Schedule EZFlora in ISY994

[teodoru00]

I just added an EZFlora to my ISY994. In my city we are only allowed to irrigate from 12am to 6am every other day and only on odd or even calendar days, according to the last digit on your street number.

Mine is an odd number.

How do I schedule this in the irrigation program in the UD Administrative Console?

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi teodoru00,

 

In the Program Detail:

1. Click on Schedule

2. Uncheck All (next to On Days) and then click the days of the week you want to water. Click Add to If

3. Chose From/To and enter the times 12:00 AM (From) and 6:00 AM same day (To). Click Add to If

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[teodoru00]

Thank you Michel,

The problem is that at the end of the month it goes from 31st to the 1st so scheduling every other day using your system will switch from odd to even days at the end of the months that have 31 days.

The controller I had before had a setting for watering on odd or even days (rain bird) so I was wandering if there is a way to do that with ISY994 and EZFlora.

Otherwise I guess I will have to use your suggestion and switch the days of the week at the end of the months with 31 days.

Any other way?

[paulbates]

There are three ways to do it that I've seen recommended, each gets you there, each has advantages and disadvantages:

1. Similar to Michel's recommendation: Start your program on an odd day, and have a variable that you initially set to 1. Have an "if" in your sprinkler program to only run  when the variable = 1. when the variable =1, run the program (in addition to the time it should run). Set the variable to "0"  at the end of the sprinkler run. Have an "else" clause that adds 1 to the variable. Your program will switch back and forth each time it runs and skip a day. The problem with this method is on months that end with 31. You have to manually intervene as the logic of assuming every other day is even/odd will break.
    
2. The date programs in the wiki. There is a specific iOdd.Even.Day variable that you could use in your programs.  Read the wiki link, load the programs, add the variables, follow the directions and use it. Its an elegant but does take a little work to set it up. However, it provides tons of other date capabilities for your ISY programs. If I remember correctly, some key state variables need to be reset if your ISY loses power or reboots.
    
3. The isylink program from io_guy. This external application automatically updates isy variables with a number of date related information, including an even/odd day of month variable. Its relatively easy to set up and use the variables in your programs. Its driven by the date on a battery backed up clock, so its less vulnerable to power outages. However, because its an external program, there needs to be a desktop or server for it to run on. Its very small and can run on a computer used as a desktop. Its configured with web pages like a router is. (isylink does a lot more than just provide date information).

You were probably looking for something simpler, but I believe this summarizes that options I was given when I investigated this last year. My observation is that more people probably use 2).   I use 3).

 

I believe V5 of ISY firmware provides some relief, but in the meantime, consider the options above.

 

Paul

[larryllix]

Odd Days - [ID 00A3][Parent 0001]

If
        Time is 12:01:00AM on 2015/06/01
     Or Time is 12:01:00AM on 2015/08/01
     Or Time is 12:01:00AM on 2015/09/01
     Or Time is 12:01:00AM on 2015/11/01
 
Then
   - reset the date timer code to 1
 
Else
   - No Actions - (To add one, press 'Action')

Something like this could get you to next year using a daily incremented counter. The months after the ones with 31 days can be identified using the above filters.

Edited April 28, 2015 by larryllix