WaterMate : Control system

WaterMate : Control system »
Watermate Mini Battery Voltage and Rogue Pump

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scope6
23 Apr, 22:07
I can't see reference to it anywhere, but great to see that battery voltage is now plotted on the data graph.
This helped explain why my unit had patchy connection for a few days, it seems it ran the battery flat ( starting at 16v it then eventually woke at around 11/12v ) with a 43 minute ( !? ) pump but has since charged back up and is working great.
Just to let you know in case this was related to an update or something?
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Chris
ADMIN
23 Apr, 22:11
Hi there - thanks for posting! Glad you like the battery level, we've always had that as admins but figured it would be nice for users to see as well.

Have a look on our support docs for "watering longer than expected" : link

Chris

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Chris
ADMIN
23 Apr, 22:12
Don't suppose you'd be up for joining the list of early beta testers of the new firmware @scope6 ? link

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scope6
24 Apr, 21:53
Thanks Chris, that makes sense, although something happened to flatten the battery at the same time. I will also post in the other thread.

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scope6
06 Jun, 22:04
Further to the above, I've had another instance that the pump goes to water as normal. Then goes "dead" for a couple of days where it doesn't check in, apparently because the battery is completely drained by something.
After a couple of days, it gets enough charge to start reconnecting.
Please can you look into this, it doesn't seem right. The link you sent before implies "it's not really pumping longer than normal" but in this case something is running the battery flat.

The battery had been steady at 16v. Went offline and then reappeared at 12v and now working its way back up.
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Chris
ADMIN
06 Jun, 22:23
Ooh, you're right. That's symptomatic of something causing the brain chip to lock, but not reboot ( a reboot would turn off the pump ). It's not something I've seen before, but you've had it twice. I don't suppose it managed to log anything before locking? ( on the device control panel: settings > view logs ) ... unfortunately a lock / crash usually can't be logged.

Does it look like the pump may have actually been running for all that period ( wet everywhere! ), or was the unit just staying on / discharging in a dormant state?

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scope6
18 Jun, 22:00
Thanks Chris, sorry it took me so long to check and now the logs don't go back that far. I'm not sure if the logs are now uploaded to you, if it happens again then I'll check more quickly.

Yes, I think it did pump for a long time, although I'm not sure as didn't go in the greenhouse for a few days. I'm not sure how long it would have run for until the battery was empty!

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scope6
25 Jun, 08:47
OK, so I've just had this happen again.
On the 23rd I wanted to water both zones, I used the button to water zone 1 ( 30 seconds - i watched this ). Then tried to water zone 2 but the button/ unit wouldn't respond.
The unit then was offline for some time and when it's back on the 24th the battery had dropped from 16v to 11v, but without doing anything else.
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scope6
25 Jun, 08:50
First ( longer ) log is 23rd, second is 24th
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scope6
25 Jun, 08:50
24th
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Chris
ADMIN
25 Jun, 09:01
Thanks Simon, that's interesting. I can't pinpoint the problem at the moment... gathering more data. Someone else had this recently. Does it look like it pumped water during that extended off period? That's the only thing which would pull the battery down that much.

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scope6
25 Jun, 21:45
It doesn't appear to have pumped water. Zone 2 was dry and I don't think Zone 1 had watered either.

Note the graph says 2 min 30 sec watering, but it was just the standard 30 seconds, I watched it do this and then stop responding.

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scope6
25 Jun, 21:46
If I happen to notice again I'll try to turn it off and on again...

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scope6
08 Jul, 22:22
Hmm it's done it again on the 6th. It's woken up today.


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