I just saw the OCS 4 board.  I have a set of 3 boards(Teensy) that just arrived.  Should I go for the 4 board and scrap the 3?

You know which I'd use, else Rev4 wouldn't exist, but its up to you.  AFAIK both designs should work fine (see notes below.)

I recently fixed silk screen and component values for some resistors so be sure to look at the latest PCB (both Rev3 and Rev4.)  On Rev3 I just kind of winged it (as the early prototype had bigger problems to worry about) then later built Rev4 to spec and it didn't work quite right, the SSR current limiting resistors were 3.3k and that just didn't quite turn them on (built in optocouplers) so I swapped in 2.2k and all was well.  The holding resistor for "normally closed" was much higher value also and wasn't doing the job so watch the new resistor values around there too.  The latest OCS4 uses the 3.3V rail for this purpose so its resistor has a fairly low value, my prototype Rev4 board uses the 5V rail, so feel free to pick a resistor pair that works for R300 and R301 such that Relay 8 is held closed during a reboot (while not overloading the Teensy pin) if you run into trouble with that.  Probably the spec'd values will work.

Eventually I will build up a Wiki here with assembly instructions to take some of the guess work out of it.  It will cover two designs, the OCS4 and the OCSESP1 (once its tested.)  OCS3 will become obsolete.

BTW the OCS Hardware Rev4 came to be since I didn't like how the 8-channel ebay relay plugged in nor did I really have room for it in my enclosure.  After thinking about it I realized just one more high current relay was all I really needed and I could fit it on the PCB and even squeeze in one more SSR.  Much more elegant this way.

This lead to not having enough pins for the ebay 8-channel relay board but that didn't plug in nicely with the big ribbon cable anyway, so I changed the header to match a 4-channel one.

Recently when I implemented the Dome control it occurred to me that one might very well need even more I/O to control everything so I added the last two available pins back on an Aux header.

AFAIK OCS4 is done.

Oh yea, even though the Rev4 hardware has more components I think its a bit easier to assemble.  Better layout.

Hi Howard 
So we are now at the version 4 Good job ! My ocs 2 is quite old now LOL but is still working nicely !
Last year i bought some components to build OCS3 but i'm going to consider this new release that seems easier to assemble
The wiki is a very good idea 
Thanks for all
Koal01

On Thu, Apr 14, 2022 at 01:22 PM, koal01 wrote:

The wiki is a very good idea 

And I've started on that now.

Do you have the info. on the current sensors you used?  I'd like to add info to the Wiki about them.

BME280
DHT11
Water Sensor Rainwater Module Rain Detection Module 3.3V-5V
Infrared Thermometer - MLX90614
Sky Quality Meter TLS237

Thanks Fernando, good to know what is in use.

Sorry i didn't see your quesion until now
Here are my sensors :

On Mon, Apr 25, 2022 at 12:47 PM, koal01 wrote:

The bmp 180 combined with the Si071 are a very cheap choice  for temperature, humidity and pressure
In the version 3 i had problem to make the bmp180 work, that's why i turned to the 2.3 i version waiting for a great jump to OCS4 with a Teensy 4.1

I recall that was an issue, not sure why perhaps I should switch to the SFE library.

Anyway there's a LOT more info. in the Wiki here about the OCS now, should answer a lot of questions about what the capabilities are, and what you can do and can not do.

On Mon, Apr 25, 2022 at 12:47 PM, koal01 wrote:

Sorry i didn't see your quesion until now
Here are my sensors :

 Temperature  -> SFE_BMP180

 Barometric Pressure1012 mb -> SFE_BMP180

 Relative Humidity -> Adafruit_Si7021

 Wind Speed -> Modern Devices wind sensor 

 Rain sensorWarn -> classic sensor

 Sky Quality -> Adafruit_TSL2591

 Sky Conditions -> MLX90614

... for some reason I thought you had AC mains current monitoring.

yep the ACS712_V component gives the current used by all the stuff used in OCS, i need to monitor current since my first power supply are solar pannels, very useful,  i really like it.
See the screenshot below. Don't pay attention on the power supplly, it is not wired.
In my setup i added an allsky with DIY cooling system around a T7 camera + a raspberry pi 4, by night the current increases a bit,  i can easy reach 5 A, just 1A are needed during the day

 

you can see this on http://koal01.com, where my OCS is published, it is not my real installation, i added a menu to my Allsky, i tried to do something integrated ...

In terms of specificity i also tried with your help to add a second hot-wire sensor to improve accuracy on the wind sensor, orienting the first one North-south and the second one East-West.
You added a bit of code so that OCS gives the highest value between the sensors, sorry i still havn't found the time to install this, it is my todo list.

To finish I'm not on a roof opening system, mine is a shelter moving on wheels, the automation would be to find a way of opening the two front doors and make the shelter move on its wheels...a future project. It's a short description of my specific use.

Good luck for the wiki

That's what I needed and I've made note of it in the Wiki, thanks!