BlueSpray Getting Started Guide

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Aubrey Stevenson
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1 BlueSpray Getting Started Guide I. Int ruct io ns 1. Finding Blue Spray Out of the box, BlueSpray operates in AP or Standalone mode. In order to connect to the BlueSpray controller for the first time, use your PC or laptop to find and connect to the wireless network named BlueSpray. There is no password. Once connected to BlueSpray (you will not have access to the internet temporarily), open your browser and enter this URL: You will be able to see the BlueSpray user interface on your browser. 2. Co nnect ing t o yo ur (ho me) wif i ro ut er Fro m the BlueSpray screen, click the "Settings" tab, then click "System". In "Wi-Fi Settings", select Internet mo de, enter yo ur wireless netwo rk SSID. Select the Encryptio n type that yo ur wireless ro uter is using, and enter the passwo rd key to yo ur wireless ro uter. Search f o r wireless net wo rk: You can search for nearby wireless network by clicking on the Wi-Fi button next to the "Network SSID" field. A popup screen will appear and BlueSpray will start to scan and present a list of available wireless network. Select your home wireless network and click "OK". The "Network SSID" field will be populated with the network SSID you selected. While on the "System Settings" screen, you can select your time zone. You can change the NTP servers (time servers) that you wish to use. Otherwise, leave the default NTP servers. If you wish to prevent unauthorized access to your controller, you can enable authentication to the interface. Just click "Yes" to Enable login and enter the login name and password that you wish to use. Once you've satisfied with the changes, click the "Save" button. BlueSpray will prompt you to rejoin your home wireless network. If you've entered all wireless information correctly, the controller will be able to join your wireless network and BlueSpray will redirect you to the controller which now is part of your private network. It is best to set up your router to assign a fixed IP address to BlueSpray controller so that you can always access it via this IP address. If not, you can always find it (from your own private network) via this URL: 3. Unable t o co nnect t o BlueSpray co nt ro ller In the event that you might have entered the wrong information that would cause BlueSpray not to be able to join your wireless network, you can reset the co ntro ller to the default netwo rk settings.

2 Locate the reset switch located below the LEDs on the left hand side of the controller. Slide the switch to the "down" position for at least 10 seconds (but no more than 30 seconds), then slide it back to the "up" position. Now, you can start over again by connecting the BlueSpray SSID. Please refer to the "Finding BlueSpray" section above on how to connect to your controller. 4. Co nnect ing f ro m t he int ernet You can access your BlueSpray controller from anywhere on the internet if you set up port forwarding on your router. The port forwarding feature should be available on most internet routers. For instructions on how to set up port forwarding (virtual server), please consult your router's manual. 5. Adding zo nes o r st at io ns A zone (or station) is a collection of sprinkler heads grouped together to water a part of your lawn. A typical irrigation system has multiple zones. A base BlueSpray controller can support up to 8 zones, with additional expander modules, BlueSpray can support a maximum of 24 zones (residential) or 128 zones (commercial). It's very simple and intuitive to co nfigure zo nes with a BlueSpray co ntro ller. Fro m the BlueSpray UI's "Lawn view", simply click o n the sprinkler head icon from the upper right corner of the UI and drag it to the lawn. Once in the lawn, the sprinkler head icon will change to indicate that it's ready to be dropped. You can place the icon at the approximate location of your actual zone on your property. Please note that this is a representation of the zone (which may consist of many heads), not each individual head itself. You can change the name of the zone as well as disable/enable it by clicking on the zone icon on your "Lawn view". If you configure too many zones, you can remove it by simply dragging the zone icon to the trash can icon on the upper right co rner. You can water each zone manually by specifying the amount of time (minutes) while editing the zone. 6. Ready t o wat er Once you've configured the zones, you are ready to water your lawn immediately. You can water each individual zone by clicking on the zone icon and enter the number of minutes you wish to water that zone. You can water all the zones or selected zones by clicking on the water faucet icon in the Status Panel on the left hand side. On the popup screen, you can select when to start watering and how long you wish to water each zone. If you want to skip a certain zones, just put 0 minute for the corresponding zones. 7. Adding Pro grams You can setup programs to tell the controller how long to water each zone. From the "Settings" tab, click "Programs". Click the "New" button to create a new program. You can name your own program. In each program, you can see a list of available zones in the "Run times" section. Enter the number of minutes you wish to program to water each zone. It is required that all program names are unique to avoid confusion. Once you're satisfied with your input, click "Save" to commit your changes. BlueSpray does not limit the number of programs you can have. You can create as many programs as you like. Click "Save" to save all of your changes. 8. Seaso nal Set t ings

3 Conventional irrigation controller typically waters your lawn exactly by the amount of time you set your program to every time, regardless of weather or seasonal changes. BlueSpray offers Seasonal settings to allow you to tailor your watering needs according to climate changes or seasons. Your lawn may not need to water as much in the spring or fall as the summer, and you may not want to water at all in the winter. Each Seasonal setting is a configuration of period of time. You can add as many seasons as you wish, whether it's by seasons, months, or even 365 days of the year to tailor your watering need. This is a unique and powerful feature to help you reduce your water bill. By default, a year round season is provided. You can add, name, and set start date to end date to each season. The "Percentage" option lets you dictate the amount of water you want to water for that period of time. This percentage is the percentage of watering time. For example, if you have a program that is set to water for 10 minutes each zone, 100% means that it will water for the full 10 minutes. 50% means that it will water for 5 minutes fo r the particular seaso n. 9. Wat ering Schedule After setting up pro grams and seaso ns, yo u're no w ready to tell BlueSpray when to water. Click the "Schedules" tab to add/mo dify a schedule. Enter the name you want to name this water run, the time of the day you wish to start watering. Select the program that you want to run at this time and the season that you want to apply this schedule to. If you want to apply the run year round, select "All seasons". A schedule can be activated or inactivated. When you set it to inactivated, this schedule will not be run at the scheduled time at all. If you inactivate it while the schedule is running, it will immediately stop and will not run again until you activate it. The Run Interval section allows you to set it to run periodically. You can set it to run on Even/Odd days, skip a number of days or just water a certain day(s) o f the week. Thanks to BlueSpray s flexibility, you can add as many schedule as you like that use any program, and apply to any season that you wish. These features allow you to tailor to every watering needs that you may have. For example, you can tell BlueSpray to water every 3 days at 50% in the spring, every day at 100% in the summer, even days at 75% in the fall, and once a week in the winter. Another example would be if you have new grass in one of the zone, you can set up a custom program that waters that zone only, and run it every day in additional to your regular watering schedule, then remove it once your grass is rooted. 10. Senso r Set t ings If your controller is equipped with sensors (rain or door), you can configure them here. Click the lock/unlock button to disable/enable this feature. Rain Senso r: Select yo ur senso r type, either No rmally Open (NO) o r No rmally Clo sed (NC). No te: entering the wro ng senso r info rmatio n may affect the controller's ability to water. Please consult your rain sensor manufacture's document carefully to find out what type of rain sensor you have. Door Sensor: If your controller is equipped with a Door Opener Kit (optional), you can configure how/when you want the (garage) door to close. The "Close after" option will automatically close your door X number of minutes after it was opened. The "Close at" option will leave the door opened until the configured time (of the day). You can only choose one of these two options. For example, if you configured it to close at 10PM, then if after 10PM every night, the controller will check to see if the door is opened. If it is, it will close it automatically. If you chose "Close after" 15 minutes, the door will auto matically clo se 15 minutes every time it is o pened.

4 In the event that the door cannot be closed as programmed, the controller will keep trying to close it until it is closed. If programmed to be "Close after", the co ntro ller will attempt X minute after each failed attempt. Fo r example, if co nfigured to clo se after 15 minutes, the co ntro ller will try again every 15 minutes after every failed attempt. If pro grammed to be "Clo se at", the controller will try to close the door again every 1 minute. 11. Operat io ns Set t ings This is where you configure other operation parameters for your controller. Master Valve: Select "Yes" if yo ur irrigatio n system is equipped with a master valve. Since the master valve pro vides water to all o ther valves, inco rrect configuration may lead to the system not being able to water. Delay watering: You can choose to skip watering for X number of days (60 day maximum). If delayed, the controller will halt all scheduled runs until the delay period expires. Note that manual watering is not affected by the delay. Bypass Rain Sensor: In the event that the rain sensor is falsely triggered, you can bypass it by selecting "Yes" here to continue on with scheduled watering. Stack runs: If yo ur scheduled runs o verlap each o ther, "Stack run" will auto matically reschedule tho se runs to run sequentially, that is, o ne after ano ther. If you select "No" here, the overlapping runs will run at the same time that they are scheduled. Please note that running multiple runs at the same time may result in not having enough pressure to water your lawn. It is best to say "Yes" here, unless you know what you're doing. Lawn picture: If you don't like the default lawn picture, or if you want something that resembles more of your actual home, you can change it. You can find a more lawn pictures here: Just copy the URL into the "Lawn picture" field and save it. If you happen to have a picture of your actual property, you can input the URL where you host the picture here. Be sure the picture is of the 4:3 aspect ratio, and is at least 800x600 pixels. Please note that you must host this image on your own server at this time. You can use a picture from Google Earth too if you wished. Zone text color: If you don't like the default text color of the zone name for any reason, select a different color here 12. Weat her Set t ings You can configure the controller to skip watering in the weather events (rain, temperature, wind). This feature will be enabled when your controller is in "Internet" mode and registered. When enabled, the controller will query for the latest forecast weather 1 hour prior to a scheduled run. If any of the weather conditions meets the configured value and falls within the forecast period, that scheduled run will be cancelled. Chance of rain: If the chance of rain is at or greater than the configured threshold.

5 Extend forecast: You can choose to extend the number of hours (24 hour maximum) to look at the forecast past a scheduled run. By default the controller will evaluate the forecast weather 1 hour past the scheduled run. You can specify how far ahead you want the controller to look. Temperature: If the fo recast temperature is belo w the co nfigured thresho ld. Wind speed: If the forecast is higher than the configured threshold. 13. Syst em Set t ings This is where yo u set yo ur Wi-Fi, time, and security settings. Controller name: You can give your controller a name. It will appear on the title of the browser. Operating Mode: There are 2 modes the controller can operate on: "Stand alone" and "Internet". The "Stand alone" mode is the default, out of the box mode. In this mode, the controller cannot get access to the internet, thus some features might not be available. Use this mode if your wireless signal cannot reach the controller. You can still operate the controller directly, but without internet. In the "Internet" mode, your controller can operate with its full capability including auto matic time settings, weather fo recast, etc. Network SSID, Encryption Key: These information need to be accurate for the controller to join your home network and get on the internet. Please see "Connecting to your wireless router" section above for more details on how to configure this section. 14. Administ rat io n Firmware update: Fro m time to time, BlueSpray will publish new firmware to either fix bugs o r intro duce new features. The firmware image is available at: wnlo ad/bluespray-ar.img Download the firmware image and save it to your local computer. Click the "Administration" tab. In the "Firmware update" section, select the downloaded firmware and click the "Update" button. Your controller will update and come back in about 2-3 minutes. WARNING: Do not attempt any other operation at this time and do not power off your unit. while updating. II. Suppo rt Suppo rt is available via suppo rt@bluespray.net. We will respond to your questions within 24 hours. We do our best to answer your questions and resolve your issues in a timely manner. For less than urgent issues, you can post them to our support forum at: rums III. Ot her do cument s

6 Online manual is available here: cs/bluespray%20 User%20 Manual.html. IV. Warrant y We do stand by our product. All BlueSpray products carry a warranty of one year from the date of purchase. We'll fix or replace the unit free of charge if defective. Return: If you're not happy with our product, simply return it to us within 30 days. We will refund you the original cost of the unit, less shipping and 15% resto cking fee.

BlueSpray Controller User Manual. BlueSpray Controller User Manual

BlueSpray Controller User Manual i BlueSpray Controller User Manual Contents 1 Preface 1 2 Introduction 1 3 Installing the BlueSpray controller 1 3.1 Mounting the controller................................................