I2C expander pca9685 driver install?

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GarrickG

New member
After the expander is connected the app starts a driver install that gets stuck in a loop.
loop.png
The only way I've found out of the loop is to change the value of 'new' to 0 in phpmyadmin.
i2cdevices.png
Afterwards, it seems to have created a driver but I'm not able to find those pins?
drivers.png
I noticed that the old ac powerbar pins are still listed in the 'pins available'. Can I delete those lines?
pinsavailable.png
Is there a fix for this? Thanks
 
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I am new to all the Robo-Tank equpment/software and still waiting for it in the mail from Rob. Rob told me my expander was on backorder and it should be shipping in the next day or two. My big concern is, I don't have the knowledge or time to try and fix things that appear to be a problem that is still unresolved with the expansion board. I read a lot of reviews on Robo-Tank and found them to be highly favorable. However, it appears there is a problem with the expansion board and I don't want to install a system for my reef tank if I am going to have to jack around with it to get it to even start to work. My question, is this a highly unusual problem for Rob... or do these problems exist a lot. If a lot, I need to return my hardware and look at other options. I really want to use Robo-Tank, but hopefully everyone can understand that if it has many bugs, more people that are not wanting to be electronic/programmer experts would not find this suitable. Also, as I stated I am still waiting on my hardware from Rob. My second question is, it says the display is hooked up through an RJ45 port on the board. I thought all displays either run off of HDMI or old VGA. How do I hook up a display using a R45 port? Thanks in advance for anyone that can answer my questions about the reliability of Rob's hardware and software and also how to hook up display using a RJ45 port. Appreciate any help and/or advice.
 
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Westridge999 said:
I am new to all the Robo-Tank equpment/software and still waiting for it in the mail from Rob. Rob told me my expander was on backorder and it should be shipping in the next day or two. My big concern is, I don't have the knowledge or time to try and fix things that appear to be a problem that is still unresolved with the expansion board. I read a lot of reviews on Robo-Tank and found them to be highly favorable. However, it appears there is a problem with the expansion board and I don't want to install a system for my reef tank if I am going to have to jack around with it to get it to even start to work. My question, is this a highly unusual problem for Rob... or do these problems exist a lot. If a lot, I need to return my hardware and look at other options. I really want to use Robo-Tank, but hopefully everyone can understand that if it has many bugs, more people that are not wanting to be electronic/programmer experts would not find this suitable. Also, as I stated I am still waiting on my hardware from Rob. My second question is, it says the display is hooked up through an RJ45 port on the board. I thought all displays either run off of HDMI or old VGA. How do I hook up a display using a R45 port? Thanks in advance for anyone that can answer my questions about the reliability of Rob's hardware and software and also how to hook up display using a RJ45 port. Appreciate any help and/or advice.
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I just saw the second part of your comment, the "display| Is actually web based. So if you take an old tablet (I use an amazon fire 7 and 10) and go to the corresponding web/IP address for your system. It will then act as your display. This is nice because you can also access your system from any computer or phone.
 

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RWilt81 said:
I have the pins visable, but honeslty havent gotten around to setting the expander up. I'll try to get to it this weekend and reconfigure everything. I'll let you know if i'm having the same issues as above. I did notice that with the expander connected, my I2C seems to cause my controller screen to show its disconnected alot. (Red/green plug symbol on the display)
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Somebody the other day came across an issue, they noticed the app was running at 100% CPU. Turns out, I think in v6.7, I made a change in the the main loop and somehow commented out a delay. Without this delay it runs at full speed which we don't want. I think this is why you see the plug under clock go red/green a lot. Here's how you can fix this. Run the following commands in the SSH terminal.

sudo systemctl stop robotank.service

cd /var/www/html/cpp

sudo nano robotank.cpp

This will open a file, go all the way to the end of the file and you'll see a line rtc.getDateTime() function. Right after that function add the line sleep(1).

Now press CTRL + S to save and CTRL + X to exit.

Now run the following command to compile the program.

g++ -o robotank robotank.cpp `mysql_config --cflags --libs` -lwiringPi -lpthread -lquickmail -lcurl

Once finished run sudo systemctl start robotank.service and the program should startup again and you shouldn't see the plug turn red.
 
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Westridge999 said:
I am new to all the Robo-Tank equpment/software and still waiting for it in the mail from Rob. Rob told me my expander was on backorder and it should be shipping in the next day or two. My big concern is, I don't have the knowledge or time to try and fix things that appear to be a problem that is still unresolved with the expansion board. I read a lot of reviews on Robo-Tank and found them to be highly favorable. However, it appears there is a problem with the expansion board and I don't want to install a system for my reef tank if I am going to have to jack around with it to get it to even start to work. My question, is this a highly unusual problem for Rob... or do these problems exist a lot. If a lot, I need to return my hardware and look at other options. I really want to use Robo-Tank, but hopefully everyone can understand that if it has many bugs, more people that are not wanting to be electronic/programmer experts would not find this suitable. Also, as I stated I am still waiting on my hardware from Rob. My second question is, it says the display is hooked up through an RJ45 port on the board. I thought all displays either run off of HDMI or old VGA. How do I hook up a display using a R45 port? Thanks in advance for anyone that can answer my questions about the reliability of Rob's hardware and software and also how to hook up display using a RJ45 port. Appreciate any help and/or advice.
Click to expand...
Hi @Westridge999, sorry for the long delay, I now you aren't having the greatest experience and I'm sorry for that.

The hardware is very reliable, the app still has some bugs in it that I'm slowly sorting out, for most people it works fine but I advise to go slow with it. You can also run reef-pi if you prefer, that is quite reliable and maybe best to start with that so you don't have any issues. The issue I've been having with the pca9685 extension is it doesn't work from the get go, if it's working it's fine and doesn't have issues down the road. I'm thinking it's a manufacturing issue as some are DOA but again if it's not dead it will remain working.

Here's a link to the various manuals for the controller, the top 2 links are to install my app or reef-pi. If you have any questions let me know.

reef-pi Related User Manuals

Various reef-pi operating manuals covering the basics features including step by step user manuals to set up and operate Robo-Tank hardware.
www.robo-tank.ca www.robo-tank.ca

As @RWilt81 mentioned the best option for a display is to use a tablet over your local wifi network. Tablets have nice virtual keyboards making it easy to enter data in the app. The other option is to use an HDMI touch screen but I think you'll like the tablet option better. I think you were looking at the old Arduino based controller, the display for it connected via RJ45.
 
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Hi @RWilt81 I think we've been chatting through email, as you know the wheels are still turning. A new app is almost ready, maybe a month and it'll work well with it. Hope everything else is going well.
 
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