TALGIL COMPUTING & CONTROL LTD.

NAAMAN CENTER, HAIFA - ACCO ROAD

ISRAEL
P.O. BOX 775 KIRYAT MOTZKIN 26119
TEL: 972-4-9506050 - 9506051
FAX: 972-4-8775949

DREAM 2

CONSOLE
Guide

2015

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Contents
1. General description ................................................................................................................4
2. About the CONSOLE...............................................................................................................5
2.1 Logging in.....................................................................................................................5
2.2 The Homepage ..............................................................................................................6
3. Planning activities ................................................................................................................ 10
3.1 Planning – Irrigation programs .................................................................................... 10
3.1.1 Creating a new irrigation program .......................................................................... 11
3.1.2 Defining water and fertilizer dosages ..................................................................... 14
3.1.3 Manually starting/stopping and freezing irrigation programs ................................. 16
3.1.4 Added values of the Irrigation programs perspective ............................................. 17
3.2 Evaporation ................................................................................................................ 20
3.3 Planning – Groups ...................................................................................................... 21
3.4 Planning – Satellites operation .................................................................................... 21
3.5 Planning – Filters backflushing ................................................................................... 22
3.6 Planning – Virtual water meters ................................................................................... 23
3.7 Planning – Conditions ................................................................................................. 24
3.8 Planning – Water sources ........................................................................................... 25
3.9 Planning – Rain Delay ................................................................................................. 26
3.10 Planning – Frost protection ......................................................................................... 27
3.11 Planning – Radiation sets............................................................................................ 28
3.12 Planning – Global fertilizer limits ................................................................................. 29
3.13 Program library ........................................................................................................... 29
3.14 Planning – Fertilization sets ........................................................................................ 30
3.15 Alarms ........................................................................................................................ 31
4. Monitoring activities ............................................................................................................. 31
4.1 Monitoring – Irrigation status ...................................................................................... 31
4.2 Monitoring – Accumulations ....................................................................................... 35
4.3 Monitoring – Inputs & Outputs .................................................................................... 35
4.4 Monitoring – My Targets.............................................................................................. 36
4.5 Maps & Diagrams ........................................................................................................ 37
4.6 Monitoring – Weather station ...................................................................................... 42
5. Analyze ................................................................................................................................ 43
5.1 Event log..................................................................................................................... 43
5.2 Data reports ................................................................................................................ 44
5.2.1 Creating new Reports ............................................................................................ 45
5.2.2 Analysis settings ................................................................................................... 48
5.3 Analyze – Consumptions ............................................................................................ 49
5.4 Analyze – Irrigation performance ................................................................................ 51
5.5 Analyze – Analog sensors ........................................................................................... 52
6. Configure ............................................................................................................................. 53
6.1 Configure – Preferences.............................................................................................. 53
6.2 Configure – Constants ................................................................................................ 55
6.2.1 General .................................................................................................................. 56
6.2.2 Main valve ............................................................................................................. 56
6.2.3 Irrigation lines........................................................................................................ 56
6.2.4 Irrigation valves ..................................................................................................... 57
6.2.5 Water meters ......................................................................................................... 58
6.2.6 Fertilizers............................................................................................................... 58
6.2.7 pH/EC .................................................................................................................... 59
6.2.8 Filters .................................................................................................................... 59
6.2.9 Analog sensors...................................................................................................... 60
6.3 Configure - Dealers definitions .................................................................................... 60
6.3.1 Dealers definition – General ................................................................................... 60
6.3.2 Dealers definition – Fertilizers................................................................................ 62
6.3.3 Dealers definition – Valve defaults ......................................................................... 63
6.3.4 Dealers definition – Memory allocations................................................................. 63
6.4 Configure – Data Acquisition ...................................................................................... 64
6.5 Configure – System ..................................................................................................... 64
6.5.1 System – Water sources ........................................................................................ 65
6.5.2 System – Lines ...................................................................................................... 65
6.5.3 System – Fertilization sites .................................................................................... 66
6.5.4 System – Filter sites .............................................................................................. 66
6.5.5 System – Hardware ................................................................................................ 67
6.5.6 System – I/O .......................................................................................................... 68
6.6 Configure – Names ..................................................................................................... 69
7. Tools ................................................................................................................................... 70
7.1 Tools – Console preferences ....................................................................................... 70
7.1.1 Console preferences – General .............................................................................. 70
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 7.1.2 Console preferences – My stuff.............................................................................. 71
7.1.3 Console preferences – Advanced .......................................................................... 71
7.2 Tools – Taking snapshots of my screen ...................................................................... 72
7.3 Tools – Place support call ........................................................................................... 72
7.4 Tools – Check for software updates ............................................................................ 72
7.5 Tools – Refresh translation strings ............................................................................. 72
7.6 Tools – Target tools .................................................................................................... 73
8. Tools for technicians ............................................................................................................ 74
8.1 Tools – Impersonate.................................................................................................... 74
8.2 Tools – Load additional target ..................................................................................... 74
8.3 Target tools – Download image file ............................................................................. 75
8.4 Target tools – Upload image file .................................................................................. 75
8.5 Target tools – Backup current image ........................................................................... 75
8.6 Target tools – Restore image ...................................................................................... 76
8.7 Target tools – Upgrade firmware ................................................................................. 76
8.8 Target tools – Image maker ......................................................................................... 76
8.8.1 Image maker – step 1 – start .................................................................................. 77
8.8.2 Image maker – step 2 – Water sources ................................................................... 77
8.8.3 Image maker – step 3 – Central fertilization ............................................................ 78
8.8.4 Image maker – step 4 – Central filtration ................................................................ 78
8.8.5 Image maker – step 5 – Irrigation lines ................................................................... 79
8.8.6 Image maker – step 6 – Local fertilization............................................................... 79
8.8.7 Image maker – step 7 – Local filtration ................................................................... 79
8.8.8 Image maker – step 8 – Other objects .................................................................... 80
8.8.9 Image maker – step 9 – Hardware interfaces .......................................................... 81
8.8.10 Image maker – step 10 – Wiring of outputs............................................................. 81
8.8.11 Image maker – step 11 – Wiring of inputs ............................................................... 82
8.8.12 Image maker – step 12 – Finish .............................................................................. 82

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 DREAM 2
CONSOLE GUIDE

1. General description
The DREAM 2 irrigation control system is a modern distributed control system based
on the powerful DREAM 2 irrigation controllers that can be communicated through
the Internet from everywhere, anytime.

The drawing below demonstrates the physical layout of the communication between
users and targets (controllers) in the DREAM 2 system.
Users have two options for accessing the system: one option is the software package
called CONSOLE which is loaded and used on PCs, the other is just an internet site
called SPOT which does not need any loading and is meant to be used by
CELLULAR PHONES and TABLETS. The CONSOLE which is the subject of this
document will be discussed widely below.
Both options enable the users to login to the SERVICE which is a sophisticated
software package located somewhere in the cloud acting like a mediator between
users and their controllers. Additionally the service contains a large DATA BASE that
stores all the information about all the controllers and the ADMINISTRATION
software that takes care about who is permitted to access which controller.
On the other end the controllers after power up also login to the SERVICE and stay
online. The SERVICE will interrogate all the online controllers repeatedly in order to
keep the DATA BASE up to date, so that users interested in some information about
some controllers, can find it in the DATA BASE.

DREAM 2
controllers

The SERVICE

CONSOLE users SPOT users

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2. About the CONSOLE
The purpose of the following document is to describe to the potential user the various
options offered by the CONSOLE for defining programs, obtaining information,
analyzing data, generating reports and interfere with the ongoing activities.

For accessing the SERVICE each user must have a Username and a Password
recognized by the ADMINISTRATION software. Some users have Usernames with
permission to access through the SPOT only, but those that have access through the
CONSOLE can also use the SPOT with the same Username. One thing must be
pointed out: the ADMINISTRATION will not let a second user enter the system with a
Username which is already logged in.

There is no limitation to install the CONSOLE at the office and at the user’s home
and the user will be able to use both sites, but not at the same time, he shall have to
logout from the office CONSOLE in order to being able to use his home CONSOLE.

2.1 Logging in

Double clicking the DREAM CONSOLE’s icon on the computer’s

desktop will bring up the following window:

The IP of the The Version of

server the CONSOLE

The username The server port

for users

Remember me
checkbox The password

Push this Push this button

button to login to check for
software updates

Before trying to login, the IP address of the server and the port for users need to be
defined.

IP address of the server – srv.talgil.com

The port – 8060

The username and password should be entered in small letters. If we wish the
username and password be remembered, we have to click the Remember me
checkbox.

At this stage we can hit the Check for updates button to check if there are new
software versions for updating the CONSOLE,

For logging in we now have to hit the Connect button.

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 2.2 The Homepage

In general, the Homepage contains the menu of all the subjects covered by the
CONSOLE, it is the place from where the user can reach all of those subjects, but
let’s have a closer look and see what else is there.

Toolbar

The Main Menu

Status bar

The Main Menu - The subjects of the Main Menu are grouped into meaningful
groups, each group containing the relevant subjects. There are four groups:

Monitor – deals with monitoring the current activities

Plan – deals with all the planning that users may have to do.
Analyze – deals with analyzing accumulated historical information.
Configure – deals with all the information related with the system
setup.

Depending on the configuration of the various targets there may be some differences
in the list of subjects included in the menu.

The Toolbar - The Tool bar contains the following functions:

Navigation: Pull down menus The selected target Targets Freeze / Alarm

forward, selection Resume & log

home,
backward

The Toolbar appears in all the perspectives of all the subjects giving the user the
ability to navigate forward and backward, to select subjects from the Pull down
menus, to select other target, to execute a Freeze command or to go to the Alarm &
log perspective.

6
The Pull down menus - You may have probably noticed already that the buttons of
the Pull down menus have the same names as the Main Menu groups: Monitor,
Plan, Analyze and Config. That is because the Pull down menus actually fulfill the
same function as the Main Menu and that is giving access to the various subjects, so
since the Toolbar appears in all the perspectives, the included Pull down menus
serve as shortcuts to all the subjects.

The following picture shows how the Pull down menus looks like.

The Tools menu - The following key included in the toolbar is called Tools.
This key opens a menu that supplies some useful tools; especially it gives us access
to the Console preferences (see below) which some users will have to use for
changing the language of the CONSOLE.

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 Click on the selected
language for changing

The Targets selection key – some users may need to have access to several
targets (controllers), most perspectives of the CONSOLE deal with a single target,
the selected target whose name appears in the middle of the Toolbar. To be able to
change the selected target, the Targets selection key should be clicked,
the list of targets permitted for the user will be displayed and the user will be able to
select the unit he desires.

The Freeze/ Resume command key– sometimes users may need to have the ability
to halt all activities of a selected target, for this purpose the Freeze command key
- can be used. After confirming the command, it will be executed, stopping
all the active programs, shutting down all the outputs and waiting until the Resume
command is issued using the same key, the user is then given the option whether to
continue or to stop the interrupted programs.

The Alarm & log key– the Alarm & log key may have two faces, when there are no
alarms in the system it will look like this otherwise it will have the following
look with the red light blinking.

In any case, hitting the Alarm & log key will bring us to the Alarm & log perspective
that looks as follows:

8
List of outstanding alarms.

This is also the place to

clear alarms.

Alarms can be cleared by

right clicking on them.
Logged events of the last
24 hours

Navigation– the two arrow keys next to the home key, when they are green, they
can be used for navigating backward and forward through the last visited
perspectives.

The Status bar– the Status bar contains information about the current version of the
CONSOLE, the currently logged in user and his role in the system, the selected
target, its ID and its software version, an Object Tracker and some memory usage
information that are mostly for use by the programmers.

Current
Currently logged The selected The object
CONSOLE
in user target tracker
version

9
3. Planning activities

In the following chapter we intend to describe the various planning tools offered by
the CONSOLE.

By selecting the Plan section of the Main Menu or the Pull down menus all the
planning tools can be reached. We shall start by describing the perspective of the
Irrigation programs planning.

3.1 Planning – Irrigation programs

The Irrigation programs perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the
Pull down menu by selecting Plan/ Irrigation programs.

The design of the perspective took into consideration the needs of the users so that
they would be able to get as much related information as they may need, without
having to jump back and forth between perspectives and yet not to overload the
screen with too much information.

The perspective was divided into three mandatory views and the user can decide
which views will be displayed and which will be hidden- at the Upper part there is the
view of the list of programs, in the middle there are the details of a selected program,
at the bottom there are various tabs with complimentary information.

Programs editing keys Views layout selection

List of programs

The selected program

with yellow background

Selected program details view

Tabs of complimentary information

Complimentary information view

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3.1.1 Creating a new irrigation program

Creation of new irrigation programs is done

by means of a wizard.

To run the wizard, the new program key

has to be clicked.

The wizard is divided into 8 steps that lead

the user through the definition process. Some
of the steps may be irrelevant to a particular
program and can therefore be skipped. At the
end the key has to be clicked.

Programs will be identified by a name and by

an ID number, both have default values, but
can also be defined by the user.

Defining the sequence - Each program must have a definition of the sequence of
valves included in the program, so step 3 is essential and cannot be skipped.

For a single valve to be included in the

sequence, the user has to click on the
selected valve (it will become yellow) and then
it has to be dragged and dropped inside the
placeholder as demonstrated at the
screenshot to the right.
As a result the valve will be included in the
sequence and a new placeholder will be
generated. Any valve/valves that will be
placed in the new placeholder will irrigate
after the valve in the first place.

When two (or more) valves of the same line

need to be included in the sequence, the Ctrl
key of the keyboard has to be held down and
then the desired valves have to be marked by
clicking and then they have to be dragged into
the free placeholder.

As a result the user will be asked whether he

wants the valves to work together (&) as an
unnamed group with the same water and
fertilizer dosage for the whole group, or just
start together (+) and each valve will have its
own dosage.

11
When the valves to be combined are of
different Irrigation lines, the only option is to
have them start together (+) but with separate
water dosage per each valve.

Using of the start together (+) option needs to

be enabled at the Dealers definition.

If these valves will have to fertilize from a

common fertilizer site, they will need to share
a common fertilizer dosage.

Predefined Named groups can also be

included in the sequence the same way as
individual valves.

Additional options with the sequence definition - notice that at each stage of the
sequence editing you can right click on any of the included valves and get the
following options:

Insert another job in front

of the selected one

Remove the selected job

Select the desired water

Clear the entire sequence source for the job

Scheduling the program – there can be

two ways to schedule irrigation programs,
either by using a Cycle of days or by
defining a Run-list.

If the Cycle of days is selected, the user

needs to define the number of days he
needs the irrigation repeated: 1 means
every day, 2 means every second days,
etc…

12
When using the Run-list option, each
day of the list can be marked as an
irrigation day (W), as a fertigation day (F),
or left free (-). There is an additional
option for a single irrigation only, it will be
marked by (S), in this case the irrigation
will only be executed on the selected day
but no more.

Defining repetition cycles – If the

program has to be repeated several times
a day, the number of repetition cycles and
the interval between the cycles has to be
defined.

As a special case, when Irrigation by

accumulated light is enabled, the
triggering of the next cycle will depend on
the accumulated light and the user
defined parameters.

Using conditions - Programs can be

influenced by conditions in four ways:

Started by condition, Stopped by

condition, Enabled by condition and
Disabled by condition

The user can define which condition will

make the program start, or stop, or make
it enabled or disabled.

How to define conditions is explained

below at the paragraph dealing with
Conditions library.

Completion option – When the

completion option is enabled, then at the
termination of the last job of the program,
the system will make another pass
through the jobs of the program trying to
complete all those jobs that got some
leftovers due to some interruption.

13
When the button is clicked the new program will be displayed at the
Selected program view of the Irrigation programs perspective as follows:

3.1.2 Defining water and fertilizer dosages

The program is created with the default dosage units, double clicking on
the currently selected units will enable selection of different dosing units.

Define the desired amount of water

or the desired run time

The left dosage can also be edited, it

holds for the current irrigation only

Define the desired fertilizer amount

or the desired proportion

Fert 1
Define the water before fertilization
here and water after in the next row
Define the desired fertilizer amount
or the desired proportion

Fert 2

Fert 3
Define the desired fertilizer amount
or the desired proportion

Double click and

select fertilizer
dosing method
Define the desired
The left fertilizer amount or fertilizer amount or the
the actual proportion desired proportion

14
Notice that –

When finished defining all the information in the Irrigation program view the
information has to be transmitted to the target by clicking the
key, or if we wish to cancel, we shall click

The same view that is used for planning the irrigation program is also used for
watching the progress while the program is running.

The view of the irrigation program shows also the statuses of the included
jobs and their last flow rates.

There are two irrigation modes in which the user does not define a planned
water dosage, instead there is a calculated water dosage which will dictate
the amount to be irrigated, these modes are the Irrigation by volume per
area, and Irrigation by Evaporation (see below).

When the Water dosage left is nonzero the program can be started with left
quantities instead of the planned quantities.

The DREAM 2 system recognizes Local fertilizer sites that belong to

particular irrigation lines only and Central fertilizer sites that may be shared
by several irrigation lines. Any site can have up to 6 fertilizer injectors. Views
of irrigation programs will change according to the existing fert sites and
injectors on the particular irrigation lines.

In those cases in which the DREAM 2 is planned to fertilize by EC/pH

control, the irrigation program view will contain additional information related
with the EC/pH control.

15
 3.1.3 Manually starting/stopping and freezing irrigation programs

When the user wants to manually start a program he first has to click on the program
at the List of programs view, the row of the programs gets yellow to indicate that this
is the selected program. Now if we click the Start key we may get several
options depending on the status and the type of
the program as demonstrated below:

“Start without fertilizer” “Start normally” will start

appears only when the the complete program from
program contains fertilizers the beginning

“Start with lefts” will

irrigate only the left
quantities
“Start from” will enable
starting the sequence from
other than the first valve

Notice that –

When the program is already running, we shall be able to stop it manually by the
key.

There is an option to make the program skip to the next valve in the sequence by
the key.

Programs can be commanded to Freeze by the key. The

program will be halted until the resume command is issued.

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3.1.4 Added values of the Irrigation programs perspective

The Irrigation programs perspective is not just for planning your irrigation programs;
it is a very useful workspace that supplies a lot of information and enables the users
to get a good picture about the happenings in his system and enables him to
interfere.

List of programs with their When are the

statuses expressed by programs scheduled The sequences of valves
writing and by colors to irrigate ? included in the programs.
Irrigating valves are colored
blue
The status, the flow, the
left quantities of the
running job and of the
terminated jobs

Selecting a different tab will

change the lower part of the
active
screen to show a different
outputs
view

The I/O view - when the I/O view is selected the status of the Inputs and Outputs is
displayed.

inputs outputs

The I/O list is arranged in rows, each row dealing with a different irrigation line or a
different sitet. The row begins with the outputs indicated by light green background
and ends with the inputs colored by light purple background. Pointing at the I/O
device will display its name and status. The type of characters used for displaying the
outputs and the inputs and the color of the characters indicate their statuses as
follows:

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Closed outputs will appear in black----------------------------

Outputs activated by programs will be in bold black------

Manually opened output will be bold blue--------------------

Not connected output will be in italic gray--------------------

Output with problem will be in bold red------------------------

Water meter with flow or a closed contact input will appear in bold black ---------------

Water meter without flow or open contact input will appear in black -----------------------

Right clicking on any output will enable executing manual opening

of the output, with/without time limit. Manual opening has lower
priority than opening by program.

Valves can temporarily be disabled so that even if they participate

in an irrigation program as individual valves or included in some
groups, they will stay closed as long as they remain disabled.

The Irrigation schedule view – supplies a graphic picture of the expected irrigation
timetable, helps designing the irrigation in the most efficient way.

Program visualization – supplies a graphic picture of the stages of a particular

program

Water sources view – supplies information about the activity of the water sources.

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Analog sensors view – supplies real time information about all analog sensors.

The colors indicate the position of the actual reading relatively to the lower limit
marking and upper limit marking, as defined at the “Analysis settings”. Yellow
indicates “bellow limit”, Purple indicate “above limit” and white means “within the
limit”.

Hardware communication view – shows the status of the communication with all
the peripheral interfaces and RTUs, enables executing the following commands:

Disabling RTUs – right click on the RTU and confirm by clicking

Starting/Stopping error count by clicking
Starting/Stopping RF test by clicking

Weather Station view – When a weather station is connected to the DREAM 2

controller, 11 analog values are reported on line to the controller.

Water and fertilizer flow view – shows the flow of all water meters and fertilizer
meters, optionally it will show the flow of free water meters and virtual water
meters as well.

19
3.2 Evaporation

The Evaporation perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull down
menu by selecting Plan/Evaporation. The subject will be included in the menus only
when enabled at Config/Dealers definitions.

When Irrigation by Evaporation is enabled, instead of the user defining how much
water to irrigate, the system will calculate the water dosage based on the
Evaporation data stored in the controller’s memory for the last 16 days.

Day 1 Day 16

Notice that –

The Evaporation per each of the last 16 days can be inserted manually by
the user, or received automatically from a Weather station. Each midnight
the information of the Evaporation table is shifted in such a way that the
information of 16 days ago is overrun by day 15 and that of day 15 is overrun
by day 14, etc. The information of day 1 will assumed to be equal to the day
before, until updated automatically from the weather station or manually by
the user.
The calculated Water dosage takes into consideration the accumulated
Evaporation since last irrigation, multiplied by the Area covered by the valve
to be irrigated and multiplied by a Crop factor that can be set per each valve.
If the program contains several cycles, the water dosage per cycle will be
calculated by dividing the calculated Water dosage by the number of cycles.
There is an option to have the calculated Water dosage converted to time by
dividing the calculated Water dosage by the nominal flow of the valve to be
irrigated.

20
3.3 Planning – Groups

The Groups perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull down
menu by selecting Plan/Groups. The subject will be included in the Menus only
when the Named Groups were enabled at Config./Dealers definitions.

Named Groups are useful when the same groups of valves are used in various
programs, then instead of repeating each time all the valves of the group we only
select the name of the group and place it in the Irrigation sequence.

For creating new groups

For editing, double click

on the desired group

Check the valves you want

to be included in the group

Notice that –

Groups may contain valves of the same irrigation line only.

When a Group is included in a program, there will be only one water dosage
defined for the whole Group, all the valves included will open together and
get closed together (unless Gradual Opening was selected).
If for some reason some valves must temporarily be left out and not open
together with the other valves of the Group they can be disabled (see
paragraph 3.1.4 above (Added values of the Irrigation programs perspective).

3.4 Planning – Satellites operation

The Satellites perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull down
menu by selecting Plan/Satellites. The subject will be included in the Menus only
when the image of the controller contains Satellites.

Satellites are outputs that can be attached to other outputs in order to work with
them together. As long as any of the outputs to which the satellite is attached is
open, the Satellite will remain open as well. Additionally, Satellites can be attached
to conditions so that as long as the condition is true, the Satellite will stay open.
The following drawings demonstrate how to attach Satellites to outputs and to
conditions.

21
 1. First select the satellite 2. Then click the checkbox of
by clicking on it. the outputs to which the
satellite should be attached.

3. Do not forget to click

“Send to target” when done

3.5 Planning – Filters backflushing

The Filters Back-flushing perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the
Pull down menu by selecting Plan/Filters Back flushing. The subject will be
included in the Menus only when filters are included in the target’s image.

Graphic layout of the

backflushing program

22
 Notice that –

The countdown of the Left interval to the next flushing cycle stops while
there is no irrigation in progress, at the same time the DP status is ignored.
That’s because Backflushing is only needed during irrigation.
The filter that will be the first to be flushed when a flushing cycle starts,
depends on the selection made at the Config/Dealers definition.
Again at Config/Dealers definition users may decide whether the DP will be
in effect or will be ignored during the line filling delay.
What will be the status of the irrigation programs while flushing, can be
decided while defining the filters constants at Config/Constants/Filters.

3.6 Planning – Virtual water meters

The Virtual water meters perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the
Pull down menu by selecting Plan/Virtual water meters. The subject will be
included in the Menus only when the image of the controller contains Virtual water
meters.

Virtual water meters are calculated water meters, that are defined by a formula
based on real water meters. The Virtual water meters can be used for three
purposes:

For measuring the water supplied to an Irrigation line for irrigation.

For measuring the water supplied by a Water source.
For Network protection. A Network protection meter is supposed to
sum up the water meters supplying water into the network and
subtract the water meters that are using the water of the network.
Under normal conditions the result should be zero, because the water
coming in should be equal to the water going out of the network.

3. Third step – define the

additional parameters

1. First step – select the

function of the virtual meter

2. Second step – define the

formula by the Formula editor

23
 Notice that –

The formula consists of Free water meters (FWMi) and Irrigation line water
meters (WMi), some can be on the positive side of the formula (+) and others
on the negative side (-).
The Object column serves different functions for different types of Virtual
water meters. When the Virtual water meter is used for Irrigation line, the
Object column will contain the name of the Irrigation line that uses the Virtual
meter. In Source flow type it will contain the name of the Water source
using the meter and in Network protection type it will contain an output that
has to be Closed/ Opened when the Network protection event occurs.
In case of Network protection type there are two more parameters to define-
the Protection limit that defines the volume of water accumulated by the
Virtual water meter that will indicate a leakage in the network. Remember
that under normal conditions the accumulation should stay on zero. The
second parameter will define the action, whether to close or to open the
selected output.
In case of Line Irrigation type and Source flow type virtual meters, the
Ratio of the Virtual water meter has to be defined. Here we actually mean
the amount of water calculated by the virtual water meter that will be
considered as 1 pulse. Usually one would use the highest ratio out of the
ratios of the water meters included in the formula.

3.7 Planning – Conditions

The Conditions perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull down
menu by selecting Plan/Conditions library. The subject will be included in the
Menus only when the Conditions were enabled at Config./Dealers definitions.

Conditions can be set for identifying various types of events in the system. When a
condition becomes true it may influence the operation of Irrigation programs or
Satellites. An Irrigation program may Start/ Stop/ be Enabled/ be Disabled by
conditions. A Satellite attached to a Condition will remain activated as long as the
Condition remains true.

9. Conditions can be
requested to send notification
when becoming true
10. Send

3. Select the item the

7. Define how long
condition refers to
the condition has to
1. Select the be true before
condition you wish considered as such 4. Define the set-point 5. Confirm
to edit or the state to refer to

8. Conditions can
6. Enable the 2. Select the type of
be limited within a
condition the condition
time-zone

24
Notice that –

It is very helpful to give the Condition a descriptive name that describes its
function.
Conditions that are not enabled will not be able to influence the operations of
the programs or the satellites attached to them.
Conditions can be combined by a logic expression in order to create a
Combined condition for example the expression (1+2)&(3+4) means that
the Combined condition will be true when either condition 1 or 2 are true
and at the same time condition 3 or 4 must also be true. So the symbol (+)
means logical “or” and the symbol (&) means logical “and”.
In order for receiving a notification when the condition becomes true, the
appropriate checkbox at the notifications list must be checked. You can read
about notifications at paragraph 6.1 - Configure Preferences - Notifications
below.

3.8 Planning – Water sources

The Water sources perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull
down menu by selecting Plan/Water sources. The subject will be included in the
Menus only when the image of the controller contains Water sources.

When the Water sources contain several water pumps the Water sources can be
set to work in three different modes:

In static mode – the same combination of pumps will be activated

each time.
By Actual Flow – The combination of pumps that will be activated
depends on the Actual flow of the valves that are irrigating from the
water source at any moment. During the line filling time of the valves
the Nominal flow will be considered.
By Nominal flow – The combination of pumps that will be activated
depends on the Nominal flow of the valves that are irrigating from the
water source at any moment.

In the following example Water source A is set to work in the Static mode and
Water source B by Actual Flow.

3. Set the desired static

combination of pumps

5. Optional

1. Select the water

source you want to deal 2. Select the operation
with mode for the water source

4. Optional
25
 4. Define the dynamic
combination of pumps per
each flow level

1. Select the water 6. Optional

source you want to deal
with

2. Select the operation 3. Mark the pumps

mode for the water enabled for use
source
5. Optional

Notice that –

Optionally a Delay can be defined that in Static mode it becomes effective

when the water source shuts down (first the irrigation is terminated and after
the delay the source will shut down) and in the other modes the Delay will be
in effect each time that the combination of valves must change due to change
in the flow.
Optionally a Flow limit can be set per each water source that defines the
maximal flow that can be obtained from that source. If a program needs to be
started, but the flow demand of the valve to be opened added to the flow of
the valves already running under that Water source, exceeds the limit, it will
cause the program to wait.

3.9 Planning – Rain Delay

The Rain Delay perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull down
menu by selecting Plan/Rain Delay. The subject will be included in the Menus only
when enabled at Config/Dealers definitions.

The Rain Delay is meant to delay irrigation programs when the amount of the daily
accumulated rain reaches the user defined limit. The Programs affected by the Rain
Delay will be those with priority less than 5.

The amount of rain fall that when The number of days The number of days
reached will activate the delay the delay will last still left to delay

26
Notice that –

When the Rain Delay left is manually set to a nonzero value, it will cause the
rain delay to be started right away.

3.10 Planning – Frost protection

The Frost protection perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull
down menu by selecting Plan/ Frost protection. The subject will be included in the
Menus only when enabled at Config/ Dealers definitions.

The Frost protection algorithm is taking into consideration the Dew point for
calculating at which temperature the frost protection program should be started in
order not to let the crop temperature drop to the Critical temperature defined by the
user. The Dew point is calculated based on the ambient temperature and humidity.
When the Frost protection program is activated, all irrigation programs with priority
lower than 6 will be halted.

The following table shows how the “Turn on temperature” is obtained. For example if
the critical temperature is -1 and the dew point is -8 the frost protection will start at
4.3 c°.

Critical Plant Temperature Dew Point Range Turn On Temperature

Cº Cº Cº
0 -16 to -12 8.2
-12 to -9 7.1
-9 to -6 6.0
-6 to -4 4.9
-4 to -2 3.8
-2 to -1 2.7
-1 to 0 1.6
-1 -18 to -13 6.6
-13 to -9 5.4
-9 to -7 4.3
-7 to -4 3.2
-4 to -3 2.1
-3 to -1 1.0
-2 -18 to -13 4.9
-13 to -10 3.8
-10 to -7 2.7
-7 to -5 1.6
-5 to -3 0.4
-3 to -2 -0.7
-3 -18 to -12 2.7
-12 to -9 1.6
-9 to -7 -0.4
-7 to -5 -0.7
-5 to -4 -1.7

27
 The frost protection will stop when The program number to be
The Critical temperature the temperature rises above the activated when the frost
that must not be reached critical temp by this value protection will start

3.11 Planning – Radiation sets

The Radiation sets perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull
down menu by selecting Plan/ Radiation sets. The subject will be included in the
Menus only when enabled at Config/ Dealers definitions.

The Radiation sets are used when defining the parameters needed for triggering
irrigation cycles by accumulated light. This irrigation method is based on repeated
cycles that are triggered by the accumulated light. Instead of the user defining the
number of cycles and the interval between cycles he defines a threshold of
accumulated light that whenever reached, an irrigation cycle is triggered. Additionally
the user may define the minimal and maximal interval between the cycles as a
protection against light sensor failures. For the sake of flexibility, the 24 hours of the
day can be divided into three parts and each part may have its own definition of
threshold and minimal/maximal intervals.

The radiation The coefficient to The periods Accumulated The minimal The programs
sensor to refer be used with the dividing the 24 radiation and maximal using the
to sensor hours threshold intervals radiation set

Notice that –

The same Radiation sensor can be used by several Radiation sets. The
Coefficient defines in % the part of the sensor’s reading taken into
consideration by the particular Radiation set. Coefficient = 0 means
disabled set.
The same Radiation set can be used by several irrigation programs.

28
3.12 Planning – Global fertilizer limits
The Global fertilizer limits perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the
Pull down menu by selecting Plan/ Global fert limits. The subject will be included
in the Menus only when enabled at the local MMI of the target, entering Setup/
Dealers Definitions.

The purpose of the Global fert limit is to define the total amount of fertilizer of each
type to be supplied to the valve per season. Each amount injected will be deducted
from the global limit until no more is left and then the injection of that fertilizer will be
blocked for that valve.

3.13 Program library

The Program library perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull
down menu by selecting Plan/ Program library.

The Program library enables storing selected programs for later use. Being at Plan/
Irrigation programs perspective, the user can export a selected program to the
library as demonstrated below.

The exported program will be stored at the Program library from where it can be
loaded into the target when desired. The Program library storage folder resides at
the PC where the CONSOLE is running.

29
New programs can be defined Click for loading into
directly into the library the target

Notice that –

Programs in the library can be edited the same way as regular irrigation
programs.

3.14 Planning – Fertilization sets

The Fertilization sets perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull
down menu by selecting Plan/ Fertilization sets. The subject will be included in the
Menus only when enabled at the local MMI of the target, entering Setup/ Dealers
Definitions.

Fertilization sets are predefined combinations of fertilizer dosages stored in a library.

Instead of redefining frequently used combinations, each time they need to be used,
the user can simply point out which fertilization set to use.

The selected fert site

Dosage value

Dosage mode

Number of fertilizer

Desired pH level
The name of the set
Desired EC level

The ID of the set

30
Notice that –

Each fertilizer site can have 9 sets stored in the library. Each set will include
combinations of dosages of the fertilizers included in the specific site.
When the fertilizer site includes pH and EC control, the fertilizer sets may
include set-points of the desired pH and EC levels.

3.15 Alarms
The Alarms perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull down
menu by selecting Plan/ Alarms. The subject will be included in the Menus only
when the image of the controller contains Alarm outputs.

When allocated in the target’s image Alarm outputs can be set to be activated in
various Alarm cases.

Select the operation

mode of the alarm
Select the events that will
cause alarm activation

4. Monitoring activities
The following chapter deals with the Monitoring tools supplied by the System.

4.1 Monitoring – Irrigation status

The Irrigation status perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull
down menu by selecting Monitor/ Irrigation status.

The Irrigation status perspective is meant to supply the user the most relevant
information about the ongoing activities in his system. The perspective operates in
context of multiple targets – the current status of the Active programs in all the
targets which belong to the user’s projects will be displayed.

The perspective is divided into several views and the user can decide which views
will be displayed and which will be hidden - at the top left there is the Main view that
shows the Active programs, in the top right the view of Flow rates of all water
meters and fertilizer meters, at the bottom right the view of the Outstanding
system alarms and at the bottom left the view with Complimentary information.
31
Apart from the Main view with the Active programs, the contents of the other views
is context sensitive. The context can be of the selected target or the selected
irrigation line.

Selected
target

Type of The active Flow

context programs view rates view

Tabs of complimentary information

Complimentary
information view Existing alarms
view

The Active programs view – supplies information about the Active programs with
the currently running jobs in all the targets that the user has access to.

Per each active program the following information is supplied:

32
Notice that –

When an Active program contains pH/EC control parameters, there will be

additional columns supplying information about the Planned, Actual,
Average pH/EC levels and the calculated Scale (correction factor).

The Flow rates view – supplies information about the Flow rates of the water
meters and fertilizer meters belonging to the selected line or selected target,
depending on the context selection.

The Outstanding system alarms view – supplies information and enables clearing
of the Outstanding alarm events. Content of the view will depend on the context
selection made, line context or taeget context.

For clearing alarms, right click on the alarm status you wish to clear.

Notice that –

When clicking on the key in the “Alarms” column, we shall be able to filter
the displayed alarms, only the checked alarms will be displayed.

33
The Complimentary information view – most of the tabs included in the
Complimentary information view are also included in the Plan/ Irrigation
programs perspective and were covered already in paragraph 3.1.4 Added values of
the Irrigation programs perspective.

The only tab which is not included in the above paragraph is the one that deals with
Other programs, the programs that do not appear in the active programs displayed
at the active programs view.

The Other programs view – The Other programs view is arranged as follows:

Notice that –

Incomplete programs are programs that are ready to be started but they are
not scheduled to start by themselves. These programs can be started
manually.
Right clicking on any of the programs in the Other programs view will enable
the user to do some operations as demonstrated below:

34
 4.2 Monitoring – Accumulations

The Accumulations perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull
down menu by selecting Monitor/ Accumulations.

The Accumulations perspective contains information about the accumulated water

and fertilizers for all the valves and all the water and fertilizer meters. As for the
valves, the total or the last irrigation’s Accumulation can be requested.

View total View last Clear all Export for

accumulation accumulation accumulations saving

When checked- instead of

numbers we shall have the
names of valves

Valves Fertilizer meters Water meters

Notice that –

The contents of the Accumulation table can be exported for saving in an

Excel formatted (csv) file.
The contents of the table can be edited.
The total accumulation contains all that has been accumulated since the last
time the accumulation was cleared.
Valves that irrigate by time will have time accumulation by default, but if the
line contains a water meter, there will be volumetric accumulation as well.
Valves that irrigate by volume will have volumetric accumulation by default,
but if we wish to get time accumulation as well, the appropriate parameter at
the Dealers Definitions must be set.

4.3 Monitoring – Inputs & Outputs

The Inputs & Outputs (I/O) perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the
Pull down menu by selecting Monitor/ Inputs & Outputs.

The Inputs & Outputs perspective gives a consolidated view of the statuses of all
Inputs and Outputs of all the controllers accessible by the user.

35
 Collapse all
I/O tables
Expand all
I/O tables

The explanation about the details of the I/O view and the meaning of the various
printing fonts and various colors of the characters is fully covered at paragraph 3.1.4
Added values of the Irrigation programs perspective above at The I/O view topic.

4.4 Monitoring – My Targets

My Targets perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull down
menu by selecting Monitor/ My Targets.

My Targets perspective supplies general information about the targets accessible by

the user. The following information is supplied.

36
 4.5 Maps & Diagrams

The Maps and Diagrams perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the
Pull down menu by selecting Monitor/ Maps and Diagrams.

The Maps perspective is dedicated for supplying a visual picture of the state and the
activities of one or more targets.

Users may construct various maps, give them names and then switch amongst them
to access a particular visual slice of the system. As background the user can select
to use a Schematic drawing of the network or a Topographic map view. On this
background the user can place an arbitrary combination of objects by dragging and
dropping from the selection pane that contains all the components constituting the
controllers images. When the map is complete the combination of objects supplies a
vivid picture by animation effects and changing colors. The user may combine
objects by “pipes” that will give the feeling of flow when there is water flowing from
the source toward these objects. Additionally, blocks of the map can be placed inside
polygons associated with object placed on the map, so that the status of the object
will influence the look of the block on the map.

The map layout contains the following parts:

Selection pane

Selecting maps

Selecting objects
from targets images

Selecting
graphic objects
Workspace
/ Map View
Panning
Navigator

37
The contents of the Selection pane depends on the type of items the user would like
to select:

Selecting maps from the list of maps.

Selecting objects from the Target’s image to be placed on the map.

Selecting graphic items to be included in the map.

Creating a new map – for creating a new map the key has to be clicked as a
result the user will be asked to select the type of background he would like to use for
the map

If the Schematic map was selected then after giving a name to the map the
workplace of the map perspective will turn into a clear canvas and the user will be
able to use the graphic tools supplied in the Palette pane and in the Toolbar and
create/ import a schematic map.

Toolbar

Rectangle drawing
Save map
Ellipse drawing Undo/ Redo
Text editing Fill shape
Text box Lines color select
Text color select
Image importing
Shapes alignment
Pipes drawing
Forward/backward
World map Line thickness
Polygon drawing Font selection
Customizing
Palette tools
Clear map
Map lock/unlock
Show/Hide grids
Canvas
Show/Hide labels
Show/Hide tooltips

If the Topographic map was selected, then after giving a name to the map the
workspace will be filled with a GoogleEarth map showing the area where the target is
38
located. Notice that each target when introduced to the Administration software can
have it’s geographic location defined. Now the mouse scroll-wheel can be used for
Zooming in and out the geographical map until a satisfactory view is obtained. The
Palette pane and the Toolbar tools can now be used for completing the map
background if needed.

After creating the background of the map whether Schematic or Topographic, the
user will have to add the objects of the Target’s image that he wishes to appear on
the map.

Placing objects in the map – Selecting the Targets tab will display in the Selection
pane the Selection tree/ trees of the Target/Targets the user has access to. The
Selection trees contain the objects belonging to the Targets’ image and which can
be placed on the map by drag and drop action.
Selection trees can appear in expanded or collapsed form, in order to
expand/collapse a branch of a tree, one should click the dot which the branch is
starting from.

Expand/collapse
clicking point

Branch of the
selection tree

Useful tips –

After placing the first object of a certain type on the

canvas, right click on it and you will be able to change its
size by dragging one of the corners to or away from the
center of the shape. When you are satisfied with the size
of the object right click on it again and select the option
“Use this size as scale factor”, this will make all the
objects of the same type that will be added to the map,
have the same size.
Change size

39
If an irrigation line branch is
dragged and dropped into
the canvas area in its
collapsed shape, the
whole contents of the
irrigation line will be Gang
Dragged into the map.

Users will be able to construct irrigation networks including

pipes connecting objects to their water sources and main
valves. Such network of pipes will indicate flow of water
and fertilizer from the source to the objects while they are
irrigating/fertigating. water
source
The easiest way to create such connection pipes is by
pointing at the object and dragging one of the light blue
triangles surrounding the object toward the other object
where the end of the pipe is supposed to be connected. water meter

Dragging the blue triangle from the

water meter to the valve valve

The polygon tool should be

used in the following way:
First the polygon has to be
adjusted to the block it is
supposed to represent. Right
click on the polygon and use
the “Bend” tool wherever a
bending point is needed. You
can stretch the bending points
according to the corners of
the block. When you are
satisfied with the shape of the
polygon you can right click
on one of its laterals and
select the “Associate” option.
Mark the objects you would
like the polygon to be
associated with.
You better use the forward/
backward tool to send the
polygon to the back layer.

40
Customizing Objects states- the purpose of customizing objects is to
define whatever animation and which colored background will
represent each status the object may get. The following window is
used for defining the Objects states animation. It opens when
Customize/ States is selected.

Select the object

type

The animation
preview
Each state can be
animated
differently

Set the animation

mode

Customizing analog sensors appearance- Analog sensors may be customized to

get a different appearance as follows:

Select the sensor

type

Preview sensor
appearance

Define the
appearance of the
sensor

Customizing Labels- Labels of objects may include several parts such as: Target
name (optional), ID of the object (mandatory - always displayed), object name
(optional), Location ID and name (optional), State (optional). The user may decide
which parts of the Labels he prefers to see and which parts to hide. Remember that
there is a key for global hide/show labels.

When the whole map is complete and no more changes are needed, do not
forget to lock the Map view by clicking the lock key.

41
 Zooming/ Panning Navigator- the user may decide which part of the map will
appear at the Map view by using the following tools:- Zooming in/out is executed at
the Map view area by the Scroll wheel of the mouse, left mouse button drag at the
Panning Navigator pane will provide canvas panning.

Map view area

Zooming in/out is
done at this area by
the mouse wheel.
This part of the map that will
appear at the Map view
area. It can be dragged along
the Panning Navigator pane
The Panning to the desired part of the map
Navigator Pane

4.6 Monitoring – Weather station

The Weather station perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the
Pull down menu by selecting Monitor/ Weather station. The subject will be
included in the Menus only when the image of the controller has a Weather
station interface defined.

There are 11 parameters transmitted from the Weather station to the DREAM
control system, the Weather station perspective presents these parameters in
the following way:

UV Radiation Winds speed

Radiation Wind direction

Barometric
Rain rate
pressure

Humidity Daily rain

Temperature Wind direction

Dew point

42
 Notice that –

The paramerts arriving from the Weather station can be stored in a logfile for
later analysis. For this to happen, the data acquizition rate has to be defined
as explain below at Configure/ Data Acquizition.

5. Analyze
The following chapter deals with the Analytic tools supplied by the CONSOLE for
analyzing the accumulated information resulting from the Target’s activities.

5.1 Event log

The Event log perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull down
menu by selecting Analyze/ Event log. The Event log perspective is the place at
which the user may check the list of events following the activities moment by
moment. The Event log is stored in the memory of the SERVER in a chronological
order and can be retrieved from there by a request with specified range of dates.

How long back will the SERVER keep the Event log? The answer depends on the
Data retention settings done at the ADMINISTRATION software. Check with the
person in charge of the system setup that the Data retention parameters were
properly set.

Users will be able to query system events by combining any of the following
criteria choices: time range, severity, facility, context and/or sub-context object(s)

Export the list

to a csv file

Request a new
range query General filter

Current day

Mark the desired range of

dates by pointing at the first
day and drag it toward the Activate a filter that
last day of the range. will hide unchecked
event types

Filter the list by

Severity,
Facility or
Context

Filter the list by

Sub-context

43
 Notice that –

By default the events of the current day will be listed.

5.2 Data reports

The Data reports perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull down
menu by selecting Analyze/ Data reports.
The Data reports perspective is the place where the user may define formatted
documents by which various reports may be generated.

There can be various types of reports: Consumption reports, Raw data reports or
Event log reports.

Consumption reports may refer to a selected group of valves, to a selected

group of water meters, to certain crops, or to certain plots. These reports
will supply data about the consumption of the selected items.
Raw data reports may refer to an arbitrary combination of items picked from
the target’s image and will supply information about their statuses.
Event log reports will contain a list of events taken from the memorized
Event log and optionally filtered by Severity, by Facility, and/or by
belonging object.

The defined reports are just skeletons that do not contain any data until really
generated. Users will be able to generate reports on manual demand or reports can
be scheduled to be generated automatically in a predefined cycle. The generated
reports can be set to be delivered as E-mails to the listed recipients in Excel
worksheet format (csv).

The Data reports perspective has the following structure:

Toolbar

List of defined reports

Range selection for

Manually generated
reports
Manually generated reports
will be displayed here.

44
5.2.1 Creating new Reports

Creation of new Reports is done by

means of a wizard.

To run the wizard, the Add new

key has to be
clicked.

The wizard is divided into 6 steps

that lead the user through the
definition process. At the end the
key has to be clicked.

The first step is about giving the

report a name.

The second step deals with

selecting the type of report we
would like to create - Consumption
report, Raw data report or Event
log report.

In the third step we need to select

the target which the report will be
dealing with.

45
The fourth step deals mostly with selecting the items that will be included in the
report and therefore it depends on the type of the report we are dealing with.

In case of Consumption report,

the items for selection will be
Valves, Water meters, Crops,
or Plots. First we need to select
the Type of items and then by
clicking on the items we make
them included in the report
(colored yellow or checked at the
checkbox). To complete the
definition of the report we need
to add some more information
about its contents, the Rate at
which the data will be sliced,
whether or not to include Per
area calculations, NPK and
totals per each time slice.

Notice that –
For being able to create Crop, Plot reports and for including NPK data, there has to
be some preparatory work to be done, defining the crops, plots and the fertilizers
used. The process will be discussed below at 5.2.2 Analysis settings.

In case of Raw data report there

will be a tree of items presented
for selecting the items to be
included in the report.

When defining Event log reports Filter by severity

the user is given multiple filtering
tools to be able to pick out the Filter by facility
particular events he is interested
in. Filter by context

Filter by sub-context

46
As mentioned above the defined reports are empty skeletons without any data inside.
There are two ways to have them be filled with data –

1. By issuing a command.
2. By scheduling the report to be created and transmitted in a certain rate.

For generating a report manually the user needs to select the report from the list of
reports, define the time range he would like the report to cover and then issue the
Run manually command.

The other option, the automated report generation is actually defined at the stage the
report skeleton is created by defining a Schedule for its generation.

Daily- generated at the end of

each day covering 24 hours of
data.
Weekly- generated at the end
of each week, covering 7 days
of data.
Monthly- generated at the
end of each month, covering 1
month of data.
Annual- generated at the end
of each year, covering 1 year
of data.
Custom- generated at
specified time daily covering
specified number of hours.

The automatically generated

reports can be delivered to a list
of Email recipients, or
alternatively stored at a specified
location.

47
5.2.2 Analysis settings

The Analysis settings topic can be accessed through the Main menu or the Pull
down menu when selecting Analyze/ settings.

Most of the definitions made at the Analysis settings deal with complementary data
to be used during the reports generation.

If the user would like to generate reports related to the Crops and the Plots he got,
or if he is interested in knowing the contents of NPK supplied to each Valve, Crop or
Plot, he has to make these extra definitions.

It is important to understand that

all the Consumption reports are
based on the repeated sampling
of the water and fertilizers
Accumulations recoded per the
Irrigation valves. So if we want
to be able to project that
information on the Crops and the
Plots, we need to define which
Irrigation valves belong to each
Crop and to each Plot. However
that correlation may be dynamic
and can change by Seasons,
therefore the user will have to
make his definitions based on
Seasons.

Use the key to add a new

Season.

Crops and Plots are defined

in the same manner-

First the name of the new Crop

or Plot is added by using the
key.

Then a table opens at which the

user can select the Season of
interest and mark the Valves
belonging to the new Crop or
Plot at that Season.

48
 The NPK rating of a fertilizer
describes the amount of Nitrogen
(N), Phosphorus (P), and
Potassium (K) in a fertilizer and
these are the three main nutrients
needed for the growth of plants. Fertilizer type

So in order to be able to tell how Injectors using

much of those nutrients were the fertilizer
supplied to each Valve, Crop or during the
Plot in each Season, we have to season
define which kind of fertilizer was
in use by each injector along the
Season and what are the characteristics
characteristics of those fertilizers. of the fertilizer
Then the system will convert the
accumulated volume of injected
fertilizer into amount of N,P,K
supplied.

5.3 Analyze – Consumptions

The Consumptions perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull
down menu by selecting Analyze/ Consumptions.

The Consumptions perspective supplies various tools that help analyzing the
information accumulated in the data base about the water and fertilizers consumed
by the Valves, Crops, Plots in the system.

We have mentioned already that all the Consumptions data is based on the
repeated sampling of the water and fertilizers Accumulations recoded per the
Irrigation valves. In order to make that repeated sampling happen, we must define
the Data acquisition rate at which the Accumulations will be sampled, how to
make this setting will be explained in the paragraph 6.4 Data acquisition below.

The following drawing demonstrates the structure of the Consumptions perspective:

Toolbar

Rate of display

Graphic view pane

Time range selection Tooltip

Water consumption graph

The selected item

Fertilizer consumption graph

Selection pane

Opens the favorites list

49
Notice that –

In order to get the desired information out of this perspective we need at least
three steps:

1. To select the time range

2. To select the rate of display
3. To drag and drop the desired item into the Graphic view pane

The information displayed at the Graphic view pane can be Exported by

clicking . The result will be a table containing the same information
in a tabular format. The contents of the table can be saved in a “csv” file
which is the type of files used by Excel.

Fertilizer consumption can be displayed in two different ways – by volume

and by NPK. When displayed by volume, there will be one bar for each
fertilizer volume, when displayed by NPK, there will be exactly 3 bars, each
representing cumulative volume of N, P and K for all fertilizers at the given
time span.

The key turns on the Tooltip view that shows in numeric format
the consumption values at each time pointed on the graph.

The information displayed can be presented as Consumption per area by

clicking .

Using the key enables saving the collection of items included in

the graph under a specified name that will be added to the Favorites list.
When the name of the graph in the list will be double clicked, the system will
draw again the graph with fresh data based on the time range selected. This
saves the effort of defining frequently used graphs again and again.

The tool brings up to date information from the controller and

refreshes the graphs.

50
 5.4 Analyze – Irrigation performance

The Irrigation performance perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the
Pull down menu by selecting Analyze/ Irrigation performance.

The Irrigation performance perspective supplies various tools for analyzing

historical data of activities in the system. The selected items activities along the given
time span, are presented in a graphical view, enabling to put one against the other
for example the starting and stopping of irrigation programs, opening and closing of
valves, starting and stopping of pumps, etc. Additionally statuses of digital inputs,
statuses of defined conditions, statuses of RTUs and the status of the battery can
also be presented in the graph. To complete the picture values of analog sensors or
flow of water meters can also be included in the same graph.

Toolbar
Time range selection Toolbar

Activities graphs
Tooltip

Graphic view pane

Analog values or flow graph

Selection
pane

Notice that –

In order to get the activity graph of an item we need the following steps:

1. To select the time range

2. To drag and drop the desired item into the Graphic view pane

The information displayed at the Graphic view pane can be Exported by

clicking . The result will be a table containing the same information
in a tabular format. The contents of the table can be saved in a “csv” file
which is the type of files used by Excel.

The key turns on the Tooltip view that shows the statuses of the
selected items and the values of the analog sensors at the time pointed on
the graph.

51
 The colors of the items on the graph are selected randomly, however by right
clicking on a selected graph the user may set his preferred color for that item.
The selection will be memorized and each time the same item will be
selected this color will be reused.

Using the key enables saving the collection of items included in the
graph under a specified name that will be added to the Favorites list. Any
time the user wishes to see the graph with the same items again, all he has to
do is double click the name of the graph and the system will display the graph
with fresh data based on the time range selected. This saves the effort of
defining frequently used graphs again and again.

The tool brings up to date information from the controller and

refreshes the graphs.

The user can Zoom in/out horizontally by rotating the mouse wheel.
Zooming vertically can be obtained if at the same time the “Ctrl” key of the
key board is held down.

Graphs of RTU communication are treated in a special way: the data

retention is kept for the last 7 days and if the communication is highly
unstable, the graph will show only the first 20 communication failures in each
hour.

5.5 Analyze – Analog sensors

The Analog sensors perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull
down menu by selecting Analyze/ Analog sensors.

The specialty of the Analog sensors perspective is that it can be divided into 1-5
charts, each chart with its own axes, this enables placing one against the other,
sensors with highly different range of values without causing the lower values to
become nearly flat line compared with the high values of the other sensor.

High limit marker

Low limit marker

52
Notice that –

We can still place on each chart several sensors if their range of values does
not differ too much.
The user may define a threshold in % from the last reading so that changes in
the sensor’s value will only be recorded if the change exceeds the threshold.
The threshold definition is done at the Dealers definitions.
Analog sensors can be defined high/low limit lines to be presented along with
the graph of the sensor. This helps the user to easily recognize when the
graph of the sensor passes a certain limit. Defining these limit lines is done as
follows:

Low limit marking High limit marking

The names that will

appear on the
graph for the
high/low limit marks

6. Configure
The following chapter focuses on the data involved with the Configuration of the
controller and with the process of adapting it to the specific application. This is the
place to look for information about the system structure, the hardware in use, the
connections list of all the accessories, the constant parameters, the user preferences
and more.

6.1 Configure – Preferences

The Preferences perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull down
menu by selecting Configure/ preferences.

When selecting the topic of

Preferences the user gets the
assistance of a wizard that helps
him define some parameters that
may enhance the usability and the
friendliness of the software.

General - In the General

preferences the user may see the Click here to edit
serial number (ID) of the controller, the Target’s name
the IP address of the controller and
its current name. The name of the
controller can be edited.

53
Contacts – When general
contacts are included in the
configuration of the controller, the
function of each contact is not
specified. Here we can categorize
the contacts by defining the
function they are used for.

Pumps – Water source pumps

can be associated with some
specially categorized contacts.

An Overload contact will indicate

an overload problem, an Alarm
contact will indicate an alarm
reported by the electric box of the
pump, the ON/OFF contact
indicates whether the pump is
running or not.

The pump can also be

associated with a water meter
that represents its flow.

Notifications – there are two

options of notifications the user
may request:

1. Notification by Emails
2. Notification by popup
window

Popup windows are meant for

notifying the user while he is next
to his PC and Emails are meant
for notifying the user while he is
away from his PC.
In both cases the user is
expected to check the boxes of
the events he wishes to be
notified about.

54
In the case of popup windows, the user can Popup window
respond in three ways:

He can dismiss the notification without doing

anything, he may clear the alarm events that
caused the notification, or he may go to the
alarm list where he can not only clear the
alarm but get additional information about the
events.

Notice that –

Notifications requests are set per target, so users of multiple targets need to
define their notification requests per each target separately.
In order to receive Email notifications the user must have his Email
introduced to the system and Email notifications enabled. This is done at
the Console preferences/ My stuff described at paragraph 7.1.2 below.
There are three Email notifications that deserve special attention:

Enable notification when

specified condition becomes true.

Request notification when the

controller is disconnected for long
time
Request notification when the
controller was black listed due to
multiple login attempts failure

6.2 Configure – Constants

The Constants perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull down
menu by selecting Configure/ Constants.

Under the Constants topic the user will find all the constant parameters of the items
included in the system. The Constants are divided into categories accessible
through separate tabs and discussed below in the following sections:

a) General
b) Main valves
c) Lines
d) Valves
e) Water meters
f) Fertilizers
g) pH/EC
h) Filters
i) Analog sensors.

The following paragraphs present the various sections of the Constants definitions.
Notice that some sections will not appear in case the specific item is not included in
the image of the selected target.
55
6.2.1 General

The following section deals with some general parameters of the system

6.2.2 Main valve

The following section deals with parameters defining the behavior of the main
valves.

Notice that –

Main valves can be defined to open before, after or together with the
irrigation valves. When the main valve is defined to open before the
irrigation valves, it will shut down after the closing of the last valve; the
delay will be the same.

6.2.3 Irrigation lines

The following section deals with defining parameters of the Irrigation lines.

56
Notice that –

The Default water source of the Irrigation line will be selected

whenever a new irrigation job is defined without explicitly specifying the
water source to take the water from.
The Low flow delay/ High flow delay define the delay between the
detection and the reaction to a High/Low flow event.
The Leakage limit defines the number of pulses detected while the line
is not supposed to irrigate, if the number of these illegal pulses
surpasses the defined limit, a leakage alarm is raised.

6.2.4 Irrigation valves

The following section deals with defining parameters of the Irrigation valves.

Notice that –

The Default dosage mode will be selected automatically whenever a

new irrigation job is defined. It saves the need to select each time the
desired dosing mode.
The Nominal flow of the valve is the expected normal flow of the valve,
it is of high importance, and must not be left undefined.
The Minimal flow/ Maximal flow of the valve define the limits of flow
below/above which the flow will be considered out of order. If the user
wishes to ignore low flow detection the Minimum should be set to “0”.
For ignoring high flow violations the Maximum should be set to a very
high flow like 9999.
The Fill-up delay defines in minutes the delay from opening the valve
until the line gets full of water and flow stabilizes. During the Fill-up
delay the system ignores flow violations and low pressure indication on
the line.
The Area parameter defines the area covered by the valve and it is
taken into consideration when the water dosage is defined by
volume/area, or when Irrigation by evaporation is used. The units by
which the area is measured, are defined at the Dealers definitions in
paragraph 6.3 below.
The Crop factor is expressed in % and it is a coefficient that multiplies
the calculated dosage when Irrigation by evaporation or by
volume/area are in use.

57
6.2.5 Water meters

The following section deals with defining the Ratio (volume/ pulse) of the Water
meters.

6.2.6 Fertilizers

The following section deals with defining parameters of Fertilizer sites.

Notice that –

When a Fertilizer meter is defined the Ratio (volume/pulse) of the

Fertilizer meter must be specified.

The Shortest pulse parameter defines in seconds the time slice by

which the fertilizer pulse will be divided in case of time based
proportional fertigation. The purpose is to get a better distribution of the
fertilizer in the water.

A special case – when the fertilizer meter gets damaged, then all the
volumetric fertilizer dosages that were defined based on that meter, in
all the programs, cannot be used anymore. In order to let the user keep
working volumetrically until the fertilizer meter is repaired, he can go and
erase the connection of the fertilizer meter from the connections list.
This will notify the system that the fertilizer meter is not in use and
instead the controller will use the Ratio and the Shortest pulse
parameters for converting the volumetric fertilizer dosages into time and
thus save the need to redefine all the fertilizer dosages. This of course
requires the user to set the Ratio and the Shortest pulse properly so
that the Ratio will really indicate the amount of fertilizer that the injector
will inject within the time expressed by the Shortest pulse.
58
 6.2.7 pH/EC

When the system includes pH/EC control the following parameters need to be
defined:

The type of material used for

pH corrections: acid or base

Permitted change in % of the

concentration for correcting the
pH/EC upward or downward
The pH and EC of the water source

Enable/Disable control of
Low limit of pH and EC for alarming, EC and pH
including the delay and the reaction

High limit of pH and EC for alarming,

including the delay and the reaction

Notice that –

The accurate setting of the Nominal flow of each injector is highly

important and directly affects the ability of the system to stabilize on the
desired set-points. The values of the Nominal flow are obtained from
the pH/EC interface by communication and they result of the fert flow
calibration.
Each injector connected to the pH/EC interface can function in one of
the following modes:
a. Regular – in this mode the injector functions as any regular
fertilizer injector.
b. pH controlled – in this mode the injector participates in the
process of the pH control.
c. EC controlled – in this mode the injector participates in the
process of the EC control.
d. Concentration – in this mode the injector will maintain the defined
concentration as long as the vales of the pH/EC are within the
permitted limits

6.2.8 Filters
When the system includes Filters Backflushing the following parameters need
to be defined:

The number of consecutive

cycles by DP considered as
endless looping alarm

What happens with the

The reaction delay for a irrigation during the
change in the DP status backflushing process?
59
 6.2.9 Analog sensors

When the system includes Analog sensors the following parameters need to
be defined:

The maximal value of the

The type of the sensor’s range of values
analog sensor
The minimal value of the
sensor’s range of values

The sensor’s signal type:

current or volume

6.3 Configure - Dealers definitions

The Dealers definitions perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the
Pull down menu by selecting Configure/ Dealers definitions.

The person in charge of the system setup has been given some tools by which he
can do some fine tuning of the system. He can decide to hide unnecessary features
and reveal useful ones. He can dictate some global default parameters, he can
decide about the system behavior in some special cases and he can make changes
in the memory allocation.
Dealer definitions are divided into the following categories and described in the
following sections:

a) General
b) Fertilizers
c) Valve defaults
d) Memory allocations
e) Data acquisition

6.3.1 Dealers definition – General

The following section contains numerous yes/no questions and a few numeric
settings that influence the general appearance of the CONSOLE and some
basic features of the controller.

60
The General list of parameters contains the followings:

Use USA units – for using gallons, thg, inches and other American standard
units
Water accumulation units – when USA units were selected the
accumulation can be by thg, acre-feet or acre-inch.
Cycles – permit using cycles per start.
Priority – permit using priorities for programs. The priorities go from 0
(lowest) to 9 (highest).
Condition – permit using conditions.
Unnamed groups – permit grouping valves in sequences by the “&” symbol
that will make them share the same water and fertilizer dosage.
Named groups – permit using named groups like G1,G2,G3 stored in a
library of groups.
Start together – permit combining valves in a sequence by “+” symbol which
will make them start together but with separate water dosages. If the valves
are sharing the same fertilizer site, they will have a common fertilizer dosage
plan.
Dosage per area – permit dosing water by volume/area.
Evaporation control – permit dosing water by evaporation.
Accumulated radiation – permit triggering the cycles of irrigation by
accumulated radiation.
Special water before – permit using for the first local fertilizer injector a
special definition of water before fertilization.
Stop time => Max duration – use the Stop time of a program not as a time at
which irrigation must stop, but as a maximal duration period.
Reuse valve in sequence – permit the same valve to appear in the
sequence more than once.
Sequential fertilization – instead of injecting fertilizers in parallel, they will be
injected one after the other, with a flushing procedure between them. The
flushing is done by the last injector.
Use fertilizer sets – permit using predefined sets of fertilizers stored in a
library.
Use global fert limits – force using global limits per valve that will define the
total amount of fertilizer to be supplied to the valve per season. Each amount
injected will be deducted from the global limit until no more is left and then the
injection of that fertilizer will be blocked for that valve.
Parallel programs in line – permit irrigation of several programs at the same
time on the same irrigation line as long as they do not irrigate the same valve
at the same time.
Halt on repeated problems – halt irrigation and freeze irrigation line when a
high/low flow problem occurs repeatedly three times.
DP control – permit the flushing to be triggered by the DP sensor during the
line filling delay.
Frost protection – permit using the frost protection mechanism.
Rain delay – permit using the rain delay mechanism.
Sound alarms – permit the alarm sound at the main menu of the controller
while there exist alarm events.
Show I/O problems – show communication problems at the display of the I/O
status.
Gradual opening delay – When irrigating groups of valves, the
opening/closing will be gradual with a delay between the valves.
Delay for checking valve status – The delay between the open/close
command and the checking of execution, when the system contains sensors
(flow switches or similar) to detect physical opening/closing of the valves.

61
 Enable long sequences – by default the length of sequences is limited to 28
members, the use of longer sequences must be explicitly enabled and then
editing of sequences will not be permitted at the controller’s MMI.
Collect communication log – enable logging of the communication between
the controller and its peripherals.
Collect time accumulations – request accumulation by time additionally to
volumetric accumulation.
Flow log data threshold – in order to reduce the amount of the flow log data,
we define a threshold that only when the change of the flow exceeds the
threshold, it will be considered a change, otherwise the last value will be
considered and no new value be recorded. The threshold is expressed in %
from the last value.
Sensor log data threshold – in order to reduce the amount of the analog
sensors log data, we define a threshold that only when the change of the
analog value exceeds the threshold, it will be considered a change. The
threshold is expressed in % from the last value.

6.3.2 Dealers definition – Fertilizers

In the following section the person in charge of the system setup can decide which
options of fertilizer dosage will be revealed to the user. Those that are not going to be
utilized will be hidden.

Notice that –

The list of Fertilizer dosing options is the following:

a. Liter/m3 – volume of fertilizer / volume of water.

b. Seconds/minute – time of fertilizer / time of water.
c. Min:sec/m3 – time of fertilizer / volume of water.
d. Liters/min – volume of fertilizer / time of water.
e. Proportional – the proportion is calculated by dividing the desired
amount of fertilizer with the desired amount of water.
f. Bulk by time – continuous injection specified as bulk of time.
g. Bulk by volume – continuous injection specified as bulk of volume.

62
 The options “a-e” are all proportional modes of fertigation, in which the
fertilizer is injected proportionally to the water. In options “a-d” the user
defines the desired proportion, but in option “e” the proportion is obtained by
calculation.

The selection of the dosing options is done both for the local and for the
central fertilizer sites.

One of the dosing options can be set as the default dosing mode.
When the fertilization is controlled by pH and EC the only option permitted is
liter/m3.

6.3.3 Dealers definition – Valve defaults

The following section deals with default values belonging to the irrigation valves.

Notice that –

The values of the Nominal flow, Minimal / Maximal flow and the Fill time
will be used as default values for all valves, the user will be able to change
and set the accurate values at the Constants of the Irrigation valves
(paragraph 6.2.4 above).
The Default dosage mode will be used whenever a new irrigation job is
created.
The selected Area units will be used whenever there will be reference to
area based calculations.

6.3.4 Dealers definition – Memory allocations

The following section shows how much memory was allocated for various uses in the
system. Usually there will be no need to make any changes here, however memory
allocations can be increased when needed without losing any information.

63
6.4 Configure – Data Acquisition

Varying data such as accumulations

of water and fertilizers, flow rates of
water meters, values of analog
sensors, which are logged by the
controllers and kept in their memory
for a limited period, can be fetched
into the data base of the server
where they can be accumulated for
longer periods. This perspective
shows where we can define which
types of data to be brought in and in
which rate. The data can later be
expected by the analytical tools
supplied by the Console as
explained in Analysis paragraph 5
above.

Notice that –

How long will the Server keep the various types of logged information? The
answer depends on the Data retention settings done at the
ADMINISTRATION software. Check with the person in charge of the system
setup that the Data retention parameters were properly set.

6.5 Configure – System

The following section is informative only; it contains information about the System
configuration, including the contents of the hydraulic network to be controlled, the
hardware used for setting up the system and a detailed list of where each item is
physically connected.

64
6.5.1 System – Water sources

When the hydraulic network includes Water sources the following information is
supplied:

6.5.2 System – Lines

This section supplies details about the contents of the Irrigation lines.

65
6.5.3 System – Fertilization sites

This section supplies information about the contents of the local and central
Fertilization sites.

Notice that –

When there is a booster included in the fertilizer site, it will be activated

whenever any of the fertilizer injectors belonging to it is running and until the
fertilization ends or until there is more than 2 minutes since the last of those
injectors was shut down.

6.5.4 System – Filter sites

This section supplies information about the local and central Filter sites.

66
6.5.5 System – Hardware

Supplies information about the Hardware used for building up the control system.
When speaking about the Hardware of the DREAM 2 we actually mean the
ensemble of Interfaces through which the Central Processing Unit communicates
with the peripheral I/O boards, to which all the hydraulic accessories are connected.
To each type of Interface there is a parameter supplying some additional information
about that specific type of interface.

Notice that –

Each Interface must be given a unique address, the address appearing in the
hardware list must be equally set at the DIP switches (the address switches)
of each Interface. The addresses need not be sequential.
The following type of interfaces exist:

a. Interface DC - the additional parameter defines how many outputs

and inputs will the interface control: 16/8 or 32/16 (output/inputs). The
outputs are 12 DC latching and the inputs are of dry contact type.
b. Interface AC - the additional parameter defines how many outputs
and inputs will the interface control: 16/8 or 32/16 (output/inputs). The
outputs are of 24v AC and the inputs are of dry contact type.
c. Interface of 4 wired RTUs - no additional parameter needed.
d. Interface of 2 wired RTUs - no additional parameter needed.
e. Interface of RF RTUs - the additional parameter defines the polling
rate by which the Master is communicating with the RTUs
f. Interface of pH/EC control - the additional parameter defines the
fertilizer site to which the interface belongs.
g. Interface of Analog inputs - the additional parameter defines the
type of analog interface in use. The following options exist: Usual,
Davis, THD. The Usual is for standard Analog inputs, the Davis is for

67
 a weather station and the THD is for a special device that measures
Temperature, Humidity and Dew point.

6.5.6 System – I/O

The following section deals with the connections list of all the items included in the
Hydraulic network definition, to the available Inputs and outputs (I/O) boards and
the various RTUs.

The connections list is arranged in a categorized structure, so that the user can
decide to view only the categories he is interested in or the whole structure if he likes
to.

For viewing the whole structure

By clicking “Line 1”
the category of “Line
1” opens

By clicking the “Lines”

category, the
available lines get
opened

Filtering keys

Items with duplicated

connection point are
highlighted

68
Notice that –

The list can be filtered by any category, so one can ask to see for example
only the inputs connected to interface 1, or all the outputs belonging to RTU 8
etc…
When more than one output or input is assigned to the same connection
point, the items will be highlighted.
The contents of the displayed part of the list can be exported into a “csv”
(Excel) file, and then saved or printed as needed.

6.6 Configure – Names

The Names perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull down
menu by selecting Configure/ Names.

The Names section enables the user to define desired names to all the items
included in the Target’s image, including abstract items such as irrigation programs
and conditions. All items are given default names by the system; however it makes it
much friendlier when the user can define each item a name which is more descriptive
and better suiting the particular case.

Select the type of Define the desired

items name of the item

69
7. Tools
The following chapter supplies information about some useful tools for setting some
preferences, checking for updates, sending support calls and doing some operations
with the target. Some of the tools may serve the end users and some are meant for
the people in charge of the system setup and maintenance, let’s call them
technicians. The additional tools of the technicians will be discussed at chapter 8
below.

For end users

For technicians

7.1 Tools – Console preferences

The Console Preferences perspective can be reached from the Main menu or the
Pull down menu by selecting Tools/ Console preferences.

Obviously this section deals with setting some parameters that will affect the
appearance and the behavior of the Console.

7.1.1 Console preferences – General

Enable sound effects for

calling user attention

Enable alarm popup windows

Enable connectivity popup windows

Show toolbar labels

Place the icon in the tray when the Console is closed

Place the icon in the tray when the Console is minimized

70
7.1.2 Console preferences – My stuff

Click to select the

Console language

Set your Email address

Set your login password

Enable/disable sending
Emails by the system

7.1.3 Console preferences – Advanced

The Advanced preferences are meant for use mostly by the professional people.
Except for Automatic login setting and Check for software updates, any changes
made by nonprofessional users may have undesired consequences.

Automatically check for

software updates
Automatically login on
each system startup

71
7.2 Tools – Taking snapshots of my screen
The tool of taking screen snapshots can be reached from the Main menu or the
Pull down menu by selecting Tools/ Take snapshots of my screen.

The outcome of this tool is a “png” type file that contains a screenshot of the current
perspective of the CONSOLE.

7.3 Tools – Place support call

The Place support call tool can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull down
menu by selecting Tools/ Place support call.

The Place support call tool enables the user to report errors, send feedback, ask
questions the technical support team of Talgil. Once the Support call is submitted, an
Email is sent automatically to the support team.

7.4 Tools – Check for software updates

The Check for software updates tool can be reached from the Main menu or the
Pull down menu by selecting Tools/ Check for software updates.

The technical staff of Talgil releases a new version of the CONSOLE software from
time to time. The new versions usually contain bug fixes and new features. It is
strongly recommended to have the CONSOLE up to date. The software updates are
supplied free of charge. In paragraph 7.1.3 above it is shown that an Automatic
Check for updates can be requested, however the user may issue a check for
update command whenever he wishes to do so, by use of the Check for software
updates tool.

7.5 Tools – Refresh translation strings

The Refresh translation strings tool can be reached from the Main menu or the
Pull down menu by selecting Tools/ Refresh translation strings.

72
The purpose of the Refresh translation strings tool is to enable viewing the result
of translated strings right on the perspectives of the CONSOLE. This is a helpful tool
for those who are translating the screens of the CONSOLE to other languages.

7.6 Tools – Target tools

The Target tools can be reached from the Main menu or the Pull down menu by
selecting Tools/ Target tools.

The list of Target tools for the end user and for the technicians is not the same, the
additional target tools of the technicians will be discussed in chapter 8 below.

For end users

For technicians

The end user target tools enable doing the followings:

Refresh target time – the targets are running their own internal clock, this clock is
synchronized from the SERVER each time the target reconnects to the SERVER.
However if the user wishes to refresh the target clock he can use this target tool.

Rename target – this tool enables the user to define a new name to the target.

Change target time-zone – each target has its time-zone defined according to its
physical location. When the SERVER is sending the current time to the target for
synchronization it is sending the GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) and the target adjusts
its internal clock by adding its displacement based on its time-zone.

Freeze – the Freeze command halts all activities of the target closing all outputs and
staying in that position until the Resume command is issued.

Synchronize target image – the SERVER keeps an updated image of each of the
targets, so that when a user needs any information from the target, he actually gets it
from the target’s image stored at the SERVER, however if the user has reason to
believe that the image of the target kept at the SERVER is not perfectly up to date,
he can use the Synchronize target image tool for updating.

Collect data now – the Data acquisition settings define the rate at which various
types of data will be sampled and logged. The information is kept at the target log
files and fetched into the SERVER’s data base from time to time. If the user wishes
to get that logged data right away, he can ask to Collect data now.

73
8. Tools for technicians
The following chapter supplies information about some tools that are available for
use by technicians only, the list of tools of the regular end user will not include these
special tools.

8.1 Tools – Impersonate

The Impersonate tool enables the

technician to enter the system using the
identity of one of his enlisted users so
that he will see the system from the
angle of the selected user.

He just has to point at the row in the list

or just start spelling his username.

8.2 Tools – Load additional target

Technicians can decide which targets

out of those they are in charge of, they
would like to access. So they can pick
the target from the list and ask it to be
loaded into their actual access list.

The selection can be done by pointing at

the target in the list, or by start spelling
the target’s name or the targets ID.

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8.3 Target tools – Download image file

The Download image file tool enables the technician to download and save one of
the images appearing in the list of saved images of the target. It is important to know
that the server saves automatically a copy of the target’s image each day, 1 hour
before midnight (GMT), the last 10 of these images are kept at the SERVER’s data
base, so if the technician decides to download an image of the target, then apart from
the current image there are the images of the last 10 days to select from. The
downloaded image file is actually a text file that can be saved, can be processed by
the Image maker tool (see below), can be reloaded into the target, or used by the
simulation software.

8.4 Target tools – Upload image file

The Upload image file tool enables the technician to upload a saved image file into
the target’s memory.

Notice that –

Uploading an image file is possible only when the target is online.

At the end of the uploading procedure the target will automatically Reboot
and start running with the new image loaded, obviously if there were some
programs running before issuing the update command, the left quantities of
these programs will not be kept.

8.5 Target tools – Backup current image

The Backup current image tool enables the technician to force the SERVER to
save a copy of the current image of the target in the SERVER’s data base.

Notice that –

Back-upping the current image file is possible only when the target is online.
The backup file created will include the left quantities of the running programs
so that when this backup file will be reloaded into the target the user will be
able to start the interrupted programs with the left quantities.

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8.6 Target tools – Restore image

The Restore image tool enables the technician to force the SERVER to load into the
target’s memory one of the backup images saved by the SERVER.

Notice that –

Restoring the image of a target is possible only when the target is online.
The restored file will include the left quantities of the programs that were
running before the image file was created so that the user will be able to start
these programs with their left quantities.

8.7 Target tools – Upgrade firmware

The Upgrade firmware tool enables the technician to force the server to load into
the target’s memory the latest version of the software.

Notice that –

Upgrading the image of a target is possible only when the target is online.
The upgrading procedure may take a few minutes and at the end of the
upgrading the target will automatically Reboot and start running with the new
software loaded, obviously if there were some programs running before the
upgrade command, the left quantities of these programs will not be kept.

8.8 Target tools – Image maker

The Image maker tool enables the technician to create new target images or make
changes to existing ones. The procedure is supported by a wizard that contains 12
steps as detailed below.

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8.8.1 Image maker – step 1 – start

In the first step the technician has to decide about the source of the image file he
wants to deal with, the options are as follows:

a. Create a new image from scratch

b. Open a saved image file.
c. Download an image file from a target that is included in his list of
targets.
d. Download the image file of the target he is currently connected with.

8.8.2 Image maker – step 2 – Water sources

In the second step the technician defines the Water sources existing in the system.

Add single
source
Add several
sources

The name of the

water source A-F

The number of
pumps in the
source

Is there a water
meter ?

Notice that –

Altogether the technician can define up to 6 Water sources, each water

source with up to 6 pumps and a single water meter.
When the image of a target contains only a single Water source and this
Water source has no pumps to handle, there is no need to define a Water
source.
When making changes to already saved or loaded images, items can be
added but cannot be removed, so the Remove key can only be used when
defining a new image.

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8.8.3 Image maker – step 3 – Central fertilization

The third step deals with defining Central fertilizer sites. The Central fertilizer
sites are the places from where fertilizers are injected to several irrigation lines. A
fertilizer site may include up to 6 injectors of fertilizers.

The ID number of
the central fert site Is there a fertilizer
meter?
The ID of each
injector on site Is there a booster
pump?

8.8.4 Image maker – step 4 – Central filtration

The fourth step deals with defining Central filter sites. The Central filters sites are
places where the included filters are serving several irrigation lines.

The ID number of Is there a pressure

the central filter site sustaining valve?

The number of Is there a DP

filters on site sensor?

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8.8.5 Image maker – step 5 – Irrigation lines

In the fifth step the details of the Irrigation lines are defined.

The ID of the
irrigation line Pressure
sensor
Number of valves
on the line Default water
The ID of the source
Local
main valve
fertilization ID of central
Is there a filter site
Local water meter ?
filtration ID of central
fertilizer site

Notice that –

There must be at least one Irrigation line defined.

Irrigation lines may/may-not have Local fertilization.
Irrigation lines may/may-not have Central fertilization and when they have,
the ID of the Central fertilization site must be specified.
Irrigation lines may/may-not have Local filtration.
Irrigation lines may/may-not have Central filtration and when they have,
the ID of the Central filtration site must be specified.
The Default water source will be used each time a new irrigation job is
defined on the line, unless other water source is specified.
The Pressure sensor is a dry contact sensor that when defined, will cause
the irrigation line to wait each time there is no pressure in the line.

8.8.6 Image maker – step 6 – Local fertilization

Step six deals with the details of the local fertilizer sites which are very much the
same as of the central fertilization sites explained above.

8.8.7 Image maker – step 7 – Local filtration

Step seven deals with the details of the local filter sites which are very much the
same as of the central filtration sites explained above.

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8.8.8 Image maker – step 8 – Other objects

Step No. 8 deals with several types of objects that may be needed to complete the
Target’s image definition. For all the objects the technician needs to define how many
of each is needed.

a. Agitators – when the checkbox of the agitators is checked, there will be an

additional output allocated against each fertilizer injector for the purpose of
agitating the fertilizers.
b. Flow contacts – when the flow control checkbox is checked there will be an
additional digital input allocated against each irrigation vale for connection of
flow switches that will indicate whether the valve is open or closed.
c. Free water meters – these are water meters that are not allocated to
irrigation lines or water sources. The free water meters can be used for
defining virtual water meters.
d. Virtual water meters – are calculated water meters that are formed out of a
combination of water meters of irrigation lines and free water meters. The
virtual water meters can be used in three ways: they can be allocated to
irrigation lines in place of real water meters, they can be allocated as a
water meter of a water source, and they can be used for network
protection.
e. Satellites - are outputs that can be attached to other outputs in order to work
in parallel with them. Satellites can also be activated by conditions, and there
can be conditions defined on the status of satellites.
f. Analog sensors – are inputs that supply a range of values, unlike the
contacts that have two states only (open or closed).
g. Alarm outputs – are outputs that will be activated in case of specified alarm
conditions.
h. Contacts – are dry contact inputs for general use.
i. Valve groups – are groups of valves that are given names like G1,G2,G3..
and they can be saved in a library for being used in various irrigation
programs.

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 j. Conditions – can be defined on various events that can be true or false, and
when becoming true the condition can influence irrigation programs by
starting the program, stopping the program, enable its operation or disable its
operation. Additionally conditions may cause sending an E_mail when
becoming true.
k. Radiation sets – are used for defining the parameters needed when
triggering of irrigation cycles by accumulated light is used.

8.8.9 Image maker – step 9 – Hardware interfaces

In step nine the various hardware interfaces in use by the system, are declared. See
the explanation about the System Hardware at paragraph 6.5.5 above.

8.8.10 Image maker – step 10 – Wiring of outputs

In step ten we define the wiring list of all the output devices declared above in the
previous steps of the Image maker.

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8.8.11 Image maker – step 11 – Wiring of inputs

In step eleven we define the wiring list of all the input devices declared above in the
previous steps of the Image maker.

The column “Sensor” is for use by analog

water meters

Notice that –

Each analog water meter needs an additional definition of an analog sensor.

The wiring of the water meter will be as defined for the analog sensor and in
the row of the water meter we only need to fill the column of the “Sensor”
indicating the appropriate analog sensor.

8.8.12 Image maker – step 12 – Finish

In the last step the technician has to decide what to do with the image file he was
dealing with, the options are as follows:

a. Save the image in the same file it was loaded from.

b. Save the image in a new location.
c. Deploy the image file to a desired target that is included in his list of
targets.
d. Deploy the image file to the target he is currently connected with.

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