Concurrent automation program issue

Feedback
#1

Here is how I am setup. I have 2 VWC sensors so I created a P1, P2, and P3 program for each that run concurrent.

Screenshot 2026-01-20 at 12.28.24
Screenshot 2026-01-20 at 12.28.24451Ă—822 35 KB

Example:
0900-1200
Both P1 automations are active at the same time. When it hits 0900 and both sensors are below the threshold, the automation will trigger for the first P1 program, and will run that until its above your set threshold. After which it will start on the second P1 program, and will also run that until its above your set threshold. So if your automation program needs to trigger multiple times, then the other P1 program will sit idle until the first one is complete.

Basically we have this:
1st P1 automation - 0900
1st P1 automation - 0910
1st P1 automation - 0920
1st P1 automation - 0930 (reaches threshold)
2nd P1 automation - 0940
2nd P1 automation - 0950
2nd P1 automation - 1000
2nd P1 automation - 1100 (reaches threshold)

And I would like this:
1st P1 automation - 0900
2st P1 automation - 0910
1st P1 automation - 0920
2nd P1 automation - 0930
1nd P1 automation - 0940
2nd P1 automation - 0950
1st P1 automation - 1000 (reaches threshold)
2nd P1 automation - 1100 (reaches threshold)

Doing it the proposed way allows for staggering, and I’d rather bring two plants slowly up to capacity than 1 kinda quick and the other waiting 40+ minutes.

Crop steering open sprinkler kit
Crop steering open sprinkler kit
#2

I appreciate your feedback and i gave this post a thorough look.

Sharing some tech details though, this is largely specific to the the OS firmware and how it handles the incoming calls.

Before we continue to explore this - could you confirm - are you running the standard OS firmware with no modifications?

#3

Currently I’m running 2.2.0(3), which I notice is out of date. Looks like 2.2.1(4) is the most current. Now that I know that I’ll likely update after I finish this run in a few weeks.

#4

This likely won’t be fixed by updating the OS firmware the standard way. I don’t think OS changes this behavior.

However, we have a custom firmware version that deals with similar problems.
It might be able to help you, but no guarantees at the moment.

I need to do a deeper dive into your sprinkler logs and stuff, but I will get back to you on this issue either on Thursday or on Tuesday.

1 Like
#5

Agreed, but worth mentioning since you asked

My recent logs may not be an ideal reference as both zones aren’t really in sync.
However I am pretty confident the logic I laid out above is how it is currently behaving.

Looks to me that any regular program that is created, is stored to OS and is triggered by their firmware, but automation appears different.

I suspect that your automation programs are manual calls sent to OS that are triggered by some back end service. If true, then this doesn’t seem like an OS firmware limitation and should be able to be accomplished by adding cooldown state per zone. Right now it behaves more like a loop with “WAIT <cooldown_value> minutes” in it.

As always thanks for investigating :slight_smile: