Programs - Valve Program

If the valve program does not want to save & give an error “Station has not been able to sync successfully”

• Signal Strength might not be strong enough to sync succesfully, just keep on trying to save until succesful.
• If still not succesfull, check if both Farmsync hotspots are available, if not, do a power cycle.
• What is a “Power Cycle”? - When you remove the ALL power from the Farmsync Controller AND any external router that might be in the office, and then reconnect
• Please note that it will take a few minutes for all the controllers to come back online.

• Any changes made to existing valve programs must be made when the valve program is NOT Running.
• Refresh the Base Station after ANY changes are made to ensure that the update information is sent to the server.

Please Note: Before any Steps can be added to the program, a Program Name must be entered & SAVED; only then more detail can be added to the program.

• A: Enter a name for the program
• B: Choose the correct Station from the dropdown list
• C: Should the valve fail to open on the first try, enter the amount of tries the program must attempt to open the valve before moving on
  • Reasons why valve may not open:
    • Battery of station may have died / Signal issues
    • Wire of solenoid off / Loose connection
• D: Under Contruction - we appreciate your patience

• A: Click here to Add Steps to the program
  • Each step can consist of a Max of 8 valves
    • In order to add more than 8 valves, just add another step
  • Each step runs individually e.g.
    • Two steps of 30 min runtime each will run as follows:
      • Step 1 will run first, for 30 min
      • Once this step is complete, Step 2 will start & run for 30 min
      • Making the Total Runtime 60 minutes for the program
  • Should it be required that two or more Steps run simultaneously, the Group function can be used by ticking the boxes (B) of each step & clicking on the Group button
  • It is still possible that each step have different Runtimes
    • The Steps will start simultaneously, & each run until each specified Runtime is complete
• C: Each Steps Runtime can be edited here
  • Should a Step be required to run with another step, but not start at the same time, a Start Delay can be entered
• D: Only applicable whilst using a Third-Party Scheduling Program
• E: Add Valves to each step here
• F: Add Pump Programs to each step here
• G: Add Fertilizer Programs to each step here
  • Dosing rates can be edited from here
  • Pre-Delay:
    • Time duration allowed to pass from start of Valve Program to start of Fertigation
  • Post-Delay:
    • Time duration allowed for Fertigation to stop before the Valve Program stops
  • Note:
    • Valve Program Runtime: 60 min
    • Pre-Delay: 10 min
    • Post-Delay: 10min
    • Thus, total Fert Runtime = 40 min

Note: To undo a Group, simply click on any of the up or down arrows located just above the Fertigation programs to the right

• A: Do not enter dates & times here; this section will be populated based on the information set in C, D & E
• B: Priority Ratings are used when two or more programs using the same mainline are set to run at the same time
  • Priority will be awarded to the program with the highest rating, this program will be allowed to finish its Runtime, & only then, will the other program start
• C: In order to set Times & Days of the week, tick this box to expand options D & E
• D: Provision has been made to enter up to 4 different Times per day
• E: Tick the Days of the Week that the program must run on

Ammendment

• A If a program is running and a new schedule is sent from AgriWiz, this setting will stop the current irrigation and reset the schedule so that the new schedule can populate
• B Late Start (Loadshedding) if the schedule has fallen behind allow it the catch up (will only work if there is enough hours left in the day).
• C Force Stop ( If the schedule is running behind and the next schedule must start this wil Stop the program and reset the schedule so that the next schedule can start (WILL LOSE THE Irrigation Time that was left)

- Only when using 3rd party schedulers

• A: Should the Actual Starting Time scheduled for some reason be prohibited from starting (e.g. due to Loadshedding), the Catchup Hours allows the program to start at another time not specified on the schedule should it still be within the hours specified here
  • e.g.
    • Starting time: 08:00
    • Loadshedding prevented the program from running (08:00 - 10:00)
    • Catchup Hours: 6 hours
    • Since the power is back after just 2 hours (still within the 6-hour margin specified), the program will allocate a new start time of 10:00

Flow Alarms are your first line of defense when it comes to detecting possible leaks in the system.

• A: Tick this box to activate the Flow Rate Alarms
• B: When an irrigation system starts, the pipeline is empty & must first fill with water. During this time the Flow Rate is much higher than what would be expected. As the pipeline fills, the flow will settle to the expected Flow Rate
  • Once the system is installed, it is advised that special care be taken to familiarize oneself with the filling time
  • Entering the filling time here, will allow the program to delay the alarm until the Flow Rate has settled
• C: The duration of time allowed for the Flow Rate to be out of specification before the Alarm is triggered
• D: Select the Mainline Flow Rate Sensor from the dropdown list
• E: Enter the percentage allowable Flow Rate margin for Min & Max Flow rates.
  • Should the Flow Rate be above the Max or below the Min for longer than specified at C, the alarm will be triggered

Choose how the program must react to Flow Alarms:

• A: Pause program after failure detected
• B: Skip this valve if failure detected

Note: For the following two alarms to be active, please enable the Flow Rate alarms for the Fert on the Fertilizer Programs

• C: Pause all Fert channels on Fert alarm
  • This will affect only the Fert
• D: Pause program on Fert alarm
  • This will affect the entire Valve Program

• A: Choose on which Ruraflex Stage the program must be paused & resumes on
• B: Choose on which Ruraflex Stage the program must be started & stopped on

• A: Tick this box to stop the pump after the program has run
• B: Enter the time (seconds) that the pump must start BEFORE the valves are opened
  • If the valves are closed when the pump is started, it means that there is no discharge head & minimum resistance to the pump, and therefore the output current is the smallest.
  • Although the current is greater than the normal value when the motor starts, closing the discharge valve of a pump can avoid additional load on the pump.

• A: Select the Filter Program from the dropdown list
• B: Optional: Close the irrigation valves while flushing

• A: Select a trigger sensor
• B: Enter a min Threshold
• C: Enter a max Threshold
• D: Enter a max interval
• E: Enter a min Active time for the trigger
• F: Select a trigger type from the dropdown list

• A: Select from the dropdown list a program that must be started along with this Valve Program
• B: Select from the dropdown list a program that must be started once this Valve Program has stopped

• A: Enter the duration of time (seconds) that must pass between each valve before the next is opened