Irrigation option (UK)

[Behold81 (Antony Pugh)]

Are there any I the U.K. Either cheap timers or more complex systems?

Thanks.

[tsteele93 (Tom Steele)]

Check Amazon - what about Rachio? I have Orbit and like it but I don’t think it integrates with Smartthings natively.

[JDRoberts]

GreenIQ is a WiFi irrigation system available in the UK which has an IFT TT channel, enabling indirect integration with smartThings.

IFTTT

GreenIQ Smart Garden Hub WiFi Irrigation Controller

[JDRoberts]

@tsteele93

Check Amazon - what about Rachio? I have Orbit and like it but I don’t think it integrates with Smartthings natively.

This is the UK category of the forum. I don’t think rachio Is available in the UK.

[Behold81 (Antony Pugh)]

Thanks

Real Lack of options then!

[Behold81 (Antony Pugh)]

does your Rachio work with Smartthings?

Its WiFi so might work in the UK

[ashutosh1982 (Ash / Ashutosh Jaiswal)]

Spruce Irrigation is an option. www.spruceirrigation.com. Not sure if it can be used outside of US, but I would guess YES, because it uses ZigBee.
@natec007 can confirm.

[JDRoberts]

@ashutosh1982

Spruce Irrigation is an option. www.spruceirrigation.com. Not sure if it can be used outside of US, but I would guess YES, because it uses ZigBee.
@natec007 can confirm.

Although the zigbee frequency is the same worldwide, different countries set different maximum transmission strength levels by law. The US has one of the highest, allowing for what is called “boosted” or “amplified” zigbee. This means that many zigbee devices which are legal in the US are illegal to operate in the UK.

Unfortunately, this is true of the spruce irrigation system; it operates at a level almost twice that allowed by EU law.

This has previously been discussed in the forums.

Spruce Irrigation in Europe and Zigbee signal strength

I posted in the FAQ section yesterday but I imagine not many people will look at long quiet thread. Impressively I got a fast, weekend answer from Spruce Irrigation to a question about Zigbee signal strength if one uses a US sourced Spruce system with ST in Europe and whether it complies with European legislation to contain Zigbee signal strength and not use boosted signal levels. Here’s what they said: “We do use a boosted signal strength of around 20 for the Spruce Sensor. The Sensor should automatically adjust the maximum power level depending on which channel is being used. However, we don’t know what channels SmartThings uses in the UK, and have not verified the device’s signal strength outside of US or Canada.” Anyone know how I find out what channel ST uses for Zigbee in the UK,…

[ashutosh1982 (Ash / Ashutosh Jaiswal)]

@JDRoberts

Although the zigbee frequency is the same worldwide, different countries set different maximum transmission strength levels by law. The US has one of the highest, allowing for what is called “boosted” or “amplified” zigbee. This means that many zigbee devices which are legal in the US are illegal to operate in the UK.

Thanks for confirming my doubt.

[Behold81 (Antony Pugh)]

seems to be the way with all the good things.

[JDRoberts]

@Behold81

seems to be the way with all the good things.

There’s some good stuff which is available in UK and not available in the US. The Popp and the Devolo battery-powered wall switches are really nice devices and work very well with some community-created code.

The Fibaro smoke sensor is also a very nice device not available in the US (although I don’t think that one is working with SmartThings yet ).

Most of the Osram lightify models seem to come out in Europe before they do in the US. Those work well with SmartThings.

There’s a yale lock that’s available in the UK and not available in the US that is made for narrow spaces that I really like. It’s on the official compatibility list.

And TaDo was available in Europe for about two years before you could get it in the US.

So it just varies, especially for products from smaller companies.

[Behold81 (Antony Pugh)]

Fair comment. I want 4 of the Yale locks. But they are not cheap.

[tsteele93 (Tom Steele)]

Oops, sorry. I find Smartthings community to be possibly the most obtuse and difficult bbs to use I have ever experienced. It is probably just me. Sorry for the confusion.

[JDRoberts]

@tsteele93

Oops, sorry. I find Smartthings community to be possibly the most obtuse and difficult bbs to use I have ever experienced. It is probably just me. Sorry for the confusion.

No problem, you’re right! But the community itself is great. We all help each other find our way around.

[Alwas]

There’s a very cheap way to setup a Z-wave irrigation system, controlled by the SmartThings hub. All you need is a Z-wave relay to control your water valve, for a one zone system.
If you have 9v water valve, that runs on a dumb battery timer, like I had, you simply swap the solenoid for a 24v version, and add a Z-wave relay like the Fibaro, it costs 45 quid. There is really no need for anything fancy.

[Behold81 (Antony Pugh)]

Thanks.

Not a bad simple solution. Was hoping for a more sophisticated solution but this is a simple idea.

I’m sure you can get 24v Valves.

[noamleshem]

I bought a Fibaro relay and a 24v valve. I’m not sure how they all connect. Could you please give a bit more information? I will try myself and post any outcome

[Alwas]

It’s pretty easy actually, follow the above diagram. The negative of the solenoid goes to 24v, the positive goes to the Fibaro relay, then give the Fibaro mains power directly as per the diagram.

[noamleshem]

Thanks for your help. I can see only 6 connections on the relay(using the new FGS-2×3 223). N, Q1, L, Q2, S1,S2. I understand N and L go to the mains power but I’m not sure how to connect the valve.
Looking at the photos it looks like you have 6 connections too but i see 7 in the diagram

[Alwas]

My valve has two wires, the negative goes to 12v transformer, and the positive goes straight to the Fibaro. Then another one goes from the 12v transformer, positive, to the Fibaro, that’s the one that sends the signal to the valve to open.