Unable to Accurately Track Watering History

I’d like to suggest refinement of the Master/Pump Valve feature.

Currently, when using FlexScheduling, the Master/Pump Valve contacts close when a schedule begins, remain closed during the entire length of the schedule, and open at the end.

I see in the watering log occasional ‘cycle duration of XX’ where the system is ‘relaxed,’ waiting for the appropriate soak in time before going on to the next step.

It looks like the Master/Pump Valve contacts remain closed during these non-watering time periods. And the contact closure actually represent the length of the schedule, not number of minutes of actual watering.

I would appreciate consideration to turn on/off the Master/Pump Valve contacts in concert with when actual watering is being done.

Many thanks!

Best regards,

Bill

Thanks Bill. @kevinro, does this sound correct to you?

The reason I ask is that I’m doing a one year study to show the effectiveness of the Iro. Results of this study will be taught to visitors that come to my residence for the annual Dallas-Fort Worth energy efficiency ‘tour of homes.’ I currently teach solar PV, geothermal HVAC, real time energy monitoring, pool pump energy reduction, and lighting to the visitors.

For the Iro study I have my real time energy monitoring system ( http://www.welserver.com/WEL0043/ ) set up to record and display watering usage by rolling 13 months ( http://www.welserver.com/perl/plot/WEL0343/Sprinkler2.png ), by day for the past 13 month ( http://www.welserver.com/perl/plot/WEL0343/Sprinkler1.png ), and by minute for the past 15 hours ( http://www.welserver.com/perl/plot/WEL0343/Sprinkler3.png ).

It’s the minute by minute chart where I see that periods of no watering are still be reported as watering time via the Master/Pump Valve. Here you see that it’s a nice linear line for this morning, where in fact it shows a couple of cycle time periods in the Iro log.

Bottom line is that my totals hours of watering charts (which I’ll soon change to inches of water) are overstating how much water I’m actually using.

Hence the request for consideration here for enhancement.

I’ll hope that there are others who actually connect pumps to the master valve such that they’ll want the pumps only working when water is being delivered to the soil.

Thank you!

Best regards,

Bill

I looked at the firmware and we do indeed open the master valve during the soaking period, which does seem incorrect.

I’ve put this into our firmware backlog. Thanks for pointing this out!

:cheers:

I think you meant to say: “I looked at the firmware and we do indeed KEEP the master valve CLOSED during the soaking period, which does seem incorrect.”

If so, then we’re aligned.

Many thanks!

Best regards,

Bill

Looking at the firmware, it looks like for the entire watering duration (cycle & soak) we leave the master valve open, are you not seeing this?

:cheers:

No.

When the first zone called for in the schedule starts watering, I’m seeing the master valve CLOSE.

It then stays CLOSED throughout the schedule.

It remains CLOSED during a soak portion of the schedule.

It OPENS when the schedule is finished.

This is what I see. Next time the minute-by-minute graph shows a schedule with multiple cycles, with a soak period in between cycles, I’ll point you to the chart. Right now the examples has rolled off the chart.

Best regards,

Bill

Could this be a wiring issue? If the master valve was indeed closed anyone using that feature wouldn’t be able to water…

:cheers:

I think you guys are on the same page, it’s just that @a0128958 is using the term “closed” to mean the circuit is closed, or powered, which would be opening a MV or powering a pump relay, not that the valve is actually closed.

Thanks for bringing us together :wink:

That sounds right. I think the firmware is improperly enabling the master valve during soak periods, we will issue a firmware fix in the future for this.

Thanks!

:cheers:

“I think the firmware is improperly enabling the master valve during soak periods”

Perfect!

Thanks from those who actually use pumps associated with their Iro units, and from those of us who are interfacing their Iro units to other products at the Iro’s hardware level.

Best regards,

Bill

I checked the minute by minute log of the energy monitoring system that I have interfaced to my Iro.

The Iro had a flex schedule set up last night to start at 7 PM. Indeed it ran starting at 7, ran 4 cycles, and each cycle ad a 8 minute soak period.

Indeed the minute by minute log showed the MV turned on at 6:58 PM (time difference between Iro and monitoring system), and showed the MV stayed on continuously until 10:00 PM (didn’t turn off during soak cycle.)

I think this just affirmation of what we already know.

Best regards,

Bill

I looked at the firmware, couple line change, need to release this week for another defect, planning on Wednesday.

Will post when released to the devices.

:cheers:

Very nice! Thank you!

Best regards,

Bill