Controllers Supported

[rrepic]

What irrigation controllers do you currently support with mcssprinklers?

[Michael McSharry]

Any device that is mapped through Homeseer devices can be used. Any device that can respond to xAPBSC protocol on the LAN can be used. Native control from within mcsSprinklers is the full WGL Rain8 family (X10,RS-232,UPB,RF). Native control has the advantage of failure management where mcsSprinklers can sense a valve is in the incorrect position and try to correct the situation.

[rrepic]

Thanks Michael - I currently run mcsSprinklersS with a Rain8Net over serial and it works great. I wanted to look at ethernet connected controllers like EtherRain as alternatives. My main thought was trying to control my son's irrigation system from my home over the Internet without installing any PC systems at his house.

Any thoughts on EtherRain??

Thanks!!!

-Ray

[Michael McSharry]

I had some interaction with the EtherRain folks and decided there was not suficient demand to justify the work to make a mcsSprinklers interface. What is typically done is to use a Rain8Net remotely and connect the Rain8Net using a IP/Serial adapter. This could be either WiFi or wired.

If you have a stable WAN connection then your control computer can be anywhere in the world. If not then you need a local computer and in this configuration you will be achieving monitoring and user override with WAN to the local computer and the mcsSprinklers HTTP server port.

I have mcsSprinklers working on a Mono port to OpenSUSE and trying to get it to Debian on an ARM processor. My unix skills are very poor so this is a slow process. In this configuration there would be no need for the PC host for mcsSprinklers and mcsSprinklers becomes an appliance like traditional irrigation controllers.

[rrepic]

I had some interaction with the EtherRain folks and decided there was not suficient demand to justify the work to make a mcsSprinklers interface. What is typically done is to use a Rain8Net remotely and connect the Rain8Net using a IP/Serial adapter. This could be either WiFi or wired.

If you have a stable WAN connection then your control computer can be anywhere in the world. If not then you need a local computer and in this configuration you will be achieving monitoring and user override with WAN to the local computer and the mcsSprinklers HTTP server port.

I have mcsSprinklers working on a Mono port to OpenSUSE and trying to get it to Debian on an ARM processor. My unix skills are very poor so this is a slow process. In this configuration there would be no need for the PC host for mcsSprinklers and mcsSprinklers becomes an appliance like traditional irrigation controllers.

Excellent! I have an extra Rain8Net which Ill purchase the serial/wireless IP connector for and give it a try. My WAN link is 30MB Comcast is is pretty stable (knock of wood). Do you find many folks running this remote type configuration? Would I need to upgrade to Professional to run multiple Rain8Net controllers or IP communications?

What OS's do you currently support? I have a couple CentOS and FreeBSD systems running as well...

Thanks!!

-Ray

[Michael McSharry]

mcsSprinklers software is running only on Windows systems. The Unix ports in development are targeted as appliances and not a software distribution that can be installed on a generic unix OS.

If you want to control two geographic locations from one mcsSprinklers install then you will need the Pro version. Recognize that a central install has access to only one set of Weather data for forecast etc. This means only one location would be controlled by ET. To have independent ET control then you would need multiple mcsSprinklers installs.

About 50% of the standalone users of a Rain8Net install use the IP/Serial connection. I believe most of those are LAN installs and not WAN installs. I do run this type configuration for other HA applications where my sensors and actuators interfaced via WAN and the brains is at a central locations. My WAN connection is also very stable in this situation.