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@Ray, @Samer: The current OWM interface implemented for OpenSprinkler doesn’t use hystorical weather data from the day before. In my opinion this isn’t exactly what will be needed for a working Zimmerman Method. What are the future plans here? There have been forum discussions about using Dark Sky, Netatmo or other weather services. Are there any results or decisions available?
More OpenSprinkler users might run into bigger problems if WUnderground deletes the service for existing API keys?
Please let us know if there are some plans on which way to go in the future.
Regards
Franz
@Lefrancais: If you still have a valid WUnderground API key you can use Weather Underground with OpenSprinkler. The weather service MeteoWare Plus can be used to send the Netatmo weather data to Weather Underground. Please refer to MeteoWare Plus for your Netatmo Weather Station. More details can be found at the topic: No more free Wunderground key.
Regards
Franz
Please find attached the Excel Sheet (Workbook) I have prepared to visualize the Zimmerman Method %-Watering calculations. It helped me to understand the possible parameter settings available by OpenSprinkler when using the Zimmerman weather adjustment method.
Regards
Franz
Thanks to the team from MeteoWare, their MeteoWare Plus service is working without producing interruptions of the Wunderground Current Conditions anymore. With my existing free WU Key I can use my own Netatmo PWS as input source for the OpenSprinkler watering adjustments. This allows for perfect local temperature, humidity and precipitation measurements.
I hope that WUnderground is not cancelling the API service for existing free API key owners in the near future?
What I can say is, that the Zimmerman method with its adjustments for OpenSprinkler is quite efficient in regards to calculating the watering times needed for a sprinkler system. It incorporates historical weather data from the day before and actual precipitation data for today. This results in predictable watering times for the ongoing day. If an acceptable access to local weather data can be provided, there is also no really need for the installation of an additional rain sensor. The water level is automatically set to 0% if it is raining.
I like to mention that any alternative to WUnderground should take care for using the Zimmerman method with OpenSprinkler in the way it is implemented right now – preferably with the same functionality.
Thanks and regards
Franz
Sorry. This might be a misunderstanding. I receive the weather data for my location. I only thought that it may be helpful to share that WUnderground is providing the requested data at my location, which is also in Germany.
Maybe some help? I have checked this for my location in Fürth, Germany (49.47369,10.94380). WUnderground is not ommiting the requested data and delivers:
dailysummary
0
date
pretty “12:20 AM CEST on July 21, 2018”
year “2018”
mon “07”
mday “21”
hour “00”
min “20”
tzname “Europe/Berlin”
fog “0”
rain “1”
snow “0”
snowfallm “”
snowfalli “”
monthtodatesnowfallm “”
monthtodatesnowfalli “”
since1julsnowfallm “”
since1julsnowfalli “”
snowdepthm “”
snowdepthi “”
hail “0”
thunder “0”
tornado “0”
meantempm “20”
meantempi “68”
meandewptm “16”
meandewpti “60”
meanpressurem “1012.13”
meanpressurei “29.89”
meanwindspdm “6”
meanwindspdi “4”
meanwdire “WNW”
meanwdird “286”
meanvism “8.8”
meanvisi “5.5”
humidity “81”
maxtempm “22”
maxtempi “71”
mintempm “18”
mintempi “64”
maxhumidity “94”
minhumidity “60”
maxdewptm “18”
maxdewpti “64”
mindewptm “13”
mindewpti “55”
maxpressurem “1013”
maxpressurei “29.92”
minpressurem “1011”
minpressurei “29.86”
maxwspdm “15”
maxwspdi “9”
minwspdm “2”
minwspdi “1”
maxvism “10.0”
maxvisi “6.2”
minvism “3.0”
minvisi “1.9”
gdegreedays “18”
heatingdegreedays “0”
coolingdegreedays “2”
precipm “0.0”
precipi “0.00”
precipsource “3Or6HourObs”
heatingdegreedaysnormal “”
monthtodateheatingdegreedays “”
monthtodateheatingdegreedaysnormal “”
since1sepheatingdegreedays “”
since1sepheatingdegreedaysnormal “”
since1julheatingdegreedays “”
since1julheatingdegreedaysnormal “”
coolingdegreedaysnormal “”
monthtodatecoolingdegreedays “”
monthtodatecoolingdegreedaysnormal “”
since1sepcoolingdegreedays “”
since1sepcoolingdegreedaysnormal “”
since1jancoolingdegreedays “”
since1jancoolingdegreedaysnormal “”This results in:
&scale=17&rd=-1&tz=56&sunrise=334&sunset=1270&eip=1339804540
The Meteoware Plus workaround I’m using is still working with interruptions. My Netatmo PWS is not always visible at the Weather Underground Map and the WU Current Conditions are often not periodically updated in time. I don’t know why. Maybe only a temporary malfunction at the WU side? However, the historical data is always valid and I can use it for my OpenSprinkler watering system.
By the way. It started raining later this morning and the OpenSprinkler water level changed to 0 for one hour, back to 115% thereafter and again to 0 for about 3 hours thereafter. Unfortunately, this happened after my watering program runs early morning. I have no rain sensor installed. Is this behaviour described somewhere? I know that details can be found in the github repository. It seems to be an additonal feature to stop the watering, if it starts raining?
Thanks and regards
Franz
My workaround using the Meteoware Plus service to send my Netatmo weather data to Weather Underground is working with interruptions. However, my free WU API key is working as I can connect my OpenSprinkler system as well to a nearby non-Netatmo WU PWS. I hope that this will be possible at least for the remaining garden season.
Operating the OpenSprinkler with the Zimmerman method works best, if yesterdays mean temperature, total precipitation and mean humidity are available and can be used as a stable input. In my opinion it makes no sense to e.g. use the current temperature as input for the Zimmerman calculation. It is also a problem if any forecasted precipitation for today is added. There are very often rainfalls forecasted, which will never take place during the ongoing day.
I have changed my apilio.io and IFTTT applets to reschedule the watering program in case of a rainy day with sufficient rainfall. Instead of setting a custom rain delay time, which stops the watering for e.g. 24 hours, I changed the program to restart the following day. The API command used for this purpose is:
/cp?pw=xxx&pid=0&v=[51,1,2,[420,0,0,0],[1800,1800,1800,0,0,0,0,0]]&name=Summer%202018
(Modify existing program, program enabled, use weather adjustment, no restriction, interval day schedule, fixed start time type, runs every 2 days, starting from tomorrow, start at 7:00 AM and the running stations are 1st station – 30 minutes, 2nd station – 30 minutes, 3rd station -30 minutes, program name is Summer2018)
This seems to be a more realistic approach, as it avoids non-watering periods of more than two days, if there are no further rainy days with ample rainfall. Unfortunately there exists no simple API command to delay (reschedule) a watering program by one day, which makes it necessary to use the Change Program Data command with all parameters for this purpose.
Again, I carefully have to look at the changes made to my automated sprinkler system. But for the time beeing it looks very promising.
Attachments:
Since June 2018 I changed to an OpenSprinkler 3.0 DC in order to use the Zimmerman method for calculating the garden watering. What I can say in regards to my weather controlled approach is that weather forecasts are very unreliable. There were some thunderstorm forecasted in April, May 2018, which causes my weather controlled OSBee sprinkler system to stop watering for consecutive days. This is not good as there was no rain at all in my area.
Zimmerman is by way the better method to use, as it relies mainly on stable data from the day before. If you like to have a weather controlled sprinkler system it is well worth to change to or to start with an OpenSprinkler 3.0.
I have found a temporary workaround in regards to Netatmo stations not visible on WU anymore. The weather service MeteoWare Plus can be used to send the Netatmo weather data to public weather networks like “Weather Underground” or “wetter.com”. Please refer to MeteoWare Plus for your Netatmo Weather Station. There are no extra costs for this service as long as there are no deeper weather analytics requested from Meteoware.
However, the Netatmo data will be send only every 20 minutes to WU. From what I have seen this delay of 20 minutes is still sufficient for the Zimmerman method and will not cause any issues for controlling the OpenSprinkler by weather data.
From WU officials it is known that for the time being, existing free WU keys will continue to work unless otherwise noted. I know that using the Meteoware service is no final solution, but it may be some help for OpenSprinkler users that also own a Netatmo weather station and have a free Wunderground API key.
Shawn, thanks for sharing your knowledge. You are right and I see my first adjustment (humidity baseline 65%) as a starting point.
I have started last year with an OSBee controlled by IFTTT and apilio.io applets: weather-controlled-sprinkler-system-with-osbee/. I learned from this expierience that the weather forecast is not the best way to control the water times. For example, we have had a lot of afternoon thunderstorms in the last two weeks, resulting in heavy rainfall in nearby places, but no rainfall at all at my home. This means Zimmerman or the ET method are a much more better solution to do sprinkler control than using weather forecasts.
For the time being I suffer a little bit from the changed Weather Underground policy of not supporting my Netatmo station anymore. I am still investigating nearby weather stations that are still reporting to Weather Underground, but it takes some time to find out if I can rely on their data. That was also the reason for me to make use of my own rain gauge to pause any watering in case of more than 5 mm rainfall measured at my home location.
It is good to hear that the Zimmerman method needs to be setup for ideal conditions. I will follow your advice and try to find out what are this ideal conditions for my place and what parameters need to be tweaked to make the best out of the Zimmerman method.
I live in a suburb, not far away from the cities Fuerth and Nuremberg in Germany and have an OpenSprinkler DC 3.0 running since mid of May 2018. It operates each day at 7:00 AM and every 2nd day thereafter. It switches three Gardena 24VAC valves in order to water the zones Backyard Lawn, Backyard Flowers and Frontyard Flowers of my garden.
The typical German garden season lasts from mid-March to end-October. There is no need to water the garden during the winter months. To avoid any frost damages to the water system it is also necessary to empty it from any water and to store the valves inside the house in a dry place.
To make use of the Zimmerman algorithm the typical water times for an ‘average’ day have to be defined. For this reason last year’s temperature, humidity and precipitation values as collected by my Netatmo weather station are analyzed in more detail. Please see Attachment “Weather Data 2015”.
The Zimmerman formula assumes a baseline of 21 °C (70 °F), 30% Humidity and 0 mm precipitation. As can be seen from the diagram above this does not represent my typical garden season. The baseline temperature of 21 °C is sufficient. The baseline for the humidity needs to be adapted to 65%. Please see Attachment “Weather Specific Methods”.
If humidity is 65%, temperature is 21°C (70 F), and there is no rain, then it would calculate 0% adjustment, and hence the actual water time is 100% (no change) of the programmed water times. As the weather condition deviates from the baseline, the adjustment will change according to the algorithm. For example, if there is an average humidity of 85%, this results in 65% – 85% = -20% humidity adjustment and 80% actual water time.
There is also a reasonable amount of rain during the year and there should be no watering at all if todays and yesterday’s precipitation sums up to more than 5 mm (0.2 inch) rainfall. For this reason, the Netatmo rain gauge measurements, together with the IFTTT and apilio.io cloud services will be used to compare the measured rainfall against a certain threshold. IFTTT allows for actions when connected to e.g. Time or Netatmo apps. The actions to perform are controlled by applets which forward information and create triggers to apilio.io. The forwarded information is stored and evaluated by apilio.io. The outcome of this triggered evaluation is again handed over to IFTTT applets in order to modify the Open Sprinkler watering program.
The following logic diagram explains the IFTTT applets in combination with the apilio.io Variable, Condition and Logicblock. Please see Attachment “Ample Rainfall Detection”.
Please note that the Logicblock ample_rainfall fires for positive results, even if there are no changes in the result. This allows for multiple rain delays, if there are consecutive days of rain.
My API key is also working. However, the station info from Weather Underground shows that my Netatmo station is not connected for more than 11 days now.
The Azure link looks very interesting. However, the Azure cloud service will only be free for the first trials and it’s another cloud service that may fail and needs to be maintained.
Netatmo is a widespread affortable weather station and I would prefer a direct OpenSprinkler interface to it. In my opinion there is no really need for a weather service if somebody owns a weather station with an API interface. The Zimmerman algorithm does not rely on weather forecasts! From the Netatmo web interface it is known that all the actual and historic weather data is stored by Netatmo. I think the same data is also available via their API interface.
It may be some effort to provide such an interface, but it may be also a unique selling point for OpenSprinkler.
I ‘m still interested in a working Zimmerman algorithm and investigated a little bit more the Weather Underground changes. A web search showed that they have not only discontinued their free API key. They have also stopped pulling data from Netatmo weather stations since the end of the day of 24-May-2018. At least no European Netatmo station seemed to be anymore listed in their Wundermap. The reason for this might be the EU General Data Protection Regulation that is being enforced on 25-May-2018. However, no official statement is given by Weather Underground and it is not clear if they provide this service again?
Looking at Netamo, they are still providing the data and the corresponding API interface:
https://www.netatmo.com/site/connect/program
However, Netatmo forum questions and answers show they don’t feel responsible for the situation and are maybe just waiting for another weather service to use their data?
This causes the problem that e.g. my Netatmo weather station can’t currently be used as data source for the OpenSprinkler Zimmerman algorithm. Entering my home location leads to a nearby private weather station, that probably has less quality in case of temperature, humidity and working rain gauge measurements. I have tried to change the location, which is only possible if I click on Location to open a map, search, locate, and select a different address.
After all, retrieving weather data for a working weather controlled sprinkler system seems to be not an easy task. I hope that the OpenSprinkler changes to OWM can improve the situation and maybe OWM is willing to use Netatmo data in the future?
Thanks for the detailed information.
After changing the weather algorithm to OWM this morning, I have logged the Water Level changes during the day:
8 am: 19 %, 9 am: 31 %, 10 am: 48 %, 11 am: 52 %, 12 (noon): 53 %, 2 pm: 61 %, 3 pm: 69 %, 5 pm: 72 %, 7 pm: 68 %, 8 pm: 57 %, 9 pm: 53 %, 10 pm: 45 %, 11 pm: 1 %.
These changes look very strange to me. It was a sunny day with temperatures between 14 and 26 C, no rain today. According to Zimmerman temperature, humidity and part of the precipitation of the previous day shall be used for the calculation. Is this the case? I don’t understand the changes?
Following the information above, I have deleted the WU key in order to use the OWM data for the Zimmerman weather algorithm. For the time being we have had a sunny day and the water level was hourly updated to 72% during the day. I think the weather algorithm is working in some way, but I still can’t see if there is any precipitation value from yesterday’s rainfall measurement included. It is strange that there is no possibility to see the weather data used for the Zimmerman calculation anymore. I always get the message that an API key will be needed, if I click on the Weather Diagnostics button. There is also no weather logo visible at the App’s front page. Is this a general OpenSprinkler firmware or app issue, if the Zimmerman weather algorithm is based on OWM?
It would be also nice to have some information about the weather station providing the data. We have some afternoon thunderstorm at the moment and they are very local to our area. This means their might be a heavy rainfall a few kilometers away but no rainfall at all at my home location.
I like the idea of having at least the output of the Netatmo rain gauge included in the weather algorithm. There exists the possibility to set the Open Sprinkler rain delay time by API commands forwarded from IFTTT and apilio.io applets. However a direct interface to Netatmo might be the better solution. I also bought Netatmo and OpenSprinkler as these combination seems to be perfect for garden watering. The bad news is that it relies on WU, which seems to be not working anymore.
I learned that I have to reinstall the firmware again. Unfortunately I get some errors if I try to compile the files as given in the github repository. Maybe this is due to the fact that the OSBeeWiFi Firmware 1.0.0 was released more than 2 years ago? Is it possible to get access to the complied firmware named mainArdunio.cpp.bin or is it available on the web?
I need to upload the firmware in Arduino via USB as OTA update is not working anymore.
Help needed as my sprinkler systems depends on OSBeeWiFi.
Regards
Franz
