How to drive the water valve on Port Interface Board

Shuai

Dear Josh,
Thanks for your work!
I try to test my Port Interface Poard, and the sma code like this:
WATER_DURATION = 5.0;
TIMEOUT_SEC = 0.1;
sma = NewStateMachine();

sma = AddState(sma, 'Name', 'WaitForInput', ...
'Timer', TIMEOUT_SEC, ...
'StateChangeConditions', {'Tup', 'Reward'}, ...
'OutputActions', {});

sma = AddState(sma, 'Name', 'Reward', ...
'Timer', WATER_DURATION, ...
'StateChangeConditions', {'Tup', 'Reward_Off'}, ...
'OutputActions', {'Valve1', 1});

sma = AddState(sma, 'Name', 'Reward_Off', ...
'Timer', 0.1, ...
'StateChangeConditions', {'Tup', 'exit'}, ...
'OutputActions', {'Valve1', 0});

SendStateMachine(sma);
RawEvents = RunStateMachine;
The Valve had no response, but the LED lighted on. Was the name of 'Valve1' right? I tried to get the name from Bpod System Info Board.
Looking forward to your reply!

Josh

Hello Shuai,

Your code looks like it should work.
Is the 12VDC wall adapter plugged into the state machine? The adapter supplies power to the valves, while the rest of the machine is run on USB power.

Josh

Shuai

Perhaps I've identified part of the reason: the state machine or other modules require an input voltage range of 12–24V DC, so I equipped the system with a 24V switching power supply. However, this water valve's input voltage is 12V, and it may have burned out long ago. Building on this, I tested pins 6 and 7 of Behavior Port1 (or pins 23+24 of the ISO1H815GAUMA1 device) with an oscilloscope. The voltage consistently hovered around 19V. I executed the state machine to attempt modifying the water valve's control state, but there was no response. I verified the input voltage at the power jack was indeed 24V. This is very strange!

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Shuai

Without an Ethernet cable inserted into Port1, I proceeded with the following tests: The Vbb of the ISO1H815GAUMA1 chip is 24V, but pins 23 and 24 consistently measured 19V.

Shuai

Among the five channels, only the second channel outputs 24V（pin21&22 of ISO1H815GAUMA1）; the others all output 19V. Except for the first port, no load has ever been connected to the other ports. This chip may have a quality issue. Additionally, could you confirm that the command to drive the water valve on the port interface board is indeed ‘Valve1’? Because I couldn't change the output voltage.

Josh

Hello Shuai,

You'll measure a voltage across the valve terminals if a valve is not connected - this is a normal byproduct of the "leakage output current" noted in the ISO1H815GAUMA1 datasheet. If you connect a valve and measure again, you should see 0V while the valve is closed, and 24V while it's open.

Please let me know if you see something different!

Thanks,
Josh

Shuai

Thank you, Josh!
The issue had been solved as mentioned in the other discussion.