Disable Watering During High Winds

[socalsharky]

I would like to use the RainMachine PI to disable watering during periods of high wind. We frequently get Santa Ana winds here in Southern California, and the water just blows everywhere. I have a weather plugin that has wind stats. If I write an event that is triggered by a minimum wind velocity, how do I disable watering for that day?

[bpwwer]

It sounds like you want access to the PauseAll command. This is a fairly new addition the API that pauses all watering until the command is issued again. The plug-in doesn't support this as it wasn't in the API when I last updated the plug-in.

I'll look into adding it as an action so that it can be triggered by things like wind speed/gust events.

[socalsharky]

It sounds like you want access to the PauseAll command. This is a fairly new addition the API that pauses all watering until the command is issued again. The plug-in doesn't support this as it wasn't in the API when I last updated the plug-in.

I'll look into adding it as an action so that it can be triggered by things like wind speed/gust events.

Thanks Bob. Is there also an API command to pause individual zones? I can still run drip irrigation zones during windy weather, so it might be useful to only pause the grass sprinkler zones. Thanks.

[bpwwer]

Thanks Bob. Is there also an API command to pause individual zones? I can still run drip irrigation zones during windy weather, so it might be useful to only pause the grass sprinkler zones. Thanks.

I was thinking the same thing, but no, there's just the one command and all it takes as arguments is the duration you want to pause (or 0 to cancel the pause).

Zones can be stopped and started but that basically provides just manual control over that valve. If a program is running and you stop a zone, it just moves on to the next zone in the program.

You might be able to get somewhat creative with it and only trigger if specific zones are actually active. I.E. if zone 3 on and wind > 10mph then pause (1hr). It would still delay any drip zones that were later in the program. But you may be able to minimize that by always running the drip zones first in your programs.

I think you can make the cancel call any time even if not currently paused so having a global event if wind < 10mph then cancel may work to start watering back up.

You might have to play around with it some to come up with something that works for you.

I almost have the pause all implemented in the plug-in but still need to test it out and build a new release.

[MattMan]

You could create an event from the WF plugin to trigger or disable your irrigation system through the RainMachine PI after certain conditions have been met. For example: Create an event with for wind gusts and set the wind speed/gust speed, and then an action to CONTROL A DEVICE, disable your irrigation system...then a condition to disable your irrigation device for 24 hours.

[socalsharky]

You could create an event from the WF plugin to trigger or disable your irrigation system through the RainMachine PI after certain conditions have been met. For example: Create an event with for wind gusts and set the wind speed/gust speed, and then an action to CONTROL A DEVICE, disable your irrigation system...then a condition to disable your irrigation device for 24 hours.

Yes, that is the way I would like to do it. However, the RainMachine PI currently does not have a disable command. When you select CONTROL A DEVICE, the only options are STOP and set a run time in seconds. I realize that I could create a event that would stop a running irrigation zone if the wind > X, but I would like the event to be proactive, not reactive. I think Bob is working on adding the disable command to the PI.

[bpwwer]

but I would like the event to be proactive, not reactive. I think Bob is working on adding the disable command to the PI.

I'm not sure what you mean by be proactive, not reactive. You want it to anticipate that the wind is going to gust and shut down the watering before that happens?

A new version with PauseAll API command implemented should be available in the updater soon. I submitted it last night. It adds two new event actions:

1) pause all watering for x seconds. If I understand the API command correctly, this will stop any currently active zones and programs for the specified time. At the end of the specified time the active zone/program resumes.

2) resume watering. This cancels an existing pause. Again, if my understanding of the API is correct and you pause for 500 seconds but then after 100 seconds you want to start it back up again, you can issue the resume and it will start watering again.

At this point, I only verified that it looked like it was sending the correct commands to the rainmachine, I haven't actually tried these in any real-world tests.

But I'm not sure this covers what you want. There's also a global restriction that can restrict watering on specific days of the week or months of the year, but I don't think either of those will help much. There is also a rain delay restriction which can be set to delay for a number of days. I.E. set rain delay for 2 days starting now. I could add an event action to set the rain delay. There doesn't appear to be any way to cancel a rain delay.

None of this really helps if all you want to do is stop specific zones from watering during that time. For that, a reactive "if high winds and zone is running, stop zone" may be the best option.

[socalsharky]

I'm not sure what you mean by be proactive, not reactive. You want it to anticipate that the wind is going to gust and shut down the watering before that happens?

A new version with PauseAll API command implemented should be available in the updater soon. I submitted it last night. It adds two new event actions:

1) pause all watering for x seconds. If I understand the API command correctly, this will stop any currently active zones and programs for the specified time. At the end of the specified time the active zone/program resumes.

2) resume watering. This cancels an existing pause. Again, if my understanding of the API is correct and you pause for 500 seconds but then after 100 seconds you want to start it back up again, you can issue the resume and it will start watering again.

At this point, I only verified that it looked like it was sending the correct commands to the rainmachine, I haven't actually tried these in any real-world tests.

But I'm not sure this covers what you want. There's also a global restriction that can restrict watering on specific days of the week or months of the year, but I don't think either of those will help much. There is also a rain delay restriction which can be set to delay for a number of days. I.E. set rain delay for 2 days starting now. I could add an event action to set the rain delay. There doesn't appear to be any way to cancel a rain delay.

None of this really helps if all you want to do is stop specific zones from watering during that time. For that, a reactive "if high winds and zone is running, stop zone" may be the best option.

By proactive, I meant that I would like to create an event that cancels any scheduled watering for a specified period of time. I would run the event every night at midnight. If winds were forecast to be above 20mph the following day for example, all sprinkler zones would be cancelled for 24 hours. Kind of like how most manual controllers work for a rain delay. If you know it is going to rain for the next 4 days, you set the rain delay for 4 days and then watering resumes.

Does the Pause Watering affect only zones that are currently running, or zones that are programmed to start running during the paused period as well? I assume that any zones or programs that are affected by this pause will run as normal when the pause is over. So a 1 hour pause would simply shift all scheduled watering to 1 hour later in the day?

The rain delay might be helpful, since the way I am thinking of using it, the wind delay will be similar to a rain delay. Can you please add it? I'm surprised that you can't cancel it. Maybe set the rain delay to "0"?

[MattMan]

Yes, that is the way I would like to do it. However, the RainMachine PI currently does not have a disable command. When you select CONTROL A DEVICE, the only options are STOP and set a run time in seconds. I realize that I could create a event that would stop a running irrigation zone if the wind > X, but I would like the event to be proactive, not reactive. I think Bob is working on adding the disable command to the PI.

Ahh, I see, Yeah...if Bob integrates a new command into the PI that would certainly complete the event you want to create. If the STOP zone feature is added, you could then complete the event with "Wait" -2 hours, 3 hours, etc...or until wind speed/wind gusts drops to an acceptable threshold...Sounds like Bob will have something in the works on a future release.

[bpwwer]

By proactive, I meant that I would like to create an event that cancels any scheduled watering for a specified period of time. I would run the event every night at midnight. If winds were forecast to be above 20mph the following day for example, all sprinkler zones would be cancelled for 24 hours. Kind of like how most manual controllers work for a rain delay. If you know it is going to rain for the next 4 days, you set the rain delay for 4 days and then watering resumes.

Does the Pause Watering affect only zones that are currently running, or zones that are programmed to start running during the paused period as well? I assume that any zones or programs that are affected by this pause will run as normal when the pause is over. So a 1 hour pause would simply shift all scheduled watering to 1 hour later in the day?

I don't know if pause will delay starting of a schedule or just pause a running program. The API documentation doesn't really describe it with any real-world examples.

The rain delay might be helpful, since the way I am thinking of using it, the wind delay will be similar to a rain delay. Can you please add it? I'm surprised that you can't cancel it. Maybe set the rain delay to "0"?

I've been looking at the docs for this and they're missing how to call this API, but they do have example usage in javascript/html so I think I know how to implement it. Someone asked that same question about canceling it in their developers forum but didn't get an answer.

[bpwwer]

I've added a rain delay event action. It delays watering by a user specified number of days. Setting the number of days to 0, does cancel the rain delay. This was just submitted to the updater so it should show up in a day or two (version 1.0.0.8 is the new version number).

[socalsharky]

I've added a rain delay event action. It delays watering by a user specified number of days. Setting the number of days to 0, does cancel the rain delay. This was just submitted to the updater so it should show up in a day or two (version 1.0.0.8 is the new version number).

Looks good. I think the rain delay may be the best way for me to accomplish my goal. I like how the status of the rain delay device changes to enabled when you use the rain delay action. Can you create a device to show the number of days remaining in the rain delay? Same question for the pause watering action--could the number of seconds remaining be displayed?

Thanks again for the update.