JSP0511 Posted July 15, 2014 Posted July 15, 2014 Hello all! I will be having a sprinkler system in stalled within the next couple of weeks. I already have the EZFlora, weather module, EZBreakout and plan to us a rain sensor for 6 zones. I am wondering what some of your programs look like, what information you are incorporating from the weather module (if you are using it), the rain sensor (from what I'm gathering, there is no programming of the rain sensor, if it senses rain it simply shuts down the EZFlora) and any other idea or thoughts you have on the subject. Thanks for your support! ~Jerry
arw01 Posted July 15, 2014 Posted July 15, 2014 Personally I have my ezflora on a set of programs that water on a number of days since I last watered via the date keeping app stack in the wiki. Most of the backyard is watered on 3 day rotation, but I added a every other day to what I call the middle to deal with some dry areas. My drip lines run every other day, and since I have the climate module I have added an extra at 4:00pm side if the temp was over 80 to keep baskets from drying out. This has run pretty reliably since I put it in. Everyday my greenhouse get's watered for 15 minutes regardless of need out there. My front yard needs different times in different parts so one part is every other day, and the other is longer every other day since it is in a rain shadow. During the spring we get enough water from rain that I could likely put in a rain sensor to a io linc to take that into account for parts of the yard, but not others so a cut off may not work for you directly wired to the ezflora. Going into an io linc may be a better option for you. When I did my sprinklers I used the mp rotator heads, and those are fabulous with being misery with water (read even in good wind, you stay dry walking along the sidewalk!) They have to run longer but do a great job acting more like rain than a normal head that mists off a great deal in wind and puts out too much water for the ground to absorb quickly.
jrainey Posted July 25, 2014 Posted July 25, 2014 (edited) Jerry, I transferred control of my six zone system to my ISY from a Rainbird controller late last year. The system is comprised of the following components: -an EZFlora (of course) -an 8 Button Keypad link (operator interface) -a Hydreon Optical Rain sensor (measures rainfall) -an IOLink (monitor the hydreon and control the main valve) The system is setup to meet specifications as follows: -auto mode: -a standard cycle (current setup: two runs zone 1 thru 5 - first run 25 minutes, second 10) -irrigate only on odd days -easily modified schedule (currently after 8 days elapsed) -monitor rainfall, modify schedule as required -provision to manually run the standard cycle -manual mode -individual control for each of th six valves -Operator interface (the Keypad linc) -Lights on buttons A thru F indicate status of the six valves (off = closed on = open) -Light on button G indicates standard cycle status (off = inactive on = active) -Light on button H indicates mode (off = manual on = auto) -Buttons A thru F enabled only in manual mode -Button G only enabled in auto mode -Button H always enabled -Buttons A thru F toggle zones 1 thru 6 when in manual -Button G initiates a cycle when system is in auto -Button H toggles between auto and manual. -dropping system to manual shuts down all irrigation and resets the cycle (if it is running) -The IOLinc monitors the rain snesor and controls the main shutoff valve. If the system is set to auto, an elapsed day counter is incremented every midnight. Every morning at 6:30 AM the counter is checked. If it is greater than or equal to the preset and today is an odd day an irrigation cycle is initiated. At approximately half way thru the cycle the day counter is reset. The system will not automatically irrigate again until the the preset number of days has elepsed. The Hydreon sensor is set to 'tipping bucket' mode, and emits a short pulse for each 0.2 mm of rainfall sensed. The pulses are detected by the IOLinc and counted in the ISY. For every five pulses counted the ISY increments a milliimeter counter for irrigation control, and annother for recording annual rainfall. Once a preset count is reached, the elapsed day counter for irrigation control is set to zero, and the irrigation control rainfall counters are reset as well. The annual rainfall counters can only be reset manually. I installed the system in the early fall last year, so this is the first season runnng completely on the new system. (This is also the first season that the city is metering our water, and charging for consumption - coincidence?) So far it has been working quite well. We have set the rain counter to postpone the next cycle whenever we get 8 millimeters. It has been counting effectively and we have conserved substantially. So far we have counted about 140 mm of rain - quie a lot for a semi arid climate. The Hydreon is working well. If you are interested you can check it out at www.rainsensors.com. Hope this helps you out. Jack Edited July 25, 2014 by jrainey
paulbates Posted July 25, 2014 Posted July 25, 2014 Jack, that is an interesting setup and you documented it well. Thanks for that thoughtful and complete response. I like having a rainsensor on a separate iolinc rather than the onboard on the EZflora; that seems to unconditionally shut the EZflora down which is not always the right thing when weather turns around and is hot again immediately. I think I see a Hydreon in my future Regards Paul
paulbates Posted August 30, 2014 Posted August 30, 2014 Hey Jack I have been gifted with a week+ between engagements and have a bunch of queued HA projects planned. I got a hydreon sensor and plan on putting it in and start monitoring its behavior and compare to local observed rainfall. We've had a wild summer of weather here this year, it should be interesting. Configuration Question: What were your Hydreon wiring and IOLinc settings for your routines / Tipping bucket mode? I was guessing: Hydreon wired to Normal Open IOLinc wired to Momentary C, and no other settings, eg Trigger Reversed Unchecked General Question Tipping bucket mode claims it can "under read" observed rainfall. What's your experience been? Thanks Paul
jrainey Posted September 6, 2014 Posted September 6, 2014 Paul, Sorry for the late response .. haven't been onlne for awhile. It's been a while, but your guess as to the wiring and settings appear to be correct, except for Momentary C. -For my setup, the tipping bucket mode was set to 0.2mm -wired to the Normally open contacts -IOLinc relay options are all blank, momentary hold time set to zero (i.e relay is independant of input) -'Latching' is set. In my system the output relay is being used to control the sprinkler main shutoff valve. Setting latching means that when an On command is sent by the ISY to the relay it will turn on and stay on until an Off command is received & vice versa. Momentary C sets the realy to respond to pulses received on the input. If you are not using the output relay, this setting doesn't really matter. During this past summer,I have noticed that when we have a real heavy downpour, the Hydreon may not registering as quickly as it should, but this is only a qualitative observation. Hope this helps Jack
paulbates Posted September 6, 2014 Posted September 6, 2014 Jack, Thanks, yes that does help. It turns out I am working on this today, ironically waiting for it to stop raining Paul
Recommended Posts