Step-by-Step Guide
Understanding Pause vs. Stop Conditions
The baseline precip sensor helps you monitor rainfall that reaches the soil, including rain rate, volume, and frequency. Both the BL-5407-KIT and BL-5407-KIT-PRO are compatible with the Base Station 3200 and can be located anywhere on the project as long as they're connected to your 2-wire path.
Pause conditions create a temporary stop of irrigation and allow irrigation to resume as soon as the pause condition clears.
Stop conditions clear out all previously scheduled programming until the next start time comes up.
You can set up start, stop, or pause conditions for individual programs through BaseManager. To set up the same conditions for all programs, use either Live View or go directly to the controller.
Prerequisites
Before programming pause or stop conditions, ensure the following are complete:
- Devices are installed and connected to the 2-wire path
- Devices have been assigned
- Your various programs are entered
Setting Up a Pause Condition
1. Turn the dial to the Start Stop Pause position.
2. Navigate to and open the Device Pause Conditions menu by pressing Enter.
3. Note that the program influenced by this pause condition is defaulted to All Programs.
4. Scroll through the devices that can initiate pause conditions and select your assigned precip sensor (for example, RG1).
5. Select Enabled to activate the pause condition.
6. Configure the pause condition settings:
- Set Limit to 0.1 inch of rain
- Set Trigger to Hourly
- Set Pause Time to one hour (this is the default)
With this programming, anytime the precip sensor receives more than one tenth of an inch of rain in a one-hour period, all running programs will pause for one hour. After the hour pause, if there's no more rain, programs will resume where they left off.
Understanding Sensitivity Settings
The 0.1 inch setting is very sensitive—it represents just one tip of the sensor. Most spray heads apply water at a rate of 1.5 inches per hour, which is 15 times the 0.1 inch per hour setting. To get more functionality from the sensor, you can layer a stop condition on top of the pause condition.
Adding a Stop Condition (BL-5407-KIT)
1. At the Start Stop Pause dial position, navigate to Device Stop Conditions.
2. Keep the setting applied to All Programs.
3. Select the same device (for example, RG1).
4. Select Enabled to activate the stop condition.
5. Configure the stop condition settings:
- Set Limit to 0.25 inch of rain
- Set Trigger to Daily
⚠️Note that there is no pause time setting because this is a stop condition, not a pause condition.
How Pause and Stop Conditions Work Together
When both a pause condition and a stop condition are programmed:
- Programs pause for one hour if there's 0.1 inch of rain in an hour
- If no more rain falls, programs resume after the one-hour pause time
- If more rain falls throughout the day up to the 0.25 inch limit over a 24-hour day, all programs will stop
- Stopped programs won't resume—they're stopped until the start condition comes back up again, likely at the next program start time and start day
Programming with the BL-5407-KIT-PRO (Soil Moisture Sensor)
The BL-5407-KIT-PRO includes a soil moisture sensor that can be used to measure effective rainfall. This allows you to base stop conditions on actual soil moisture rather than rainfall accumulation alone.
1. Leave the existing pause condition at 0.1 inch per hour (as configured in the earlier steps).
2. Navigate to Device Stop Conditions at the Start Stop Pause dial position.
3. Select your assigned moisture sensor (for example, MS1).
4. Select Enabled to activate the stop condition.
5. Set the Limit to 24.5 percent (or whatever moisture limit works best for your site).
With this configuration:
- Programs pause for one hour if there's 0.1 inch of rain in an hour
- Once any effect of rainfall makes it into the soil profile and meets the set moisture limit, all programs will stop until the start condition comes back up again
Video Walkthrough
Video originally published August 2022.
If you have questions, here are 3 ways to get answers:
1. Search within this HydroPoint knowledgebase
2. Visit the HydroPoint support page
3. Call 800-362-8774 or email support@hydropoint.com, hours are Mon-Fri 3:00 AM – 6:00 PM PT and Sat 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM PT.