nice! I’m happy to work on this with you. My whole project is based on replacing my RainMachine. It’s a fine device for the average consumer but with no Vera integration and the issues with the weather forecast we’ve talked about it just doesn’t suite my needs. Like you said, we get lots of rain… a 1/4 of a mile away.
If this sensor has accurate soil sensing, does it really need rain amount sensing? Regardless of how much rain, the soil amount is what matters right? I guess it’s a good cross check if nothing else or if you are not using the moisture probe it would be a good ‘whole yard’ solution like most ran gauges work.
I got going on the real sensor because I’m thinking I can use the rain gauge for other projects later.
You are 100% correct, though, I think if you are looking just at irrigation, the soil moisture really solves the problem.
If you are interested in a good quality moisture sensor look at the Vegetronic.
Right now, I only need to determine which vera ‘device’ I’m going to use for displaying accumulated rainfall. I’m struck here until I get some help with the device. There are a lot of great folks here knowledgeable on the vera side.
The RainMachine looks cool. I just finished an (up to) 8 zone controller for arduino, using a shift register.
if you are interested in building a rain gage and using that, then putting your thoughts around what periods you want to observe (prior 24hrs, 48hrs, etc) to make a decision wether to water or not, that would help.
Usage In Scene
Add a trigger and choose the Virtual Rain Sensor device
A sensor is tripped Device is tripped: fired when total precipitation above threshold Device is not tripped: fired when total precipitation below threshold
An armed sensor is tripped Device armed is tripped: fired when armed and total precipitation above threshold Device armed is not tripped: fired when armed and total precipitation below threshold[/quote]
Sorry… can you tell me the difference between these two choices (e.g. armed, vs. just triped)? Trying to figure out how to create the scene?
Also, I assume I need two scenes, one that trips to turn my Opensprinkler configuration off, and another to turn it back on with no precip?
[quote=“tomgru, post:63, topic:180668”]Sorry… can you tell me the difference between these two choices (e.g. armed, vs. just triped)? Trying to figure out how to create the scene?
Also, I assume I need two scenes, one that trips to turn my Opensprinkler configuration off, and another to turn it back on with no precip?
thanks.[/quote]
No problem. The difference between armed and just tripped is a depends if you want to control it through the dashboard or not. With the option of an armed sensor is tripped you can bypass the virtual rain sensor on the dashboard in case you want to ignore it for a while. The other option does not care about the armed and bypass buttons on the dashboard and will always trigger an event.
You are correct that you will need 2 scenes. I personally set the scene to turn off the sprinkler controller(when the virtual rain sensor is tripped) to an armed sensor is tripped option and the scene to turn it on as just the basic a device is tripped option. That way if I bypass it the scene will still activate to turn the sprinkler controller back on, but the bypass will prevent it from shutting it off again.
Hope that helps and hope the plugin works well for your purposes.
I have created a soil humidity and temperature sensor based on the MySenors.org platform. It is battery operated, water proof and controls my irrigation per zone. I only water when it is needed, no weather forecast, rain sensor or software needed.
My RainMachine is no longer connected or needed… nice little RaspberryPi box but no integration with Vera. I’m much happier with what I have now.
[quote=“Jasonejc, post:65, topic:180668”]I have created a soil humidity and temperature sensor based on the MySenors.org platform. It is battery operated, water proof and controls my irrigation per zone. I only water when it is needed, no weather forecast, rain sensor or software needed.
My RainMachine is no longer connected or needed… nice little RaspberryPi box but no integration with Vera. I’m much happier with what I have now.[/quote]
Good work
I was curious, how deep did you place your soil moisture sensor? From reading up on all of this irrigation theory from the food and agriculture organization, I found that the effective root length of a plant is an important factor in how much water it has available to it. Essentially if it rains a ridiculous amount the top layer of soil becomes saturated and the water will collect and run off the surface or percolate deep into the soil where the plant cannot reach it. So if you placed the sensor at the effective root depth of the plant you are irrigating then it should work well.
Do you do cycle and soak? You don’t need to but it would conserve the most water since it takes time for the moisture to reach the sensor and turn off the valve. Any extra would run off or be lost to deep percolation.
I have been using the virtual rain sensor for awhile now. I recently added my own weather station which is now registered and appears on Weather underground. However I can’t seem to get the rain sensor to use my location as it’s data source.
I have tried manually changing to my lat long, uninstalling and reinstalling and pointing to my location. But it doesn’t seem to work.
How do I tell it to use my station?
[quote=“pkcosgrove, post:67, topic:180668”]I have been using the virtual rain sensor for awhile now. I recently added my own weather station which is now registered and appears on Weather underground. However I can’t seem to get the rain sensor to use my location as it’s data source.
I have tried manually changing to my lat long, uninstalling and reinstalling and pointing to my location. But it doesn’t seem to work.
How do I tell it to use my station?[/quote]
If you put “pws:” followed by your station id as your location then it will only use that station.
With lat long it will find the closest station but since yours is new it might not be on that list yet. I could see the API having a separate copy of the personal weather station list in its database.
[quote=“blakem, post:64, topic:180668”][quote=“tomgru, post:63, topic:180668”]Sorry… can you tell me the difference between these two choices (e.g. armed, vs. just triped)? Trying to figure out how to create the scene?
Also, I assume I need two scenes, one that trips to turn my Opensprinkler configuration off, and another to turn it back on with no precip?
thanks.[/quote]
No problem. The difference between armed and just tripped is a depends if you want to control it through the dashboard or not. With the option of an armed sensor is tripped you can bypass the virtual rain sensor on the dashboard in case you want to ignore it for a while. The other option does not care about the armed and bypass buttons on the dashboard and will always trigger an event.
You are correct that you will need 2 scenes. I personally set the scene to turn off the sprinkler controller(when the virtual rain sensor is tripped) to an armed sensor is tripped option and the scene to turn it on as just the basic a device is tripped option. That way if I bypass it the scene will still activate to turn the sprinkler controller back on, but the bypass will prevent it from shutting it off again.
Hope that helps and hope the plugin works well for your purposes.[/quote]
Hey there… so far so good in tripping and turning off the sprinklers. But I think I’m missing something, as it doesn’t seem to reset and turn them back on when precip goes below threshold. Any chance you could show me a screen shot of what your scene looks like?
[quote=“tomgru, post:69, topic:180668”]Hey there… so far so good in tripping and turning off the sprinklers. But I think I’m missing something, as it doesn’t seem to reset and turn them back on when precip goes below threshold. Any chance you could show me a screen shot of what your scene looks like?
Thanks![/quote]
I don’t have a screen shot but it does sound like you only have one scene to turn off you sprinkler but you don’t have a second to turn on your sprinkler. Just create a new scene that turns on the sprinkler and then add the virtual rain sensor as a trigger.
On the add trigger page of your scene, select the virtual rain sensor device. On the "What type of event is the trigger?: " select, “an armed sensor is tripped”. Then give the trigger a name and select “Device armed is not tripped”.
EDIT: I just scrolled up and saw your last post. It sounds like you are using two scenes but you did not select the correct type of logic on one of them. The turn off scene will have “Device armed is tripped”, the turn on scene will have “Device armed is not tripped”.
[quote=“tyfoon, post:72, topic:180668”]I’m also still a bit confused.
I want to:
Scene1: have the sprinkler turn on every day at 22:00 IF rain less then threshold
Scene2: Turn off always at 22:30
Scene 2 is simple. But how should I setup scene 1?
p.s. I normally use PLEG for this stuff and used scenes only for very basic stuff, so really not sure how to do this…[/quote]
It is easy with PLEG. Open your PLEG instance and select the INPUTS tab, then the DEVICE PROPERTIES. Select the Virtual Rain Sensor device from the drop down then select “Tripped” from the drop down next to it followed by the Accept button. Give it a name and use the name in a condition like any other input.
When using this plugin with PLEG, do you have to use the device properties to get the tripped value our can you just use the device input and selected from dropdown of armed sensor is tripped?
When I tried the latter, PLEG never seemed to set the condition to true.
Sorry I forgot to add that you will need to setup 2 conditions that trigger 2 actions.
No rain turns the sprinkler on.
Rain detected turns the sprinkler off.
You will need that setup with either type input but the condition logic may differ. I will look into the event triggered input you mentioned later today.
I have a question that may be more WUnderground Related than the plugin itself.
My station (KMICANTO5) is currently reading a total of .27 inches of rain today. We had a .26 event and a .01 event just a few minutes ago.
The odd thing is, the Virtual Rain Sensor is showing .09 inches. This is not enough to “trip” the sensor and is therefore telling my system to water the lawn tonight. .27 is plenty of water so I will manually disarm the sensor but I was hoping someone could help me troubleshoot this.
I did make sure I used “pws:KMICANTO5” in the config to look at only my station.
Attached are images of the sensor and Wunderground.
I have a question that may be more WUnderground Related than the plugin itself.
My station (KMICANTO5) is currently reading a total of .27 inches of rain today. We had a .26 event and a .01 event just a few minutes ago.
The odd thing is, the Virtual Rain Sensor is showing .09 inches. This is not enough to “trip” the sensor and is therefore telling my system to water the lawn tonight. .27 is plenty of water so I will manually disarm the sensor but I was hoping someone could help me troubleshoot this.
I did make sure I used “pws:KMICANTO5” in the config to look at only my station.
Attached are images of the sensor and Wunderground.
Any ideas?[/quote]
The problem is actually from the personal weather station software. It should report the total rain for the whole day and reset at midnight(beginning of the next day). This station looks like it reset from 0.26 to 0.00 at 1:40pm which it should have waited until midnight. The 0.09 inches that you are seeing is actually from the forecasted precipitation for the remainder of the day. I personally do not know why some personal weather stations do this but I have come across it before during testing. My plugin simply reads the latest observation and not the max for the day since it should be accumulating throughout the day and reset the beginning of the next day. Hope that helps.
[quote=“blakem, post:73, topic:180668”][quote=“tyfoon, post:72, topic:180668”]I’m also still a bit confused.
I want to:
Scene1: have the sprinkler turn on every day at 22:00 IF rain less then threshold
Scene2: Turn off always at 22:30
Scene 2 is simple. But how should I setup scene 1?
p.s. I normally use PLEG for this stuff and used scenes only for very basic stuff, so really not sure how to do this…[/quote]
It is easy with PLEG. Open your PLEG instance and select the INPUTS tab, then the DEVICE PROPERTIES. Select the Virtual Rain Sensor device from the drop down then select “Tripped” from the drop down next to it followed by the Accept button. Give it a name and use the name in a condition like any other input.
0 = no rain detected
1 = rain detected[/quote]
I have this set up but am using the “Forecasted Precipitation” variable and either GE or LT .5 (for half an inch).
PLEG shows it as TRUE ( it is raining more than .5 inches today) but on reloading Vera it does not set the sprinkler off (I do this through Luup code that I’ve tested via the LUUP test tool).
Is there a way to force PLEG ot evaluate these conditions? Virtual Rain Sensor shows .70 for today, so the “Is Raining” condition should be true and trigger this.
[quote=“Ramias, post:79, topic:180668”][quote=“blakem, post:73, topic:180668”][quote=“tyfoon, post:72, topic:180668”]I’m also still a bit confused.
I want to:
Scene1: have the sprinkler turn on every day at 22:00 IF rain less then threshold
Scene2: Turn off always at 22:30
Scene 2 is simple. But how should I setup scene 1?
p.s. I normally use PLEG for this stuff and used scenes only for very basic stuff, so really not sure how to do this…[/quote]
It is easy with PLEG. Open your PLEG instance and select the INPUTS tab, then the DEVICE PROPERTIES. Select the Virtual Rain Sensor device from the drop down then select “Tripped” from the drop down next to it followed by the Accept button. Give it a name and use the name in a condition like any other input.
0 = no rain detected
1 = rain detected[/quote]
I have this set up but am using the “Forecasted Precipitation” variable and either GE or LT .5 (for half an inch).
PLEG shows it as TRUE ( it is raining more than .5 inches today) but on reloading Vera it does not set the sprinkler off (I do this through Luup code that I’ve tested via the LUUP test tool).
Is there a way to force PLEG ot evaluate these conditions? Virtual Rain Sensor shows .70 for today, so the “Is Raining” condition should be true and trigger this.[/quote]
I would love to help, but I am not sure what you are trying to achieve. The “Tripped” variable is the better way to set it up. If you are only interested in the forecast and not the past precipitation then you can reconfigure the Virtual Rain Sensor or the settings tab to only use the forecast.