boylesg
Advanced Member level 4

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I don't even no where to begin with this one.
I have designed an Arduino Mega based irrigation controller.
The hardware is just a Mega, with a data logger shield, an ESP13 shield and a 8 x relay board.
It has been working impeccably at 4 sites.
But I have taken it to this one house and all hell breaks loose.
Just seemingly random and unrelated break downs.
The 3A DC to DC converter keeps shutting off due to the thermal over load protected being triggered.
Today I could not get any of my relays to turn on at all.
They require digital low to be sent to the digital pins to turn the relay on along with the solenoid valve connected to it.
The digitalWrite is DEFINITELY being called correctly and LOW is appearing on the pin.
Except that the LOW was around 2.5V, not low enough to trigger the relay.
Now what could possibly prevent an Arduino digital pin from reaching 0V????????
I brought the whole controller home and it works impeccably again.
I am at a total loss! Have not idea where to even begin in diagnosing this problem.
Can anyone point me in the right direction.
- - - Updated - - -
Poor household ground connection?
High level of noise in the household or neighborhood power supply?
Unusual RF interference at this particular location.
It can't be a problem with my hardware because I have it is working impeccably at my house right now.
E.G. digitalWrite(38, LOW) makes 0.3V or so appear on digital pin 38.
But when I did the same at this other site digitalWrite(38, LOW) made 2.4V appear on pin 38.
I have designed an Arduino Mega based irrigation controller.
The hardware is just a Mega, with a data logger shield, an ESP13 shield and a 8 x relay board.
It has been working impeccably at 4 sites.
But I have taken it to this one house and all hell breaks loose.
Just seemingly random and unrelated break downs.
The 3A DC to DC converter keeps shutting off due to the thermal over load protected being triggered.
Today I could not get any of my relays to turn on at all.
They require digital low to be sent to the digital pins to turn the relay on along with the solenoid valve connected to it.
The digitalWrite is DEFINITELY being called correctly and LOW is appearing on the pin.
Except that the LOW was around 2.5V, not low enough to trigger the relay.
Now what could possibly prevent an Arduino digital pin from reaching 0V????????
I brought the whole controller home and it works impeccably again.
I am at a total loss! Have not idea where to even begin in diagnosing this problem.
Can anyone point me in the right direction.
- - - Updated - - -
Poor household ground connection?
High level of noise in the household or neighborhood power supply?
Unusual RF interference at this particular location.
It can't be a problem with my hardware because I have it is working impeccably at my house right now.
E.G. digitalWrite(38, LOW) makes 0.3V or so appear on digital pin 38.
But when I did the same at this other site digitalWrite(38, LOW) made 2.4V appear on pin 38.