This project is based on the original rolloffino code from INDI.

It only includes the relevant Arduino code, not the driver.

Description

This is an implementation of the microcontroller code for the Rolloffino INDIlib driver.

The driver communicates with an Arduino microcontroller using a USB or WiFi connection. The driver sends open or close commands and requests from the Arduino whether the roof is opened or closed. The driver does not know how the roof is being operated.

More information is in the documentation file.

indilib driver

Driver:       RollOff ino
Executable:   indi_rolloffino
Minimum INDI: 2.0.1

Logging setup

Console is running on the serial port, at 115200. The default log level is DBG_INFO, change it in the code with constant DEFAULT_LOG_LEVEL.

Usage

The microcontroller code allows receiving commands by WiFi or by Serial. A static flag USE_WIFI controls the current mode. Set it to 1 to use WiFi, any other value to use serial communication.

Sending command by serial and the debug console are not compatible.

WiFi setup

Once in WiFi mode, the microcontroller tries to connect to a WiFi Access Point on boot.

The very first time there is not such configured AP, so it fails to connect and it fallbacks to start its own Access Point: AProlloffino, see code for the default password.

Connect to AProlloffino to setup the AP to connect to on boot. Then reboot the microcontroller.

Here it is a sample of the console output on boot once an access point is configured, it show the device IP:

*wm:Connecting to SAVED AP: AP_123478
*wm:connectTimeout not set, ESP waitForConnectResult... 
*wm:AutoConnect: SUCCESS 
*wm:STA IP Address: 192.168.1.46
[ 00:00:01.525 ] connected...yeey :)
[ 00:00:01.526 ] 
SSID: AP_123478, IP Address: 192.168.1.46, Signal (RSSI): -58 dBm
[ 00:00:01.530 ] Network online, ready for rolloffino driver connections.

The microcontroller listens on port 8888 by default.

Socket client

To test the communication with the microcontroller, use the supplied utils/socket-client.py script.

$ python3 socket-client.py --help
usage: socket-client.py [-h] [-s SERVER] [-n] [-p PORT]

Send and receive TCP messages over a persistent server connection.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -s SERVER, --server SERVER
                        Server host
  -n, --newline         Add a new line to every request
  -p PORT, --port PORT  Server port

To use the socket client run:

python3 socket-client.py -p 8888 -s 192.168.1.46

Commands are one per line, delimited by parenthesis, like:

(CON:0:0)

nc

You can also use nc to send commands. You will need to remove end-of-line delimiter and wait for the response, like this:

(echo -n "(CON:0:0)" && sleep 1 && echo -n "(SET:OPEN:0)" && sleep 1) | nc 192.168.1.46 8888

Set up

Pinout for sensors

The microcontroller senses the begin and end position of the roof, by using a couple of sensor. The main sensor used is a magnetic switch.

Use the following pinout (from ESP8266 to switches), and set the corresponding value on the config.h file:

• D1 (GPIO5) -> sensor OPENED NC -> SWITCH_1
• G -> sensor OPENED COMM
• D2 (GPIO4) -> sensor CLOSED NC -> SWITCH_2
• G -> sensor CLOSED COMM

Pinout for TA6586

TA6586 is a 2-channel motor controller.

Use the following pinout (from ESP8266 to motor board), and set the corresponding value on the config.h file:

• D3 (GPIO0) -> D0 motor A -> RELAY_A1
• D4 (GPIO2) -> D1 motor A -> RELAY_A2
• D5 (GPIO14) -> D2 motor B -> RELAY_B1
• D6 (GPIO12) -> D3 motor B -> RELAY_B2
• D7 (GPIO13) -> D2 motor B -> RELAY_B1
• D8 (GPIO15) -> D3 motor B -> RELAY_B2

Pinout for DRV8871

DRV8871 is a 1-channel motor controller, so the pinout is per motor board:

Use the following pinout (from ESP8266 to motor board), and set the corresponding value on the config.h file:

• D3 (GPIO0) -> IN1 motor A -> RELAY_A1
• D4 (GPIO2) -> IN2 motor A -> RELAY_A2
• D5 (GPIO14) -> IN1 motor B -> RELAY_B1
• D6 (GPIO12) -> IN2 motor B -> RELAY_B2
• D7 (GPIO13) -> IN1 motor B -> RELAY_B1
• D8 (GPIO15) -> IN2 motor B -> RELAY_B2

Stop motor timeout

Once the motor starts moving, it will continue indefinitely. Some linear actuators have limit sensors, so the motion will stop but the motor will still be powered. In order to reduce power, the microcontroller stops the motors after a timeout.

It might be your linear actuators are faster or slower, so adjust the value for ROOF_MOVEMENT_MIN_TIME_MILLIS accordingly in config.h.

Motor speed

The code drives two motors, but they might have different speeds. In the case of linear actuators, they might have small differences in construction that will make one of them faster than the other.

This is the procedure to measure and adjust the difference in speeds:

• Measure the time it takes both motors to open and close separately. Take several measures and calculate the average to have a valid metric. Say that when opening, motor A takes an average of 16s and motor B takes 18s.
• Calculate the percentage of speed of the faster: take the difference between the average of the slowest and fastest motor, and divide it by the average time of the fastest motor. For our example, the difference is 2s and the percentage is 12.5%.
• Reduce the speed of the fastest motor: Set an appropiate percentage for faster motor using variables MOTOR_*_SPEED_FACTOR_*ING. For our example, set MOTOR_A_SPEED_FACTOR_OPENING to 87.
• Set to 100 the values for the slowest motor.

You will probably need to manually adjust the value, since measuring times might not be accurate enough.