webcontrol dies (LED red)

[bbrendon]

I have a Webcontrol v03.02.17 and it dies after being on for awhile. It happens within a few hours of power-cycling it. When it's unresponsive, the red LED is on solid, the green LED is off, and it doesn't respond to ping. I'm supplying it with 9v. There is one temp sensor and one humidity senor connected to it.
 
Any ideas what might be wrong?

 

[CAI_Support]

If you have a volt meter, please measure the big voltage regulator to see what voltage that output, is that steady 5V?
In any case, please send it back, we will repair or replace it for you.

 

[CAI_Support]

Thanks for your email to our support.  From your email, you indicated that board would work once the temp sensor removed. If that is case, please try to use a different temp sensor first.  In WebControl, there is one CPU running single thread. If the temp sensor gone bad, it could cause the CPU busy with that bad sensor and never able to finish communication with that chip.  Due to 1-wire communication protocol, we have to disable interrupt during talking to the temp sensor, bad sensor could cause CPU spend all its time in that one section of code.
 
If removed all the I/O still having problem, please do send it back to us to the address on our web site.

 

[bbrendon]

Do all three of the temp sensor wires have to be in series or just the center (#2 pin) one?

 

[rossw]

Do all three of the temp sensor wires have to be in series or just the center (#2 pin) one?

 
If you're using DS18B20 sensors, all of them must have all 3 pins connected in a parallel bus.
 
So the WC temp connector pin 1 must go to ALL the DS18B20 sensors Gnd pin
The WC temp connector pin 2 must go to ALL the DS18B20 sensors data pin
The WC temp connector pin 3 must go to ALL the DS18B20 sensors +V pin.
 
*ANY* connection other than this is *WRONG*

 

[bbrendon]

If you're using DS18B20 sensors, all of them must have all 3 pins connected in a parallel bus.
 
So the WC temp connector pin 1 must go to ALL the DS18B20 sensors Gnd pin
The WC temp connector pin 2 must go to ALL the DS18B20 sensors data pin
The WC temp connector pin 3 must go to ALL the DS18B20 sensors +V pin.
 
*ANY* connection other than this is *WRONG*

Yes. I understand all 3 wires have to be connected. My question is which ones need to be series/daisy chained. From what I understand, you can't do a star topology. Does this star topology apply to all the wires or just the data wire or some other combination? 
 
Sorry, I'm not sure what the wiring of a parallel bus is. I googled it, but didn't come up with anything simple to understand.

 

[rossw]

Yes. I understand all 3 wires have to be connected. My question is which ones need to be series/daisy chained. From what I understand, you can't do a star topology. Does this star topology apply to all the wires or just the data wire or some other combination? 
 
Sorry, I'm not sure what the wiring of a parallel bus is. I googled it, but didn't come up with anything simple to understand.

 

Yes. I understand all 3 wires have to be connected. My question is which ones need to be series/daisy chained. From what I understand, you can't do a star topology. Does this star topology apply to all the wires or just the data wire or some other combination? 
 
Sorry, I'm not sure what the wiring of a parallel bus is. I googled it, but didn't come up with anything simple to understand.

 
Star topology is claimed to be the least desirable, but it works.
Bus topology is claimed to be preferred, but it still has limitations.
BOTH Star and Bus are electrically identical.
 
EVERY DS18B20 MUST HAVE Gnd connnected to EVERY OTHER DS18B20 Gnd pin AND to the WC Gnd (pin 1)
 
EVERY DS18B20 MUST HAVE its DATA pin connected to EVERY OTHER DS18B20 DATA pin AND the WC data (pin 2)
 
EVERY DS18B20 MUST HAVE a nominal 5V supply to its +V pin, readily available on the WC at pin 3. So if you're using the WC to power all the sensors,
EVERY DS18B20 MUST HAVE its +V pin connected to EVERY OTHER DS18B10 +V pin AND the WC +5V (pin 3)

 

[bbrendon]

Star topology is claimed to be the least desirable, but it works.
Bus topology is claimed to be preferred, but it still has limitations.
BOTH Star and Bus are electrically identical.

If one is desired over the other, then are they electrically identical?
 
Anyway, it seems my question isn't communicating...
I'm trying to do the bus topology but use less wire. Do all of the pins have to be in the bus topology for it to work correctly? Or can some pins be in star topology and some in bus topology and still get the ideal operation?
 
Does that make sense?

 

[rossw]

If one is desired over the other, then are they electrically identical?
 
Anyway, it seems my question isn't communicating...
I'm trying to do the bus topology but use less wire. Do all of the pins have to be in the bus topology for it to work correctly? Or can some pins be in star topology and some in bus topology and still get the ideal operation?
 
Does that make sense?

 
In DC terms, they are identical. Its only the way reflections and impeadance mismatches affect dynamic signals.
However if you're not "getting" the differences in the bus, going to such esoteric things as standing waves is not going to help
 
Draw a picture of what you're trying to do so we can visualise it.
I can't think of any way apart from what I've described, that you could possibly attempt to connect and still maintain any sort of bus.

 

[bbrendon]

This is going to b
 

In DC terms, they are identical. Its only the way reflections and impeadance mismatches affect dynamic signals.
However if you're not "getting" the differences in the bus, going to such esoteric things as standing waves is not going to help
 
Draw a picture of what you're trying to do so we can visualise it.
I can't think of any way apart from what I've described, that you could possibly attempt to connect and still maintain any sort of bus.

Draw? Hahahha. Okay, this will be interesting.
http://imgur.com/L9Up6LN
 
 
Notice pin2 is the only one in a bus topology. Pin1 and Pin3 are in some random star/bus topology.
 
Which situation is the picture? The ideal situation or the non-ideal situation? I'd like to do something like the picture and still be in the ideal situation.

 

[rossw]

This is going to b
 
Draw? Hahahha. Okay, this will be interesting.
http://imgur.com/7sMrq8G
 
Notice pin2 is the only one in a bus topology. Pin1 and Pin3 are in some random star/bus topology.
 
Which situation is the picture? The ideal situation or the non-ideal situation? I'd like to do something like the picture and still be in the ideal situation.

 
OK, that conveyed enough information
 
How long are these runs?
 
If it's anything more than "trivial" distances then FORGET IT.
Go and get some proper wire. We're talking about very fast pulses up and down the bus. The impedance and reflections you will get could do just about anything!

 

[bbrendon]

OK, that conveyed enough information
 
How long are these runs?
 
If it's anything more than "trivial" distances then FORGET IT.
Go and get some proper wire. We're talking about very fast pulses up and down the bus. The impedance and reflections you will get could do just about anything!

Thanks.
My creativity is a no go!??! lol.
Fine. At least I got the answer before doing it wrong a second time.

 

[CAI_Support]

Run all three wires together has some advantage, that is to reduce the noise from surrounding to get into pin 2 wire. A lot of people using cat 5 cable, with pin 2 and ground in the same pair.