Bdtjtk

The electric gates are simply not doing what the code is stating to do. Relay flickering issues, NODE MCU becoming unresponsive and not performing what is meant to happen.

This is for controlling electric gates from multiple phones using the Blynk app.

The setup of the board includes using relays which will be switched on and off to control power going to each of the two gates and changing the direction of the power which inverts the gates directional position, I'm also using a shift register to control signals being sent to the gates as there aren't enough pins on the NODE MCU (I have included at the top of the code in comments of which pin from the shift register does what).

I have tried this system on a much smaller scale which only included using one gate arm to test if the code would work and it did, I then expanded onto the code to include both of the gates - this included having to add additional logic to allow one gate to continue opening/closing if the other gate has already reached its destination (the destination/endpoint of each gate is determined by a button on either end of each of the motors which when the corresponding button is pressed it will then allow the logic to see the state change, this does work however, it does flick the relays on and off and will stop power going to both sides of the gates even if one hasn't reached its destination yet.

#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>

#include <BlynkSimpleEsp8266.h>



// Shift Regsiter

// 2 - Power Supply

// 3 - Gate Left Power

// 4 - Gate Right Power

// 6 - Gate Switch

// 7 - LEDs



// Button stoppers

int btnLeftStopperOpened = D5;

int btnLeftStopperClosed = D6;

int btnRightStopperOpened = D7;

int btnRightStopperClosed = D3;



int btnLeftStopperOpenedState = LOW;

int btnLeftStopperClosedState = LOW;

int btnRightStopperOpenedState = LOW;

int btnRightStopperClosedState = LOW;



// Shift register pins

int latchPin = D0;

int clockPin = D1;

int dataPin = D2;

byte data = 0b00000000;



// WiFi details

char auth = "0a5a18c1a9f2457eb842013ec8f5fef3";

char ssid = "SKYCEDB2";

char pass = "LVDLBSBQSC";



// Blynk digital LED

WidgetLED indicatorLED(V3);



// Button booleans

bool openGateBool = false;

bool closeGateBool = false;

bool emergencyStopBool = false;



void setup() {

  Serial.begin(9600);

  Blynk.begin(auth, ssid, pass);



  // Inputs

  pinMode(btnLeftStopperOpened, INPUT);

  pinMode(btnLeftStopperClosed, INPUT);

  pinMode(btnRightStopperOpened, INPUT);

  pinMode(btnRightStopperClosed, INPUT);



  // Outputs

  pinMode(latchPin, OUTPUT);

  pinMode(clockPin, OUTPUT);

  pinMode(dataPin, OUTPUT);



  // Clear Shift Register

  bitClear(data, 2);

  bitClear(data, 3);

  bitClear(data, 4);

  bitClear(data, 6);

  bitClear(data, 7);

  digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, data);

  digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

}



// Blynk virtual buttons

BLYNK_WRITE(V0) {

  openGateBool = !openGateBool;

}



BLYNK_WRITE(V1) {

  closeGateBool = !closeGateBool;

}



BLYNK_WRITE(V2) {

  emergencyStopBool = !emergencyStopBool;

}



void loop() {

  Blynk.run();



  // Detect Button States

  btnLeftStopperOpenedState = digitalRead(btnLeftStopperOpened);

  btnRightStopperOpenedState = digitalRead(btnRightStopperOpened);

  btnLeftStopperClosedState = digitalRead(btnLeftStopperClosed);

  btnRightStopperClosedState = digitalRead(btnRightStopperClosed);



  // Stability Delay

  delay(10);



  // Open gate function

  if((openGateBool == true) && (closeGateBool == false)) {



    // Initial Gate Check

    if((btnLeftStopperOpenedState == LOW) && (btnRightStopperOpenedState == LOW)) {

      bitSet(data, 2);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

      shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, data);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

    }



    // If both gates are opened

    if((btnLeftStopperOpenedState == HIGH) && (btnRightStopperOpenedState == HIGH)) {

      bitClear(data, 2);

      bitClear(data, 3);

      bitClear(data, 4);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

      shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, data);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);



      // Blynk LED indicator

      Blynk.setProperty(V3, "color", "#23C48E");

      indicatorLED.on();

    }



    // Left Gate Opening

    if(btnLeftStopperOpenedState == LOW) {

      bitSet(data, 3);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

      shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, data);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

    } else {

      bitClear(data, 3);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

      shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, data);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

    }



    // Right Gate Opening

    if(btnRightStopperOpenedState == LOW) {

      bitSet(data, 4);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

      shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, data);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

    } else {

      bitClear(data, 4);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

      shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, data);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

    }



    // Emergency Stop button

    if(emergencyStopBool == true) {

      bitClear(data, 2);

      bitClear(data, 3);

      bitClear(data, 4);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

      shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, data);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);



      // Blynk LED indicator

      Blynk.setProperty(V3, "color", "#D3435C");

      indicatorLED.on();

      delay(900);

      indicatorLED.off();

      delay(900);

    }

  }



  // Close gate function

  if((openGateBool == false) && (closeGateBool == true)) {



    // Initial Gate Check

    if((btnLeftStopperClosedState == LOW) && (btnRightStopperClosedState == LOW)) {

      bitSet(data, 2);

      bitSet(data, 6);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

      shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, data);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

    }



    // If both gates are closed

    if((btnLeftStopperClosedState == LOW) && (btnRightStopperClosedState == LOW)) {

      bitClear(data, 2);

      bitClear(data, 3);

      bitClear(data, 4);

      bitClear(data, 6);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

      shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, data);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);



      // Blynk LED indicator

      Blynk.setProperty(V3, "color", "#D3435C");

      indicatorLED.on();

    }



    // Left Gate Closing

    if(btnLeftStopperClosedState == LOW) {

      bitSet(data, 3);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

      shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, data);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

    } else {

      bitClear(data, 3);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

      shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, data);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

    }



    // Right Gate Closing

    if(btnRightStopperClosedState == LOW) {

      bitSet(data, 4);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

      shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, data);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

    } else {

      bitClear(data, 4);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

      shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, data);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

    }



    // Emergency Stop button

    if(emergencyStopBool == true) {

      bitClear(data, 2);

      bitClear(data, 3);

      bitClear(data, 4);

      bitClear(data, 6);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

      shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, data);

      digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);



      // Blynk LED indicator

      Blynk.setProperty(V3, "color", "#D3435C");

      indicatorLED.on();

      delay(900);

      indicatorLED.off();

      delay(900);

    }

  }



  // Checks gate status

  if((btnLeftStopperClosedState == LOW) && (btnRightStopperClosedState == LOW) && (btnLeftStopperOpenedState == LOW) && (btnRightStopperOpenedState == LOW)) {

    indicatorLED.off();

  }



  // Checks if both buttons are false

  if((openGateBool == false) && (closeGateBool == false)) {

    bitClear(data, 2);

    bitClear(data, 3);

    bitClear(data, 4);

    bitClear(data, 6);

    digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

    shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, data);

    digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

  }



  // Emergency Stop button

  if(emergencyStopBool == true) {

    bitClear(data, 2);

    bitClear(data, 3);

    bitClear(data, 4);

    bitClear(data, 6);

    digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

    shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, data);

    digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);



    // Blynk LED indicator

    Blynk.setProperty(V3, "color", "#D3435C");

    indicatorLED.on();

    delay(900);

    indicatorLED.off();

    delay(900);

  }



} // END //

When the OPEN button on the Blynk app is pressed the code performs a check to see if the OPEN state buttons are set to HIGH - if not then it turns on the power supply, another check is performed which will control each gates power delivery until it reaches its destination, once it has reached the destination it will stop. The same is meant to happen for the CLOSE button on the Blynk app but with the inclusion of turning the switch on along with the power supply. There is also an emergency stop button which allows for the button to be pressed in the Blynk app to shutdown everything.

• Instead what happens is one button works (I Have verified to insure the virtual pin is correct)




• The emergency button doesn't stop




• If one gate reaches its destination it stops both gates instead of just the one




• The relays keep flickering on and off while the destination goal has been reached by either gate




• NODE MCU sometimes locks itself up