Orbit Sprinkler Timer (Iris)

My initial hypothesis was incorrect. Please forgive me, I meant no harm. Here is how it played out for me.

Most the summer I used the mitchp with some success. The orbit would chew through batteries and would only turn on 1 out of 3 times. Ever few weeks 2 or 3 rouge orbits would show up.

A few weeks ago I switched from the mitchp code to the code NickHark found and posted. No more missed waterings, but still getting the rouge orbits showing up. They were self assigning to the mitchp device type, and they were coming in greater numbers.

I tried to remove the mitchp device type, but STs keep saying something was still using it. So I started deleting any code that I thought was maybe doing. I did not keep track of what I deleted. After that, the amount of rouges I got dropped off significantly, but did not stop.

I then tried taking the code from the NickHark device I created and putting it in the mitchp device I had. I went about 24 hours or so with no rouge devices. So I prematurely thought I had a win.

48 hours later I had 700 rouge orbits and my Smartthings was not executing thing correctly anymore.

I hope you can see why I thought it was the code at least for a little bit, but it turned around and bit me hard. At this point my orbit timer has had it’s batteries pulled and I will hand water the flowers till the first frost here in central Ohio, which I am guessing is 3 weeks away.

I use this for awhile and it create a lot of rouge orbit. I believe until someone can control the timer and date it going to keep create other orbit’s. I believe it is looking for that info and if it dosen’t receive it, it start creating other. I like it but it dosen’t work with smartthings as of now.

This is an update.

As I indicated I have discontinued the Orbit IRIS valve on my hub. When I wasn’t looking, it created over 1480 new connected things and essentially brought the use of my hub to a halt.

I contacted tech support and they were not able to help. There was no way to reset/clear the hub so I wrote a small rudimentary script using a utility called AutoIT to delete all the Load Control Switches from the hub. It ran for a cumulative 20+ hours but I finally got them all out. I have reset my hub and re-installed the Load Control Switch back so I can control my hot water heater, which is why I wanted this device handler in the first place.

My cure is not for the faint of heart.

My hot water heater is controlled by a Leviton 73A00-3ZB Zigbee wireless switch. It has been fine for about 5 months.

In any event, I recommend that you remove every stray device to avoid having the problem I experienced.

I bought a used ver 1 hub on E-Bay and I am going to try to develop a device handler that doesn’t use, or interefere with the Leviton 73A00-3ZB Zigbee wireless switch, (LCM). My problem is gaining a better understanding of the Zigbee profiles. It would be so easy if we could just obtain the profile description from Orbit.

I played with my timer tonight. I did a reset on the orbit but now it won’t pair with ST. I noticed also a Home Depot GE Link bulb I have also won’t pair with ST. Both are ZigBee. Strange.

I did open the orbit and took several photos. I’ll get them online soon. Beware if you open it up completely that you will most likely need to use silicone to reseal part of the insides. Getting it open means breaking that seal completely.

I found the chip inside is a Mega256RFR2. It’s a 2.4GHz low power SOC. Google the chip number for more info on it. This may provide more info in what we’re dealing with. Atmel has a support site at https://gallery.atmel.com

The other chips in the orbit timer are:
r5f10rjaa - appears to be the LCD controller
25p20vp - appears to be 1Mbit flash ram. the data sheet has instructions on how to read this. may be interesting to see what’s on there, if anyone is so inclined.

Interesting reading here:
http://www.atmel.com/Images/Atmel-42288-BitCloud-ZigBee-Home-Automation-ZHA-Hands-on_AT05436_ApplicationNote.pdf
and
http://www.atmel.com/Images/Atmel-42241-Real-Color-ZLL-LED-Light-Bulb-with-ATmega256RFR2-Hardware-User-Guide_AP-Note_AT06412.pdf
and
http://www.atmel.com/Images/Atmel-42236-LED-Commercial-Lighting-Kit-and-Gateway-Software-Users-Guide_AP-Note_AT06700.pdf

The last doc has some interesting stuff about setting the time in the example app. Not sure if the orbit would be similar/same.

And all about packet sniffing: http://www.atmel.com/Images/Atmel-32210-ZigBee-PRO-Packet-Analysis-with-Sniffer_AP-Note_AT02597.pdf

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I’m posting a lot. I got the device paired again, as well as a GE Link bulb that wouldn’t pair. I mounted my hub vertically just a day or 3 ago. After putting 2 and 2 together I realized both of these devices are zigbee and won’t pair. So I unmounted my hub, placed it horizontally on my desk and voila! So the device is paired again.

With a better understanding of zigbee from doing a lot of research I think I’m going to play more with the device types to see if I can figure stuff out.

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does anyone who’s having the issues with their orbit also have sonos connected to ST?

I do not

(now to get to the 20 char)

What made you think that they may be connected somehow? Just curious.

I kept getting the orbit rejoining and getting a new device network ID each time. In the log I saw the sonos app logging the join events. thought they were connected, but don’t think so anymore. In looking at the sonos code it seems that it subscribed to the location and so the handler was firing all things logged for the location and the sonos code was logging some of the stuff, which could be anything, but happened to be this device at this location. It may a good idea to create a smart app to do the same (subscribe to location) but do more logging of the raw messages coming through.

You will see some more weirdness if you do a zwave repair. Don’t do it if you don’t need it. :wink:

Sonos Connect and Hue Connect are no way connected to zwave remotely, right? Do a zwave repair and the status of your zwave repair will appear under the Sonos Connect app as well in live logging.

I am looking to understand this from the experts in the community or ST. It does not cause me any pain but just curious again.

As @smart indicated, system logs appear to be dumped in the Sonos connect. Don’t know why but it has been like this for over a year at least, maybe for ever.

Reboot your hub and you will see Zigbee and Z-wave events dumped there.

I think it’s just garbage code in the Sonos app that logs that shouldn’t be. It serves no purpose really. With my test app to log all location activity I see the same stuff.

I was testing but now the orbit is not responding at all. Ugh!

My conclusion is the device is very unreliable and inconsistent in it’s behaviour. I may be wrong, but it’s impossible to use a device where sometimes commands do something and sometimes not. Even trying to reset the device or start pairing according to the device instructions doesn’t work all the time. This is before it even tries anything with ST. Based on that I’m going to wait for my parts to arrive from china and then replace the internal electronics with my own. I only ordered the parts a few days ago so it’s going to be several weeks (about 8+ weeks) before I make any progress on converting the device. I can document / photograph what I do if anyone is interested.

I briefly outlined my idea earlier. Basically use a step-up converter to convert the 3v (1.5v x 2) batteries to a constant 3.3v to drive an ESP8266 wifi chip that has GPIO ports. The ESP8266 is super small. This can expose an API on my local network with on/off/toggle, etc. functionality. It could have built-in safeguards like the orbit, so maybe only turn on for 10 min max, etc. I’m not sure how much power is needed to drive the solenoid valve, so will need to test how that works / power it needs, etc. It’s not a huge solenoid valve in there. May need a relay in the mix too. This should all fit into the existing housing.

My thoughts are this setup will be A LOT more reliable than what the device currently offers.

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Just thought i’d check to see if integration with this has improved over the last several months? I purchased one a few days ago, and haven’t noticed any automatically added devices (yet)
 but the control is very unreliable, working maybe 1 out of every 4 attempts.

With spring around the corner I’m excited that this topic resurfaced.

I would love to have this product in my set up.

This product or one that fills the same roll in my setup. The other options are just way overkill for what I need

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Funny, was just starting my search this today for this for my micro sprinklers in the front year and the back yard. I have them set to water the landscaping where needed to save water.

I was thinking about this timer this morning too! But then thought it may be too early in the season to resurface the topic. Now that it is back on the forum, I too am hoping for integration. It would beat the price of the Edyn water sensor ($50 I think, and still in pre-order). https://edyn.com/

Are you still using the setup you described earlier in the posts, or did you decide to just delete it because of the automatically added devices?