Is This Possible?

Is it possible to set up / have two schedules:

  1. Fully automatic for all but one zone - all the usual soil and heads and plants and weather station and ‘smart’ operation data pieces put in; set up the schedule to run everyday, starting at 5 AM.

  2. Manual everything for the remaining zone - no programming other than to start everyday at 1 AM and turn off at 4 AM.

(If so, then I’m going to use start-time only zone for a year long science experiment to evaluate soil moisture sensors.)

Please help. Thank you!

Best regards,

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Yes, you can setup as many schedules as you would like. Once you have created your automated schedule such as Flexible Daily with all but one zone included, then simply create a new schedule with the other zone using Fixed Days and select every day and start time of 1am and set run time to be 3 hours.

To note 3 hours is a very long time to run a zone, especially every day, so I assume it’s a drip zone or something or a place where you are not worried about the side affects to the soil of running so much consistent water. Also running around 1am means the location grass or flowers will most likely end up getting diseases since they will be wet for so long before the sun comes up. But as you noted its an experiment so assuming you have a special use case where you are not worried about those issues.

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@a0128958 I need to know more about this experiment…

Thank you Chris for the instruction. I’ll use this to set up my single zone. I’ve noted your valid cautions.

I’m going to purchase and install a Rain Bird SMRT-Y Soil Moisture Sensor Kit for the zone removed from Rachio G2 autoscheduling.

It’s easy to see that the Rachio G2, theoretically, is trying to model the same results as a moisture sensor would produce. All in s/w taking into account a bazillion factors.

I want to see where sprinkler control via soil moisture measuring technology is at today. I want to see if a h/w solution is ready for ‘prime time’ yet.

My detailed question include:

  1. Can I use it to turn off the zone once enough water is applied, or, will the zone’s moisture level over shoot badly?
  2. Will it turn on reliably when soil moisture gets low?
  3. How will rain affect the zone’s operation?
  4. Will the zone use less, same or more than a Rachio G2 auto-everything-on zone use?
  5. How long will the sensor last in the soil?

Best regards,

Bill

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