Announcement

**Michael McSharry** · July 27, 2013, 08:36 PM

You can manually uninstall mcsSprinklers from Device Manager. It will not loose your mcsSprinklers settings. Once uninstalled then you should not get the newer version message. If you do not have hspi_mcsSprinklersP.dll then the plugin cannot run. If there is a problem with your .lf file then you have registration issues.

**michelrochette** · July 28, 2013, 05:35 AM

You will find attached two screen images. I do not see how this place is that I can manually uninstall MCS?

Attached Files

**Michael McSharry** · July 28, 2013, 06:12 AM

You can manually uninstall mcsSprinklers from Device Manager.

Device Manager is a Windows application that I get to via Control Panel. Install/Uninstall Programs is the selection made there.

**michelrochette** · July 28, 2013, 06:18 AM

I have two installation MCS, I will uninstall both?

**Michael McSharry** · July 28, 2013, 06:24 AM

That would seem like the best thing to do as having two may be part of the problem you are having.

**michelrochette** · July 28, 2013, 06:26 AM

Thereafter, if I understand correctly, I will downloader through the option in HS2?

**michelrochette** · July 28, 2013, 07:04 AM

Thank you! much, it works with Version 2.13.0.17.
I am very grateful.
For the next upgrade, what are the best techniques to avoid putting me in trouble?

**Michael McSharry** · July 28, 2013, 08:01 AM

The process you used with the updater is normally all that is needed for a installer update. I suspect your two installs caused some issues.

There are two levels of update one is the release and one is beta. The release is done from updater and the beta can be done from mcsSprinklers Other Page Configuration Management section, or manually by downloading the zip file from the version log thread link at the top of the mcsSprinklers forum. When doing it manually HS or at least mcsSprinklers needs to be stopped, the zip file contents (mcsSprinklers_2009.dll) unzipped to replace the older one in the HS root folder. When done from the Other Page a backup is made of what you are replacing so you can go back from the same page and the HS restart is automatic.

You choice of doing a beta update should be based upon if anything in the change log applies to you.

This and next week I do not have access to my FTP site so the latest update is only available with a manual update.

**michelrochette** · July 28, 2013, 08:07 AM

Thanks, have a good day.

**brhodes** · May 2, 2014, 09:44 PM

mcsSprinklers house codes

Every time I restart HS, mcsSprinklers creates a whole new set of variables and assigns a new house code, I have to constantly go in and delete the unused ones. I am running the latest copy of HS2Pro and mcsSprinklers Pro.

Any ideas?

**michelrochette** · August 9, 2014, 06:07 AM

Faillure

Hi Micheal
I have several messages for some time ".. Faillure valve ...". For example, this morning, despite controls to stop watering at 06:00, a "zone" continued to operate. I had to perform a "reset hardware" of "Rain8" module.

This is recurrent. I tried to understand without any results.

Do you have a recommendation for me?

I use the "/ 2.13.0.29 General Status V2.13.0.3 (Professional) Copyright 2004-2013 mcsSolutions" version. Is it that I should go to the .14 release. If so, what is the simplest procedure.

Thank you!

Michel

**Michael McSharry** · August 10, 2014, 11:45 AM

Over the years various reliability issues have surfaced with the Rain8Net. mcsSprinklers has considerable logic to try to manage the situation, but ultimately it may require a power cycle of the Rain8Net.

The standard Rain8Net uses a TTL logic level rather than a RS-232 level so if the distances are large or the shielding is not adequate then issues could arise with the communications over the serial port. Every setup is physically different so different users have different experiences.

mcsSprinklers does manage the acknowledge and the status to provide true two-way communication integrity. More basic software interfaces will use one-way communication to set a valve, but not confirm the valve has achieved the commanded position. The demo software from WGL, for example, uses this technique.

The user parameters that that are provided is to control the time between when a command is sent out and when an acknowledge is expected. This had started at 500 milliseconds and now the default is a few seconds. The user can also select a status request after each command or periodic. The Rain8Net issues tend to increase with an increase in the communication rate so after command rather than periodic is recommended. The safety features of hourly/daily are not recommended to be used with the Rain8Net because the failure modes introduced by extra communication overcomes any benefit.

For the stuck ON case the primary safety mechanism that should be employed are the timers in the Rain8Net Eprom. Set them to a time a little longer than what you have as the run time in mcsSprinklers.

You can look at the change log between your version and V2.14 to see if changes were made in valve control logic. It is likely nothing significant.

**michelrochette** · August 10, 2014, 05:32 PM

thank you !,

As I understand it, the link of 500 milliseconds, I should put a value of 1000 or 1500 milliseconds.

If I try to replace my Rain8 module you suggest me which one?

**Michael McSharry** · August 10, 2014, 06:23 PM

You should look at the serial io page to get an understanding of what is happening in your case. If you see traffic that appears to occur because there is insufficient time between each transaction then increase it. mcsSprinklers tried 4 times before finally declaring a zone failed so be aware that retry is natural, but only after sufficient time has been given to send a command and wait for a response.

I had worked pretty closely with Warren during the development period when UPB was introduced and when the counter/switch inputs were incorporated. As he moved onto his PRO versions our interactions diminished. If you are having communication-related problems then I suggest EtherRain as it uses wired ethernet which avoids many of the problems and also gets away from serial port drivers that are another source of communication difficulty. Note that if you schedule more than one zone to run at a time then the EtherRain will not satisfy your need as it can only support one valve per module at time. Only mcsSprinklers PRO supports EtherRain. Jim from Quicksmart has also provided some scripts for basic scheduling, but these are independent of mcsSprinklers.

**michelrochette** · August 17, 2014, 05:07 AM

Hi Michael,

I am setting Maximum time to wait for Rain8 Net response at 1500 milliseconds.

When analyzing the data, I would be inclined to increase from 1500 to 2500 What is your recommendation?

For today, my log display is :

8/17/2014 12:00:00 A | 33318537 | New Day
8/17/2014 12:00:00 A | 33319193 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 41
8/17/2014 12:00:00 A | 33319224 | NET IN | 40, 01, 41 Valve Command Acknowledge
8/17/2014 12:00:01 A | 33320409 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 42
8/17/2014 12:00:03 A | 33321923 | Net Send Timeout
8/17/2014 12:00:03 A | 33321923 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 42
8/17/2014 12:00:04 A | 33323436 | Net Send Timeout
8/17/2014 12:00:04 A | 33323436 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 42
8/17/2014 12:00:04 A | 33323451 | NET IN | 40, 01, 42 Valve Command Acknowledge
8/17/2014 12:00:05 A | 33324247 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 43
8/17/2014 12:00:07 A | 33325760 | Net Send Timeout
8/17/2014 12:00:07 A | 33325760 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 43
8/17/2014 12:00:07 A | 33325760 | NET IN | 40, 01, 43 Valve Command Acknowledge
8/17/2014 12:00:08 A | 33326571 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 47
8/17/2014 12:00:09 A | 33328085 | Net Send Timeout
8/17/2014 12:00:09 A | 33328085 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 47
8/17/2014 12:00:09 A | 33328085 | NET IN | 40, 01, 47 Valve Command Acknowledge
8/17/2014 12:00:10 A | 33328896 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 45
8/17/2014 12:00:11 A | 33330409 | Net Send Timeout
8/17/2014 12:00:11 A | 33330409 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 45
8/17/2014 12:00:13 A | 33331922 | Net Send Timeout
8/17/2014 12:00:13 A | 33331922 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 45
8/17/2014 12:00:13 A | 33331938 | NET IN | 40, 01, 45 Valve Command Acknowledge
8/17/2014 12:00:14 A | 33332749 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 44
8/17/2014 12:00:15 A | 33334262 | Net Send Timeout
8/17/2014 12:00:15 A | 33334262 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 44
8/17/2014 12:00:15 A | 33334262 | NET IN | 40, 01, 44 Valve Command Acknowledge
8/17/2014 12:00:16 A | 33335073 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 46
8/17/2014 12:00:18 A | 33336587 | Net Send Timeout
8/17/2014 12:00:18 A | 33336587 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 46
8/17/2014 12:00:19 A | 33338100 | Net Send Timeout
8/17/2014 12:00:19 A | 33338100 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 46
8/17/2014 12:00:21 A | 33339613 | Net Send Timeout
8/17/2014 12:00:21 A | 33339613 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 46
8/17/2014 12:00:22 A | 33341126 | Net Send Timeout
8/17/2014 12:00:23 A | 33341657 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 48
8/17/2014 12:00:24 A | 33343170 | Net Send Timeout
8/17/2014 12:00:24 A | 33343170 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 48
8/17/2014 12:00:26 A | 33344683 | Net Send Timeout
8/17/2014 12:00:26 A | 33344683 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 48
8/17/2014 12:00:27 A | 33346196 | Net Send Timeout
8/17/2014 12:00:27 A | 33346196 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, 48
8/17/2014 12:00:29 A | 33347710 | Net Send Timeout
8/17/2014 12:00:29 A | 33348162 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, F0
8/17/2014 12:00:31 A | 33349675 | Net Send Timeout
8/17/2014 12:00:31 A | 33349675 | NET(0) OUT | 40, 01, F0
8/17/2014 12:00:31 A | 33349675 | NET IN | 40, 01, 00 Status Response

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