LawnCheck Smart Irrigation

Community Forums, Moderated => General Lawn and Garden Irrigation => Topic started by: PollieXmas on December 23, 2014, 05:27:53 am

Title: Automatic adjusting schedules?
Post by: PollieXmas on December 23, 2014, 05:27:53 am
Hi,

Before connecting my Etherain, I used to water my roses every second day. When it rains, I would wait for one day and then start watering it manually every second day.

The way I used EtherRain is to set my schedule to only water Even days. My understanding is that when the schedule is set to skip irrigation when it is raining or based on the forecast, I might end up irrigating daily if it ends up raining on odd days :-)

What would have been good it the schedule could flip between odd and even days based on rainfall the previous day.

If it sounds like a good idea, can it please be added to the development backlog :-)

Regards

Paul
Title: Re: Automatic adjusting schedules?
Post by: Jim on December 23, 2014, 02:48:16 pm
Hello PollieXmas,

Thanks for your comment.  Here's a response:

>>The way I used EtherRain is to set my schedule to only water Even days. My understanding is that when the schedule is set to skip irrigation when it is raining or based on the forecast, I might end up irrigating daily if it ends up raining on odd days :-)

An irrigation program can be delayed up to 24 hours AFTER rain if you have selected a weather station that has a raingauge.  The rainfall information is stored for a day by LawnCheck and used to determine if the cycle should run.   If yesterday's or today's rain amount exceeds the threshold that you set then your cycle will not run today, even if there is no rain today.    If a cycle is blocked the reason for the block will be shown in the log.

Our weather help page describes how irrigation block decisions are made:  LawnCheck Weather Setup and Decision Process page (http://www.lawncheck.com/lc_weather_setup.html).  See the section at the bottom of this page regarding rain gauge blocks.

This should allay your fears.

Jim

Title: Re: Automatic adjusting schedules?
Post by: PollieXmas on December 24, 2014, 03:41:09 am
Thanks for the quick response.

The 24 hour delay will be the closest to work with worst case scenario that it might not water for two conesecutive days if it rains on an uneven day.

I did purchase the rain sensor and plan to connect it in the new year. Is it possible to use it in conjunction with the forecasts.

Thanks

Paul
Title: Re: Automatic adjusting schedules?
Post by: Jim on December 24, 2014, 04:43:51 pm
Hello PollieXmas,

Yes you can use the rain sensor with the forecasts.  The rain sensor automatically stops irrigation whenever the rain sensor detects water.  In addition if you are using the rain sensor you can extend the amount of time to block irrigation after rainfall by checking the "RainBrain" box on your program.  RainBrain counts the number of minutes that the rain sensor reports rain and will delay irrigation for up to 24 hours after the rain sensor last reports rain.  Also, the rain sensor takes awhile to dry out after the last rain drop has fallen.

You can use RainBrain in conjunction with the weather forecasts, but you must also have a rain sensor attached.

Jim

Title: Re: Automatic adjusting schedules?
Post by: PollieXmas on December 28, 2014, 01:03:36 pm
Thanks Jim, I will connect it that way.

Regards
Paul