Messages

1

Help / Re: Running multiple valves simultaneously

« on: July 29, 2021, 04:14:09 pm »

So i have been running multiple zones the way you suggested last year and i have found a bug.  I added another master valve to my system for the drip zones this spring. In reality it is a master valve and an input thru a relay to my well pumps VFD that commands a lower pressure set point for the drip irrigation.  I set it up as terminal 24.  It works mostly as intended.

The glitch i have encountered is when i have two or more zones running concurrently using the #24 master i cant have them for different periods of time.  The master valve terminal powers off when the first zone finishes.  The second  zone keeps the zone valve energized but not the#24 master terminal.  I have triple checked that they are both set for the #24 master valve.  It seemed to be a consistent error earlier this spring until i attempted a work around.

If i power cycle the controller when it is in this state, it will snap out of it and energize the #24 master valve correctly for the remainder of the run time.

I had been working around this by forcing some zones to have the same run time and its not working well.  I cant adjust water as needed to different garden beds and keep the water flow high enough to keep my well pump happy. It is short cycling the pump on just one zone and I haven't found a consistent fix.

If these stacked zones showed up better in the calendar it might be helpful as an alternative but as it stands, I'm struggling to juggle splitting up all my drip zones by run time and not overlap and not run into each other on different day of week frequencies.

Last year, running on the original master terminal i didn't have this problem.  I had 5 drip zones all come on at 7 pm, and one ran for 15 minutes, two ran for 30 minutes and two ran for 45 minutes.  This all happened without messing up the other zones.

Let me know what your thoughts are and what you need from me.
Thank you!
 

2

Help / Re: Running multiple valves simultaneously

« on: June 15, 2020, 10:18:23 pm »

This makes sense. I set this up as you suggested but i had one more hiccup.  At first i thought i did something wrong because i could only see one scheduled program on the calendar view for that given time. I changed the time of the one schedule a few minutes and then saw that indeed it was there but apparently the calendar cant handle showing concurrent schedules for the same time. Is that correct at this point?
Thanks for your help!

3

Help / Running multiple valves simultaneously

« on: June 04, 2020, 02:03:50 pm »

Hey,
I set up some drip zones with pretty low flow. I separated them in order to have flexibility of relative water application so i don't have to change flow rates on drippers to tune everything.  My well pump and pressure regulator aren't super exited about running one low flow zone at a time. The pump needs some flow to keep the seals cool and the pressure regulator is pulsing more than healthy.

My question is, how do I turn on multiple valves simultaneously? This is stated as a feature on the Bluespray website.

If they were all running for the same amount of time i could wire them together, but that defeats the purpose of splitting them up.
 
The only way I can figure out is to have each zone assigned its own program and schedule and then turn off stacking runs.  Having 8 zones to do this seems like it cant be right.  If i want to change the start time I have to edit 8 schedules instead of 1 which is cumbersome.
Can anyone help me with this?
Thank you!

4

Help / Troubleshooting flow meter- new install not working

« on: June 14, 2018, 12:02:57 am »

I installed a BSC024i-UE and a flow meter adapter that were both bought directly from Bluespray in mid May.  I hooked up the controller and it is working with my new zone valves very nicely.  I installed a CST FSI-T10-001 flow sensor that  I bought from Sprinklerwarehouse.com and wired it up to the Bluespray flow sensor adapter with shielded wire. I cannot get the flow light to flash (other than as mentioned later) or get any flow to show up on the web interface for my controller.  It acts like it knows about the flow sensor, but just displays 0.00 gpm. It did allow me to pick my brand of flow sensor for flow sensor setup.  Attempting to calibrate the zones shows the same result of 0.0gpm of flow.

• I get the power light on the adapter when i plug in the RJ11 cable to the controller from the adapter.
• I have the two small yellow wires hooked up to the 24vac terminals on the controller. I probed into them with my multi meter to ensure i had a good connection and I did see 25 volts
• I have the black and red wires from the adapter connected to the flow sensor thru a shielded cable and have verified polarity.
• I ended up soldering the wire connections to the flow sensor in an attempt to get it operational by reducing possible points of failure, but it did not help.
• I pulled the flow sensor from its tee and verified that there was no debris that was preventing the turbine from spinning.

While I had a zone running tonight I tested with my multi meter for frequency output from the flow sensor while still hooked up to the flow sensor adapter.  I did consistently see a signal when i had flow, although I dont know what it should look like.  At first I was seeing approx 80hz and 0.5 to 0.6 volts AC, then later I was seeing 28hz and 2.5-2.9 volts AC. It is possible that it changed zones on me while i was taking measurements.  I also closed a manual valve upstream of the flow sensor while the system was running and i then saw the frequency output drop off to 0.0hz and 0.0065 volts which seems correct based on how I understand this flow sensor to work(not sure about voltage, but frequency of 0hz makes sense).

What else can I do to check/fix this?

I feel like the sensor appears to be working since I can see frequency outputs that correlate to flow, and I know the Bluespray flow meter adapter is getting power and has the RJ11 cable plugged in correctly.

Another odd tidbit to add to all of this is that on the first night I had this hooked up and found out that it wasn't working, I could hover my hand over top of the Blue Spray flow sensor adapter box and the flow light would begin to flicker. It was not due to a change in lighting, but rather that my hand was shielding or somehow otherwise affecting the circuitry of the adapter box.  I have a video of it doing this if anybody wants to see it. (edit-adding google drive link for video) https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DZa43bTTjRnKAEjZEk1nWzqELIuQTZ8M This little oddity has become less repeatable as time has gone on. I didnt have my laptop out there when it was doing this, so I dont know if it was reporting flow at that time. It bothers me to share this behavior since I cant explain it, quantify it, or establish if it is of any signifigance to the issue for you.

I dont know what else to look for and I would appreciate any help or suggestions that anybody has. Thanks- Cody