Tasmota firmware has been updated and available at http://mcsSprinklers.com/mcsTasmota.bin. It has been evaluated in Sonoff 4CH Pro and Sonoff Basic. These units provide one or more WiFi-controllable relays that can be applied in an irrigation scenario.
The Sonoff Tasmota irrigation controller operates in one of three modes.
1. Slave to a master controller (e.g. Homeseer). It accepts WiFi ON and OFF commands and controls the relay(s) as commanded. These can be via HTTP or MQTT protocols.
2. Control each relay with a WiFi-programmable duration and interval. Slave to master controller continues to be available.
3.Accept predicted future irrigation time to monitor expected operation of master controller and revert to interval/duration mode when master appears to have failed.
Periodic status is provided for when each relay will be activated based upon current interval and predicted times. Status is also provided for each actual relay ON & OFF transition.
The discrete input available with the Sonoff can be used for a local override of the 2nd and 3rd irrigation modes thus reverting unit to only remote control or control by a master.
The Sonoff 4CH Pro and Basic sell in China for around $25 and $5. Local distributors have additional markup. There are many other similiar products that accept the Tasmota software. Some have had success with installing Tasmota firmware over WiFi. My success has been via serial TX, RX, GND using a USB UART dongle which goes for around $10.
The Sonoff Tasmota units have some configuration capability via WiFi HTTP/Browser. The irrigation programming uses WiFi MQTT. More information on this can be found at https://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=192675 and related sources. Chapter 13.5 of the mcsMQTT manual expands upon the use of this Tasmota firmware in the Sonoff 4CH Pro.
mcsSprinklers 2.18.1.0 has been updated to recognize this Tasmota irrigation controller. It will soon be available in the Updater. mcsSprinklers will deliver irrigation schedule changes to the Sonoff based upon the optimized schedule computed each minute by mcsSprinklers. Tasmota will monitor and take over the irrigation based upon the last predicted and specified interval.
The advantage of this architecture over simple relay devices is that the entity controlling the relay is monitoring for excessive ON and excessive OFF duration for the relay state. It has advantage over Rain8-class devices in that not only will it monitor for an excessive ON duration, it will take over the irrigation scheduling if irrigation has not been initiated for an excessive duration.
The Sonoff units do not have any provisions for lightning strikes such as MOV and other fast acting electronics that will divert the lightning strike from the unit. All these protection circuits provide a degree of protection that will depend upon the proximity of the lightning strike. With the cost of the Sonoff being so low a viable strategy may be to just replace it rather than protect it.
The Sonoff 4CH Pro also contains a 433 Mhz RF receiver. This will allow manual control of each relay as one roams the irrigation field during checkout. Both the 4Ch and Basic contain buttons to locally control the relay.
Attached is an image of the Sonoff 4CH Pro with cover removed and rocker switch installed to act as the local override control.
The Sonoff Tasmota irrigation controller operates in one of three modes.
1. Slave to a master controller (e.g. Homeseer). It accepts WiFi ON and OFF commands and controls the relay(s) as commanded. These can be via HTTP or MQTT protocols.
2. Control each relay with a WiFi-programmable duration and interval. Slave to master controller continues to be available.
3.Accept predicted future irrigation time to monitor expected operation of master controller and revert to interval/duration mode when master appears to have failed.
Periodic status is provided for when each relay will be activated based upon current interval and predicted times. Status is also provided for each actual relay ON & OFF transition.
The discrete input available with the Sonoff can be used for a local override of the 2nd and 3rd irrigation modes thus reverting unit to only remote control or control by a master.
The Sonoff 4CH Pro and Basic sell in China for around $25 and $5. Local distributors have additional markup. There are many other similiar products that accept the Tasmota software. Some have had success with installing Tasmota firmware over WiFi. My success has been via serial TX, RX, GND using a USB UART dongle which goes for around $10.
The Sonoff Tasmota units have some configuration capability via WiFi HTTP/Browser. The irrigation programming uses WiFi MQTT. More information on this can be found at https://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=192675 and related sources. Chapter 13.5 of the mcsMQTT manual expands upon the use of this Tasmota firmware in the Sonoff 4CH Pro.
mcsSprinklers 2.18.1.0 has been updated to recognize this Tasmota irrigation controller. It will soon be available in the Updater. mcsSprinklers will deliver irrigation schedule changes to the Sonoff based upon the optimized schedule computed each minute by mcsSprinklers. Tasmota will monitor and take over the irrigation based upon the last predicted and specified interval.
The advantage of this architecture over simple relay devices is that the entity controlling the relay is monitoring for excessive ON and excessive OFF duration for the relay state. It has advantage over Rain8-class devices in that not only will it monitor for an excessive ON duration, it will take over the irrigation scheduling if irrigation has not been initiated for an excessive duration.
The Sonoff units do not have any provisions for lightning strikes such as MOV and other fast acting electronics that will divert the lightning strike from the unit. All these protection circuits provide a degree of protection that will depend upon the proximity of the lightning strike. With the cost of the Sonoff being so low a viable strategy may be to just replace it rather than protect it.
The Sonoff 4CH Pro also contains a 433 Mhz RF receiver. This will allow manual control of each relay as one roams the irrigation field during checkout. Both the 4Ch and Basic contain buttons to locally control the relay.
Attached is an image of the Sonoff 4CH Pro with cover removed and rocker switch installed to act as the local override control.
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