Faq - Jeffery Electronics -

Quick Reference

'Weather Watcher' Mister

Q. Why light and temperature?
Q. How does the 'Weather Watcher' sensor compare to leaf type sensors?
Q. How about balance arm systems?
Q. Can you put more than one sensor on the 4 station mister?
Q. What happens at night?
Q. What are some other applications for the 'Weather Watcher' Mister?

Cloudmaster Irrigation Controller

Q. Does the Cloudmaster unit have built in lightning protection?
Q. Is the Cloudmaster 'PC Ready'?
Q. How many start times does the controller have?
Q. Is the unit easy to use?

Cloudmaster for Windows™ PC Software

Q. Is the PC software required?
Q. What will the software do for me?
Q. What if I don't need all the features?
Q. How many Cloudmaster units will the software control?
Q. How does the copyright scheme work?
Q. What happens if I need to load the software onto another PC?
Q. What sort of computer do I need?

'Weather Watcher' Mister

A
Measuring light and temperature in a glasshouse or igloo is a roundabout way of determining evaporation and therefore the required frequency of misting to keep cuttings moist. It is also a very robust approach working reliably with little or no human intervention year in, year out. Measuring humidity directly, on the other hand, especially at very high levels of relative humidity, is difficult to do accurately with reasonably priced equipment.

A
About 20 years ago we used to make a leaf type sensor which relied on the electrical conductivity of a piece of blotting paper varying as it became wet. This worked well but suffered from the same problems as most leaf sensors on the market today regardless of the leaf sensor material. Namely, iron and salts in the water get left behind as the water evaporates off the sensor causing the leaf to go out of calibration and a broken leaf element will usually be interpreted as dry and not wet resulting in far too much water being applied until the problem is rectified.

A
Because measuring light and temperature is easy it is a much more robust approach than delicate balance arm systems. We have many systems in and running reliably after 25 years of service.

A
No. When all stations are in the one house or igloo then sensing light and temperature at one point will suffice. If the stations are located in different glasshouses where the conditions vary dramatically, such as one house is ventilated and another one closed up, then you may be better off installing 2 single station controllers.

A
Misting stops in the dark. Upon request, we can do a modification so the unit will mist once or twice during the night but this is unusual.

A
The misters have been installed into piggeries, ferneries, fruit and vegetable retail shops and hydroponics nutrient supply systems. The unit would be suitable wherever moisture application needs to be determined by ambient weather conditions.

A
Yes. There is surge diversion protection on all cable terminals. This protection, however, is only as good as the earth that the unit is plugged into. In applications such as golf, which can have very long communications cable runs, extra protection should be installed on these long runs.

A
Yes. The Cloudmaster unit has an RS232 DB25 Female connector wired as a DTE so no extra hardware is required to connect a Cloudmaster unit to a PC apart from a serial cable. The software that runs on the PC is extra.

A
The Cloudmaster is a little different than most controllers on the market today. Most systems typically have, say, 4 or 6 start times. The Cloudmaster unit has 500 entries or effectively an unlimited number of start times.

For example, a back to back sequence which runs through stations 1 to 10 at 6:00 AM on Monday, Wednesday and Friday would use 10 out of the 500 entries. You can set up as many of these sequences as you wish, they can be of any length and can run separately or together. An entry can also be set up to water only a single station. In this way each station can be programmed totally independently from each other.

A
Yes. The programming philosophy of the Cloudmaster described in the previous question allows very simple or very complex watering programs to be set up, but it does take a bit of getting used to. The controller has an LCD which prompts the user for all details required. The operators manual, which explains this in detail, can be downloaded from this site.

A
No. The Cloudmaster unit can be programmed stand alone using its keypad and display.

A
All the features of the software are too numerous to mention here but briefly it:

1. Provides graphical representation of the installation and current system activity. At a glance you can see what is currently watering and if any problem issues have been detected that may require attention such as a broken solenoid valve wire.

2. Enables irrigation (and special control channel) schedules to be generated, modified and viewed easily and quickly. The Auto-Scheduler can be used to generate schedules which apply the required amount of water in the minimum time whilst ensuring optimum pump flow rate.

3. Keeps track of all irrigation schedules for all conditions and enables the relevant ones to be selected at the relevant time.

4. Allows easy, graphical manual override functions. For example right click on a region on the image that represents a station and give it 10 minutes water.

5. Retrieves the history log from the Cloudmaster and generates detailed, printable event and warning reports.

6. Generates graphs of station run times and water consumption over any time period.

7. In the municipal Council application it generates the accounts for the floodlight users for actual time they had the lights on. This also results in a much fairer user pays system for the sporting clubs.

A
The features of the software are individually purchasable. A nursery would never require the floodlight billing which is a feature developed for Councils. Features not purchased can be run in demonstration mode so they can be evaluated in detail and purchased at a later date or they can be hidden from view completely.

A
The software can be purchased to control one or many Cloudmaster systems. An example of a single site would be a single nursery, golf course or landscape area. A single site includes the master unit and any slave units that are attached to it.

A good example of a multi site application would be a Council wanting to control and monitor each individual Cloudmaster system installed at all parks scattered around their municipality.

A
The demonstration CD loads the full version of the software and all Help information onto the PC. All features will run in demonstration mode for an unlimited period of time to allow a leisurely and detailed evaluation . Certain restrictions exist in this mode, such as the software will not communicate with the Cloudmaster controllers.

If you wish to proceed with the purchase of the software, decide what features you want, ensure the software is loaded onto the PC on which you want to run the software and contact Jeffery Electronics with the copyright code that is displayed by the 'Help/About/Register' button. You will be given a code that will activate the relevant features on that PC only.

A
The software can be loaded onto a second computer from the demonstration CD and the users database copied from the first computer (or a recent backup). If the database was registered on the first PC, the user will have 14 days of full functionality before a new copyright code needs to be obtained from Jeffery Electronics for the new PC. In this way a registered user can ensure continuity of service in the event of a computer failure or upgrade.

We understand that many situations can arise where a second code is required such as upgrading to a new computer or wanting to run the software from a desktop in the office and a notebook in the field. We would usually not have a problem with issuing a registered user with a second copyright code.