The WaterMate control unit supports pairing with Harvst wireless sensors. If a sensor is paired with a control unit, the control unit can use the data from that sensor to turn on pumps, heaters, or other outputs.
If a sensor is paired with a control unit, the sensor will not send data directly to the Harvst cloud / web app. Data will be sent to the control unit, where it is stored until the next control unit update. Sensor data is reported along with the control unit data.
Up to four sensors can be wirelessly paired with a Harvst control unit.
The control unit can be operating in either online mode (connected to your home wifi) or offline mode.
How to pair a sensor
Step 1 : prepare the control unit via Device Control Panel
(these are the standard steps for accessing the Device Control Panel)
- Ensure the control unit is turned on, and awake if it’s a solar unit.
- On your phone, search for a WiFi network similar to “harvst-A4D3” where the bold characters depend on your serial number. Connect to this network.
- When connected,open a web browser and type in 192.168.4.1
- Click the green settings button.
- Click “Wireless sensors”
The next two steps will need to be done within 60 seconds of each other.
- On your phone, using the Device Control Panel, click the green “pair” button next to the device you want to pair. Choose the first unpaired device. The control unit will start beeping fast, looking for a device.
- On the sensor, press the button and hold it down. It will start by flashing slowly, and then flash faster (after approx 6 seconds). Let go when it’s flashing faster. It is now trying to pair.
- After a few seconds, the WaterMate control unit will do two long beeps, indicating that the devices are now paired.
- The sensor will go to sleep, and will wake on a regular basis to send data to the control unit.
How do I know it’s working?
You will see the control unit showing sensor data on the dashboard, along with the time the sensor last sent data to the control unit.
To manually push a data reading from the sensor to the control unit, press the sensor button once. You will get a green flash on a successful update.
The control unit dashboard will update every second with the latest data from the sensor.
You can turn on “Wireless test mode” on the control unit, which will cause it to beep once when a message has been received from a sensor. This is useful when testing the sensor is within range of the control unit.
Range (paired sensors)
Sensors will operate up to 40m line-of-sight from the control unit. If the sensor is buried low in the soil or behind equipment or a shed, range may be reduced.
To test the range:
- Ensure the sensor is paired with the controller first.
- Turn on Wireless test mode on the control unit via the dashboard.
- Open the sensor and press the button to send a reading to the control unit. You will get a single beep to confirm the control unit has received the message.
How to use sensor data
Wireless sensors will be asleep most of the time, and will send data periodically to your control unit (usually every half hour). When the control unit receives the data, it will decide if any action needs to be taken as a result of the data, and then perform that action.