In this tutorial we want to configure a virtual timer for the RevPi Flat.
The virtual device “RevPiTimer” is available in PiCtory . RevPiTimer is a timer clock that switches on and off to the minute and on a weekly basis. There are 16 switching times available for each RevPiTimer. However, you can also use several RevPiTimer if 16 switching times are not sufficient.
We set the following switching times:
#Timer | Switch on | Switch off | ||
Day | Time | Day | Time | |
1 | Mon – Fri | 7:00 AM | Mon – Fri | 5:00 PM |
2 | Sat | 10:00 AM | Sat | 10:15 AM |
- Open your web browser.
- Go to https://revolutionpi.de/tutorials/downloads
- Unzip the file and follow the instructions in the readme.txt file for installation.
- Enter the IP address of your RevPi Flat in the address bar of your browser.
The logon window opens.
- Log on with the username “admin”.
- Enter your password. You can find it on the sticker on the side of your RevPi Flat.
- Click on “Login”.
You can now see the current device status of your RevPi Flat.
- Click on the “Apps” tab.
- Click on the start button behind the entry “PiCtory” to open PiCtory.
- PiCtory opens.
- Select the virtual device “RevPiTimer” from the device catalog.
- Drag and drop it onto the configuration board.
- Click on “File -> Save as”. This saves the configuration.
- Click on “Tools -> Reset Driver”. This restarts the driver.
Programming the Timer
Each timer consists of a switch-on time and a switch-off time.
Timer | Variable | Function |
|---|---|---|
1 | T1_ON_active_day | Switch on bit field: on days and active or inactive |
1 | T1_ON_hour | Switch on hours 00 to 24 |
1 | T1_ON_minute | Switch on minutes 00 to 59 |
1 | T1_OFF_active_day | Switch off bit field: on days and active or inactive |
1 | T1_OFF_hour | Switch off hours 00 to 24 |
1 | T1_OFF_minute | Switch off minutes 00 to 59 |
2 | T2_ON_active_day | Switch on bit field: on days and active or inactive |
2 | T1_ON_hour | Switch on hours 00 to 24 |
2 | T1_ON_minute | Switch on minutes 00 to 59 |
2 | T1_OFF_active_day | Switch off bit field: on days and active or inactive |
2 | T1_OFF_hour T1_OFF_hour | Switch off hours 00 to 24 |
2 | T1_OFF_minute | Switch off minutes 00 to 59 |
… | ||
16 | T16_ON_active_day | Switch on bit field: on days and active or inactive |
… |
The bit field for days and activation is coded as follows:
T1_ON_active_day und T1_OFF_active_day
Bit | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Value | Active | Sun | Sat | Fri | Thu | Wed | Tue | Mon |
In our example we need to enter the following values:
Timer1
Days: Mon – Fri + activation, time: 7:00 AM till 5:00 PM
Bit | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Value | Active | Sun | Sat | Fri | Thu | Wed | Tue | Mon |
Mon – Fri | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
This results in the binary value “10011111”. This corresponds to the decimal value “159”. This value must be written to the process image later on.
Therefore, following values have to be written into the process image for Timer1:
Variable | Value |
|---|---|
T1_ON_active_day | 159 |
T1_ON_hour | 7 |
T1_ON_minute | 0 |
T1_OFF_active_day | 159 |
T1_OFF_hour | 17 |
T1_OFF_minute | 0 |
You can do this for example using the tool “piTest”. Open the command line.
- Enter the following commands:
piTest –w T1_ON_active_day,159 piTest –w T1_ON_hour,7 piTest –w T1_ON_minute,0 piTest –w T1_OFF_active_day,159 piTest –w T1_OFF_hour,17 piTest –w T1_OFF_minute,0 |
Timer2
Days: Saturday + activation, time: 10:00 AM till 10:15 AM
Bit | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Value | Active | Sun | Sat | Fri | Thu | Wed | Tue | Mon |
Mon – Fri | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
This results in the binary value “10100000”. This corresponds to the decimal value “160”.
Therefore, following values have to be written into the process image for Timer2:
Variable | Value |
|---|---|
T1_ON_active_day | 160 |
T1_ON_hour | 10 |
T1_ON_minute | 0 |
T1_OFF_active_day | 160 |
T1_OFF_hour | 10 |
T1_OFF_minute | 15 |
- Enter the following values in the command line:
piTest –w T2_ON_active_day,160 piTest –w T2_ON_hour,10 piTest –w T2_ON_minute,0 piTest –w T2_OFF_active_day,160 piTest –w T2_OFF_hour,10 piTest –w T2_OFF_minute,15 |
Query Timer Events
The variable “TimerStatus” indicates whether a timer event is currently active. This is a bit field with 16 bits.
If the bit is set, the timer is on. If the bit is not set, the timer is off.
TimerStatus
Bit | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Timer No. | Timer 8 | Timer 7 | Timer 6 | Timer 5 | Timer 4 | Timer 3 | Timer 2 | Timer 1 |
Mon – Fri | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 |
Timer No. | Timer 16 | Timer 15 | Timer 14 | Timer 13 | Timer 12 | Timer 11 | Timer 10 | Timer 9 |
To write a program that responds to Timer1, you can do the following, for example:
Find out where the bit of Timer1 is located in the process image:
piTest -v TimerStatus variable name: TimerStatus offset: 11 length: 16 bit: 0 |
There you go! It is in byte 11, in the first bit!
- Query this bit:
piTest -g 11,0 Get bit 0 at offset 11. Value 0 |
If you only want to output the value without text for processing it in a script, you can simply query it like this:
piTest –q -g 11,0 0 |
Set Timer Inactive
Switching the timer inactive means that the switching times are not overwritten but also not executed.
If you want to disable a timer you can do this by deleting the respective “Active” bit in the variable “T1_ON_active_day” and “T1_OFF_active_day”. It is bit 7.
Find the variables in the process image:
piTest -v T1_ON_active_day variable name: T1_ON_active_day offset: 13 length: 8 bit: 0 piTest -v T1_OFF_active_day variable name: T1_OFF_active_day offset: 16 length: 8 bit: 0 |
The offsets are therefore as follows:
- T1_ON_active_day: 13
- T1_OFF_active_day: 16
- Set switch-on and switch-off time inactive:
piTest -s 16,7,0 Set bit 7 on byte at offset 16. Value 0 piTest -s 13,7,0 Set bit 7 on byte at offset 13. Value 0 |
Variants
You only want to define a switch-on time, but no switch-off time? No problem! Set the “active bit” only at the switch-on time and omit it at the switch-off time.
In the example for Timer1 you can change it like this:
piTest -s 16,7,1 Set bit 7 on byte at offset 16. Value 1 piTest -s 13,7,0 Set bit 7 on byte at offset 13. Value 0 |