Fine Tuning Climate/Irrigation

[mbrossart]

Is there a way to split irrigation variables so that I can manage my lawn irrigation requirements separately from the rest of my landscaping?

 

I'll admit I'm not much at landscape maintenance, but I am trying to learn.  As I've studied, it strikes me that the root depth of my grass is vastly different from the root depth of my shrubs.  As I understand programming my Climate module, the root depth variable plays a significant role in setting the Irrigation Cycle parameter.  I believe my grass (tall fescue) root depth is only about an inch deep.  I'm estimating this after pulling plugs out of my lawn with a hand aerator.  I'm not sure, maybe I'm compressing the roots in the process so my observation may be skewed.  My local nurseries tell me the soil is clay.  Perhaps that's limiting my grass' root depth?  Perhaps I need to aerate my lawn.  In contrast, based on the holes I've dug for planting, the maturity and robustness of my shrubs, I estimate their root depth to be at least 6 inches and probably more.  Even if my Soil Type and MAD are the same, the difference in root depth will generate vastly different watering thresholds.

 

So, shouldn't I be watering my lawn on a different schedule than my shrubs?  If so, how do I accomplish it?  All of the documentation I've seen on this module accumulates, calculates and resets all variables in the module at the same time.  It seems like it would be beneficial to be able to take in the HAM data and split it into at least two sets of variables: Lawn & Shrubs.  Then control the sets of variables (i.e. run calculations, accumulate values, reset values, etc) separately based on their own watering cycles.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi mbrossart,

 

You are very much correct. Alas, we do not currently support multiple zones. I am so very sorry.

 

What I do myself is that I simply increase the runtime of zones which require more water while reducing the runtime of zones that require less. I use the water applied per irrigation cycle for the zone that takes the most amount of water and extrapolate the runtime for the ones that take the least. Not optimal but it's worked pretty well for me.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[mbrossart]

Thanks Michel.

 

I'm wondering, are there custom variables within the device and/or can we manipulate variables programatically?  What I'm thinking is, if I can identify a generic variable or one that I don't personally use, and if I can increment, decrement and reset it, I can set up a program to irrigate my shrubs every (for example) third time I water my lawn.  Simplistically, my lawn program would kick off based on irrigation requirements.  While running through the watering cycle, it would simply set x=x+1.  My shrub program would kick off, for example, if x>=3.

 

Can we do that?

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello mbrossart,

 

Yes, of course. You can use State variables:

http://wiki.universal-devices.com/index.php?title=ISY-99i/ISY-26_INSTEON:Variable_Details

 

With kind regards,

Michel