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Netro


Answers

New Whisper not reporting

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Netro
Updated at 2019-09-05 19:19:14 UTC

Dear Derrick, 


I found only one sensor under your account with name "Drip sensor", and it works normally. Could you re-install the sensor again if you have deleted it, such that we can check its details? Please make sure your sensor is not too far from you routers. You could press the reset button twice to make Whisperer sensor report a data immediately. If it's our product's problem, we will ship a replacement to you. 

How does a whisper sensor work with a drip system?

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Netro
Updated at 2019-08-26 07:16:59 UTC
The sensor measures the moisture of the soil nearby where it's placed. For lawn, the moisture level is pretty constant everywhere. For drip system, the moisture could vary significantly as the water could be used by plants before reaching far place. So you'd better place your sensor in a typical place, not very far from where water comes out. 

Weather Provider

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Netro
Updated at 2019-08-26 06:55:19 UTC

Beside temperature and humidity, a key data is the rainfall amount, which is also almost the most challenging data to predicate for weather providers. Two weather providers (AccuWeather & Darksky) provide different rain amount. For example, on 08/28, AccuWeather data is 3.5m(~0.14inch), and Darksky data is 20mm(0.8inch). Even on sunny days, their value are not identical. e.g. on 08/22, AccuWeather is 0, but Darksky is 1.3mm. 


Netro cloud track the moisture level of your soil, rainfall and irrigation watering will increase the moisture level, but high temperature will decrease the moisture level. Once the moisture level is low enough, Netro will water your garden. With different rainfall amount from two weather providers, it may take different time to reach the threshold. That's why one shows 2 days, the other shows 11 days. 


But please note that the smart schedules are dynamically adjusted. As we know weather forecast could be inaccurate, especially for 3 days later,  Netro updates weather data periodically. If there is significant data change, the smart schedules will be updated accordingly. For example, if Darksky tells us that the rain amount for 08/28 is not 0.8, but 0.1 inch today, Netro will re-calculate smart schedules and may water earlier due to low moisture level.  It's not the case that Netro will always water once each 11 days with Darksky but water once every 2 days for AccuWeather. 

Weather override

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Netro
Updated at 2018-06-19 17:51:18 UTC

Netro support two weather sources: darksky and wunderground. Darksky is the default one, if it doesn't work, you can try with wunderground. 

Netro periodically update weather data and re-calculate schedules if weather changes. If forecast data is not accurate, for example, not enough rain on 20th, Netro knows the accurate data later (e.g. 21th) and water more later. 

Currently, Netro adds a system-level constraint: "do not water if the effective rain (rain *probability) is greater than 0.1inch (2.5mm)". The next release of Netro app will allows customers to personalize the threshold. 

Soil type?

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Netro
Updated at 2018-06-19 17:44:38 UTC

There are three basic soil types: 

  1. clay: It's compact and heavy, can hold water, but it's difficult for plants to develop roots into it. 
  2. sandy: It's the opposite of clay. It drains fast but tends to loose water and nutritions. 
  3. loam: It's dark, rich soil, the best soil for almost everything.
Netro also support combinations: 

  1. loamy sand
  2. sandy loam
  3. silty clay
  4. clay loam
You can get a rough idea based on location from the STATSGO database. 


https://ldas.gsfc.nasa.gov/nldas/images/NLDAS_STATSGO_soiltexture.gif

Subsoil Moisture-Netro app

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Netro
Updated at 2018-06-19 17:30:31 UTC
Netro has a complicated model to estimate the moisture level. Roughly speaking, it records or estimates the amount of rain, irrigation watering, evaporation, run-off, and so on. Based on these data, the Netro could calculated the moisture level for subsoil.