Irrigation controller possible issue

Posted on
Fri Mar 23, 2018 8:10 am
jenkins007 offline
Posts: 113
Joined: Nov 08, 2006
Location: Seguin, TX

Irrigation controller possible issue

I am using Indigo 7.1.1 on a headless MAC 10.7.5. I added a timer for each zone (future feature request!). It really is pretty simple: just a trigger for each zone that enables a schedule to add 1 minute each minute to a variable and disable when that zone is turned off, i.e. next zone turned on or all zones turned off, plus a time date stamp when it is turned off (another trigger). I knew that my different zones had issues late last year, so I am looking at the details now as spring is upon us.

Last night one of my 2 controllers (EZRain8 and EZFlora) were scheduled to run using 6 minutes for each zone using a multiplier based on last 7 days average temperature (which is 2 for between 65 and 70 degrees). The first 3 zones worked and watered for 12 minutes consecutively. The fourth one (Front Walkway) went for 24 minutes and the 5th one (Garden) did not turn on at all! I checked the log and found this:
2018-03-22 23:48:00.548 Schedule _next_zone_4_Irrigation House
2018-03-22 23:48:00.561 Sprinkler turning "Irrigation House" zone 5 on for 12.00 minutes
2018-03-22 23:48:06.678 Error "Irrigation House - Garden" on; send failed (no acknowledgment)
2018-03-22 23:48:13.602 Error reflector connection test failed: Reflector connection is currently down.
2018-03-22 23:48:13.604 Error reflector reconnection scheduled in 15 minutes
2018-03-22 23:49:00.543 Schedule Water Front Walkway add 1 minute to run time
2018-03-22 23:49:00.546 Schedule Weather - Get Sensor Array information
2018-03-22 23:50:00.547 Schedule Water Front Walkway add 1 minute to run time
2018-03-22 23:50:00.549 Schedule Weather - Get Sensor Array information
2018-03-22 23:51:00.550 Schedule Water Front Walkway add 1 minute to run time
2018-03-22 23:51:00.553 Schedule Weather - Get Sensor Array information
2018-03-22 23:52:00.554 Schedule Water Front Walkway add 1 minute to run time
2018-03-23 00:00:00.704 Application Created new log file (Indigo Server version 7.1.1)
2018-03-23 00:00:00.704 Schedule Irrigation Status
2018-03-23 00:00:00.706 Schedule Water Front Walkway add 1 minute to run time
2018-03-23 00:00:00.707 Schedule Weather - Get Sensor Array information
2018-03-23 00:00:00.714 Schedule _next_zone_5_Irrigation House
2018-03-23 00:00:00.736 Sprinkler stopping "Irrigation House" scheduled zone durations
2018-03-23 00:00:06.848 Error "Irrigation Orchard" valve status request; send failed (no acknowledgment)
2018-03-23 00:00:08.010 Sent INSTEON "Irrigation House - Garden" off (ack: all valves off)
2018-03-23 00:00:08.012 Trigger Sprinkler Front Walkway Off
2018-03-23 00:00:10.249 Sent INSTEON "Irrigation House - Patio" off (ack: all valves off)
2018-03-23 00:00:10.457 Received INSTEON "Irrigation House" status changed: all valves off
2018-03-23 00:00:16.559 Error "Irrigation House - Peaches" off; send failed (no acknowledgment)
2018-03-23 00:00:22.686 Error "Irrigation House - Front yard" off; send failed (no acknowledgment)

2018-03-23 00:00:23.352 Sent INSTEON "Irrigation House - Front flowers" off (ack: all valves off)
2018-03-23 00:00:23.512 Received INSTEON "Irrigation House" status changed: all valves off
2018-03-23 00:00:23.848 Sent INSTEON "Irrigation House - zone6" off (ack: all valves off)
2018-03-23 00:00:24.184 Sent INSTEON "Irrigation House - zone7" off (ack: all valves off)
2018-03-23 00:00:24.312 Received INSTEON "Irrigation House" status changed: all valves off
2018-03-23 00:00:25.496 Sent INSTEON "Irrigation House - zone8" off (ack: all valves off)
2018-03-23 00:00:26.376 Received INSTEON "Irrigation House" status changed: all valves off


Please note that the send failed to turn on the next zone (Garden at timestamp 22 23:48:06.678) and that is the issue. Is there a work around or possible fix to double check status and resend the command upon an error like this? .

At that time, there should not be much insteon or other traffic that should be interfering with signal loss. The controller is an EZRaind8 and is about 10 feet from the irrigation box with the valves. The irrigation controller is one room away from the power linc controller on another circuit. I have had these controllers working for many years.

Thanks,
Matthew

Posted on
Fri Mar 23, 2018 8:57 am
jay (support) offline
Site Admin
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Posts: 18200
Joined: Mar 19, 2008
Location: Austin, Texas

Re: Irrigation controller possible issue

There are a few reasons for no ack errors with Insteon: signal issues (most common), failing device, failing PowerLinc. Note that the older an installation gets the more likely that these things will occur. Signal noise can be introduced by a wide variety of things which you may add to your home over time (see signal troubleshooting page for examples). And, of course, devices will eventually fail.

Getting to the bottom of these issues is really what you'll need to do to get reliable irrigation.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Sat Mar 24, 2018 6:47 am
jenkins007 offline
Posts: 113
Joined: Nov 08, 2006
Location: Seguin, TX

Re: Irrigation controller possible issue

Thanks Jay. I've done that and at that time in the morning there is very little traffic, i.e. most devices are turned off. This is starting to be more and more common. Two things: is there a way to double check and resend the valve control? and 2... is there a more reliable irrigation controller that uses multiple ways of communicating? (like power line and RF and/or wifi)? Typically after one and up to 3 tries it works for each zone.

What about the SMARTENIT 3016A ZIGBEE HA 16-ZONE SPRINKLER CONTROLLER, I could put these on the separate protocol as my watering if for the area around my house and the other if for my 1 acre orchard which is extremely important! Will this be supported in the future?

I have another thought. Setup each zone as a separate schedule (ensuring no time overlaps for the highest duration multiplier) and also checking a variable for each one. Setup a trigger when each zone variable is set to TRUE (or on). The trigger checks to see if the correct zone is on and resends the command repeatedly until it is on. However, I am not too good at python. Is this a good idea and possible with the irrigation controller functionality?

Thanks and I appreciate all ya'll do.

Thanks,
Matthew

Posted on
Sat Mar 24, 2018 10:55 am
jay (support) offline
Site Admin
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Posts: 18200
Joined: Mar 19, 2008
Location: Austin, Texas

Re: Irrigation controller possible issue

We don't support Zigbee. There is a plugin for the Rachio controller (I use it as well as several others here on the forums). The downside is that their API requires talking to their cloud servers, so if the plugin can't talk to the network it can't control the controller. The plugin has several event types that will catch these types of errors so that you can create triggers to notify you of any issues.

You could do the logic you describe; however, given the network issues you seem to be having and the fact that they're getting worse leads me to believe that this solution would be temporary at best. My recommendation is to spend some time trying to isolate why you're seeing errors, which will lead to the root cause and a more permanent fix.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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