Mini-8 Ran Zone 1 30 Mins., Zone 2 Started But No Watering and Nothing After
I changed zone settings the day before to disable the 'adaptive' setting in zones one through four, leaving five and six set for the adaptive watering..
I get up this morning to see in the log that only zone one had ran for the full 30 minutes. Zone 2 shows it started but it shows '0' time running. It appears the routine just stopped after that. I looked over my yard and it was apparent that there was no sprinkling. I then searched back in my security camera DVR video and confirmed that only zone one ran the thiry minutes.
I am thinking maybe I need to reboot the RainMachine to see if this clears something stuck in the memory?
Is there any other information I can send you to look into why this happened maybe?
Firmware - 4.0.999
Hardware - v2
API4.6.1
Memory Usage - 12572 KB
CPU usage - 24%
Uptime - 12 hours, 9 minutes, 10 seconds
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Hi, Paul
Yes, what you can do is to open the RainMachine mobile app and access your Mini-8 device, then go to Settings - System Settings - About - SEND DIAGNOSTICS
Once you tap that button, depending on the internet connection speed you may have at Mini-8 location, a troubleshooting diagnostics logs will be uploaded to our servers.
After the uploading ends, please contact our support team using the contact form on this page: https://www.rainmachine.com/help.php and let them know that you uploaded the Mini-8 logs.
They will look into it and will let you know what they will find and what is the solution to your issue.
Thank you for your patience and understanding, Paul
Julian
RainMachine Support -
Thank you, Paul
My colleagues will have a look.
In the meantime when you say "Zone 2 shows it started but it shows '0' time running." did you see the counter starting on the mobile app or the zone number flashing on the Mini-8?
If that was happening and no water was flowing from the sprinkler head then it is a hardware issue, but if the timer did not start, then maybe the zone shouldn't be watered for that particular program. This is based on the soil water surplus and weather data.So, can you please tell us exactly how it was?
Thank you, Paul
Julian
RainMachine Support -
I am sound asleep at the time the program normally runs. It is not a hardware issue as I previously posted today that I tested all zones and all are working perfectly. Normally I see in the 'History' either the full thirty minutes run on each zone has ran or less time for each if weather forecast shows rain ahead. What the log shows is that Zone one completed it's thirty minute scheduled run. Zone two shows 'Started at 05:30:16 AM, Water saved 436.4 gal., Scheduled 30:00, Watered 00:00.
Nothing or no other zones show in the log that day, Tuesday, May 05.
Here is something interesting I just noticed. Scheduled watering days are Tuesdays and Fridays.
Going back through the history and with previous settings with 'Weather-Adaptive Watering' and 'Suggested' options 'ON' or selected, I see no watering done.
Days with no watering with these settings are:
Friday, May 01 - Scheduled 44:24, Watered 00:00
Tue., April 28 - - Scheduled 33:18, Watered 00:00
Friday, April 24 - Scheduled 44:24, Watered 00:00
Tue. April 21 --- Scheduled 33:18, Watered 23:00
Friday, April 17 -Scheduled 44:24, Watered 49:24
Tue., April 14 -- Scheduled 33:18, Watered 00:00Hopefully this gives more info on what has happened. I know some of those days watering must have used the forecast as I remember.
But, this latest day of this past Tuesday there isn't any forecasted rain.
Let me know what else I can give you. -
Hi, Paul
Thank you for your patience.
Our colleagues went through the Mini-8 log and it looks like, on May 5th, after Zone 1 finished its watering, the Zone 2 started and went for about 20 minutes until the Mini-8 rebooted. Those 20 minutes were, as you say, without any water coming from the sprinkler zone heads. This would lead to two possible scenarios:
- there was no water in the pipes and overheating zone sprinkler heads caused Mini-8 to reboot for safety reasons and cut out the watering program. We could see that you do not use a Master Valve on your irrigation system, you are connected directly to the main water source.
- there is an issue with the Zone 2 terminals and to rule this out, we need to wait for this Friday cycle to start and finish to see if this is the case. Since the watering times are FIXED and in the correct amount to test this. If will pass, then we need to consider the first scenario.There weren't any watering times logged for the Zone 2 on May 5th, because the watering has to finish in order to be recorded. Also, the program did not resume after the Mini-8 reboot because of the safety concerns.
So, please keep us posted this Friday, Paul
Thank you for your understanding.
Julian
RainMachine Support -
This morning all zones ran as scheduled. Everything seems to be good now.
I'm not understanding what is meant by 'overheating zone sprinkler heads', could you please explain what this is?
As for no water in the pipes, why would there not be water in the pipes and at what point could this happen? Before the zone valve or does the zone valve sense back pressure from remaining water after the valve? I'm not sure there would be much if any back pressure with the heads providing release to the outside of the water path after the zone.I would like to understand more about this.
Thank you,
Paul in Tampa
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Hi Paul,
We have been trying to figure out the causes behind your Mini-8 behavior and came up with two possible explanations.
1. Your Zone 2 valve got stuck because of water impurities, and could only open after a second start-up jerk. This could be the result the manual run we asked you to do.
Though quite rare, these situations can occur.2. This is based on the assumption that your sprinkler heads are the pop-up type that need a certain amount of water pressure to pop up: a temporary drop in water pressure or complete outage could result in the heads not popping up. Scheduled maintenance or emergency fixes on the water grid are the usual water outage causes.
What Julian meant was overheating sprinkler valves: water flow acts as an inherent coolant for the valves. If there is a water outage, the valves will heat up which in turn results in their driver circuit to heat up. The behavior is similar to a valve that is driven but is stuck in OFF position because of dirt/sand.
Istvan
RainMachine Support
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