Recent Posts

81

New Questions, Ask Your Questions Here / Re: Cannot find device on network (after power surge?)

« Last post by Jim on August 25, 2011, 06:37:05 pm »

Hi Julian,
For device issues please contact QuickSmart direct for fast resolution.   This forum is generally for historical or conversational questions.

To answer your question:  The blinking green LED on the Ethernet connector means that the controller is looking for an IP address.  First thing to check:
1.  Plug the controller into a known working Ethernet port with a known working cable and power up.  

If no address is obtained and the Green ethernet connector LED still blinks then most likely an element in the Ethernet signal path has failed due to the surge.   If that is the case the network board can be repaired quickly with a product return.

Surges due to Lightning can enter the network cable generally entering from a powered device on the network.  If you live in an area subject to lighting it might be a good idea to install an ethernet surge protector (they cost around $20.00).  They won't stop direct hits, but will most likely prolong the life of networked connected equipment.

82

New Questions, Ask Your Questions Here / Cannot find device on network (after power surge?)

« Last post by julianl22 on August 24, 2011, 08:12:25 am »

My device last checked-in a little over a week ago, while I was offsite for a couple of weeks.  Upon returning, I found that my cable-modem and router both had dead power supplies.  I'm assuming this was due to a power surge, as my neighbor said we had a thunderstorm about the time of my last check-in.  All three devices were plugged into the same surge protector.  I have a new cable-modem now, but had a spare power supply for my DLink router, and am still using the original router, which appears to be working fine.

The power supply for my EtherRain 7P (Rain Bird 26.5V) is reading 29.0V.  I get a blinking green light on the ethernet cable port as soon as I plug it in, but that's all I'm seeing.  The EtherRain Admin application says it can find no devices.  I have the computer and the 7P both plugged into the router.  Suggestions?

Thanks,

Julian

83

Feature Requests / Increase inter-cycle time

« Last post by brannose on July 25, 2011, 09:42:31 pm »

During very hot weather, bermuda grass will "burn" in the heat.  Golf courses typically water greens several times a day to prevent this heat damage.  I would like to be able to create a cooling cycle program that would run each zone for just a few minutes to cool the grass.  Ideally, this should be done 2 or more times during an afternoon at about 2 hour intervals.

If I understand the inter-cycle feature correctly, one program can be split so that each zone runs for portion of its program, rests for the inter-cycle time, and then runs for the remainder of the programmed time.  If the intercycle time could be increased and possibly made user specified, it would be possible to create a single program that would automatically cool the lawn at specified intervals whenever the temperature is above the heat threshold temp.

84

Feature Requests / Water cost display

« Last post by brannose on July 22, 2011, 04:16:33 am »

I would like to recommend adding a field for the cost of water (ex: $7.00/1000 gal) and then having the system display both the usage per cycle and the cost per cycle.  Additionally, the monthly numbers could also be used to generate a monthly cost.  This would help users more effectively balance water usage and costs.

85

LawnCheck Status Screen and Reports Information / Will I receive notification of weather related cycle skips in my command log?

« Last post by Jim on July 14, 2011, 06:55:26 pm »

Yes.  Lawncheck will monitor the status of the EtherRain rain indicator and will also check Yahoo weather.  If the rain sensor indicates rain when it is time to send the irrigation command, the command will not be sent, and a log entry will be made indicating a controller Rain block.  If Yahoo weather indicated precipitation, that will be noted. 

Likewise temperature related cycle blocks will all be noted in the log.

86

LawnCheck Status Screen and Reports Information / Which time zones does LawnCheck support?

« Last post by Jim on July 14, 2011, 06:49:33 pm »

LawnCheck supports a long list of times zones spanning the globe.  You can view and change your time zone setting from the "My Data" button after you log in.  You set your initial time zone when you register.

If you don't see compatible time listed for your location please contact LawnCheck using the email support form.

87

LawnCheck Status Screen and Reports Information / How Do I read the command logs? How do I to tell which zones ran?

« Last post by Jim on July 14, 2011, 06:45:40 pm »

The command logs are a summary of the commands that your controller actually receives from LawnCheck.  The commands that LawnCheck sends are based on your irrigation programs, as well as any manually issued quick cycles.    It's generally easier to look at your program schedule and start time to understand which zones ran, however you can interpret the irrigation command in your log as follows:

Example Irrigate command:(S)IRRIGATE-->>xi=14:0:0:0:3:3:0:0:0
The 14 is the delay in minutes.  The command was sent at the time indicated at the start of the command line.  Add the delay to get the time that the command is scheduled to run.  It should match your indicated program start time.

The next numbers in sequence are the zone "on" minutes per zone.  The zones run in sequence starting at zone 1.

88

LawnCheck Status Screen and Reports Information / What time do the connection and command logs use?

« Last post by Jim on July 14, 2011, 06:39:52 pm »

The logs will use your local time based on the time zone that you selected.  You can change the time zone from the “My Data” screen after logging in.

89

LawnCheck Status Screen and Reports Information / What does "LATE" mean in the Status tab?

« Last post by Jim on July 14, 2011, 06:39:07 pm »

Ideally the controller reports in to LawnCheck  every 5 mins.  If more than 10 minutes have elasped since the last time the controller reported in,  the LATE indicator appears in status screen.  When the controller reports in again, the status will change to OK.

If you see a LATE in the status screen it doesn't mean that your controller isn't working.  The controller may have encountered network congestion, usually locally, and will continue trying to check in every five minutes.  You can view your connection report to monitor your controller's connection history with LawnCheck.  It is normal to see some connection outages.

If you receive an email notice entitled "24 Hour Check-in Alert" that means your controller hasn't reported within the last 24 hour hours and you should investigate your controller or your network connection.

90

Feature Requests / Re: Increased polling frequency during manual mode

« Last post by Jim on June 30, 2011, 07:13:52 pm »

Hello ljm,

I've tested the Immediate Valve test feature and it works well.  When I developed the feature it just so happened that I had a D-Link DR-615 Router, a very low cost router that happens to have a lot features.  One of the features that it has is incoming packet filtering, so you can easily specify IP addresses that you want to forward.

It turns out that most other low cost home routers don't have incoming filtering, so I wrote the instructions on how to configure your router using the incoming filter.  To enable Immediate Test, you'll need to open a port on your router and without incoming flitering on your router, I don't know how much traffic you'll get to the EtherRain.  That's what needs to be tested.

To use immediate test you need to configure both the EtherRain controller and your router.  Click here for configuration instructions (.pdf).  The feature is available from the  Lawncheck SmartPhone site.

Please send me an email using the LawnCheck Support form or use the forum and let me know if you'd like to try this and I will enable your account.

Jim