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Watering paradigm appears broken

Ian Coulthard

June 28, 2022 16:09

I observed this anomaly a few weeks ago but thought a one off but now it is not. I observed that the adaptive watering seems all wrong as the system took my 20 minutes per zone out to 35 minutes each for no apparent reason but thinking it was still learning this years weather I let it go but today, same again. This makes no sense given it poured here yesterday morning.

There have been no changes in my settings since the 5 month pause for winter lifted and I activated the same programs from last year. Weather service (NWS) is the same and it's getting data.

Attached is a screenshot of the program running this morning that should be around 20 mins per zone. Also attached an NWS shot of this week as well as the 3 day history showing nearly 1/4 by 2pm. Yet RM thinks there was no rain according to your dashboard getting the NOAA/NWS data.

Need to know if this is going to be fixed. Never been an issue before now.

Comments

9 comments

Ian Coulthard July 05, 2022 13:36

So yesterday the system failed to start my watering due to adaptive adjustments - even though it hadn't rained since Friday evening and its been over 80 degrees Sunday and Monday. I had to trigger the program manually.

Lack of response to my report above is not acceptable.

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Ian Coulthard July 06, 2022 12:24 (Edited July 06, 2022 12:24)

So again I hear the sprinklers going at 07:00 when we had 1/3rd of an inch of rain yesterday and overnight and I stopped them. Below is the dashboard and also the weather settings - confirming 10 mins ahead of start time it actually pulled the weather data. I also pulled the log from this morning, seems to be an error in getting data even though screen shots suggest it was good.

Why is this so screwed up now, it has worked for years until recent changes?

Why am I not getting replies?

2022-07-06 06:21:08,720 - INFO  - rmParserManager:526 - ** Forcing parsers run because program 3 will start in 540 seconds
2022-07-06 06:21:10,385 - INFO  - noaa-parser:98 - Getting alerts from: https://api.weather.gov/alerts/active?point=42.7583221067,-73.828729&severity=Extreme,Severe,Moderate&limit=1&status=actual
2022-07-06 06:21:11,076 - INFO  - noaa-parser:102 - No active alerts
2022-07-06 06:21:11,086 - INFO  - noaa-parser:276 - Getting stations from: https://api.weather.gov/gridpoints/ALY/55,63/stations
2022-07-06 06:21:12,115 - INFO  - noaa-parser:318 - Ignoring closest station KALB due to user selection of KALB
2022-07-06 06:21:12,126 - INFO  - noaa-parser:337 - Getting data for station KALB from https://api.weather.gov/stations/KALB/observations?start=2022-07-05T00:00:00Z
2022-07-06 06:21:13,362 - INFO  - noaa-parser:217 - Getting forecast information from: https://api.weather.gov/gridpoints/ALY/55,63
2022-07-06 06:21:14,197 - ERROR - rmParser:138 - *** Error in parser 'NOAA Parser' while downloading data from https://api.weather.gov/gridpoints/ALY/55,63, error: HTTP Error 500: Internal Server Error
2022-07-06 06:21:14,212 - ERROR - noaa-parser:266 - Cannot process forecast
2022-07-06 06:21:14,223 - ERROR - noaa-parser:68 - Forecast of Forecast Synopsis failed. Using old API
2022-07-06 06:21:14,234 - INFO  - noaa-parser:668 - Fetching Hourly data from https://noaa.rainmachine.com/xml/sample_products/browser_interface/ndfdXMLclient.php
2022-07-06 06:21:16,654 - INFO  - noaa-parser:930 - probability-of-precipitation 12 hour: reject date 2022-07-05 20:00:00 as it's in the past
2022-07-06 06:21:17,055 - INFO  - noaa-parser:672 - Fetching Daily data from https://noaa.rainmachine.com/xml/sample_products/browser_interface/ndfdBrowserClientByDay.php 
2022-07-06 06:21:25,209 - INFO  - rmSimulator:614 - * Correction: Zone 2 et0Delta=-1.57, qpfDelta=-11.18, rain=0, realPrecip=0.00, qpfUsedLimited=11.18
2022-07-06 06:21:25,233 - INFO  - rmSimulator:614 - * Correction: Zone 3 et0Delta=-1.57, qpfDelta=-11.18, rain=0, realPrecip=0.00, qpfUsedLimited=11.18
2022-07-06 06:21:25,313 - INFO  - rmSimulator:614 - * Correction: Zone 4 et0Delta=-1.57, qpfDelta=-11.18, rain=0, realPrecip=0.00, qpfUsedLimited=11.18
2022-07-06 06:21:25,350 - INFO  - rmSimulator:614 - * Correction: Zone 5 et0Delta=-1.57, qpfDelta=-11.18, rain=0, realPrecip=0.00, qpfUsedLimited=11.18
2022-07-06 06:21:25,386 - INFO  - rmSimulator:614 - * Correction: Zone 6 et0Delta=-1.57, qpfDelta=-11.18, rain=0, realPrecip=0.00, qpfUsedLimited=11.18
2022-07-06 06:21:25,423 - INFO  - rmSimulator:614 - * Correction: Zone 7 et0Delta=-1.57, qpfDelta=-11.18, rain=0, realPrecip=0.00, qpfUsedLimited=11.18
2022-07-06 06:21:25,459 - INFO  - rmSimulator:614 - * Correction: Zone 8 et0Delta=-1.57, qpfDelta=-11.18, rain=0, realPrecip=0.00, qpfUsedLimited=11.18
2022-07-06 06:21:26,914 - INFO  - rmSimulator:657 -      minRuntime Restriction pid=1, zid=2: AW to next day tmachine=120 waterNeeded=11.2237621273 minRuntime=120
2022-07-06 06:21:28,586 - INFO  - rmSimulator:657 -      minRuntime Restriction pid=1, zid=2: AW to next day tmachine=120 waterNeeded=15.0415062185 minRuntime=120
2022-07-06 06:21:31,865 - INFO  - rmSimulator:657 -      minRuntime Restriction pid=1, zid=2: AW to next day tmachine=120 waterNeeded=13.7215075775 minRuntime=120
2022-07-06 06:21:34,005 - INFO  - rmSimulator:657 -      minRuntime Restriction pid=1, zid=2: AW to next day tmachine=120 waterNeeded=14.7412908062 minRuntime=120
2022-07-06 06:21:37,311 - INFO  - rmSimulator:657 -      minRuntime Restriction pid=1, zid=2: AW to next day tmachine=120 waterNeeded=15.1231558002 minRuntime=120
2022-07-06 06:21:39,833 - INFO  - rmSimulator:657 -      minRuntime Restriction pid=1, zid=2: AW to next day tmachine=120 waterNeeded=15.3737781511 minRuntime=120
2022-07-06 06:22:42,369 - INFO  - rmParserManager:526 - ** Forcing parsers run because program 3 will start in 480 seconds
2022-07-06 06:22:43,733 - INFO  - noaa-parser:98 - Getting alerts from: https://api.weather.gov/alerts/active?point=42.7583221067,-73.828729&severity=Extreme,Severe,Moderate&limit=1&status=actual
2022-07-06 06:22:44,447 - INFO  - noaa-parser:102 - No active alerts
2022-07-06 06:22:44,459 - INFO  - noaa-parser:276 - Getting stations from: https://api.weather.gov/gridpoints/ALY/55,63/stations
2022-07-06 06:22:45,198 - INFO  - noaa-parser:318 - Ignoring closest station KALB due to user selection of KALB
2022-07-06 06:22:45,209 - INFO  - noaa-parser:337 - Getting data for station KALB from https://api.weather.gov/stations/KALB/observations?start=2022-07-05T00:00:00Z
2022-07-06 06:22:46,367 - INFO  - noaa-parser:217 - Getting forecast information from: https://api.weather.gov/gridpoints/ALY/55,63
2022-07-06 06:22:47,346 - ERROR - rmParser:138 - *** Error in parser 'NOAA Parser' while downloading data from https://api.weather.gov/gridpoints/ALY/55,63, error: HTTP Error 500: Internal Server Error
2022-07-06 06:22:47,361 - ERROR - noaa-parser:266 - Cannot process forecast
2022-07-06 06:22:47,371 - ERROR - noaa-parser:68 - Forecast of Forecast Synopsis failed. Using old API
2022-07-06 06:22:47,383 - INFO  - noaa-parser:668 - Fetching Hourly data from https://noaa.rainmachine.com/xml/sample_products/browser_interface/ndfdXMLclient.php
2022-07-06 06:22:49,190 - INFO  - noaa-parser:930 - probability-of-precipitation 12 hour: reject date 2022-07-05 20:00:00 as it's in the past
2022-07-06 06:22:49,593 - INFO  - noaa-parser:672 - Fetching Daily data from https://noaa.rainmachine.com/xml/sample_products/browser_interface/ndfdBrowserClientByDay.php

Ian Coulthard July 08, 2022 18:49

@RainMachine Support is there any chance anyone will answer me?

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Ian Coulthard July 18, 2022 13:01

So the on on Saturday the 16th no watering planned under the every 2 days, why - rain apparently. NWS for KALB (my weather station a mile or so away):

So why did RM think it was going to rain when the weather source said it wasn’t? I rebooted and set manually but this is another issue still to be resolved.

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Doug Curtis July 22, 2022 16:42 (Edited July 22, 2022 16:45)

Ian,

Can you access the api.weather links (copy & paste) via your browser? That will at least rule out an internet connection issue to the NWS servers.

Maybe try a different NWS location (or let it pick automatically vs. manually assigning it)

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RainMachine Support August 02, 2022 16:18
Hi, Ian
Sorry for the late reply here.
Please check the value of your zones for "Minimum Watering Threshold". From your log it looks like the RainMachine, based on the weather data it fetched, decided that the program should not start because the Minimum Watering Time has been reached. You have set 120 seconds (2 minutes).
```
 minRuntime Restriction pid=1, zid=2: AW to next day tmachine=120 waterNeeded=11.2237621273 minRuntime=120
```
RainMachine Web app - Zone Settings - Minimum Watering Threshold

Related to the weather data.
Unfortunately the weather data from your selected stations https://api.weather.gov/stations/KALB/observations?start=2022-07-05T00:00:00Z
is only available for 7 Days back and we cannot reach the 16th July to check it.
I will report this to my colleagues and they will have a look.

Thank you and again sorry for late reply.
PS - if we do not reply here in time, please contact us directly.
Thank you!

Julian
RainMachine Support
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Ian Coulthard August 02, 2022 17:31 (Edited August 02, 2022 17:32)

Had you looked at this when reported you could have researched, why have an "issues reporting" section here if you don't monitor it and work the issues? I also reported similar issues prior late June.

The 2 minutes is not the reason, the issue is RM thought there was to be 2 days of rain - see dashboard snapshot - yet the actual forecast from the same source said there wasn't rain to come on the Saturday. This is clear from the snapshots above and given the temperatures expected and the 4 days before - where it also skipped a watering - there would be no reason to have less than 2 minutes of watering.

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RainMachine Support August 02, 2022 17:48

Hi, Ian
Please look into your Settings - Watering History and see if there is any reasons for why the program didn't start.
If you go back to those days, let us know if there is any reasons listed at the program start time.
Thank you

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Ian Coulthard August 02, 2022 18:13

The only reason is because the RM failed to get the weather and do it's job. And without remote access I cannot go look at the history.

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