Toasted Building Autotmation Hat?

[FlaMike]

I've been running a Nixie with REMChem for about 1-1/2 years. Yesterday, everything appeared to be normal with my system. This morning, I noticed the Intellichlor cell did not have any LEDs illuminated. Oh crud, not a blown salt cell... I did a hard reboot of everything--pumps, heater, lights. controller, etc. No love :-(

Nixie appeared to be running, so I thought I'd check REM. However, REM is not accessible via its URL. Oh crud. I'm running a headless system, so I SSH'd into the Pi & ran PM2 ls, all of the software was running and appeared to be normal.

The Pi stack has, in order, a Pi3B+, Sequent Fan controller HAT, Sequent Building Automation HAT, and a Sequent Relay HAT. The Pi is using an SSD via the USB port, not a microSD card. The Pi appears to boot normally and the Relay HAT's LEDs are illuminated, so power, at least, is feeding through the entire stack. The system uses Ethernet, not WiFi. The stack has not been touched for months. I did notice a red LED on the "bottom" of the Building Automation HAT flashes red when the stack is powered up. I have no idea what it means, however.

The pool is a pretty basic one body system with a gas heater, Polaris cleaner, lights, a salt cell, acid pump, with water temperature probe, air temperature probe, A-S pH probe, A-S ORP probe, and a flow switch. Pretty much the generic system implemented as in the Wiki (from a cannibalized ET for the relays, breakers, & pumps).

The Pi's I2C is enabled and the addresses of the I2C goodies all appear when I query the Pi.

Did the Building Automation HAT bite the dust? Are there any diagnostics I can run & ways to reset the boards? Is there anything I can do to isolate the problem other than replacing the HATs one by one & keeping my fingers crossed?

Thanks for your thoughts & suggestions!

[FlaMike]

Holy smokes! I put a backup microSD card in the Pi & disconnected the USB drive & wham! Nixie is happy again & REM is online. Who would think the SSD would poop out to be saved by a micro SD backup?

[tagyoureit]

These go bad more often than we'd all like, unfortunately.

[FlaMike]

So frustrating--I really had no idea why REM was running according to PM2 but it was inaccessible. I was ready to get another building automation hat & decided I'd drop a backup microSD in the slot for giggles. Happy again on that front, but scratching my head on the failure. I was able to clone everything back onto the SSD & the verify the copy. No thunderstorms or outages & the poolcontroller & dashpanel were both happy--given there was no REM to talk to.

Now I'm focusing on the pH probe. Yesterday it claimed the pH was 1.7 when it tested as over 8 with a Taylor kit. It's now reporting 8.2 & Taylor says it's about 7.8. I'll try to re calibrate it, but I fear it's pooped out, too. Less than 1-1/2 years in service & it's been flaky for months. I didn't care when it wasn't swim season, but that's about to change. I cleaned it a few months ago without any improved results. It's an A-S industrial model in which they installed the SMA connector.

Oh, the joys of swimming pools :-)

[tagyoureit]

That's disappointing. The life expectancy of the industrial probes are 4+ years. You may want to contact them first before ordering a new one.

[FlaMike]

Good suggestion! I will certainly do so. They were very helpful & accommodating when I was having issues with the ORP probe. After they realized I had a salt water pool, they told me about the new gold ORP probes & gave me a generous discount since I had recently purchased the platinum probe that never worked for me. I'll let you know how things play out.

[FlaMike]

I contacted A-S late Friday afternoon. Jordan, who has been amazingly helpful in the past got back to me within a few hours. He suggested the instability of the probe readings may be caused by the connectors being exposed to high humidity > 65%. We've certainly been experiencing humidity levels exceeding 65% for some time. It's not usual in this area, especially in the winter months.

Jordan explained the humidty could cause high impedence at the connector(s) and short the signals at the probe. He said this can occur on twisted pair connectors as well as SMA connectors. He then suggested carefully cleaning & drying the connectors may solve the problem.

So, I ordered some 100% isopropyl alcohol, microfiber (lint-free) swabs, and a can of compressed air for electronics. They should arrive within a day or two. I'll give it a shot & hope for the best. Of course, in addition to the omnipresent fog, rain is expected for the next few days :-(

More to follow...