User guide

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Chapter 5. Working with Extensions and
Crops
As with previous versions, the addVANTAGE Pro 6.2 software has extended
functionality through additional software modules called extensions. Extensions
are entities that perform calculations.
The types of extensions you work with are calculation extensions and disease
models. Crops are nodes that store information about phenophases, irrigations,
and treatments. They are not extensions. Disease models and calculation
extensions are relatively new to addVANTAGE Pro. Disease models are
extensions that apply only to crops. They “hear” events issued by the crop.
Calculation extensions usually apply to an area. Although they can be children of
a crop node, calculation extensions do not “hear” events issued by the crop
(such as when a treatment is applied).
Another set of extensions now available is called RTU diagnostics. These
diagnostic extensions are associated with RTU tags and they verify whether the
data coming from a tag is plausible. The configuration of these extensions is
related to climate, which is why you learned about the Climate Manager on page
28 of Chapter 3.
About addVANTAGE Pro Extensions
Some extensions are included with the software and others can be installed
separately. For example, Adcon Telemetry provides a collection of calculation
extensions and disease models (still collectively known as extensions) in a
package you can receive free of charge upon request from your Adcon
distributor. These extensions are documented in a separate addVANTAGE Pro
6.1 Extensions and Crops manual. This manual is located on the software CD,
which also contains these free extensions, or you can download it from Adcon
Telemetry’s website at http://www.adcon.at.
The Info Button
You will also find that certain calculation extensions and disease models have
additional information available in the software itself, on their Properties dialog’s
Extension tab. When you see an “info” button like the one shown in Figure 56,
click it to open a dialog with additional information about using the extension.
Figure 56. Info Button for Apply Powdery Mildew (Kast OiDiag) Extension
Recalculating Extensions and Crops
An extension will automatically recalculate some properties in the input data
sets if their options have been changed. This operation usually takes only a
couple of seconds, but in extreme cases (large data sets or many extensions
running in parallel) it can take up to several minutes. The properties in the
Crops, Treatments, Inputs, Irrigation and Extension tabs may force a
recalculation if changed. You can also force a recalculation of one or more