Prior day value, display shows 5E+21 and the watering after prior day rainfall.

[Richard]

Hello Michael,

Wanted to track down the display and possible issue of over-watering on Area 5 that I captured with this screen shot.

I wanted to have watering adjusted, based on prior day(s) rainfall but cannot enter a value, for example .5 inches for 1 day prior.

Does my screen shot indicate a configured value, show a prior day issue. (5E+21)

Why this does seem to over water? Not sure since this is hard to verify.



Thank you,

[Michael McSharry]

Cleaned up in 2.19.7.1 which is at http://mcsSprinklers.com/mcsSprinkle...19_7_1_HS3.zip. You will need the following two files to replace those in your HS folder
MCSSPRINKLERS_2009.dll and either
HSPI_MCSSPRINKLERSP.exe or HSPI_MCSSPRINKLERSS.exe
Some other files have been recently updated, but you can get those the next time you download from updater.

I Don't know your setup to answer the overwater question. If it is based upon ET then look at the graphic on the Zone Status page to see rate of moisture loss. You could also look at the history calendar for ET/UV/Temp to see if they seem reasonable. The trigger for the ET on the Area page may also be too high.

[Richard]

I will download the files and check.


Next to a larger problem I am having. Scheduled watering does not occur?

No watering on Area 1 using calculated ET set to 45 %

Area 2 does water scheduled. Area 2 shows moisture values in normal range.

I am seeing -93 % moisture value today the 28th on Area 1 zone Z2.
No watering on calendar. Sprinkler zones show moisture % dropping and appears trigger set to 45 % is not used?


Area screen, is using calculated ET set to 45% as trigger on # Area 1 .
Below Z2 moisture is -100%
and Area trigger ET is 45 %
Show projected tomorrow 2:00 AM then review, 2nd screen shot


1 See following posts for whole picture.

[Michael McSharry]

I seems like you have an inhibit in Area 1 that is preventing irrigation. The General Status or Touch pages show the inhibits. The Debug log also contains this information if you have debug enabled.

[Richard]

On the area page the label - Program Time was empty. Since that is the Start Time = no area 1 start.
I will update files for the other issue.

Thank you for your help.

[Richard]

Version 2.19.7.1 | V2.19.7.1/2.19.7.1 (Professional)
The version -

Web:2.19.9.1

8/30/2019 12:00:04 AM

From Other updater will not update to 2.19.9.1 but only the manual file movement you suggested goes to version = 2.19.7.1 Is this a know issue or how do I get to 2.19.7.1 if that makes a difference?

On the no water issue of Area 1 only - I can use your help please.

Tested the setup today, well I was hopeful last post, and that did not work...
Below shows moisture, and inhibits for Area 1 2 3.





Captured multiple notify locations pages of suggestions to check, that you posted. Not sure they tell a story from what I see?

Area 1 Notify is displayed?



on touch page.

and Auto page says no watering for a long time. Over 1 Week (Front is the only issue I am working on)






Debug Log
Searched for inhibit at 2PM and results

Aug-30 09:48:25

mcsSprinklers

Sprinklers now inhibited due to: Inhibit Time 912 mins Area 1

Aug-30 09:35:34

mcsSprinklers

Sprinklers now inhibited due to: Inhibit Time 925 mins Area 1

Aug-30 08:56:16

mcsSprinklers

Sprinklers now inhibited due to: Inhibit Time 964 mins Area 1

Aug-30 08:48:28

mcsSprinklers

Sprinklers now inhibited due to: Inhibit Time 972 mins Area 1

What in debug do I look for? Not seeing inhibit terminology that points to the condition that is stopping a watering event to start?

Moisture is at 0, -36, -36 ... on Area 1 zones (Front location). Manually updated this to 5 % from the negative numbers.

Start time was set to 1:16 PM and start did not occur.
How long before start time , does settings have to be configured to test, and before system will use the" test start time" & moisture value that is well below 45 % ?

Tried again for a 10 minutes in future, watering did not start.

Can not seem to find the configuration that makes an inhibit for Area 1, what else can I check on in the debug file?
I stopped and started MCS to try to produce a clue in the debug log?

Setting start time for 10 minutes ahead, to see is start occurs on Area 1.

Richard

[Michael McSharry]

On the Site setup page in the Miscellaneous section this is a text box entry to notify some number of minutes prior to starting a zone. The notify inhibit is intended to mean that irrigation start is within this window of time after the notify device has been triggered and irrigation actually starts. I suggest that you may be able to overcome the issue if you remove the notification time.

The debug files are intended for my use so I can look if you post or email to mcsSolutions at CenturyTel dot net. Also include \Config\mcsSprinklers.ini which is your setup configuration. If there is an issue with the notification time I would like to understand it so I can address it.

[Richard]

Results - Site setup page in the Miscellaneous section this is a text box entry to notify some number of minutes prior to starting a zone

I had this set to 360, thinking it would email me prior to watering as a status... it blocked the watering?

In my testing I changed to start watering when the 40 % and Area 1 was set to water at 45 % with no start time configured. That worked.

Now for regular operation, I want start time to be for example 1:00 AM start time with below 45 % on moisture...

Why in the Area 1 Notify in the popup now?
What does this indicate when (text box entry to notify some number of minutes) is 0 now?




Status Page shows moisture reset , OK and Area 1 blank, which is OK but different from the above touch page
Area 1 Notify - popup? Seems to be conflicting?







I would like a way to get a notify / warning emails on upcoming events (not a block X minutes before).

This program has saved me so much water, I love the controls!

Thanks again,

[Michael McSharry]

I had this set to 360, thinking it would email me prior to watering as a status... it blocked the watering?

The design intent was a few minutes before so you could close windows or whatever. 6 hours before likely broke something internal.

Now for regular operation, I want start time to be for example 1:00 AM start time with below 45 % on moisture...

On Area page where you enter the start time there is a radio above it to start at that time after threshold reached.

Why in the Area 1 Notify in the popup now?

On general status it does not show it. Could be that the cycle for updating that windows had not happen yet. I think it is 15 seconds unless the page lost its socket connection and then it never gets updated without a manual refresh. Same could be true for some of your other questions on the Touch page. Before believing the data on the page it would be good to do a refresh which is the fwd/bck arrow near the top of the screen to confirm the connection with the HS server still exists and the data is current.

I would like a way to get a notify / warning emails on upcoming events (not a block X minutes before).

Upcoming events could be any number of things. Normal irrigation event is what you had set and should work with a 5 minute notification. I will also setup a test case and confirm it works as expected.

There are two status devices for zone starting and zone ending. They occur at the time so if you want prediction then they will not work. There is a set of Predict devices that can be produced or a scripting method used to get predict times. These would require a little logic such as in a script to look at the predict time and determine if it is at an email threshold time. There are many exception conditions that trigger email, but again they are not predictors, but a reaction to something in the past.

[Michael McSharry]

I did some testing with the notification and found that is generally worked as expected from an inhibit perspective. I did notice the HS2 vs. HS3 behavior is different and awkward with HS3 as far at the Starting Device (S66). DeviceValue changed between HS2 and HS3 and the zone that was starting is stored in DeviceValue. I changed it so that the following behavior occurs.
S66 DeviceValue is set to the numeric portion of the zone device code (e.g. R22 will put 22 in DeviceValue) as a notification indication. It is set to 0 10 seconds later. The DeviceString remains unchanged, but is set to blank when the Zone Ending device is triggered.

You can think of the Notification time as an inhibit that is set at the threshold of the time before the zone is expected to start. For example, if zone is scheduled to start at 10 AM and the notification is set to 360 minutes then an Notify inhibit will be set at 4 AM. It should expire at 10 AM, but I only testing for 5 minute rather than 360 minute values.

If you want email, then use a HS event on S66 where the trigger is DeviceValue is not 0.

As each zone turns on and off the Starting and Ending devices will have the DeviceString updated, but the DeviceValue will remain 0.

The update that contains this behavior is at http://mcsSprinklers.com/mcsSprinkle...19_9_2_HS3.zip. The Updater has 2.19.9.1 and the inhibit still functions as above, but the DeviceValue behavior is different and will toggle at every zone start and end.

[Michael McSharry]

I continued testing with a 360 minute notification. It worked as desired with the Zone Starting device changing value and then back to zero 6 hours before the 4 PM scheduled run time. At 4 PM the scheduled zones ran. During the 6 hours the Notify inhibit was showing for all areas. After 6 it no longer showed. If you have an issue then providing the debug log for the problem day is the next step.