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    Etherrain or rain8net

    I sold my house and also left my homeseer system and rain8net interface.
    In my new house i will setup a irrigation system with hs3 and mcssprinker plugin. I have to buy a new sprinkler interface. What should i choose . The rain8net or the etherrain. I have a small house with 4 valve's .

    #2
    The Etherrain will give more reliable operation. You can only have one Etherrain valve on at a time while you can have multiple rain8net ones.

    Comment


      #3
      Michael, have you found something unreliable with the Rain8's? I have 2 of the pros and they have been OK.

      Comment


        #4
        Michael, just to explain me better. I have 3 water valve's so One etherrain 8 or 7p is enough for my house. Do you mean that only 1 water valve within a etherrain can be active or do you mean that only 1 etherrain of a set of multiple etherrains can be active?

        Do you have both good experience with the etherrain 7p as the 8 in combination with the mcsspinkler plugin? I prefer the 7p because maybe in future i will use a pump, but the 7p isn't available in europe.

        Comment


          #5
          Only one valve on each EtherRain can be open at a time. I've been very happy with my EtherRain unit. Very reliable and works great with Michael's incredible software.
          My home is smarter than your honor roll student.

          Comment


            #6
            As already stated, you can control all three of your zones with one etherrain module. You will not be able to have any more than one of the three zones irrigating at any one time. It will always be sequential and not parallel operation.

            The pump zone of the etherrain is not setup in mcssprinklers so from the SW perspective either model works the same.

            Any type of interface can be used for pump that is managed by mcsSprinklers. You could even use a second etherrain and designate one of its valves to be a pump and mcsSprinklers will turn it on whenever any valve in the first etherrain is on. Of course the 7p would be the best approach as simplier is better.

            Comment


              #7
              Thnx. Last question. I haven't installed the plugin yet. Is it possible from the plugin to "manage" e.g a fibaro zwave switch? This switch can easily active a pump. So when zone will be active on the etherrain, first the switch will be set to on via the mcs plugin?

              Comment


                #8
                Both sprinkler systems have been in existence for a long time, and Michael has addressed the basic difference in operation.

                EtherRain also has additional online setting that link with weather reporting to assist in water savings.

                I went from the Rain8 to EtherRain and now to another system (Hydrawise) but the are other option such as open sprinkler that integration is readily available.

                In moving to Hydrawise I have completely decoupled the HA integration as it really does not offer any real benifits and the system themselves have advanced in usability and management too

                Comment


                  #9
                  Hi Brientim,
                  I already have chosen the software which is mcssprinkler. I'm only searching for the compatible hardware .

                  Regard Rene

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Any HS device, such as zwave, can be used for pump. There is also a valve-protect device that acts as a master switch. When looking at alternatives for pump your primary consideration should be reliability of the system operation overall. Pump turned on without a valve open likely will result in pump damage. This is why the hardware-coupled solution of everything in the single Etherrain module is very attractive.

                    If you use a device that mcsSprinklers is able to manage the communications then you have a better situation than if you use something like Zwave or other HS device. If mcsSprinklers turns on a HS device that is intended to control a zwave relay it must assume the relay is on. If mcsSprinklers turns on a Etherrain or Rain8Net valve it will query the hardware module to confirm it turned on and retry. It will also notify if not successful.

                    mcsSprinklers also can be configured in a low power unit such as RPi-2 or Odroid-C1. It has an additional level of level of reliability in a dedicated host computer and if HS integration is desired then xAP can be used. I was using the USB-SSD in prior years, but now moving to SATA with USB adapter because the USB-SSD have become hard to obtain at a reasonable price. mcsSprinklers writes current status every minute and updates irrigation history in a database. You need to be careful to not fall into trap of low cost targets (e.g. RPi) that use flash for read/write. They may survive a year, but will die with the lifetime write constraint and is typically sensitive to power glitches that could destroy the flash.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Sorry for reviving this thread, but I'm curious to know more about the way mcsSprinklers integrates the EtherRain controllers. I understand that only one valve of an EtherRain controller can be on at a time, but
                      • Can mcsScprinklers interface to multiple EtherRains?
                      • If so, what is the limit?
                      • If mcsSprinklers can control multiple EtherRains, can each of them have a zone running at the same time?
                      Mike____________________________________________________________ __________________
                      HS3 Pro Edition 3.0.0.548, NUC i3

                      HW: Stargate | NX8e | CAV6.6 | Squeezebox | PCS | WGL 800RF | RFXCOM | Vantage Pro | Green-Eye | Edgeport/8 | Way2Call | Ecobee3 | EtherRain | Ubiquiti

                      Comment


                        #12
                        mcsSprinklers contains all the internal logic to optimize use of multiple EtherRain. The hardware constraint is one zone per module, but if you have 3 modules, for example, it is possible to have 3 zones active at the same time. The most I know a customer is using is around 10 modules. I suspect there may be a limit around 100 zones somewhere because that threshold has never been evaluated and the early design for zone identification was based upon Axx identification.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by Michael McSharry View Post
                          mcsSprinklers contains all the internal logic to optimize use of multiple EtherRain. The hardware constraint is one zone per module, but if you have 3 modules, for example, it is possible to have 3 zones active at the same time. The most I know a customer is using is around 10 modules. I suspect there may be a limit around 100 zones somewhere because that threshold has never been evaluated and the early design for zone identification was based upon Axx identification.
                          Hello Michael,
                          After reading many posts in the forum I believe to understand that the best professional solution is to use "mcsSprinklers" with EtherRain but to do it I don't understand where and if can I buy the plugin for homeseer because the link on the page "Plug-ins"- "Manage"- " additional interface" on the HomeSeer give error. Is it perhaps included in the cost of software that I saw here: http://mcssprinklers.com/vsVersionSummary.htm?
                          Besides, I'd like know if the mcsSprinklers runninig on Windows 10. I'm also looking for sensors for measure soil moisture level that uses z-wave technology. I don't know if they exist . I found this web site https://www.plantcaretools.com/measu...oisture-sensor but I don't if these sensors can comunicate with homeseer or mcssprinklers. My desire is to istall a professional irrigation system managed by HomeSeer.
                          Thanks

                          Massimo-RenderCAD
                          ______________________________________
                          HomeSeer Version: HS3 Pro Edition 3.0.0.318
                          Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional - Work Station
                          System Uptime: 1 Day 9 Hours 47 Minutes 15 Seconds
                          Number of Devices: 363Number of Events: 210Available Threads: 200
                          Enabled Plug-Ins
                          3.0.0.29: ADIO-100
                          1.0.0.85: Arduino Plugin
                          2.0.43.0: BLBackup
                          2.0.3.0: BLDatabase
                          3.0.14.0: BLMediaPlayer
                          2.0.5.0: BLVolume
                          0.0.0.42: Current Cost 3P
                          0.0.0.3: Device Comparison 3P
                          1.1.2.0: Device History
                          3.0.0.32: EasyTrigger
                          3.0.0.75: HSTouch Server
                          3.0.0.14: NetCAM
                          3.0.1.90: PHLocation
                          1.0.0.5: Restart
                          3.0.0.21: VWS
                          3.0.1.124: Z-Wave

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Happen to be in Italy today on vacation.

                            McsSprinklers can accept readings via HS using virtual devices. The question about a specific zwave device needs to be directed to HS as they have the SW that supports the zwave interface.

                            Windows 10 will work. As with all Windows after XP elevated privileges are needed to run SW that directly access hardware resources. This means you need to start mcsSprinklers with "run as administrator" rather than "run".

                            McsSprinklers running as a HS plugin is licensed via HST so purchased via HS store / updater. If you having difficulty via this route the I will need to assess when I get back

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