Monitored Values

A monitored value schedule is designed to allow the automatic enabling or disabling of existing schedules based on measured parameters.  Any schedule can be enabled or disabled based on any measured sensor within EMC, even if the data comes from a different location or property.

The control action is based on the measurement data being sent from EMC to the controller every 5-minutes, therefore, a 5-minute lag between the measurement value and the enable or disablement of control action will be observed.

The first step is to create the ‘base’ schedule to Enable or Disable.  To create the schedule, think of the desired outcomes. Here are some examples.

Symbol definitions: Less than <, less than or equal to <=, equal to =, greater than >, greater than or equal to >=, not equal to <>.

Example 1: Create a schedule that will turn on a sequence of irrigation at any time of day if the soil moisture reaches a threshold and continue for 1 cycle.

Base schedule: Create an Advanced schedule that cycles through the day.

Monitored schedule: Create a Monitored schedule that turns on based on measured values where the minimum and maximum time are equal to one cycle.

Example 2: Create a schedule that will turn on irrigation to a set when the soil moisture is below 22%, and turn off when it is above 28%; for safety, limit irrigation time to 4 hours, and leave on a minimum of 1 hour.

Base schedule: Create a basic Set schedule that is ON all day.

Monitored schedule: Create a Monitored schedule that turns on based on soil moisture being <22 and off when moisture>28, where the minimum time in minutes is set to 60 and the max time is set 480.

Example 3: Create a schedule that will turn on an irrigation sequence for frost control from midnight to 10am when the temperature is <28 degrees F, turning off when temperature is >35 Degrees F, operate for a minimum of 4 hours if triggered.

Base schedule: Create an Advanced schedule that cycles beginning at midnight continuing through 10am (600 minutes).

Monitored schedule: Create a Monitored schedule that turns on based on temperature being <28 and off when temp>35, where the minimum time is set to 480. 

Example 4: Create a schedule that will turn on irrigation to a set when the soil moisture is below 22%, and turn off when it is above 28%; for safety, limit irrigation time to 4 hours, and leave on a minimum of 1 hour.

Base schedule: Create a basic Set schedule that is ON all day

Monitored schedule: Create a Monitored schedule that turns on based on soil moisture being <22 and off when moisture>28, where the minimum time is set to 60 and the max time is set 480.

Following are the steps to creating a Monitored Schedule:

1. Create the Base Schedule, it can be schedule of Type Zone, Pump, Set or Advanced.
2. Create the Monitored Schedule by ‘Create Schedule’ ‘Schedule Type’ Monitored Value.
3. Enter a name for the schedule in the ‘Name’ Box.
4. Enter the Sensor Type, Station, and Sensor for which to base the monitored condition value; the example in Figure X uses the Air Temp ‘Type’, for ‘Station’ West Weather, and ‘Sensor’ Air Temp. 
5. Select/enter the ‘Trigger ON’ and ‘Trigger OFF’ Condition; options are <,<=,=,>,>=,<> and then the value.  The example shows a Trigger ON condition of <28, and Trigger OFF of >35.
6. Enter the Minimum Duration and Maximum Duration to enable the appropriate schedule.   The minimum duration allows the schedule to operate for say “30 minutes” even though maybe the Trigger ON condition was only below 28 degrees for 10 minutes.  The maximum duration allows the limiting of irrigation or time ON such to limit running out of water, or other physical limitations, a safety mechanism.
7. Select the base schedule for which to enable or disable, on the ‘Filtered Schedule List’ dropdown.
8. Select ‘Save’ to save the schedule, ‘Save and Publish’ to save and publish/download the schedule to the controller.  The schedule can also be Published or Unpublished via the Schedule Activation page.