Confirming – no manual control from panel?

[judetf]

I’ve found a number of forum posts that circle around this and I’m pretty sure this is true, but I’d just like confirmation. Am I correct that there is no way to manually turn on and off individual zones from the control panel? My use case is as a home-owner and wanting to enable the company I hire to close / winterize my system to do so without needing me to be with them using the app (and without needing to have them install the app and get connected to my system).

It seems like there should be a simpler way to do this – am I overlooking something? (I’ve seen posts where people created individual schedules for each zone, and then call the schedules from the panel, but that seems like a solution-of-last-resort.)

Thanks for any suggestions!
jtf

[Ray]

You can use the buttons on the controller to start a test program (runs every zone 1 minute), or start any existing program that’s already programmed on the controller. You can NOT create a program using buttons, but you can run an already created program using buttons. Long press button B3 will allow you to enter this mode.

If you just need a custom program that you don’t want to run regularly, a common practice is to create this program and set it to Disabled. That way it won’t run automatically, but using B3 you can start it.

Note that both sensor 1 and sensor 2 support ‘program switch’ feature. Which means you can connect a physical button to SN1-GND, or SN2-GND, and configure it as a program switch. When the switch is pressed it will start a program (for SN1 it starts program 1, for SN2 it starts program 2).

I recommend you to take a look at the OpenSprinkler User Manual:
https://openthings.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/5000716364-opensprinkler-user-manuals
and/or firmware 2.2.0 intro video to see all supported features:
https://openthings.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/5000860920-videos-introduction-to-opensprinkler-v3

[judetf]

Thanks, Ray. Is there any possibility of an better solution for the specific use case? 1 minute isn’t long enough for winterizing the system, and normally I am not around/involved when the company comes to do the winterizing. And similarly, creating a “program” isn’t a perfect solution, either. For closing (and opening) each zone needs to be on, well, until it doesn’t need to be on anymore. 🙂 So hard-coding a program (or a physical button) doesn’t really provide a solution for the need to let a third-party manually control the system.

I guess this is confirming that there is no good solution here, which is what I kinda figured. 🙁

Thanks,
jtf

[Ray]

I don’t understand: you just need to use the app or web interface to create a program once, and then you can run it using the buttons. You can also stop all zones using a button.

If you want to do everything using buttons, why not just get a traditional sprinkler controller? The point of a web-based controller is to interact with the controller using an app or via web.

[judetf]

Ray,

The use-case is pretty straightforward: I’m a home-owner, so this is just for me and my 12-zone system. I personally love the app and during the season greatly appreciate the flexibility and functionality of OS. However, I don’t open or close my system in the spring/fall (I live in the northeast, so it needs to be winterized, and then in the spring it needs to be turned on and usually repaired since there’s oftentimes a few sprinklers or pipes that didn’t survive the winter).

So I outsource the opening/closing to a local irrigation company. But for them to do their work they need to turn on each zone individually for an unspecified amount of time. Some zones blow out quicker than others during winterizing. Some zones need to be on longer for troubleshooting in the spring. And since I’m not necessarily there when they are doing the work I can’t turn each individual zone on and off for them when they need it.

So a program doesn’t work since it doesn’t let them turn on the specific zone for the specific amount of time they need (which is unique in each case). And I’d rather not have to figure out how to get them into the app and teach them how to use it…

So that’s my use-case. It’s not that I want to do everything using buttons, exactly, but rather that twice a year there is a specific situation that needs (ie, would benefit from) that functionality. The rest of the time the app is wonderful and I’m happy I made the switch. But I truly can’t figure out how to deal with the opening/winterizing given the situation.

jtf

[Ray]

Well in that case, you can get a traditional sprinkler controller, and you can run OpenSprinkler with another controller in parallel. So if either controller turns a zone on, it can run that zone.

There are some subtle issues regarding the electrical part of running two controllers in parallel, but in general, as long as each of them uses their own power adapter (i.e. don’t share the same adapter), it should be fine.

If you look around for web-based sprinkler controllers, a lot of them don’t even have a screen nor any buttons. So it’s not like OpenSprinkler is any worse than them. If anything, it at least has a LCD screen and three buttons, and you can do some basic control using the buttons.

[DaveC]

FWIW – I use the 2-controller solution. I replaced an older Hunter controller with OS. The company that I use to do the blowout and maintenance has a Hunter remote module that they connect to my Hunter controller when they do work. Ray gave me the same info/warning about using 2 controllers. I decided to take one additional isolation step. I build a ‘switch’ using Phoenix connectors that allow me to manually switch which controller is connected to the zones. Since I only need to switch controllers once or twice a year, the manual switch works well.

[Author]

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