Service Mode Button for Nixie Standalone

[rock-crusher]

Just wondering if this has ever been implemented, and if not is there any way possible to do something similar for the Nixie standalone setup?
It sure would be nice to have a physical button inside or on the outside of the controller enclosure that would make it easy for someone to put the system into service mode.
Something simple that would give a person full control of all the equipment manually at the pad.

[tagyoureit]

We don't really have a service mode [button]. I typically just stop the process. You could wire up the button to stop njsPC and then restart it...

[rock-crusher]

Hi again tagyoureit, although the "pm2 stop njsPC" works just fine for shutting things down, it does not allow for manual control of the pump at its keypad.

Also, a complete shutdown of the pi only seems to turn off the pump and leaves its key pad disabled. During this shutdown the relays
(Sequent 8 hat) that were already turned on prior to shut down stay on after the pi shuts down, this seems weird.

Unfortunately, this idea wont work for a service mode button, unless after shutdown the pump keypad becomes enabled for use.

[rstrouse]

Eventually, the pump will release after a period of time. It requires a heartbeat request from njsPC to remain under control. When I get some time I look to see if there is a message to expedite this release and add it to the shutdown.

[tagyoureit]

We are actually doing the proper shutdown in the code. This is not working with PM2 because PM2 has a default shutdown timeout of 3s. It is killing the njsPC process before it has a chance to shut down the pumps properly.

Grab the latest ecosystem.config.js. It has a new kill_timeout value of 15s which is more then enough to shutdown njsPC properly. Mine takes about 7-8s.

To put this file into effect, run Steps 4 & 5 on the link for the file.

[rstrouse]

Wooomp there it is

[rock-crusher]

Hi again tagyoureit / rstrouse, thanks again for all the help you have provided me along this journey.

I went ahead and put in the new script and it works just fine.

Problem for me now is how to implement a physical push button to start the process “pm2 stop njsPC” and of course then to implement the “pm2 start njsPC” using a second physical push button.

tagyoureit, I checked out the link you provided, but have no clue how to convert this tutorial into what I would like to achieve above.

As you know, I haven’t the knowledge to implement this on my own and sure would appreciate any help I can get.

I am a little surprised though that a service button has never been incorporated into the Nixie, or even as an option during the set-up procedure.

Being able to have manual control of the equipment out at the pad with a quick press of a button seems to be a great option and would be handy for anyone needing manual control such as a pool service technician even if that person is you.

I would think others might find this option useful as well… but that’s just me.

Thanks again guys for the great work!

[rstrouse]

Service and Timeout modes are probably not a bad addition to Nixie. I'll take a look this afternoon and see what it might take to make it happen.

[rstrouse]

Ok so now there is a Service and Timeout mode for Nixie controllers. If you pull njsPC, dashPanel, and REM you will find the option by clicking on the status area in the dashPanel header.

To automate this through REM a new feed was created that allows you to hook it up to a button. I hooked it up to a GPIO momentary button. The feed below will toggle between Service Timeout and Auto with a timer expiring 1 hour after the timeout was started. This way the panel can be set to service mode for a period of time and then automatically go back to auto.

[rstrouse]

Does the pin state change when you press the button on the relay card?

[michaelmedellin]

It does not.

I do know I can monitor the pin state with a python script. So the button is working. Just unsure on the integration with REM. Cheers.

[rstrouse]

Restart the pi after you have this configured. It is possible that the pin is occupied by another process and the interrupt is not being triggered.

[michaelmedellin]

Ah, I think my issue is that I’m running REM as a non-privileged container so need to pass in the appropriate devices/permissions to access GPIO. Will update if I find a solution.

[michaelmedellin]

Yep, that was the issue. For the GPIO library used with REM (onoff), I needed to mount the following volumes when running an unprivileged container:

• /sys/class/gpio
• /sys/devices/platform/soc/fe200000.gpio/gpiochip0/gpio/gpio26

Now it’s working. Thanks for the help @rstrouse.

[rstrouse]

@orrious said: I look every so often for display / control for my panel, but have yet to find something I'm willing to invest in. Has anyone else created a display for their pad controls?

Here is my control panel at the pad. I made a dead panel for my controller out of 3/8" ABS and mounted it there but don't really use it all that often since I can simply use an ipad.

[rock-crusher]

I like this idea, very clean install!

[mhmatttu]

I have setup nixie and added physical buttons using the Adafruit button recommended in this post. I have confirmed that the buttons are working through the MEGA-BAS inputs tab and the LEDs work when the respective circuit is activated. I setup one button to be service mode using the above instructions and works great (except for not being very fast to respond). However, I have not yet been able to get other circuits to work properly with the buttons. Below are the feeds for my pool circuit and light circuit. When pressing the button, the respective circuit comes on but then quickly cycles off. I got the circuit ids from /state/all and assume they are correct since the circuit does activate. What am I doing wrong? @rock-crusher did you setup other buttons besides Modes?

Pool Body

Light Circuit

[mhmatttu]

@tagyoureit @rstrouse Good afternoon gentlemen. Curious if you have any thoughts on what I may be doing wrong with my setup? It almost seems like it needs a toggle mode similar to the panelMode socket event offers. Appreciate the help!

[rstrouse]

If you are using a momentary button the GPIO will go low as soon as you release it and therefore turn it off. We could add a toggle to the input that would cover using a momentary button. First push to turn it on and second to turn it off.

[mhmatttu]

That would be awesome!

[rstrouse]

Pull njsPC and REM the momentary pushbutton code has been implemented as a Toggle property.

[mhmatttu]

Works perfectly!! Thank you very much!

[mhmatttu]

Couple pics

[rstrouse]

Awesome! That looks like even a caveman could operate it at the pad.

[brentk7]

Hi @rstrouse , I am trying to implement mode change using pushbuttons connected to Digital inputs on a Sequent 4rel4in v4 card.
As soon as I add the feeds as described above - I get the following errors in my logs despite the fact that on the Inputs tab of the web interface - the green indication comes on when the button is pressed (and the relays work fine). Any idea what is wrong here?

0|REM        | [18/06/2024, 17:23:37] error: Error getting Sequent 4rel4in v4 digital input value for inDigital1
0|REM        | [18/06/2024, 17:23:37] error: Error getting Sequent 4rel4in v4 digital input value for inDigital2.value

[brentk7]

Thanks for the reply. This is a fresh install of both OS and njsPC/REM.
Do you mean the general tab of REM? I only have the option for "Raspberry Pi" (or Pi 4B) there (I am using Pi 3 Model B Rev 1.2 with Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)).
Should I choose the Pi4B Bookworm even though I am running on a 3B?

[brentk7]

Changing the Board selection to "Raspberry Pi 4B Bookworm OS" does get rid of the error for GPIO26, but I still have the error

Error getting Sequent 4rel4in v4 digital input value for inDigital1.value

Any suggestions for this one?

[mhmatttu]

Hi @brentk7. In looking at your screenshot above, it looks like you chose “inDigital1” vs “inDigital1.value” for your first feed. I made this mistake initially when setting up temp sensors and changing to the .value fixed it for me.

[brentk7]

Hi @mhmatttu thanks for that, unfortunately that is not the fix for mine. I had tried both and they both give the same error (in fact if you look at my screenshot and error logs - I am looking at inDigital1 and inDigital2.value and both give the same error).
I have also tried with only inDigital1.value, but get the same error

[brentk7]

Thanks @rstrouse Fix IO array references has fixed this for me.
Just a note that the sequent card seems very slow to register the input - I have to hold the button in for at least a second. I assume that this is because the button is only polled every second or so.

[dkossman]

Hey guys, I have an issue related to this discussion - i've actually logged a bug but am not sure whether it's a config issue peculiar to my system. I have the service mode button implemented, and it toggles the system in and out of service mode as expected. however, when it returns to auto mode, the current schedule is not resumed. is this just me? I see the same behavior if i toggle back to auto mode from Dashpanel - the system does not re-trigger the currently active schedule. any suggestions would be appreciated.

see #1032

[mhmatttu]

Good morning. Not sure if you saw this post above (#508 (reply in thread)) and if it relates to your issue. I believe I saw it explained in more detail in another thread as well.

[dkossman]

Ah - thanks. I hadn’t expanded that discussion and now see the rationale explained by @rstrouse for not resuming schedules. However in my case the button does not trigger a timeout, it just toggles service mode. It would be great if there could be a config option to govern the resume behavior… I’ll update the issue I logged. If a switch was used instead of a toggle button I think that might alleviate the concern about unexpected resumption of equipment.

[mhmatttu]

I dont have the timeout feature enabled but it is there. @rstrouse mentions it in this post . I believe you can setup to toggle between service and timeout or could have 2 buttons to control separately. I think @rock-crusher used 1 button with 3 LEDs. The 1 button toggled between Auto, Service and Timeout and the LEDs indicated which mode it was in. The pool panel I configured for a friend uses the buttons mentioned here but my pool is a Jandy Aqualink panel with njsPC integration. The Aqualink also has a single button for Auto, Service, Timeout with an LED indicating which mode is active.

[dkossman]

I was thinking that if i use an on/off switch rather than a button, and set the feed mode for the GPIO to "service" rather than "toggle", it would be reasonably safe to allow the system to resume schedules when service mode is turned off (via the physical switch). However need to confirm with @rstrouse that

• he would be willing to update NJSPC with a config option to resume schedules when Auto mode is resumed
• the system would read the switch state on startup so go into service mode if it is on

I've updated the issue i logged as a feature request...