Feature Request: Easily put any station into "manual mode" indefinitely

[Mark]

My old Toro controller had a very convenient feature that allowed me, or an irrigation company representative, to walk up to the controller and put any station/zone in “manual mode” that turned it on and left it on until one took it out of manual mode. This made it easy to adjust any of the heads and check them for proper alignment no matter how long it took (the 1min test per zone isn’t long enough). It was also important during the yearly “winterization” where I pay an irrigation company to come out with an air compressor to blow all the water out of the zone lines (again, the 1min test isn’t long enough).

I assume I can use the webapp or mobile app to click the zone I want to put in “manual” mode and spin up the duration, or enter a high number, and hit Submit. But a single click-enable on the zone would be much easier. It would also be very convenient if this “manual” mode was available using the three side B* buttons.

A possible solution: Create another program (like “Test All Stations”) and call it “Manual Mode” or something. While in this program you can click a zone and hit “submit” whereupon the duration is ignored and the station/zone is turned on and left on until you click and turn it off. Maybe when you put a zone in manual mode it would turn off any other zone in manual mode?. This would allow you to choose whichever zone you want to work on (e.g. for winterization or alignment) and keep it on for as long as required. The “Manual” program could also be available to the “B3 side button” method (for accessibility to the irrigation company when winterizing my system). When in the “B3 Manual Mode” clicking B3 again would allow one to cycle around the zones, putting each one in “manual” mode until you click again to move to the next zone or long press B3 again, which would drop out of manual mode.

Or something to that effect.

TLDR; An easy to choose manual mode for each station would be very helpful.

[Ray]

We used to have this feature in previous firmwares, but ended up removing it, because the ability to leave a station on indefinitely is unsafe. So in the current manual station run feature, a timer is mandatory, to make sure it won’t be left on forever.

In the current UI, when you click on a station, a ‘manual run’ popup will appear. You can click on Hours + once to set a 1 hour timer, then submit. So we are talking about two clicks as opposed to one click previously, which I think is still pretty convenient.

[Mark]

Is there some way it could be done from the side B buttons?

[Mark]

I’ve almost figured out a way to duplicate the ‘run one zone for an indeterminate amount of time’ from the B* buttons functionality. I created as many programs as I have zones. And each of those special (disabled) programs only has one zone in it, scheduled for unimportant amount of time. So I can choose to run just that one zone from the B3 button list and run it. I just can’t figure out how to stop it from the B* buttons (instead of letting it run out its time).

How can I stop a running program from the B* buttons?

[Ray]

The buttons only support one ’emergency stop’ function, the same as ‘stop all zones’ function. When a station is running, press and hold B1 will stop all stations immediately.

[Author]

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