I need a trigger that will irrigate [sprinkler & drip] if temperature hits 110º.

So far I have:

Device State Changed
NOAA Plus
Temp (ºF)
Becomes Equal to
110

Added two Actions:
run sprinkler schedule
run drip schedule

Problem #1
I expected the sprinkler schedule to run through its zones, THEN run the drip scheduled zones.

What I got was BOTH schedules ran at the SAME time! FYI, EZFlora1 = sprinkler, EZFlora2 = drip

Problem #2
How do I get this trigger [when appropriate] to execute only once, the first instance of 110º, nor every instance?

Example:
2pm = 108º
3pm = 110º
4pm = 112º
5pm = 110º

It's possible that the 'high' daily temp would be greater than 110º, so you get the trigger as the temp rises AND falls

Actions run in parallel when they can - sprinkler actions can run in parallel since they are two different sprinkler controllers. You can either add a delay to the second action that's long enough for the first sprinkler schedule to finish or check out the Master Irrigation plugin - I think it's purpose is to take multiple sprinklers and treat them as a single logical one (I haven't tried it so I'm not positive as to its feature set).

The second problem is because you're using an equal to comparison. You should use a "becomes greater than" comparison so that it will only trigger once - when the temperature "becomes greater than 109" (110) for the first time. It will not fire when the temperature falls back below 109 nor when the temp continues to increase. It could fire if the temp goes up, comes down, then goes up again though so just be aware that if you want to handle that you'll need more logic.

jay (support) wrote:Actions run in parallel when they can - sprinkler actions can run in parallel since they are two different sprinkler controllers. You can either add a delay to the second action that's long enough for the first sprinkler schedule to finish or check out the Master Irrigation plugin - I think it's purpose is to take multiple sprinklers and treat them as a single logical one (I haven't tried it so I'm not positive as to its feature set).

Last time I checked out this plugin it was missing a feature that I would need. I think it was multiple schedules per day, which I believe was going to be added to a later revision. I'll go back and read the specs.

jay (support) wrote:The second problem is because you're using an equal to comparison. You should use a "becomes greater than" comparison...

How would the result compare if "1st High Temp" becomes greater than 110, was used?

jay (support) wrote:It will not fire when the temperature falls back below 109 nor when the temp continues to increase. It could fire if the temp goes up, comes down, then goes up again though....

This had also occurred to me. You state that it WILL NOT fire if temp continues to increase, yet your next sentence states it COULD FIRE if temp goes up again. ?? I don't understand.

Most days the temp elevates to a high and then drops. I'm concerned that if the temp hovered at 110º (109-110-109-110) the trigger would go crazy.

CraigM wrote:

jay (support) wrote:The second problem is because you're using an equal to comparison. You should use a "becomes greater than" comparison...

How would the result compare if "1st High Temp" becomes greater than 110, was used?

Sorry, I don't understand what "1st High Temp" is.

CraigM wrote:

jay (support) wrote:It will not fire when the temperature falls back below 109 nor when the temp continues to increase. It could fire if the temp goes up, comes down, then goes up again though....

This had also occurred to me. You state that it WILL NOT fire if temp continues to increase, yet your next sentence states it COULD FIRE if temp goes up again. ?? I don't understand.

Most days the temp elevates to a high and then drops. I'm concerned that if the temp hovered at 110º (109-110-109-110) the trigger would go crazy.

That is exactly what I was saying. If the temp does 108->109->110->109->110 then it will fire twice. It will work if the temp does 108->109->110->111->110->109->108 for instance (the threshold was crossed only once). That's how a threshold trigger works - when the threshold is crossed in the appropriate direction it fires. A little logical thinking goes along way...

You'll need to add some extra logic to detect when it's already fired because of a threshold crossing (if you believe scenario 1 is possible). I suggest setting a variable ("ExtraSprinklerHasRun" for instance) to "true" when the trigger fires (along with running the sprinkler schedule) and then add a condition to the trigger that says if "ExtraSprinklerHasRun" is "false". Then you can have "ExtraSprinklerHasRun" reset to "false" at midnight or something.

jay (support) wrote:
Sorry, I don't understand what "1st High Temp" is.

It's one of the options in the NOAA Weather Plus plugin

In that case, it should work, though we didn't write that plugin so I don't know for sure.

Q- When you have multiple trigger actions:

- Do ALL of the actions run if the conditions ares met?

or

- Does EACH action check to see if the conditions are currently met as Each is running?

What happens: the trigger occurs, the conditions are tested and, if true, then all of the actions are executed. Conditions are only checked once.

Thanks

CraigM wrote:How would the result compare if "1st High Temp" becomes greater than 110, was used?

The "1st High Temperature" value shown in NOAA Weather Plus is the National Weather Service's high temperature prediction for the next 24 hours, relative to the current time of day. So in the morning, that value represents the predicted high for the current day. Sometime in the afternoon, that value changes to the high for tomorrow.

So, barring errors from the National Weather Service, the "1st High Temperature" won't go up, then down, then up again in the same day.

By the way, I released version 1.1 of the plugin today. It changes most of the forecast states to be more intuitive.