Programming issues due to how amount of water applied is determined
I am trying to set up a simple schedule, but I can't seem to figure it out. I simply want the RM to keep track of water observed/forecasted and when the water level in the soil drops to zero to apply enough water to fill each of my zone's entire field capacity (not just is required for a day).
The problem is that I can't seem to tell the RM the amount of water that is being applied by the program times. It is my understanding that no matter how you set the daily watering time, the RM assumes that the amount of water applied is equal to the historic summer ET0 * cropCoef.. As an example for one of my zones, my historic ET0 is 0.26 inches and the zone's cropCoef is 0.6. So, the RM assumes it applies 0.156 inches of water if that particular zone is run for its full time. If I set the daily time for the zone to one hour or to one minute, the RM always assumes 0.156 inches was applied if the zone is run for its full daily time.
Based on the above, I don't seem to have the control to tell the RM the actual amount of water it is applying based on my program timed. The ability to specify the amount of water applied by the zone's time seems like it could be a good feature for advanced users. If this control existed, it seems like I could easily implement my desired water strategy I would just set my programmed time to apply my field capacity and report it to the RM. The RM would then know that it just didn't apply 0,156 inches but instead it applied the full field capacity of 0.45 inches for my zone.
Is my watering understanding correct? Is there any way I can implement my desired program of fully saturating the lawn field capacity when the estimated soil level water drops to zero?
On a side note, I have observed that the RM will actually apply more water than a zone's field capacity on hot weeks when the zone is restricted to only water one day a week. In my case, it would be 0.156*7, which is greater than the field capacity of 0.45 inches. This seems like a bug because it appears to me it is just wasting water.
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Your understanding is correct. Wouldn't defining a custom sprinkler head type solve your issue ? I'm trying to better understand how you would wish to configure it so maybe we can add this in the future.
About Field Capacity this could be indeed wasteful but Field Capacity is implemented with the double amount in algorithm. If you have 1 inch Field Capacity, algorithm has from -1 to 0 (deficit) and from 0 to 1 available water. Beside this there is a small percentage that we allow over the maximum field capacity before the run off occurs (ie water that is allowed to stay above soil before runoff depending on slope is considered)
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