First time user this is a challenge

[Rotech]

So Iam trying this for the first time and so far it's overwhelming the info you need to feed it. I only have one Rain8 and out of that (for now) I am only using 2 outputs. I tried the basic setup, but I didn't see where you setup the comm port for the rain 8. Do I need to go with the full blast version? Any help is apreciated

[Michael McSharry]

The port selection is the top of the page identified as Rain8, Devices or Interfaces depending upon release year. Figure 9 in the manual provides the visual. Assuming you used the interview for setup, the question for port selection should have been very close to the start of the interview. If you have completed the interview then you can go to the Interfaces/Devices/Rain8 link at the top of any page or from the HS plugin menu and enter the desired port.

You may want to look at setup Scenario 3 in the manual. It walks you through a Rain8Net setup for basic timer control.

[Rotech]

How do I access the manual?

[DrasticAction]

http://mcssprinklers.com/mcsSprinklers.pdf
also found in the .\Docs\mcsSprinklers folder under your mcsSprinklers installation folder

[Rotech]

Micheal, How can I use control strategy so that it can do only water Thursday and Saturday and also using the ET calculater.?

[Michael McSharry]

On the Site or Area setup define an inhibit so that days other than Saturday and Thursday are inhibited. On the Area setup select ET as the control strategy. You also need to do the Weather setup so the data is available to do the ET calculation.

[Rotech]

I got the weather setup up and going, what percentage should I start with on the ET calculater?

[Michael McSharry]

the algorithm is based upon a one inch soil moisture depth. you set the zone duration such that you will fill a one inch container. you set the ET threshold at zero percent. there are also zone factors to customize a zone within an area for shade or soil type.

many want shallower moisture levels so durations are decreased and moisture threshold increased.

as an example I have my main lawn set at 0% and vegetable garden set at 60%.

[Rotech]

the algorithm is based upon a one inch soil moisture depth. you set the zone duration such that you will fill a one inch container. you set the ET threshold at zero percent. there are also zone factors to customize a zone within an area for shade or soil type.

many want shallower moisture levels so durations are decreased and moisture threshold increased.

as an example I have my main lawn set at 0% and vegetable garden set at 60%.

ok so I followed your example in setting the ET to O%, but I kinda confused,what does this mean, that it will turn on Saturday for 70 Min and the other for 100 mins? thats way to long in my opinion. my goal is to have the sprinkler activate if necessary on Thursday and Saturday and for 10 mins. (just for testing purposes), I know I have something incorrect here, any help is apreciated.

[Michael McSharry]

70 and 100 mins is likely what you defined in the Layout or Zone setup to be the auto duration for your two zones. If you want to run for only 10 minutes then change the auto time in Layout or Zone setup. This means that 10 minutes is the duration to provide one inch of water to each of the zones. Each hour mcsSprinklers will calculate the new moisture level in the soil based upon the evaptranspiration calculation and the rainfall that has occurred during the hour. When the net of these two has resulted in the soil moisture going to 0% then it will schedule the next 10 minute cycle. If it is on an inhibited day then it will wait until a day that is not inhibited.

Currently it believes the soil moisture is 50% of that which would exist if one inch of moisture was in the soil. On a sunny summer day you would expect ET to be around 0.3 so it would take about three or four days for the moisture to go from 100% to 0% if there was no rainfall. In the fall the evaptranspiration for a day will be less so it will be longer between cycles.

The Saturday prediction is based upon the ET rate and the inhibits. Since you are just starting the prediction has very little history to base it judgement. It may turn out that your ET is sufficiently low by the time Saturday rolls around there will still be more than 0% moisture and an irrigation cycle will not run. Similarly if rainfall occurs it will delay the cycle. Another piece of information that may be of interest is the Historical ET which is available on the General Status page or HS device. This will give you an idea of what to expect for the ET this time of year and then assess if mcsSprinklers has been setup correctly and the the weather provider is giving good data.

If you purpose is simply to run a 10 minute test on Saturday, then change the Area Setup control strategy to Day-Of_Week with only Saturday selected. This means it is not dependent upon weather. It will still calculate the ET and you can see the trend line on the Zone Status page as well as actual moisture level at other places including HS devices.

[Rotech]

Ok, so I change the auto time to 10 in both the layout and zone setup, now it say 100 min... is this the way it shoulld look?

[Rotech]

Micheal, can you tell me if this is correct please?

[Michael McSharry]

No. It should show 10 minutes. Can you post your Config/mcsSprinklers.ini file so I can see your full setup?

[Rotech]

here you go and thanks for helping.

mcsSprinklers.zip

[Michael McSharry]

I see the same thing as you so I need to look into why status is reporting 100 minutes. It should not affect the actual run time of ten minutes. When I better understand why I will confirm. There are two other things I observed. The Interface page has polling the Rain8Net every minute. I suggest that you will get best results if only poll after command. The second is on Area page where you have radio for ET selected, but have two checks in the Day of Week column. I suspect your intent is to use Day of Week at this time so the radio should have this control option selected.

After looking in to it further it is just a status bug. I have fixed the source so will be in the next submit to updater. It does not affect the running. Only affects the projection reported on that one page.