Here ya go: https://go.particle.io/shared_apps/5c0eceded16c1f0c07002794
Hi Brian,
So sorting through this it looks like the first thing you need to know is the value for the Status event the pump board is publishing to. I would probably recommend writing that sort of information to a Particle Variable so you know what’s going on with the board rather than an event which only lives for 60 seconds on the server.
The next thing you really need to do is plug a USB cable into the board, open a serial port monitor and power cycle the board. The board will print out information and should give you and idea as to whether or not it is able to communicate to the particle cloud.
I’d say until you know these things it’s going to be hard to troubleshoot.
Geezzzz… that code got long, to turn on a relay 
Only 200 lines
Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.
1 Like
Got to turn it off too!
Of course, some of that stuff is left over from the very first pass. I’ll clean up some of the extraneous stuff statements - like all the Serial.println statements that I don’t think I need - later.
Hi again Ryan,
Things have been working quite nicely since my last post here. Until yesterday, that is. I experienced an issue that I think is Electron related but may be NCD related; I can’t tell for sure. Although you claim not to be a programmer, you clearly know more than I do in that arena, so I hope maybe you can help me figure out what happened, why and how to prevent it from happening again.
Issue: at the moment there is only one household connected to the water system here. The residents have a very stable usage pattern that results in a very predictable period between the tank’s call for water (typically ranging between 31 and 35 hours). Based upon that behavior, I expected the tank to call for water about 6:30 AM yesterday (the 20th), but it did not. It kept sending out zeros according to my 3-minute publish interval for more than 48 hours before I started to get really concerned.
There is a second, lower float switch in the tank that turns on a red light at the site when the tank is almost empty. That red light was on, causing me to believe that the higher float switch that is connected to the NCD relay board there was defective or somehow got hung up. But before I took the cover off the tank to investigate, I decided to reset the Electron. I did so not by pressing the reset button but, instead, by re-flashing the same firmware code that had been running on it successfully for several days. Immediately after the code was flashed, the Electron started sending ones as it should have started doing much earlier. After that it took considerably longer for the tank to refill than usual since the level in the tank had fallen well below the point where the pump is usually turned on.
The fact that resetting the Electron solved the problem certainly suggested that the issue was with that device and not the relay board. Do you agree? In any case, what might have caused the misbehavior? There is no way I can afford to be watching the logs continuously and reset the Electron should this happen again. Is there some code that I could add that would periodically reset the board automatically or, perhaps, refresh the inputs?
Any insights that you - or Travis - can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Brian
https://go.particle.io/shared_apps/5c1837e587ec4c682b003167
Ignore the code that relates to the transmission of keep alive messages; I’m going to remove that.
Hi Brian,
I don’t see anything inherently wrong with the code. However I have a theory(always do it seems).
The Electron has a battery attached which means if there were a temporary power loss it would stay powered, however the MCP23008 chip on the board would not be battery powered. So if the Electron stayed powered up(code running) but the MCP23008 chip lost power it would need to be reinitialized. Initialization of the chip happens in controller.setAddress(0,0,0); You could just call that function once per hour or so to ensure the chip is ready to accept commands. You could test this theory by just disconnecting power from the board, wait a minute or so, then connect power again. You could then tell if that were the case.
2 Likes
That is interesting, Travis! More so because the statement ‘controller.setAddress(0,0,0)’ was in your original firmware version. I removed it after the ‘62’ & ‘63’ status codes problem because I didn’t know what it did. Now I do! Back in it goes.
Thanks as always!
Brian
Oops: just looked. That statement is still in the firmware where you had it originally: in the ‘setup’ routine. I’ll add it to my loop with a timer.
If Travis’ theory doesn’t work out, it may be Heap Fragmentation, sometimes caused by Strings in your Code.
Here’s some code I use to Remotely Reset Electrons from the Console. You could also call this function or System.reset(); from your code on a timed schedule (once a day if you wanted).
#define DELAY_BEFORE_REBOOT 2000
unsigned int rebootDelayMillis = DELAY_BEFORE_REBOOT;
unsigned long rebootSync = millis();
bool resetFlag = false;
void setup() {
// Remote Reset Function
Particle.function("reset",cloudResetFunction);
}
void loop() {
// Your Normal stuff goes here
if ((resetFlag) && (millis() - rebootSync >= rebootDelayMillis)) {
// do things here before reset and then push the button
Particle.publish("Debug","Remote Reset Initiated",300,PRIVATE);
System.reset();
}
}// End LOOP()
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Remote Reset Function
int cloudResetFunction(String command) {
resetFlag = true;
rebootSync=millis();
return 0;
}
This is another reason to consider adding a pressure sensor and having the Well’s Electron function as a Stand-Alone Controller (as a backup) when it sees a low pressure in the water main 
Good morning Ryan,
Way back on November 18 you added a cool function to the code running on the Electron at the well - pumpWaterNow - that allows me to manually turn on the pump. It works great and I have had a few opportunities to use it.
Imbedded in that function’s code is a Particle.process() statement. After reviewing Particle’s documentation relative to Particle.process(), I am still unclear exactly what that does and when I should use it. Neither of my programs - at the storage tank or at the well - has any other appearance of that statement yet all seems to be working perfectly.
Should I add one or more Particle.process() statements and, if so, where would it go and what would be the benefit?
https://go.particle.io/shared_apps/5c472159fb743431f8000f4c
https://go.particle.io/shared_apps/5c45f19f73de280d9c000cb7
Brian,
The intention is to allow the Electron to service the Cloud Connection during the While() Loop, since that effectively stops the Election from doing anything during the Function, except waiting for the pump runtime to expire.
while ( (millis() - previousMillis) < ( (tempRuntime * 1000)) ) {
Particle.process();
} // End While
It shouldn’t be necessary since you’re using SYSTEM_THREAD(ENABLED) and Automatic System Mode (which is the default). I probably copied it from a project that uses Manual System Mode, where it would be absolutely required in order to maintain the Cloud Connection.
Also, Firmware 1.0 has been released by Particle. If you haven’t flashed your code lately, be aware that the WebIDE will default to using 1.0. You will want to pay close attention after you flash both Electrons to make sure they still perform properly after moving to 1.0. (they shouldn’t have any problems).
Good morning Ryan. Way back in 2018 you recommended that I add a pressure transducer to my water well management and control application. I am finally ready to do so, but despite the information you provided above, I am at a complete loss as to where to start, how to install a sensor and integrate with my existing Electron(s), and how to embellish my existing code to support this added capability. I don’t want to burden you again with all my hundreds of questions (unless, of course, you have nothing to do and are bored stiff). Are you aware of any well-documented and publicly accessible information that would help me? A related question: if someone has created a solid, useful IFTTT application that he is willing to document and share without charge, what might be a good platform to announce it?
Couple of Questions:
- What Power Supply do you have for the Electron at the Well Site ? I assume a 12V Source ?
- What’s the maximum pressure on the water main (when tank is full) at the Well Site ?
As far as the Coding, it’s pretty simple once you select your Pressure Transducer.
// read the input on analog pin A4:
sensorValue = analogRead(A4) ;
// Convert the analog reading (which goes from 0 - 4095) to a voltage (0 - 3.3V)
voltage = (sensorValue) * ((3.3 / 4095.0));
// Calculate Pressure for a 0V-5V Output range Sensor. MaxSensorPressure = the Max rated value of the Sensor, IE 100 psi in my case
pressure = ((voltage) * (MaxSensorPressure/5) ) ;
I have several Rural Water Operators that use an Android App on their Cell Phone for ThingSpeak. It’s very easy to setup an Alarm based on Pressure (Tank Levels). You can also click the widget and see the pressure history graph. I like it better than IFTTT.
Generally every couple of months this simple setup will save a Water System from dropping a Tank/System by catching a major break or well failure.