Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

- - - HELP - Stuck On 1

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    - - - HELP - Stuck On 1

    My Sprinkler control in mcsControlSystems is stuck on valve 1 (device code E1). It does not advance to the remaining valves in Area 1 nor over to Area 4 (Note: I programmed 4 valves into Area 2, but when I logged back into HS, they showed up in Area 4 0 in the middle of the list; This happened twice - after deleting the plug-in and adding it back in & reprogramming it.)

    The control strategy is - measured, off of virtual device code ]22 (populated with moisture reading from VantagePro) with a min level of 6. The soil moisture reading started at 11 this afternoon. The control was enabled, saw the moisture reading drop down to 2 in 30 minutes, and during that time and beyond, E1 in Area 1 kept repeating the 10 min time I had set.

    My home control system is fresh - just re-created (re-formatted the hard drive & loaded the op sys, upgrades & software programs). Had the same problem three or four times before the reformat & it's occuring consistently aftward too. A log file is attached for reference.

    1- Would you know why this is occuring?
    2- How do I fix this?

    Thank you.
    Attached Files

    #2
    I can see the problem with being "stuck" and I will need some feedback from you to understand how you want it to work. You are the first that actually has a moisture sensor.

    Let us say you have 4 valves in the area controlled by your moisture sensor and the moisture sensor is located such that it see additional moisture as the second of these four values is opened.

    If the plugin is watering the first zone then it will never see a change in moisture content. If the sensor is associated with the first zone then it will stop when the first zone has gone to desired level, but the other zones will have no relationship to the moisture sensor.

    Let me know how you have your sensor situated and what the control strategy should be to control multiple zones with a single sensor.

    Comment


      #3
      Thank you for the quick reply.

      For area one, I have one moisture sensor - in the middle of the front lawn. When the sensor reading is above, say 5, I want the each of the three valves (zones) to water the lawn, one after the other. In other words, when the moisture is 5, then start E1 & run for 10 minutes, turn off E1, then turn on E2 for 10 minutes. Then turn off E2 and turn on E3 for 5 minutes (a smaller area). Then do not run sequence of valves/zones in area 1 until the moisture reading increases back up to the threshold of 5.

      I'd like the same approach for area 2 which is for 3 different drip circuits for flower beds.

      I want a moisture reading to trigger a sequence within an area, rather than have a sensor for each zone. The sensors, which are accompanied with a soil temp sensor, are too expensive to have one per zone.

      On another feature, here in the Sacramento Valley of California, when it can get to 100+ degrees during the summer, one does not want to water during the mid-day - can burn the grass & too much evaporation. Ideally one wants two windows during which to water. Or conversely, two time periods during the day not to water. Seems like only one window is possible at the moment.

      Does this help?

      If not, you're welcome to call me @ 916.276.7048 if it'd be better to talk through this.

      Thank you for your support.

      Comment


        #4
        I believe the V1.11.0 will do what you want. Note the sensor input to the plugin should corrlate with moisture level. Low values for dry soil and High values for damp soil.

        The DevieValue of the device is what the plugin looks at. Recognize that these will be integers. You can scale a raw sensor input outside of the plugin if you need more resolution.

        The plugin learns the max sensor reading and retains it in the .ini file. It uses this to compute the percentage of desired moisture in the soil where 0% correlates to the minimum sensor reading and 100% (1.0) correlates to the max sensor reading observed over time.

        There is also a max cycles per day option added to protect from a failed moisture sensor.

        I checked the cycling of zones with measured control and these worked for me. I did not explicitly test the multiple hour no-water bands of max cycles safety.

        I will be leaving on vacation Sunday so if you need quick response then tomorrow will the last chance.

        Comment


          #5
          Thank you for the quick reply. I'll check it out later today.

          Note though, that the soil moisture sensors I use - from Davis Instruments - work in the opposite direction. The lower the number the more moisture (conductivity) in the soil. The higher the number, the dryer the soil. For my area, it seems that when the dryness increases to about 5, then I have to have the the sprinklers triggered. Can the plug-in be adjusted to read the soil moisture in this manner?

          Thanks again for taking the time to help out on this.

          Comment


            #6
            At this time you will need to sample that sensor in a periodic event, change its sense, and store the new value in the DeviceValue of another virtual device. I do not want to change too much with the limited time I have before vacation.

            Comment


              #7
              Thank you for the reply.

              What you recommend for the interim is beyond my skill set. In the mean time, I'll just have to go with a timed script that doesn't utilize the moisture reading.

              If you're able to pick this up again after you return from vacation, that'd be greatly appreciated.

              Thanks.

              Comment


                #8
                All you need is an event with a periodic trigger at 1 minute intervals (or slower if you wish) and the event action on the script tab is:

                &hs.SetDeviceValue "A1", 10 - hs.DeviceValue("B1")

                Where A1 need to be change to a virtual device that you use for the mcsControlSystem moisture reading and B1 needs to be changed to the device that your moisture sensor device value reading is placed. You will set the min moisture level in mcsControlSystems at 5 based upon your earlier post.

                Comment

                Working...
                X