Product
Installation
An indexing valve usually has 2 wires. Connect one wire to the M slot and the other wire to the C slot in your Netro controller. It does not matter which wire goes to the M slot.
Assuming your indexing valve has 4 zones, in the Netro app, please do the following:
1. Enable the first 4 zones
2. Go to settings of each zone to change the Smart Mode to Basic (Settings -> Zones -> select each zone -> Smart Zone). This is to make sure no smart schedules are created
3. Go to Settings -> Programs and create a program that includes all the 4 zones.
When you do a manual run, you should always water all zones.
All the recommendations above is to make sure whenever the controller activates the indexing valve, it completes a full loop of the 4 zones.
Wi-Fi Connection
If you are adding a new Netro controller, please log into the Netro app, click on the plus sign and then follow the steps to connect it to your home WiFi network. If you have added the controller previously and are trying to reconnect it to your home WiFi network, you can find the setup by opening your Netro app, going to Settings, then select Controller, and then select "Change Wifi network/password" under the Network sub-heading.
In the Netro app, please go to Settings->Controller, press "Change WiFi network/password" and follow the instructions.
Smart Watering
Netro's algorithm is based on expert gardening knowledges, one of which is to avoid watering equally everyday and instead to water less frequently but deeply. Netro waters your garden only when the soil is dry enough in order to draw more oxygen into the roots, leading to a lusher landscape. By default, we allow the moisture level to deplete to fairly low (recommended by EPA) before next watering and that is why you might see longer watering durations than the original settings on your old controller.
Different plants need different watering strategies. If your zone grows shrubs or trees which typically have longer roots than grass and absorb water from deeper soil, it takes more days for the moisture level to drop to the threshold. To refill the soil moisture up to saturation, it takes longer time running the sprinklers too.
In addition to the weather conditions, Netro calculates the Smart schedules based on other environmental conditions including the soil type. If the zone is watered multiple times a day, you probably selected clay, clay loam or loam as the soil type which accepts water slowly, often as little as 1/4 inch per hour and that is why we break the watering into many pieces to avoid water runoff.
When the moisture level drops to a certain level (determined by the plant type), the smart watering will kick in and it will water the moisture level all the way up to full saturation, following the EPA recommendation. You can change how often and how much the smart schedules run at your preference in Settings -> Zones -> Choose a zone -> Smart Zone.
The best way to adjust the smart watering is to change the watering mode. If none of the built-in modes satisfies you, you can select the Customized mode to further personalize the watering plan.
In most cases, Netro tries to water the zones in the morning. If you prefer to water in the evening, please go to Settings -> Restrictions to add a restriction to prevent watering in the morning. You could also go to Settings->Preferences->Scheduling to specify the preferred watering time for Smart watering。
Click on Settings in the Netro app. Select Zones. This will show all your zones. You can then turn off the Smart Zone feature by selecting a zone, and then swiping the tab under Smart Zone to the left. The tab will then gray out. Remember to save your changes by clicking on save on the top right of the screen. You will need to add a program because otherwise the zone will not be watered.
The area of each station(zone) doesn’t affect the watering schedules at all. Netro uses the area only for computing how much water has been used and saved. The watering durations are calculated based on the irrigation rate of the sprinkler type (for example, a spray head can irrigate 1.5 inches per hour). Larger zone requires more sprinklers for covering the whole zone and thus consumes more water even though the watering duration is the same.
You probably selected clay or clay loam as the soil type which accepts water slowly, often as little as 1/4 inch per hour and that is why we break up the watering process to avoid water runoff.
Weather Data
We get weather data from our service provider, which may have different results from other sources. Even with the best forecast possible, it will never match the actual rainfall. Therefore, we update our data nightly to use an actual rainfall data source for the previous day. That way it won’t vary too far by a bad forecast or sudden change in weather.
User Watering/Actions
All your zones are listed on the home screen of the Netro app. Press the play button to water the zones. To adjust the time, click on the numbers displaying the duration to the left of the play button.
If the zone is already running, you will need to go to the home screen of the Netro app and press the square stop button to shut off the running zone.
If you want to cancel a future run, you can go to the Schedule page, select the day and skip the user programs. For Smart schedules, it does not make a lot of sense to skip a certain run because that will only push the run later in the day as the system is trying to maintain the moisture level. However, you can always skip all the schedules for that day.
If you do not want any watering for a period of time in the future, you can put the controller in standby mode by toggling the Enable switch in settings->controller. Please make sure no zone is running when you disable your Netro controller.
To run your sprinklers for only one day in the future, go to the Schedule on your Netro app. Click on the plus sign on the top of the screen next to the month name. This will have you create a one-time run. Adjust what zones you want to water, the duration, and the start time. Then select the day you want the system to water.
Click on Settings in the Netro app. Select Programs. In this menu, you can edit or delete saved programs, and create new programs. Click "Add Program" to create a new program. You will need to enable at least one zone to add a program. When Smart Zone is enabled for a zone, the programs for that zone will be skipped when there is significant rain or watering regulations.
Click on Settings in the Netro app. Select Restrictions. In this menu, you can edit or delete saved restrictions and create new restrictions. Click “Add Restriction” to create a new restriction. While creating your restriction, keep in mind that a red X mark shows the selected days of the week that you do not want your lawn watered. For example, if I do not want selected zones watered on Tuesdays, I will leave Tuesday with red X mark, select the other days of the week and a red X will not show for them. When I save the restriction, my selected zones will water on any day of the week except for Tuesday.
Connected Home
After you have added "NetroHome" to your Alexa skills, please enable it and the Alexa app will jump to the "link account" page. Once your Netro account is successfully linked, you will be able to use Alexa to work with Netro. You can talk to your Alexa like: "Alexa, ask Netro Home to water zone one for 5 minutes." or "Alexa, ask Netro Home to stop watering." The Netro device should start/stop watering accordingly.
Please use your Google Assistant app to find "Netro Home", either by directly typing "talk to Netro Home" or searching through the Google Assistant explorer. Then tap the "link" button, and you will be redirected to the account login page. After using your Netro account to be successfully linked, you will be able to use Google Assistant to work with Netro. You can talk to your Google Assistant like: "Hey google, ask Netro Home to water zone one for 5 minutes." or "Hey google, ask Netro Home to stop watering." The Netro device should start/stop watering accordingly.
For more information, please visit: https://netrohome.com/shop/user_guides/4
Please download the IFTTT app on your phone or use the official IFTTT website to connect Netro with IFTTT. For more information, please visit the following webpages:
https://ifttt.com/netro
https://netrohome.com/shop/user_guides/6
Please visit: https://netrohome.com/shop/user_guides/3