Rain8UPB

[tenholde]

I'd like to purchase and use the Rain8UPB irrigation controller. I've been researching this for about a day, and it seems that the Rain8upb does not support setup via upbStart. Does this mean that it is not accessible via the UPB plugin?

I could easily write a plugin to communicate with the Rain8UPB, but I would have to use another serial port and another PIM, wouldn't I?

Any chance that the UPB plugin could add support for Rain8UPB? Shouldn't be difficult.

Or, am I missing something and is there support there already?

Ed t.

[Rupp]

MCSSprinklers supports this device.

[Michael McSharry]

You should be able to define it in UPStart as 8 appliance modules. You will not have access to the input counter or switch that the Rain8UPB provides. The failure management may also be a litle awkward.

As Rupp indicated all versions of mcsSprinklers does fully support it and as you inferred you will need a second serial interface for mcsSprinklers or any other software that is able to characterize the Rain8UPB.

If all you want is a work around for output control to use your existing HS UPB interface then the Appliance module approach should work for you. If you want a "designed-for" solution then a second serial/PIM will be needed.

The Rain8UPB at the powerline interface does not have a UPB address and uses the PIM much like it uses a PCS05 for the Rain8X10. Because of this it does not have the front-end logic with all the UPB registers that will be able to respond to the UPStart pulse-mode messages used for configuration. mcsSprinklers knows the Rain8UPB configuration so it is able to fully control it. UPStart is not able to learn it and UPStart is the only mechanism provided by the HS plugin so a kludge will be needed to at least get partial functionality in the manner you want to use it.

[tenholde]

MCSSprinklers supports this device.

That would require a second serial port and PIM. I'd like to be able to use the same interface used by the UPB plugin.

[tenholde]

You should be able to define it in UPStart as 8 appliance modules.

How is this done, I've only used the devices setup mode to add a device to UPStart. Can you manually enter the device information for each of 8 devices? Has anyone tried this?

You will not have access to the input counter or switch that the Rain8UPB provides.

Could you explain what the input counter is? Also, is the switch you refer to rain sensor? In looking at the UPB spec for the Rain8upb, I did not see any powerline commands for anything other than ON/OFF and Status query for the 8 devices.

As far as configuration, I assume that any plugin would have to have the Rain8 plugged into the serial port to configure it. The plugin could not configure it across the powerline??? If this is so, I could use the software that comes with the Rain8 to configure it (minutes to forced stop, etc) and control the valves via UPB devices defined as appliance modules. Finally, how in use is the switch used by the plugin, other than in configuration?? (no upb commands defined to access it??)

The failure management may also be a litle awkward.

Could you elaborate please? I assume I could pre-configure via serial port the Rain8 to shut off valves after nn minutes. Via HS scripts, etc I could query status of valves??

Thanks for your quick reply.

Ed t.

[Michael McSharry]

How is this done, I've only used the devices setup mode to add a device to UPStart. Can you manually enter the device information for each of 8 devices? Has anyone tried this?

It it has been too long since I last worked with UPStart to give any particulars. Someone who has more recent experience should be able to provide some guidance.

Could you explain what the input counter is? Also, is the switch you refer to rain sensor? In looking at the UPB spec for the Rain8upb, I did not see any powerline commands for anything other than ON/OFF and Status query for the 8 devices.

The Rain8UPB has an input that can be configured as a 16 bit counter or as a ON/OFF discrete. mcsSprinklers can use the counter to measure water utilization and the discrete can be configured as an inhibit. You do not need to use them, nor do you need to use them for the same thing that they are used in mcsSprinklers.

As far as configuration, I assume that any plugin would have to have the Rain8 plugged into the serial port to configure it. The plugin could not configure it across the powerline??? If this is so, I could use the software that comes with the Rain8 to configure it (minutes to forced stop, etc) and control the valves via UPB devices defined as appliance modules. Finally, how in use is the switch used by the plugin, other than in configuration?? (no upb commands defined to access it??)

My reference to configuration is with the UPStart configuration which is not possible. The EPROM of the Rain8UPB is configured over the serial connection as is all Rain8 family devices.

The counter/discrete has a DID that is different than the set of 8 for the outputs. If I recall the communication is much like a UPB request status poll.

Could you elaborate please? I assume I could pre-configure via serial port the Rain8 to shut off valves after nn minutes. Via HS scripts, etc I could query status of valves??

Failure management in my context is what do you do when the commanded position and returned status do not correlate. I'm not certain what type of visibilty is provided by the HS UPB plugin and what remedy it will provide for you to manage it. In mcsSprinkler's case it retries for a period and then declares the valve failed and moves onto the next valve. Failed valves are again tried the next time the valve is scheduled.

[DC]

I considered the Rain8UPB also but decided against using it because UPStart doesn't support it. It was my understanding that you have to manually define the devices outside of UPStart and then try to ensure somehow (I'm not sure how) that UPStart doesn't use the same device numbers. It sounded too risky to me so I decided not to go that route.

Instead, I used the Ocelot Rly8-XAs. It was a good solution for me because I already have the Ocelot system in place so all I had to do was daisy-chain three Rly8s off the end of my existing Ocelot daisy-chain. If you don't already have an Ocelot, it may not be as easy for you to do.

For fail-safe protection to turn off the system if HS fails to do so (which is unlikely), I wrote a very simple timer program to run in the Ocelot itself. My sprinkler system has a master valve that has to be on to run the system. The Ocelot program starts timing when the master valve is turned on and if HS doesn't turn it off within 4 hours, the Ocelot does. That provides the same level of protection that the Rain8 does against missed "off" commands.