Messages

1

Bug Reports / Re: Zone One Comes On Arbitrarily

« on: September 04, 2014, 02:36:59 pm »

Before moving the station from 1 to another I wanted to make sure the system had a strong WiFi signal.  Whenever this problem happened I was unable to connect to the BlueSpray system... so I thought maybe that had something to do with the network connection.

My primary WiFi access point (AP) is some distance from the BlueSpray unit, but I had a local AP on the same SSID, but different channel (3 instead of 1).  I expected the BlueSpray to connect to the local AP since its signal strength would be the best.

To force the BlueSpray to connect to the local AP I changed its SSID to be unique in the area.  I then setup the BlueSpray to connect to this new SSID.

After making these changes I haven't had any issue with station 1.  Nor have I had any issue connecting to the BlueSpray unit over the network.

My experience could simply be a coincidence, so, I'd be interested to know if the network connectivity issues could have had this effect on station 1?

Thanks,

-Robert

2

Bug Reports / Re: Zone One Comes On Arbitrarily

« on: August 29, 2014, 12:53:00 am »

Controller's Firmware Version:
v1.2

3

Bug Reports / Re: Zone One Comes On Arbitrarily

« on: August 27, 2014, 05:14:23 pm »

One more note on this problem.  Even though zone 1 has been on several times, for several minutes... no indication of this appears in either the "Today's Runs" list, nor in the history tab time histogram.

It appears to be a ghost in the machine.   

-Robert

4

Bug Reports / Zone One Comes On Arbitrarily

« on: August 27, 2014, 04:57:14 pm »

My BlueSpray unit has been arbitrarily turning on zone 1 at random times (completely unrelated to any scheduled time).  The time varies from 1 to 3 minutes for the time on.  Normally I only notice it once in a great while (every few days).  As of today, it has become a real issue since 2pm it has been occurring about every 10 minutes or so.

When this occurs the unit is not accessible via the web interface.  If I wait 'till the water goes off, it is then accessible again.

Additionally, when the unit is reset via power off / power on, it turns on zone 1 for about 1 minute.

I have 2 zones free (15 and 16).  I will move zone one to one of these and hope the system continues to operate for now.

Please advise on potential solutions.

Thanks,

-Robert

5

Help / Re: Mobile Web-App: Water Now, can't set zone run time

« on: August 19, 2014, 02:21:50 pm »

Thanks for both replies.  Using the Settings->Zones worked.

6

Help / Re: Mobile Web-App: Water Now, can't set zone run time

« on: August 18, 2014, 07:21:51 pm »

One other note:

When I select 12:02 AM and press the "set" button the zone 1 time changes to "02 AM"

-Robert

7

Help / Mobile Web-App: Water Now, can't set zone run time

« on: August 18, 2014, 07:16:05 pm »

Greetings,

Today the gardener was here and needed me to run zone 1 for a couple of minutes.  So, I thought yeah... I can do that.  So I logged into the controller via iPhone web-app and tried this:

1.  Selected "Water now" from the home page.
2.  Scroll down so "Run times" zone 1 is visible.
3.  Press on the time window where there is a "0" displayed for zone 1.
4.  Time pop up comes up asking for a time of day (i.e. 12:00 AM)...

Okay... So, the interface is selecting the wrong kind of "time" popup.  Alright... so I tried selecting 12:02 AM thinking that this would be time zero (midnight) plus two minutes.  The system should run for two minutes then... well, no.

So, it appears that whatever I select for a zone in the "Water now" selection I can not get it to "Water now."

Any updates for this or maybe another way to allow me to run a single zone for a set period of time from the mobile web-app?

Thanks,

-Robert

8

Feature Request / Re: Adjusting Duration based on Weather data?

« on: August 18, 2014, 06:44:17 pm »

Any way it goes, it appears for now that the ability for the system to get NOAA data is being all but wasted.  This ability was one of the leading factors in my purchase of the BlueSpray system.

My suggestion below was exactly that, please don't take it as an affront to your product.  No solution is perfect considering the extraordinary number of individual situations; climates, soil types etc...

However, given that there are two major contributors to water usage, Percolation and evapotranspiration, it would follow that an ideal solution (no such thing... I know) would start with those factors, or at least take them into consideration.

Percolation can generally be taken care of by simply adjusting the watering time for the given zone and its soil type.  Possibly using multiple programs/schedules so that the water has time to be absorbed.

Evapotranspiration... not as easy.  But, the major contributing factors of evapotranspiration are temperature, humidity, and wind ... all forecast as a part of the NOAA data.  It would ensue that using this data to adjust watering time would make sense.  Not perfect, but better than nothing.

Providing just a time and a seasonal adjustment factor is a good start, but a factor based on weather data would help to save that much more water.

As for the accuracy of weather data, it appears from my experience to be fairly accurate for the coming 24 hours.  Sure its +/-10%, but that is more than accurate enough for a water factor.  And, since the soil provides a buffering factor this shouldn't make a big difference.

Please take my suggestion above, and the alternative suggestion below, digest these, think about them, mull them over with your team.  They are not intended to be a final solution.  Only food for thought.  If you decide to implement some form of a weather forecast based watering time factor... I for one will be an enthusiastic user.

--------------------------------
Another thought for weather based adjustments:

Instead of a single set of conservation parameters, provide a per-schedule set of conservation parameters.  That way, if a day is going to be hot, dry and windy, I can have a second schedule add a bit of water to replenish that lost to evapotranspiration.

9

Feature Request / Re: Adjusting Duration based on Weather data?

« on: August 17, 2014, 01:18:52 pm »

How about adding a temperature table to the "Season" data for temperature based percentage instead of the single percentage slider.  This would allow the user fine control over the percentage when temperature is lower than expected in the summer and higher than expected during the winter.  Here in Southern California we experience cool periods in July and some very hot days in January.

<40:  0%
40-50: 0%
50-60: 40%
60-70:  65%
70-80:  80%
90-100:  100%
100-110: 120%
>110:  DOH!%

Thanks!

-Robert