No Pressure

Holy cow this has been easy. Hate to jinx it but... Darksky is installed. Forecasts are appearing in the ISY. Eto is working. Need to figure out how to accrue daily evapotranspiration and then decrease requirement with each pass of the irrigation system like the climate module does.

UPDATE 1. ISY firmware upgrade complete 4.7.5 to 5.0.16 (easy, no issues) 2. Polisy installed and talking 3. EZFlora modules working 4. programs updated to new module outputs Now it’s time to select a weather node server. Need one that has an irrigation requirement like the climate module.

I have been using an EZIO8SA setup to run my irrigation system. Due to a recent lightning strike and the end of the climate module I am rebuilding my home irrigation system. I've enjoyed the flexibility of the ISY solution because it solves some issues with water supply that we experience. I am looking at all of my options moving forward. The problem.... The house is on a well. We have a 500 gallon tank inside the house that gets filled by the well pump. Inside the house we have 2 jet pumps that service domestic water and irrigation/outside water separately. When the tank level is below half, the irrigation/outside water pump is turned off. This ensures that the well has time to recover during periods of heavy demand, like irrigation. The irrigation system programming was designed to pause itself when the irrigation pump turned off. It would resume the current zone when the water supply was restored and then continue normally. It put down about 0.1" of water in each zone and then repeat the program until the water requirement from the climate module was satisfied. The grass has never been better since this system started working. I own an older EZFLORA and may rebuild based on that platform. However, I bought 2 more EZFLORAs and my ISY is reporting that they are unsupported devices. I was perusing the boards for a solution when I came across the RainMachine and thought I should add that to my options. I am homeowner with enough knowledge and experience to be dangerous, not a developer. I would prefer not to be writing code outside of the ISY environment. I just purchased a Polisy and I am working through the upgrade of my ISY to the last 5.0.X version. I see that there is a node for the RainMachine. Can the RainMachine handle the pause based on an input and resume where it left off? Is there another commercial device that would be better suited? Any concerns about the EZFlora? Or should I go back to the EZIO8SA setup?

This worked perfectly. The program was simple and the Echo integration, as always, worked like a charm. As noted setting a percentage as opposed to time requires a learning curve but that’s minor. Many thanks.

Setting the state variable utilizing a percent and implementing the countdown technique will be perfect. I will give this a shot today . Thanks.

My wife is skeptical of all my gadgets. But when things work as well as the Alexa and ISY integration then suddenly she’s a believer. At night, “Alexa turn off all interior lights” was the first command that she learned and now uses regularly. Today was her first test of the irrigation system, “Alexa, turn on sprinkler station 16.” Actually she tacked on “...for 20 minutes.” I told her that it didn’t work that way so she set an Alexa timer to remind her to shut it off. But can it? I could set a timer with a fixed period to turn it off. But it would be cool if she could tell Alexa how long to keep the zone active.

You're correct. Per the documentation the jumper is extremely important because the noise floods the network. I have them on all of my EZIO8SAs. It must have slipped out during the project. Another thing to remember with that module is the swapped outputs (7 and 8?). With those issues addressed these modules have been excellent for swimming pool control and irrigation. My irrigation is a bit more complicated than an EZFlora by itself can handle. The PLM failures have been annoying to say the least. Only one old PLM left. It will be replaced before it fails with any luck.

I made that more difficult than it needed to be but everything is working now. 1. Backup 2. Plug in the new PLM 3. Add a new Insteon device using the PLM address 4. Replace the original PLM with the new one 5. Wait patiently. One pro tip...Don't let the Anl1 to Anl2 to Com jumper fall out during the process.

Brian - great point about the backup. I'm about to tackle this problem and just check the thread to see what tips came over night.

Thank you. Unfortunately no communications after the swap. So I am faced with the next step. If I delete the EZIO8SA i don't want to lose the related points, so I need to think that one through. Waukegan? I built an facility there in the mid-90s. The industrial process controls were sourced from a building automation firm, Andover Controls (now part of Schneider). They were way ahead of the industrial market in regards to information at the time. I was recently back at that site and the system continues to run well.

My sprinkler maintenance company arrive yesterday to do the annual check-up. I told my Echo, "Alexa - turn Sprinkler Station 1 On". She replied, "OK". Finally, he liked my DIY sprinkler system. Then nothing happened. I've got an old PLM (V2.1) on the system and I presume that it suffered the typical failure in the off-season. The wiki provides instruction for replacing a PLM attached to the ISY 994, but I didn't see one for the EZIO8SA. Any tips?

Ordered. "Alexa. Order an Echo Dot." Email confirmation arrives seconds later. This Echo is pretty neat device.

One of my PLMs failed this week causing large volumes of network traffic and overwhelming the ISY. I couldn't get connect via a web browser or via the Administrative Control panel. I spent a couple of afternoons trying to track down the problem to no avail. Universal Devices tech support to the rescue. After creating a service ticket yesterday morning I got a call from tech support within a few hours. The gentlemen on the other end of the phone patiently waited as we rebooted the ISY several times while manipulating the connection with the PLM. All in all he probably patiently gave me 30 or more minutes of his day before the ISY was stabilized. How many tech companies provide service at that level 2+ years after the original purchase without a subscription? Even with a subscription how many tech companies give you an enthusiastic, knowledgeable tech person who isn't reading from a troubleshooting script? How many tech support people offers lessons and instructions during the call?!! Great product, great support, great company! Thank you.

Thanks Lee.

Several days ago I noticed that my weather/climate data wasn't getting updated. All of the fields were populated with 0. So after searching the forum and learning about the Ham Weather change I a) upgraded java ((build 1.7.0_65-b20)) upgraded my firmware (4.0.5), and c) upgraded my gui (4.2.5). Now the Ham Weather fields aren't being updated. The climate module finds my location correctly. I selected a nearby airport from the list. However, test emails and time sync functions aren't working. I've cycle power on my devices (routers, isy, etc) several times to see if that might help. Unfortunately that was a bust. Ideas?