Rain8Net VS Ocelot

The plugin can calculate based on shade, soil porosity, rain, sunshine, temp when and when not to and how much to water a particular zone. All dynamically adjusted based on real conditions.

Now this is pretty cool...
 
remoteshoppe said:
I had a $20 rain sensor installed with my sprinkler system and it worked for about 2 weeks. I guess you get what you pay for ;-)
Mine is 11 years old and still works. All mine contains is 2 wires that ground with water. How hard is that to fix? :)
 
bfisher said:
The plugin can calculate based on shade, soil porosity, rain, sunshine, temp when and when not to and how much to water a particular zone. All dynamically adjusted based on real conditions.
How does the plugin detect shade, soil porosity, and sunshine? Dang this plugin is smarter than I am. I think I'll buy it. :)

I guess my zones would all have to be equally shaded and porosity?
 
From mcsSprinklers Help:

Head Efficiency and Crop Factor
The Head Efficiency and Crop Factor entries allow tweaking of the automatic watering algorithm discussed in Section Watering Duration and Interval. The Head Efficiency relates to the ability to apply water to a zone. Higher values indicate that the zone can be covered in less time. Crop factor relates to the ability of the foliage and soil to retain the water that has been applied. Higher values indicate a decrease in the interval in which water must be applied.
(RUPP - these are zone specific settings)

Don’t with Wind
Wind will typically disturb the watering efficiency. To avoid this situation watering can be restricted to periods without excessive wind. The threshold is entered in the first box. The period for which this average speed must be maintained is entered in the second box. Too low values in either of these boxes could result in a repeated starting and stopping of the watering valve.

Time and Weather Setup
Sunrise, sunset and weather information are based upon location. The zip code is used to determine the location.

Weather data is obtained from the Internet with the zip code as the means of identification of the local vicinity. The forecast data is provided by MSNBC. The AWS network of reporting sites provides the current weather data. Up to three sites can be selected. The primary will be used unless it fails to report then the other sites will be used.

Seasonal Percentages
The values associated with each month will be multiplied by the Automatic watering times entered on the Zone Setup page and this product used as the actual watering time. It is primarily intended to account for seasonal variation when using a timed control strategy. The control strategy is setup on the Area Setup page. 100 percent is nominal for summer.


Like I said, pretty encompassing...
 
that's what I have, and hopefully will be automated soon, but still won't compare to these nice sprinkler setups :)
 
Thought you would get a kick out of this from the mcsSprinklers Help:

The general watering requirement can be algorithmically described as



V = ( Eto x Kc x Kd x Ks x Fr - Pr )



Where Eto = Evapotranspiration

Kc = Foliage characteristic

Kd = Distribution efficiency

Ks = Soil porosity

Fr = Flow rate

Pr = Precipitation rate

V = Volume of water required





It is generally the intention to encourage the foliage roots to penetrate lower into the soil so they will have a strong footing and be less sensitive to surface variation in moisture. This means that the objective of the irrigation controller is to deliver moisture to a desired soil depth. This depth is achieved with traditional installations by saturating the surface with a sufficient volume of water that it will soak down to the desired level. This implies that water delivery will be in bursts rather than a continuous misting.



Kc Foliage characteristic, Ke Distribution efficiency, Ks Soil porosity, and Fr Flow rate are factors for which information is not readily available on an installation-by-installation basis. What is available, however, is an approximation based upon experience, of how long a specific zone should be watered to saturate the soil to the desired depth. This means the installer simply is required to provide the zone watering duration and the controller can determine when to activate a watering cycle based upon the following formula:



1
I = _____________
( Eto x Ke - Pr )



Where Eto = Evapotranspiration

Ke = Efficiency of moisture retention

Pr = Precipitation rate

I = Days per watering cycle



The Eto Evapotranspiration and Pr Precipitation rate can be determined from weather data from a nearby weather reporting station and this data is available in real-time over the Internet. Ke Efficiency of moisture retention is available as a tweaking factor should some adjustments be necessary for off-nominal conditions.
 
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