Zone Water Cycle Times Not Right
Fixed
I have the RM 16, currently with only 4 zone configured. This is a new sprinkler system
I am running the program on 'Fixed' with all the Weather Data and Seasonal Adjustments turned off on the 4 zones. 2 of the zones are set for 1.5 minutes and the other 2 zones are set to run for 1 minute, with a delay of 5 minutes between zones and a delay to water every 2 hours.
The issue is that when the program runs, it only wants to run for 7 seconds. If I manually edit the zones for their respective times, as soon as the zone is finished running it resets back to 7 seconds again. I am not sure what is happening, but it is not what I was expecting. I am leaving on vacation for a week and I need this to water properly so that my new grass does not die while I am gone for a week. Ground was just seeded 2 days ago.
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Hi, Chuck
Do you choose to use the Cycle and Soak option for your program?
If yes, how many cycles did you set? Depending of how many cycles you set, your Fixed zone times will split to accommodate all cycles.
The program zone times are not equal per each cycle. Those are total zone watering time for that particular program.
If you did not set a number of cycles, then look if you have set the Minimum Watering Time per zone to a higher value and please remove it entirely.
It is a misunderstanding from our part, this option, will be renamed to "Minimum Rollover Threshold" - basically, the zone will not start if the computed watering time is lower or equal with the amount you set. This will be available starting with our future firmware update.Manual watering overrides these options, the only affected activities are the ones that are scheduled, like your program.
So, Chuck.
If it is not related to the number of cycles and the Minimum Watering Time set for each of your 4 zones, then we will have to investigate it from our side, by accessing your device.
We will contact you by email for this, but first, please check.
Hope this helps,
RainMachine Support -
Yes, I am using a Cycle and Soak for the program, and I did set the number of cycles to 8 with 120 minutes between cycles. I think I understand now. I was looking at it in terms of the amount of time set on each zone was the amount of time that the zone would run each time cycle. If I understand you correctly, if I want a zone to run for two minutes each cycle, then I need to multiply the 2 minutes by 8, or the number of cycles. Is that correct?
I did try the Minimum Watering Time per zone to see if that would fix the issue, but it did not do anything other than stop the cycle from running as you stated. I am glad you are changing the title of that.
I did increase the time for each zone last night, and I was able to see an increase in the run time of the zones, so what you are saying about the total water time for the zones makes sense now. I will adjust accordingly. Thank you for clarifying thing for this newbie. :)
Chuck.
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Yes, Chuck
That’s exactly right - if you need 2 minutes per zone for each of your 8 cycles, then, the total watering time for that zone should be 2*8 = 16min for the program.
Again, we’re sorry for the misunderstanding related to the zone Minimum Watering Time. It will be renamed.Thank you for understanding, Chuck
Enjoy your vacation and keep an eye on your RainMachine watering history when you are away from home. Just enable remote access and make sure the RainMachine is connected to your Wi-Fi network and internet connectivity is available.Thank you,
RainMachine Support
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