Adjusting zone watering times

[atatistcheff]

Hi, I just received my Opensprinkler Pi and have gotten it working pretty well so far. Still need to connect it to the sprinklers themselves but the voltages look good on the output pins and I have all the software installed.

First of all, I poked around a little but didn’t see anything jump out so if this is a FAQ please feel free to direct me to the topic(s) that are appropriate. I was looking at the web interface and it seems to assume that for a given program, each zone will get the same amount of water. If I create a program with multiple zones, each one will get the same watering time. The only way to change that would be to create a program for each zone and set the times for each. On my lawn I have some zones that need 30 minutes and some that need 45. So I would need to create separate programs for each of the seven zones with the specific start time and duration. Say it’s something like this:

Zone 1 start 2:00 a.m. for 30 minutes
Zone 2 start at 2:30 for 20 minutes
Zone 3 start at 2:50 for 45 minutes
Zone 4 start at 3:35 for 30 minutes
etc…

With these programs I start at 2 a.m. and the zones come on right after another for the desired duration. Great. However what if I decide that Zone 3 needs 60 minutes? Now I have to adjust both zones 3 and 4 since 3 would now overlap with 4. If I want them to come on right after each other I’m going to constantly have to tweak the start and duration times if I want to add or subtract minutes from a zone other than the first or last.

What I really need is just the “Run-Once Program” that will start at a given time and then let me adjust the sliders for each zone without having to worry about overlaps and such. Am I missing something? Is there some way to do what I want without messing with seven different programs? (I have 7 zones). Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Alex

[eecyclone]

I think there is an issue with this too. I have
zone 1 starting at 4:00 AM, run for 15 minutes, with a 1439 minute interval, off at 8:00 AM (program 1)
zone 2 starting at 4:01 AM, run for 30 minutes, with a 1439 minute interval, off at 8:00 AM (program 2)
zone 3 starting at 4:03 AM, run for 20 minutes, with a 1439 minute interval, off at 6:00 AM (program 3)
zone 4 starting at 4:03 AM, run for 20 minutes, with a 1439 minute interval, off at 6:00 AM (program 3)
When looking at the program preview, these programs show up as all overlapping, except for program 3 which shows zone 3 running then zone 4. I thought that the zones and programs were both supposed to run sequentially?

Ideally I think I should be able to set them all to wtart at 4:00 AM and the software would determine which zone to run first and to run them sequentially. It could even be “smart” and look to see if zone 3 and 4 need to be off earlier than zones 1 and 2 (don’t like to run zones while dog is in the yard), then it could actually start with zone 3, then 4, then 1, then 2.

[Samer]

The last thing described here is exactly how the firmware functions. They can all have the same start time and so long sequential mode is used under settings the firmware will stagger them. This can be visualized in the program preview.

[atatistcheff]

The behavior you describe is not what I am seeing. Here is a sample program with three stations starting at 2:00, 2:01 and 2:!0. If they are really going to run in sequence then they should be queued up after on another and run from 2:00 a.m. on. However the preview only shows the P1 program running. I haven’t tried testing the actual sprinkler control but if it’s the same as the preview then stations 2 and 3 will not come on.

[Samer]

You don’t have to stagger the start time.

[atatistcheff]

Thanks, I tried with the same start time and it looks like just what I needed!

[eecyclone]

Here is what I am seeing when I look on my open sprinkler page. Is this not correct or what will actually happen?

[Samer]

In your device settings, do you have sequential mode enabled?

[eecyclone]

Yes, sequential is checked under station handling in the options.

[atatistcheff]

After update to 2.0 of interval I am also seeing the same thing as eecyclone. In the Android app it looks just fine with the stations all sequenced one after another but in the new web GUI they are all lined up under 2:00 a.m. In addition it is much slower and I’m finding that several features like editing programs don’t seem to work. I used the method which involves renaming the OSPi directory and pulling down the new version with git. I should think there are no old artifacts still around but maybe I did something wrong. Anyhow, probably something to bring up in another thread.

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