User-mode and Kernel-mode driver for Opto-TRIAC HAT
Board can be purchased online:
- eBay - International buyers
- MercadoLibre - Argentina
Opto-TRIAC board is not a toy for begginers. Despite all precautory measures taken into account during design stage, board works with AC mains. So, improper mounting or touching live parts of the board while it is plugged in can lead to electrocution, serious injury or death.
- It is expected that you already have some experience with Raspberry Pi.
- Only 40-pin GPIO header supported. HAT will not work with old 26-pin header.
- Due to multi-threaded Kernel module driver, only Quad-core ARM processors are supported, that means this driver will only work on Raspberry Pi 2 model B or better.
Installation support is based on official Raspbian Buster Lite image. It can be downloaded on the following link:
https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian_lite_latest
For instructions on how to write the image to the SD card read the following link:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/README.md
WAIT!!: Before booting the Raspi with your freshly downloaded Raspbian image, we need to do some minor changes.
Mount the SD card on your PC/Laptop computer and create an empty file named ssh inside boot partition of SD card. If that file is not present, SSH won't be enabled on boot time, so we will have no access to our headless Raspi.
Ensure your Raspi has a working Internet connection. I prefer cabled one so don't have to mess with WiFi passwords.
Boot your Raspi and wait till it finishes doing all stuff (rezising partition, etc).
You will need to know your Raspberry Pi IP address. Either assign a static IP based on Raspi MAC address or check your router's DHCP pool to see what IP got assigned.
Login (SSH) to your Raspi and perform packages update and upgrades (Reboot after upgrade):
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
NOTE: Do not perform rpi-update. There is no need to do that, and it can f*ck up Kernel
Power off Raspi. Mount Opto-TRIAC HAT on top of Raspberry Pi. Use supplied 40-pin header extender, 20mm nylon hex-spacers, nylon nuts and nylon bolts. DO NOT USE metallic spacers, or shorter ones. You can also mount HAT next to Raspberry Pi, connecting them with a 40-pin ribbon cable.
Power on Raspberry Pi. Login again and check if HAT was properly autodetected:
cat /proc/device-tree/triacboard/product
Output should read:
Quad Opto-TRIAC board
If triacboard/product does not exist, it means HAT was not detected during boot-up.
Things to check in that case:
-
Are JSDA1 and JSCL1 on place?
-
If still not working, check this link: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=108134
-
Check that no other peripherals are messing with I²C-0 bus
-
Check for proper HAT header contact
-
Check if EEPROM is properly soldered to HAT PCB
You will need to compile from sources, sorry for that. But it's quite easy.
Install Kernel headers and build tools:
sudo apt install raspberrypi-kernel-headers build-essential git
Now clone Git repository:
git clone https://github.com/vpreatoni/triacd.git
cd triacd/
Start building the easy part: the user-mode triacd daemon (Install script will also create a systemd entry, so everytime your Raspi starts up, daemon will be automatically loaded):
make
sudo make install
Now the hard thing, kernel modules (do not proceed to sudo make install if make was not successfull. Module compilation must be a clean and straight forward process, otherwise you can f*ck up things):
cd modules
make
sudo make install
Plug in your HAT to AC mains.
Reboot Raspi with sudo reboot command. After boot up, login (SSH) again and run:
dmesg
Last lines should read something like:
[ 12.232407] AC LINE: optocoupler hysteresis = 289us
[ 12.232457] AC LINE: ready
[ 19.009843] TRIAC1: GPIO 06 - /sys/triacd/TRIAC1
[ 19.010330] TRIAC1: ready
[ 19.839931] TRIAC2: GPIO 13 - /sys/triacd/TRIAC2
[ 19.840728] TRIAC2: ready
[ 19.876487] TRIAC3: GPIO 19 - /sys/triacd/TRIAC3
[ 19.880765] TRIAC3: ready
[ 19.912769] TRIAC4: GPIO 26 - /sys/triacd/TRIAC4
[ 19.913193] TRIAC4: ready
That means your HAT was successfully detected on boot-up!
- AC LINE phase feedback input was detected and optocoupler successfully calibrated
- TRIAC1 to 4 outputs were detected, and they are user-accesible on
/sys/triac/TRIAC1-4sysfs node
triacd daemon should automatically start every time Raspi boots-up.
To test if daemon is running:
service triacd status
Output:
● triacd.service - Opto-TRIAC board daemon
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/triacd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat 2019-09-28 00:04:46 -03; 20min ago
Main PID: 279 (triacd)
Tasks: 1 (limit: 2200)
Memory: 948.0K
CGroup: /system.slice/triacd.service
└─279 /usr/local/bin/triacd
Sep 28 00:04:46 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started Opto-TRIAC board daemon.
To stop daemon:
service triacd stop
To start it again:
service triacd start
triacd daemon can be used in stand-alone mode to send commands thru a message queue to running daemon.
Stand-alone executable do not need root privileges to send commands, so any high level API can call triacd with apropiate parameters to control TRIAC channels.
For usage info, run triacd -?
Examples:
triacd -c4 -f -t5000 -p110 to start fading channel 4 for 5sec up to 110deg
triacd -c1 -p110 -n30 to set channel 1 to 110deg positive / 30deg negative
triacd -c2 to turn off channel 2
triacd -c3 -t3000 to turn off channel 3 after 3sec **TODO, still not working
triacd -c1 -t20000 -p180 to fully turn on channel 1 after 20sec **TODO, still not working
Please contact me at "my GitHub user" at gmail dot com
- Victor Preatoni - https://github.com/vpreatoni
This project is licensed under the GPL License