Problems with .16 of mcsSprinker Pro

[alphatech]

Michael,

In regards of "Do not with wind" I have currently set it to speed above 10 mph for 20 minutes under the "site status". I also remove in the Area setup the Do not with the wind above and I replace it with blank for 20 minutes. Although I like this sensor, looks like I would need to remove it if I want to keep to the 500 limit. What do I need to do, remove the numbers from these fields for your app not to check anymore?

Thanks,
Aldo

S89 has always existed as a redundancy management device. Its name has changed and button control added. If you find S89 as a mcsSprinklers device in Device Management then you can delete it and mcsSprinklers will recreate it with desired properties.

I am not in favor of adding user control of the update rate as the rates were chosen to achieved desired balance of usefulness of the data. The two most common reasons for excessive downloads is use of Wind as an inhibit and for a site not delivering expected format of the data or no data returned. Using Mist as the control strategy will also result in a similar behavior as Wind inhibit.

I think the Wind inhibit will result in a 5 minute interval for download of the Wind sensor. No/bad data results in a 1 minute interval. Both of these could be made smarter, but what you really want to do is fix the root cause. If you do not have the two conditions described above then you will get current conditions downloaded at 30 minute rate (2 x 24 = 48 downloads) and forecast at 60 minute rate (1 x 24 = 24). If Wind inhibit/Mist is enabled then (12 x 24 = 288) so even this is well under 800 unless you have 3 stations selected for download.

Look as \data\mcsSprinklers in Windows Explorer and observe how frequently the date changes on the download?.txt files. Open a frequently changing file and observe if normal data exists or some type of message from WU.

[Michael McSharry]

langenet,
Glad you found a solution, but don't understand why it only affected mcsSprinklers. HS manages the LAN/WAN data. Perhaps it is confused and thinks it is communicating with mcsSprinklers rather than whatever is being sent via the lldp LAN crawl.

I suspect that the issue is with the hourly update of each zones's soil moisture. What I is override the HS3 management of last change time so it only changes it on the ON/OFF change and not on moisture update. It is 2.17.0.17 that should be in the updater soon.

aldo,
Your problem is bigger than the wind update refresh. You only need one WU station and this should result in 300 or so daily downloads. You need to look at the files as I suggested to see why the downloads are so frequent. If you want to disable wind inhibit then use blanks for wind speed and time thresholds.

[langenet]

Yeah, I was surprised by the extra network protocol bound to the interface causing the issue. I also suspected the confusion. But hey... working great now! Windows 2016 server is a bit of a beast but excellent when tamed.

Thanks for the status update time change. This is the behavior I remembered.

Robert

[alphatech]

Michael,
I hate to bother you with this, unfortunately everything looks good as for the Downloadx.txt files but still I have a 500 limit reached as fast as 9:00 in the morning. Right now I only one station setup. I tried to remove the wind from the "Site setup" but after I try to save it, the speed above is blank but I still have for 20 mins in that other field. From the area setup I also removed Don't with wind, same result, no value in the spped above but 20 minutes in the other. I also noticed that if I remove those, the incremental of downloads goes faster.

Thanks,
Aldo

langenet,
Glad you found a solution, but don't understand why it only affected mcsSprinklers. HS manages the LAN/WAN data. Perhaps it is confused and thinks it is communicating with mcsSprinklers rather than whatever is being sent via the lldp LAN crawl.

I suspect that the issue is with the hourly update of each zones's soil moisture. What I is override the HS3 management of last change time so it only changes it on the ON/OFF change and not on moisture update. It is 2.17.0.17 that should be in the updater soon.

aldo,
Your problem is bigger than the wind update refresh. You only need one WU station and this should result in 300 or so daily downloads. You need to look at the files as I suggested to see why the downloads are so frequent. If you want to disable wind inhibit then use blanks for wind speed and time thresholds.

[langenet]

So what's the limit then? I have 932 downloads so far with 3 additional stations added to my base one. I do monitor for wind - so likely the reason for the high number.
How do you know when you've reached the limit? I don't seem to see any problem from my end. I've had my free license for like 6 years...

Robert

[alphatech]

I guess you are lucky, the limit is 500 downloads. When I reach it, it stop downloading until 12 am next day.

PS, I had the same configuration as yours with 3 stations and monitoring the wind.....

Aldo

[Michael McSharry]

post your config\mcssprinklers.ini so I can replicate your situation. Your debug file should also have some info that may help with the investigation.

[alphatech]

Michael, thanks for looking into it.

Aldo

[Michael McSharry]

I ran your .ini file with my API license for a couple hours and yours for an additional hour. Looking at Device S89 the counts are below and totally consistent with what I would expect.
@ 6:13 PM 1
@ 7:19 PM 6
@ 8:30 PM 10

Do you have a debug file to get some insight into how it is running on your computer?

[langenet]

Not that I'm seeing any problems but in just 8.5 hours today, my download count is 754. I think I looked last evening around 10ish and noticed it was over 1800... Does the incrementing of the S89 device just stop when you've hit your limit? If so, I guess I have no limit by the looks of it.

Robert

[alphatech]

@Robert, thanks for the info you gave, it may help Michael and I debug it even more.
It should reset to 0 at 12 AM if I understand it right, mine does but when it reaches the 500, it will stop and WU will send me an email indicated that I have maximized my counts. Not sure it does not do it with you.

@Michael, today I have a count of 200, I think because I removed the wind (I was positive 100 I did it previously) I have attached the debug file that I had to zip and renamed to txt.

Thanks,
Aldo

[Michael McSharry]

Aldo, I did not see a debug file attached.
Langenet, The max download count for a day is set by user in the same Weather Setup page where the API license is entered. When that user-entered level is reached the downloads will stop until midnight.

[alphatech]

Hi Michael,
I attached it again, hopefully it goes thru.
Because the space limitation ,please rename it to .7z and unzip it.

Aldo

[langenet]

Aldo, I did not see a debug file attached.
Langenet, The max download count for a day is set by user in the same Weather Setup page where the API license is entered. When that user-entered level is reached the downloads will stop until midnight.

Well that explains it. When I originally started using this plugin back in '11, I never entered anything for the max download (It's blank still). Maybe my license is for unlimited downloads... can't remember.
No complaints from WU. So I'll just keep using it as I have...

Robert

[alphatech]

Well that explains it. When I originally started using this plugin back in '11, I never entered anything for the max download (It's blank still). Maybe my license is for unlimited downloads... can't remember.
No complaints from WU. So I'll just keep using it as I have...

Robert

LOL, alghouth I'm still confused about it, I think I had the same configuration as yours and wu warns me when I go over the limit with or without that limit. Just for fun, login in wu and check if they show you how manu hits you have, mine does.
Aldo

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