General Irrigation/Sprinkler Recommendations

[ecetron]

I just bought a house that has a sprinkler system installed. Nice Rainbirds etc all over the yard. HOWEVER, it is all under manual control with standard house "wye" faucets - those little black 1/4 turn ones.

And with water pressure what it is, I can't run but one zone and a time.

So I need a simple solution that uses garden hose valves and a HS4 compatible controller. I see that the Orbit B-hyve has the valves and a controller but no sign of a plugin for it yet. Many of the others that are out there compatible, don't have those cheap valves - (HS's is $250/per vs about $30 for Orbit)

Any help would be appreciated.

V/R,

-ed

[Eman]

Are you one of those who don't mind getting their hands dirty?...


Node-Red Home Sprinkler System

https://odelayio.github.io/Node-Red-Sprinkler-System/ (If you already use the HS Node, would be easy to integrate with them) OR

D.I.Y : https://flows.nodered.org/flow/60867...10b0c07cc071da



There is also this one with MQTT : https://github.com/billchurch/bhyve-mqtt

Initial instructions : (Prerequisites, git and npm)

# | sudo install git

# | git clone https://github.com/billchurch/bhyve-mqtt.git

# | cd ~/bhyve-mqtt/app/

# | cp .env-sample .env

// fill out all the config details

# | npm install

#| npm start




Eman.

[Michael McSharry]

There are various solutions using standard relay boards. The downside of these is there is no local protection for a valve staying on too long. I provided a version of firmware for the Sonoff 4CH Pro (4 channel relay WiFi interface) that has this protection. There are also consumer units that also have WiFi interface such as Rachio.

mcsSprinklers is a plugin that has many options for use of a multitude of controllers and very flexible scheduling. It could be overkill if you are not concerned about water conservation and want only a timed control with a HS UI and use of HS Events for the control.

A little more about the number of valves being controlled and what your expectations/requirements are for irrigation will help this discussion.

[MikeMatthews]

I've had a Rain Machine for 2 years and really like it. It has great internal automation so I find no need to connect with HS (ET calculations based on local weather, tons of per-zone settings).

[ecetron]

What I am looking for is something very simple. Since all the connections are garden hose variety, I would like to use a system that can easily be inserted between the "wye" manual valves and the garden hose connection out to the sprinkler heads. Something like this one. And that way I don't need to splice more traditional valves into the piping which doesn't use regular PVC pipe. I need 7 or 8 zones. I have an entire house to automate so I'm looking for simplicity and while I usually don't mind getting my hands dirty, this time I need something more off the shelf.

Thanks everyone for the help, but as you see, it is the hardware that will most likely drive the software and then the integration.

[Michael McSharry]

Would this satisfy your need? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005...70effc35998-39. No personal experience with it, but seems to satisfy your requirements. It may be too big to fit side by side on the manifold you showed. Short hose bibs should overcome this constraint.

Likely not HS compatible, but irrigation schedules do not change very often to need tight integration. Control via smartphone bluetooth.

[Pierre]

Also, remember that a cheapo rainbird controller will handle easily your pressure problem...
You can basically automate it by just faking the rain controller port on it to avoid watering, when it is raining or if it will be raining tomorrow.
I have been using this for years without any problem, and I think I do not need anything more sophisticated just for watering the garden....