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Multi times & Adaptive

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6 comments

  • Official comment
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    RainMachine Nicholas

    1. The Adaptive Frequency it's a feature that will be released on the next update. The simulator on demo.labs.rainmachine.com also shows upcoming features.

    2. The RainMachine has Auto Cycles that will automatically break down the duration in cycles and wait for water to soak depending on soil/plant. You can also adjust Cycles to your own needs by specifying a "soak" time between cycles.

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    RainMachine Support Agent

    When creating each program you have to select "Frequency" this has as much flexibility as needed.

    You can have it water daily or "Selected Day" have have it water only Tuesday and Friday. 

    With water times we find "Suggested" times can be far to much, in these circumstances you can use "Custom" instead. 

    This will still allow the unit to water based on weather algorithm. 

    You can also create multiple programs if you want to water multiple times a day. 

    Let us know if you need any help setting  it up the way you want it.

     

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    Ralph Becker-Szendy

    Having the ability for a program to run multiple times a day would be nice.  Here is one application: I have an area with tiny little plant starting containers, only an inch of soil.  They dry out within 4 or 5 hours on a sunny warm day (we're in NorCal, about an hour from RainMachine headquarters, and there are some really hot days).  From trial and error I know that watering them 5 times a day for a minute each with a small sprinkler head works really well.  Right now, I have to create 5 programs for that.  That's fine, I'm patient, but it seems like a complex solution for a simple problem.

    Maybe I'll use that as an opportunity to learn to use the API to create a massive number of programs.  That might be a nice evening task.

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    Ralph Becker-Szendy

    Would it work to set it up with cycles and soak: 5 minutes total, 5 cycles, soak for 4 hours = 240 minutes?  Logically speaking, that should take the  5 minute total watering time, split it into 5 cycles of a minute each, and soak 240 minutes between cycles.  Let me know if that's a good alternative.  For now, I'm using 4 separate programs.

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    RainMachine Nicholas

    The 4 programs approach have some advantages:

    1. The system is free to do some other irrigation between those programs

    2. Each program soil moisture is independently tracked (maybe less important for your application)

    3. Each program can be independently disabled/enabled or performed other actions through IFTTT or other automation systems.

    The single program approach has the advantage of being easy to manage but with custom cycle/soak it will not allow system to perform other actions while in soak. Only automatic cycle&soak allows that.

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    Ralph Becker-Szendy

    Thanks for the reply and for explaining how cycle/soak actually works!  Since "easy to manage" is not one of my personal top concerns, I will go with many separate programs.

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