won't run more than once in a 2 hour period not matter what other systems want.
   
3. Next you can enable/disable the reservoir feature. If enabled the pump won't run when reservoir is empty, if disabled the pump will still run.
   
4. And the last two boxes allow you to setup an email alert when the reservoir is low. One of these days I'll get the dashboard alert system running, it won't be too difficult. 
   

Here's a couple pics for the custom rules showing the changes for dosing pumps. You can see one that activates 2 dosing pumps, one doses 10.2 mL and the other 5.8 mL. One doesn't start for 10 seconds after rule starts and the other 2 seconds. (Upset it says "Switches 10 seconds" I thought I change that to "Dosing starts", too late now, haha) And the last setting it suspends more dosing for 30 minutes and 10 minutes. This is another fail safe so it can't overdose.



And this is where you enter the delays etc when creating the custom rule, I also did a little cleaning up the formatting. One day I plan to redo these screens as I'm not in love with them.


This is what the system settings page looks like now. The box to enable/disable RTC is gone and a new button to view the version log. 



One new addition is a version log. Since the beginning I tables in the database to track changes although many things I did I didn't record so it's incomplete. Anyways you can see this using the button shown above. If you expand an update you see the changes. I know nothing exciting and I didn't spend much time on it.