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What is the best irrigation controller for Homeseer?

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  • srodgers
    replied
    Elk M1G Alarm Panel relay outputs for my three zone setup. Most logic is in Elk Automaton rules with some UltraM1G3 Elk Plugin interaction. HS enable/disables zone watering events and can change the zone times, times per day and how often the zones run from HS3 Touch screens I made. HS can set Elk panel counters and variables for the logic. I have a old 7" Amazon Fire tablet mounted above work bench that is my garage controller station for sprinklers. And of course Alexa controls the on off for the system and individually zones verbally as well. Great when your hands are wet and you can't use a touch screen to turn on a zone or turn off a zone. I have a rain sensor wired into a Elk zone as well as sensors on my pump to check for flow and a tank level sensor in my No-Rust chemical tank to alert when it is low. Elk output control a relay to turn on/off pump. All DIY that evolved over the last 13 years and I keep adding features as requested from the master gardener (Good WAF so far).

    Started with very solid Elk panel control and then added HS to the mix to allow touch screens and phone apps control and Alexa to interact.


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  • ecetron
    replied
    I have been using Hydrawise and except for the authentication issue, it has been excellent. Since I can fall back to the main panel which is very user friendly and the application which is even easier to use (both mobile and Web) i wasn't worried about HS until Plugin came back online. And i basically just use HS4 to give me status anyway as all the heavy scheduling is so easy in the Application/Web interface...And it gives me a ton of historical analysis reports as well as adjusting to current temperature and rain conditions

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  • Sgt. Shultz
    replied
    What is the best irrigation control for Homeseer?
    Drill a hole in the bottom and let the water drain out...

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  • kenm
    replied
    I used an ER-8 for several years. It worked great. In fact, I have it around here somewhere. You can have it if you want it. No idea what the cost of shipping from CA to FL is. PM me if interested.

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  • Ken.238
    replied
    I try to decide opensprinkler or etherrain. any suggestion will be great, Thanks.

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  • rloeb
    replied
    Just got around to reviewing this topic. I've tried a bundle of sprinkler controllers, each with one idiocy or another. I've always fallen back to OpenSprinkler. There's is a plugin to provide some minimal control in HS, mostly by creating devices for each of the sprinkler zones. I've gone well beyond that. First, I have three separate sprinkler systems. The main one, which covers my far too large lawn areas, is the OpenSprinkler V3 device with zone expanders for all the circuits. Then I have an OpenSprinklerBee and an OpenSprinklerPi. The Bee is used as a wifi extension of the main OS unit, controlled by virtual devices in OS, and used to control a drip system. It's powered from a spare 24V circuit and uses latching valves. The Pi runs on a RaspberryPi Zero and runs on solar power because it is remote from the house and barn. Finally, I run the OpenSprinkler Weather Server on the same Linux box where I run HomeSeer. The WeatherServer receives data from a Davis Weatherstation and provides OpenSprinkler the data to adjust sprinkler levels based on evorespiration, compensating for temperature, wind, rain, and solar radiation. I made a slight modification to the WeatherServer to aggregate the environmental data so that I don't have to run the sprinklers every day to take advantage of it, but the resulting process is too complicated to explain here. This system has been operating flawlessly for several years. I use HomeSeer events to flush the sprinkler systems going into winter. I attach an air compressor to the vacuum breaker for each system, then use an event that opens each valve for one minute, then waits 9 minutes for the compressor to recharge. Bottomline: I'm very pleased with the adaptability of the OpenSprinkler system to my complex requirements and appreciate the interaction with HomeSeer. Not a solution for someone who wants everything in one, no-brainer box...

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  • outbackrob
    replied
    So I went with a new Rachio controller. It works with my Tempest weather station to limit watering if we have had sufficient rain. (FAR better than the rain switch.) My wife loves the app. She created a schedule that she likes and LOVES that Rachio/Tempest will delay or skip it if we have had enough rain. Have had ZERO complaints that a zone is not working...... Life is GOOD!

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  • racerfern
    replied
    I've been using the Go Control unit and just added more zones for a total of 7. It's tied to events that get the rain data from my new Tempest weather station. Unfortunately, due to lack of rain there are significant restrictions on watering in my area so I've temporarily disabled automatic events except for the vegetable garden. The events take into consideration the rain totals over the last two days but I haven't done anything about adding a forecast for the next 24 hours to the mix.

    It's been flawless as has my Go Control garage door opener. Unfortunately, they've both been discontinued which is all too common for so many z-wave product manufacturers. These things are bound to fail someday and with a solid history I would probably run out and buy another one if I could. Fingers crossed.

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  • Pierre
    replied
    Originally posted by outbackrob View Post

    That looks pretty freakin awesome! Unfortunately, I already have a full system with 9 zones around the property....
    If your actual system has a entry for moisture controler, you can control it by a certain way.
    Closing this contact will stop the irrigation. You can tie what you want to this, a relay or any contact closure you can control with your HS.
    Then, using a weather plugin you can stop irrigation when it is raining, or if it will rain for sure the next day, depending how you can manage the weather plugin.

    Click image for larger version

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  • helie2
    replied
    I purchased the Orbit B-hyve to be able to control my rental home's sprinkler system, i needed something simple so the tenants can use it. Installation was straightforward. They are using the manual setting but when the home is vacant, i can use the cell phone option. It only takes a few seconds to initiate a total system watering from either the controller itself or cell phone/tablet. I like that any instructions from the keypad or remote device will be displayed instantly on both. You can read reviews here I'm very happy with purchase.

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  • mminehan
    replied
    Originally posted by clafa View Post
    Hi,
    i have the rachio sprinkler controller.
    i use the plugin to control zones with the screens I built in hstouch . wife likes the rachio app,
    i have a hard wired rain sensor and the rachio app has predictive forecast built so I dont have the need for hs3 to read the weather and take action.
    i like that rachio takes care of future rain and the local ran sensor of prior rainfall. i have the 1st generation of rachio...you can find them cheap on ebay..
    cheers
    Same here. I used to use Rain8 but switched to Rachio and have never looked back. There is a HS plugin (UltraRachio3) that works as expected.
    I do like the water savings from Rachio as it is 'weather forecast aware'. And you can control it with the native app even if HS is down.
    The only drawback is that it is 'cloud based' so needs an internet connection to work.

    Leave a comment:


  • Michael McSharry
    replied
    I'm not sure where they are coming from, but sure. Is this procedure in the manual?
    The Other Page of mcsSprinklers, at the bottom, has provisions to collect debug data for various forms of internal execution analyses. If something is occurring that you do not expect then the debug should be enabled so data is collected. A debug file will be created each day when enabled and intermediate files can be pushed out using the button on the same page. The files can be emailed to the email that is setup in mcsSprinklers or they can be copied from the \Data\mcsSprinklers folder. If you want some analysis then open a thread on the mcsSprinklers forum so this thread is not hijacked any more.

    The data in post #24 is user data showing the log of what happened. The debug data is about why it happened.

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  • outbackrob
    replied
    Originally posted by wpiman View Post
    ...Are you using MCS Sprinklers? Does your log show the CAPI controller turned the valve off pretty quickly after it is turned on?
    I am not. I got my controller prior to Michael adding GoControl to the questionnaire installation process. I am using the base commands for the valve and some pretty intricately timed events.

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  • wpiman
    replied
    I think you mean this?
    6/23/2020 4:06:36 PM A1:R3 Rain8 Front Lawn Inner OFF
    6/23/2020 4:06:49 PM A1:R4 Rain8 Front Lawn Outer ON
    6/23/2020 4:07:00 PM A2:R10 Rain8 Porch Back OFF
    6/23/2020 4:07:15 PM A1:R4 Rain8 Front Lawn Outer OFF
    6/23/2020 4:07:31 PM A1:R4 Rain8 Front Lawn Outer ON
    6/23/2020 4:07:42 PM A1:R4 Rain8 Front Lawn Outer Forced OFF
    6/23/2020 4:07:42 PM A1:R4 Rain8 Front Lawn Outer External ON
    6/23/2020 4:08:01 PM A1:R4 Rain8 Front Lawn Outer OFF
    6/23/2020 4:08:16 PM A1:R4 Rain8 Front Lawn Outer ON
    6/23/2020 4:28:17 PM A1:R4 Rain8 Front Lawn Outer OFF

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  • wpiman
    replied
    Originally posted by Michael McSharry View Post
    If you think there are OFF commands from mcsSprinklers that should not be there then provide the debug log for analysis.
    I'm not sure where they are coming from, but sure. Is this procedure in the manual?

    Leave a comment:

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