The Pearl Controller can be used to monitor and control independent heating or cooling “MicroZones”.
What is a Micro-Zone? A Micro-Zone is a region or compartment within a greenhouse that has a different temperature setpoint. Typical uses for Micro-Zones would be bench heating, corridor heating, or any other area in the greenhouse with separate heating or cooling equipment. Any of the Pearls Relay outputs for Equipment can be programmed as an M-Zone. An MZone output is basically an independent thermostat with both a day and night setting.
Note: MZones only control On/Off type equipments. For control of proportional type see Pzone.
To program an MZone from Pearl Cloud Platform you would do the following:
1st You need to determine if the MZone is going to control either a heating device or a cooling one.
2nd The next setting is telling the Pearl which temperature probe to use for this MZone Output.
3rd Two target temperatures can be set, one for Day and the other Nite. Either can be Enabled or Disabled.
4th The Day temperature target begins with the Start time. The start can be astronomically adjusted by pressing the + key when the cursor is positioned over at.
The Pearl will keep the device on so long as the following two conditions are met:
1. The current cooling/heating stage is less than or equal to the indicated stage, where H6<H5…<N<C1<….C6.
2. The temperature is above/below the target temperature plus the deadband.
Note: The Deadband is set under the “System Setup” menu and then selecting the “Setup Deadbands” option. The BHeat deadband is one used for MZones.
The Nite target is set exactly the same as the day. If only one temperature setpoint is desired for the 24 hour period, then you can simply select the Disabled option for the second one.
In the example screen above, iGrow 1800™ output 7 is controlling a Bench Heater. From 6am to 8pm the heater will turn on if the MZone temperature goes below 72°F. Additionally, it will shut off, or Lockout, if the main greenhouse enters Cool1-Cool6. This way you’re not trying to heat and cool your greenhouse at the same time. From 8pm to 6am the setpoint lowers to 65°F and will also Lockout if the greenhouse enters Cool1-Cool6.
To program MZone (or Micro Zone) for ON/OFF Equipment from Pearl Cloud Platform you would do the following:
To program MZone (or Micro Zone) for ON/OFF Equipment from Pearl Controller you would do the following: