Robo-tank power bar not working?

kdx7214 · May 15, 2022

A few days ago I switched one of my heaters over to Robo-tank. Last night the temp dropped really low (74) and I got to wondering as to why. So today I connected a lamp to that port, added a "lamp" device under Equipment and turned it on. No go, not even a relay click. I've tried that for all of the plugs on the strip now and the same thing. I'm betting that I've got something configured wrong, but not sure what it would be. I did check all the pins to make sure they're not bent and made sure the AC cord is plugged into the wall.

Any ideas of what to test next @robsworld78 ?

Edit: Had time to do more testing. When plugged into the Power Bar 2 port on the controller the relays all work just fine. When setup as power bar 1, they do not work. I'm guessing I have something configured wrong or it's broken

robsworld78 · May 15, 2022

kdx7214 said:
A few days ago I switched one of my heaters over to Robo-tank. Last night the temp dropped really low (74) and I got to wondering as to why. So today I connected a lamp to that port, added a "lamp" device under Equipment and turned it on. No go, not even a relay click. I've tried that for all of the plugs on the strip now and the same thing. I'm betting that I've got something configured wrong, but not sure what it would be. I did check all the pins to make sure they're not bent and made sure the AC cord is plugged into the wall.

Any ideas of what to test next @robsworld78 ?

Edit: Had time to do more testing. When plugged into the Power Bar 2 port on the controller the relays all work just fine. When setup as power bar 1, they do not work. I'm guessing I have something configured wrong or it's broken

Hi, hmm interesting, I think it must be a configuration somewhere as it works on DB9 two and all the circuits are in the power bar. The DB9's are GPIO's from the Pi so it sounds like the pins are configured wrong. Here's a list of the pin numbers to use for each power supply. In reef-pi go to the connectors page and find the outlet connectors and verify the pin numbers are set correctly. After doing this even if all is good go to the admin tab and press the reload button.

On power bar 1 DB9 you also have to add a jumper or switch to AC 1 and AC 2 backup ports for them to work, it's explained in the next page. Of course this won't answer why outlet 3 - 8 don't switch.

Robo-Tank Controller Wiring Diagrams.docx

docs.google.com

kdx7214 · May 15, 2022

robsworld78 said:
Hi, hmm interesting, I think it must be a configuration somewhere as it works on DB9 two and all the circuits are in the power bar. The DB9's are GPIO's from the Pi so it sounds like the pins are configured wrong. Here's a list of the pin numbers to use for each power supply. In reef-pi go to the connectors page and find the outlet connectors and verify the pin numbers are set correctly. After doing this even if all is good go to the admin tab and press the reload button.

On power bar 1 DB9 you also have to add a jumper or switch to AC 1 and AC 2 backup ports for them to work, it's explained in the next page. Of course this won't answer why outlet 3 - 8 don't switch.

Robo-Tank Controller Wiring Diagrams.docx

docs.google.com

And I found it. I had forgotten to reload

Thanks for all the help. It's *greatly* appreciated!

robsworld78 · May 15, 2022

kdx7214 said:
Hey, I just double checked the pin numbers and all are configured properly. I'd forgotten about the jumpers on the first two ports, but still not sure why the others don't work. Any ideas on what I should do to troubleshoot? I have a multimeter and am not afraid to use it

Had a feeling they might be, this is kind of strange, I think it either means 8 GPIO's are damaged on the Pi which I think isn't possible or the common ground isn't on DB9 one. Using the picture of the DB9 in manual check the voltage of each pin, use the ground on the DB9 and each channel should be 3.3v when switched on. If you have no voltage use a different ground source, say from a temp sensor or the other DB9.

kdx7214 · May 15, 2022

robsworld78 said:
Had a feeling they might be, this is kind of strange, I think it either means 8 GPIO's are damaged on the Pi which I think isn't possible or the common ground isn't on DB9 one. Using the picture of the DB9 in manual check the voltage of each pin, use the ground on the DB9 and each channel should be 3.3v when switched on. If you have no voltage use a different ground source, say from a temp sensor or the other DB9.

Nope. It was operator error. Sorry about that. Didn't remember to reload after making changes, so they never took effect.

Thanks!