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  • Author Author: ralphjy
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Irrigation Sprinkler Controller - GUI Design

ralphjy
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GUI Initial Mockup in Powerpoint

I started designing the GUI by doing a cartoon layout of the different elements on a Powerpoint slide.  This gave me a visual prototype to follow as I coded the GUI layout.

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The following is a capture of the GUI running in a VNC window on the RPi.  I'll use this initial setup to get the hardware and cloud interfaces working.  I'll need to come back and update it after I've used it for a while.

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The following is a photo of the actual screen just for reference.  I need to figure out how to get better focus and exposure with my camera.  You can see the Desktop behind the GUI window.  I intend to run the GUI without the Desktop but I haven't worked that part out yet (I'll need some form of Xwindows running).

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GUI elements used

 

Mode Control

The mode selection is implemented as a Radiobutton.  The modes are mutually exclusive so selecting one deselects the others.

  • Auto mode - runs the displayed schedule
  • Off mode - doesn't run (for rainy days - without changing schedule)
  • Run once - runs once through all zones and returns to previous mode (Auto or Off)

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14 day schedule

The day selection is implemented as a regular Button.  Within a 2 week time frame any or all days can be selected.  The button turns green when selected.

The day indicator is also implemented as a Button.  It turns yellow to indicate the current day and is blank for other days.

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Start time

The Start time selector is implemented as a Spinbox.  It contains contains values from midnight to 11:30pm in 30 minute increments in 24hr time.  I wanted to be able to set this time using the touchscreen so I used a Spinbox so that I would not have to implement a keyboard for input.  I am having some issues with "bounce" (increment or decrement more than 1 value) so I may need to use a different element if I can't debounce it in software.

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Zone Duration

The Zone duration is implemented as a Scale (slider).  It can select any value from 0 - 60 minutes.  I'll probably change the Zone button color to show that the zone is active.  Maybe move the slider to indicate remaining time.

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Current time

The Time display is implemented as a Label.  There isn't a synchronous way to update this value so I'll need to use a separate timer.  I may reformat how this displays and probably won't display seconds.

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Reset

Reset is implemented as a Button.  Always red.  I haven't decided on the exact functionality.  This may just cause a reboot of the RPi.  I may also need to add a Shutdown button in addition to a physical power switch.

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  • Visual scheduler, graphical scheduler, irrigation scheduler, light scheduler, wifi scheduler, sprinkler scheduler

  • in reply to ralphjy

    Ralph,

     

    I am a big fan of tabbed controls.  It is a good way to hide complexity and to declutter a screen.

     

    Good luck on your project and the GUI.

     

    Gene

  • Very good stuff!  I'm embarking on a similar project for this summer.  I look forward to seeing your solution.

     

    -Sean

  • in reply to genebren

    Hi Gene,

     

    It is amazing how complex controlling 4 sprinkler valves can become.  At least the hardware part is straightforward.  The good news about implementing with a microcontroller/sbc is that the control logic can be reprogrammed as required.  The hard part as you point out is how to represent the controls and status on the GUI.  I'm thinking that for my second phase that I might use multiple tabbed windows.  The first window for status, manual control, and mode selection and individual windows for programming each zone.  That way I could also implement the control modes that you mention and make the controls context sensitive.  Probably drive my wife crazy.

     

    As an aside, now that I'm trying to configure the Cayenne Cloud Dashboard I'm discovering how difficult it is to use generic widgets to implement the equivalent of my GUI.  I'm sure as these cloud platforms evolve that they will allow much more customization.

     

    Thanks for the input.  Maybe I'll need a weather information window also image

     

    Ralph

  • Ralph,

     

    Nice update on your sprinkler controller GUI.  Sometimes a simple thing like watering can get very complex.  I have worked on a very high end irrigation system, that integrated weather information and vegetation needs to try an minimize what usage. Needless to say, the more you attempt to do the more complex the GUI gets.  A couple of things that I remember customers asking for were the ability to run multiple short bursts throughout an interval to prevent runoff.  A twenty minute cycle might need 5 minutes on and 5 minutes off to allow the water to soak deeper.  Either that, or a way to define shorter schedules for each station and then a repeat count for the number of times that the short schedules are repeated.   Another thing that came up often was the need for longer schedule times for drip based stations.  We use some drip emitters that flow at 1 gallon/hour.  We sometimes run these for a couple of hours.

     

    Just some ideas.

     

    Good luck!

    Gene