HeaterMeter Seems to Keep Rebooting

Hi everyone! I've just completed my first HeaterMeter setup over the past week but have noticed a considerable problem with the behavior.

Help Needed:
Please read the detailed info below and if you can provide any solid feedback, help, or suggestions I would be very very greatful!

Problem:
It seems that my HeaterMeter or possibly the web server service on the HM may be restarting itself.

Behavior:
My heatermeter starts up and I can hit it with my web browser at http://heatermeter.com/devices/
I click the IP link to open the Dashbaord page with the flames and sometimes right after a reboot the Dashboard will come up with no problems. Other times it seems to crash and reboot the heatermeter.

Also if things are running well for a while I can login to the heatermeter with my web browser and start clicking around the configuration screens and often between 1-5 switches/clicks between configuration tabs it or the web server crashes and reboots.

Additionally, when things are up and running and I connect with PitDroid it often crashes/reboots.

I see the display on the heatermeter blink sometime very quickly like when I believe it reboots but don't always catch it.


Attempted Fixes:
Sometimes if I switch the wifi adapter to the 2nd USB port it will become a little more stable for a short period of time but then goes back to being problematic more often than not.

Other Observations:
I don't think it is a wifi adapter issue because the HM seems to keep reporting that it is timing out when attempting to connect at http://heatermeter.com/devices and refreshing until it is back up. Also I have tried two different wifi adapters and it happens with both.

I believe this is a device or web server reboot because I must log back into the web configuration screens when it happens meaning the web session has been killed/invalidated. Also when I refresh the URL http://heatermeter.com/devices/ it takes a few refreshes to pick back up after it crashes even though the device is powered on and reporting information on the physical display.
Finally I think it is a device or web server reboot because it takes about the same amount of time for the http://heatermeter.com/devices/ to come back up and allow me hit the web interfaces again.



My Setup:

[Edit: Power plug is 12V 1A, not 3A]
I am running the a pre-assembled heatermeter from Auberins.com with a 12V 1A power plug. The HM output is going to a Solid State Relay (SSR) rated at 3-32VDC input. This unit will be used to control a rewired electric smoker.


If you have made it this far I commend you. I look forward to anything you guys can offer up and I am excited to figure out this mystery with you. Thanks!

When it's rebooting, is anything connected to the HM, such as the SSR? If so, does it reboot with nothing but the power adapter plugged in?

When did you order it? Auber offers a warranty on the HM's they sell.

Steve_M said:

When it's rebooting, is anything connected to the HM, such as the SSR? If so, does it reboot with nothing but the power adapter plugged in?

When did you order it? Auber offers a warranty on the HM's they sell.

Click to expand...

The SSR is connected to the HM. I noticed earlier that I had a little more success today when I set the HM temp lower than the probe reading so it would not feed the SSR any power.

I ordered maybe about a month or 2 ago.
I just double checked and the power supply I ordered is 12V 1A. I think I'm starved for power.

I will run some tests with just the power adapter plugged in. I am also going to upgrade my power supply to a 12V 3A.

Thanks for the input!

Well I just received my 12V 3A power supply plug and put it in place.
Everything (SSR, wifi, etc.) is hooked up and initial tests show no issues.

I'm repeatedly refreshing the dashboard with the flames which is almost always results in a crash. So far, so good!

I also noticed that everything is responding much much faster!!!

I did a bunch of reading up on the Raspbery Pi 3 and it seems that it is or can be a power hungry device as you hook more and more stuff to it.
I found quite a bit of posts stating that if the Raspberry Pi 3 would/could cause a power consumption spike as devices (like wifi) were kicked into gear and if there wasn't enough power available that spike in consumption (or starvation) would cause a reboot.
This seemed to be a consistent theme. Many solved the problems by moving up above a 1 amp power supply. I went ahead and opted for a 3 amp just to make sure I was well covered.

I will report back if I see any issues as I test further!

You definitely should be good with a 3amp. 2amp would power a 30cfm blower without any issues. Glad to hear you sliced you issue.

- - - Updated - - -

Dam spell correct, lol

Well that is great news and I am glad to hear it was just a power deficiency. Surprising that the Pi3 has such spikes, but I had seen that their recommended 5V adapter to run it was larger than for the other Pis so I guess that makes sense. I will make a note of this in the wiki that the Pi3 should have a larger power supply.

I was also just commenting to a friend that I wish there was a way to find good, consistent 12V power supplies at reasonable prices to be able to recommend them. If you go from no name adapter on Amazon to a known name brand the price jumps from like $8 to $25 which doesn't even make any sense to me.

Has anyone done any testing on those 1A power supplies? Do they actually supply 1A @ 12v? Those 12V SSRs only need 25mA to trigger, so I'm surprised that it would brown out on a legit 1A power supply.

Steve_M said:

Has anyone done any testing on those 1A power supplies? Do they actually supply 1A @ 12v? Those 12V SSRs only need 25mA to trigger, so I'm surprised that it would brown out on a legit 1A power supply.

Click to expand...

I just bought a whole pile of name brand 12V power supplies for testing. I don't haven any 12V chinacheap specials here that reboot though, that would be fun to test. I've posted some findings about just how much power a HeaterMeter uses too. I find it surprising that a 1A supply can't keep up.

Can you provide some info on your SSR, Carl? I'd love to try some testing with one.

Bryan Mayland said:

I just bought a whole pile of name brand 12V power supplies for testing. I don't haven any 12V chinacheap specials here that reboot though, that would be fun to test. I've posted some findings about just how much power a HeaterMeter uses too. I find it surprising that a 1A supply can't keep up.

Can you provide some info on your SSR, Carl? I'd love to try some testing with one.

Click to expand...

Sorry for the delay.

I am using a Auber 25Amp 3-32VDC SSR, with input current of 3-25mA. Here is the link.
http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_30&products_id=9


Also here is the cheapo DIKOO 1A 12VDC adapter/power supply I used when things were failing:
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B01HMCLBS8/tvwb-20


Finally, here is the Eleidgs 12v 3a Plug Power Supply that solved my problem:
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B01M6C3OMJ/tvwb-20



I will continue to check back more often.

Also, things are still working well with the HM. Though I have burned through two 20A cheapo rocker switches in my controller box. I broke down and got a 100A marine toggle switch/breaker to handle any lamp load, continuous current, etc. type of situations that were causing those cheapo switches to melt down lol. I think the problem with the switches were that they were poor chinese made junk because my 15A inline fuse never blew so I don't think there was an inrush of amperage, just continuous current that the switch couldn't handle proving that it's rating was nonsense and construction was poor.

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000MMFJWK/tvwb-20

Thanks for the input John.

I'm not going to a fan, I have this HM sending signal to a SSR for switching off/on juice to a 1200 watt electric heating element. The SSR signal power should be very low but everything together with that 1A power supply seemed to just not be enough to be stable.