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    #31
    I have a Rainbird controller in FL and originally had one installed here in the midwest. My sister also has a Rainbird controller. All said the Rainbird controller and sprinkler heads have worked as designed in Florida and at my sister's house nearby.

    The Rain8net's that I originally installed (2) worked fine for about 8 years with MCS Sprinklers until I had a lightning strike. I was lucky as that was all that got hit. Neighbor lost many appliances with the lightning strike.
    - Pete

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      #32
      Originally posted by Pete View Post

      The Rain8net's that I originally installed (2) worked fine for about 8 years with MCS Sprinklers until I had a lightning strike. I was lucky as that was all that got hit. Neighbor lost many appliances with the lightning strike.
      Pardon my ignorance, but what does ligthning have to do with sprinklers that are underground?
      Hector
      ____________________________________
      Win.2003 OS, HS3
      BLDSC,BLstat,BLRadar,BLRamdom,BLOccupied
      BLups,BLrain8,HSTouch,Ultrajones Weatherbug,
      MyTrigger,ACRF2,W800,Zwave
      AP800,Honeywell Stat

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        #33
        Originally posted by Uncle Michael View Post

        After watching how difficult our installation was for a crew of strong, energetic, experienced installers with all the right equipment, and how easily the designer could determine which heads to use and where to place them and how to divide them among zones, I would strongly recommend that only a very simple design be attempted as a DIY project.
        I agree with you Micheal 100% in that. I should leave this job to somebody who knows what he's doing. So it seams that Rain8 is the most commun device used here? Hummm. That means if I go that way I may need a long cable to get it from My closet inside my home to my garage.
        Hector
        ____________________________________
        Win.2003 OS, HS3
        BLDSC,BLstat,BLRadar,BLRamdom,BLOccupied
        BLups,BLrain8,HSTouch,Ultrajones Weatherbug,
        MyTrigger,ACRF2,W800,Zwave
        AP800,Honeywell Stat

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          #34
          Originally posted by Rotech View Post
          Pardon my ignorance, but what does ligthning have to do with sprinklers that are underground?
          If you have cables running to valves all over the yard, they can act as a big antenna. When there is a lighting strike nearby the discharge can induce a large current in the cable. I suspect that's a frequent occurrence in most of Florida. Proper grounding can help, and WGL has Rain8 valve controllers that are supposed to be protected from lighting, but I have no experience with them.

          Fortunately, we've had no "opportunity" to test how our system fares in a lighting strike - and I'm hoping we never do.
          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

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            #35
            Originally posted by Rotech View Post
            That means if I go that way I may need a long cable to get it from My closet inside my home to my garage.
            You can put the Rain8 units in the garage and run the serial line to your computer. You can extend a serial cable with cat5 for quite a ways with no noticeable effect. You can also use a serial server to connect using your home wireless network. That eliminates the need to string the wire, but can get expensive.
            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

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              #36
              Originally posted by Uncle Michael View Post
              .

              I have the stand alone version of mcsSprinklers connected to the Rain8Net boxes and use xAP to allow HS to interact with it.
              What has been your experience with mcsprinklers? Do you believe this is a must have for a sprinkler system? In your opinion?
              Hector
              ____________________________________
              Win.2003 OS, HS3
              BLDSC,BLstat,BLRadar,BLRamdom,BLOccupied
              BLups,BLrain8,HSTouch,Ultrajones Weatherbug,
              MyTrigger,ACRF2,W800,Zwave
              AP800,Honeywell Stat

              Comment


                #37
                What has been your experience with mcsprinklers? Do you believe this is a must have for a sprinkler system? In your opinion?
                If you are concerned about your water bill and you have week to week variabilty in weather conditions during the irrigation season the mcsSprinklers STD/PRO has a very fasts ROI.

                If your objective is to replace a irrigation timer with one that can be setup and adjusted with a browser interface including WAN then mcsSprinklers BAS is priced about the same as any of the Rain8 family plugins. It then also provides for a migration path should you desire more.

                In my Arizona location I have a single zone drip system on a timer. I manually adjust the interval every couple months during the irrigation season. It is hot and dry every day so no benefit to a weather based irrigation schedule. I could set it up with a automated timer but that adds complexity and failure modes that I really do not need for a remote location.

                In my Washington location weather changes all the time and my shading and crop varies among the zones. The ET based scheduling just makes it very easy to irrigate everthing without having to working about trying to setup a schedule that would change by month as the sun angle changes and week to week as the temperature and rainfall change.

                If you want to spend the time to integrate the features that mcsSprinklers provides then you could do it in a more homebrew fashion with Homeseer and could also do simple things with existing plugins such as skipping irrigation when it is raining or forecasted. You could also use a moisture pad (rain sensor) to control the 24VAC to the valves so irrigation will not occur when it has rained recently. Different techniques help, but mcsSprinklers bundles all the tools you need together.

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                  #38
                  Originally posted by Rotech View Post
                  What has been your experience with mcsprinklers? Do you believe this is a must have for a sprinkler system? In your opinion?
                  I am using mcsSprinkler Pro. It offers nearly complete control over every aspect of the sprinkler system, which is very useful in my case because the weather can be quite variable, and the water needs vary greatly among the zones in my yard. What makes it outstanding, though, is the support the Michael McSharry provides.

                  That said, it certainly isn't a 'must'. I used a standard control box for the first season. It worked well, but I wanted more control over when the system watered each zone. If you are unsure, I'd suggest you try the standard setup that your installation company provides to see how satisfied you are with it.
                  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

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                    #39
                    Is there a rain8 unit that also has has a pump controller connection?
                    I have 4 valves but also a pump switch line attached to a standard box.

                    By the way all well here in south fla!
                    I have two deep wells one for the house and the other for the irrigation.
                    There's more maintenance on my end but no water bill is nice.
                    HS4Pro Win10 | Fire Tablet touchscreen client, Android Phones and Tablets | Jon00 | Smartthings | Philips Hue | Trane | Caseta | Nanoleaf | Ring | August | Evolve | Aladdin | Amazon Alexa/IFTT

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                      #40
                      Originally posted by Mario23 View Post
                      Is there a rain8 unit that also has has a pump controller connection?
                      I'm not aware of any Rain8 with that capability built in. I believe they all require an external device to instruct them when to turn a relay on or off. mcsSprinklers has the ability to control pumps using a Rain8 valve control relay to operate a pump, but I have not needed it so have no experience with it.
                      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

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                        #41
                        I believe the Rain8 Wireless has a 7+1 model, but this not the way I would go because of the reliabilty of RF control. The EtherRain has a 7+1 model as well as a 8+0 one and those are good choices. As Uncle Michael indicated mcsSprinklers can do pump control with any of the Rain8 models. For the Etherrain you need to have the 7+1 as there are hardware constraints with it that do not exist with Rain8

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                          #42
                          As a potential buyer I tried to figure out the differences between the etherrain 7 and 8 model. Being a layman I can't understand from their website what the difference is between the two models... Could you maybe explain this?

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                            #43
                            The Etherrain can only have one of its 8 valves ON at the same time in a normal configuration.

                            For setups that have a pressurized water source (e.g. city water) the 8+0 version is what would be used.

                            For setups where the irrigation water comes from a non-pressurized source such as an adjacent lake then a pump is needed to get the water from the lake into the irrigation system. You only want the pump to run when there is a value open. This is the situation where you want a 7+1. When one of the 7 valves are open the +1 valve will be used to turn the pump ON. The +1 (8th) valve will only (and always) be ON when one of the other 7 valves are ON.

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                              #44
                              @Michael
                              Thanks for this clear explanation, wish the website of Etherrain would be as clear as this!

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                                #45
                                Well it's that time...

                                My old controller died today so I'm going shopping!

                                I'm pretty sure the ether rain 7+1 would be my best option.

                                Seems to be the easiest and most cost effective solution for me with just 4 zones. I've heard some say mscsprinklers can work with it but I need to confirm that.

                                So I ask you all with more experience...is there any reason for me not to get it or to try rain8 instead? I don't need zones running together but what else would I be missing out on?
                                HS4Pro Win10 | Fire Tablet touchscreen client, Android Phones and Tablets | Jon00 | Smartthings | Philips Hue | Trane | Caseta | Nanoleaf | Ring | August | Evolve | Aladdin | Amazon Alexa/IFTT

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