[OBSOLETE] Smart Sprinkler System

Thats how my view looked as well before I removed 4 of the valves and renamed the valves.

Something that you could also add to the readme files
I have been playing around with Smarthings for about 3 weeks now. I actually have a degree in Computer Science. So I am new but dangerous. But anyways as I was setting this up I felt there was a little confusion on the process of loading all the software. You do a very good explaining the equipment side but I think that there needs to be a step by step instruction, for us dumb S*&^, of loading the software, I know you did not have to do any of this but I am so GLAD you did. I learned a lot from this project. Thanks for all your help

What modifications did you make to remove valves and rename the others? Mind sharing?

@Stan Now that my ADT integration is done, am starting on this irrigation controller project. Can I load additional libraries in the same Arduino that I am using for ADT and just add a relay board , and still be able to run both ADT and irrigation control using one setup.

So, it is technically possible to do what you’re asking however, you are going to run into memory and pin constraints pretty quickly. There isn’t a way to just load some libraries and make this work, though. You’d have to merge the sketches together.

My suggestion. Get another arduino and do this as a separate project. That is the simplest route IMO.

Best of luck!

I agree with Matt
 Not only would you have to merge the Arduino sketches together, you’d also have to merge the Groovy Device Handler and portions of SmartApps potentially.

Not worth it to save $50.

@Matt and @ Dan Thanks for the input. I was trying to prevent having Arduino’s everywhere at home. I will go ahead and order another set of Arduino and Smart shield.

Stan, you’ve done a tremendous job in documenting this project. Thanks for all of your hard work!

This definitely feels like a stupid question, but I feel like it’s the missing link to get this working. I feel like I’m 90% done with getting everything setup, however, like another poster, I’m not sure that I’ve got the 24v transformer correctly wired.

Can you please post a picture showing your wiring for the 8 relay module power?

Thanks!

This is extremely interesting and creative. :+1: What advantages does this have over the Ranchio Smart WiFi Sprinkler Controller? With IFTTT, I’ve heard it integrates with SmartThings rather well.

About $150 and some personal satisfaction :smiley:

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:grinning: Ok
 I actually get the “personal satisfaction” part but does that mean the parts are approximately $30?

Additionally, there’s a lot of intelligence built into the Ranchio Smart WiFi Sprinkler Controller software. It considers, soil types, ground slope, sun exposure, evaporation coefficient, sprinkler head flow rates and much more. How is that replaced? Or do you simply think the “personal satisfaction” is worth not having that other stuff :confused:

I think I paid around $70 or $80 for the parts. I thought the rachio goes for $250, but apparently not. For watering my lawn, I could not care less about all the other parameters. I guess if you’re farming for money, or live in CA where there’s no water, it may make a difference :).

I do get the advantage of having the smart sprinkler system controlled by the rainfall recorded by my personal weather station. And if I were so inclined, I’m sure one could add code to take at least some of the other parameters into account.

As with a lot of these projects, if you’re a tinkerer and don’t need all the fancy bells and whistles, building your own system is pretty cool. If you need the extra functionality or you’re more of a plug & play person, the rachio is probably the better choice.

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Fair enough
and don’t get me wrong
as an engineer by profession, I truly get the “personal satisfaction” aspect of these types of projects. Since we all only have 24 hours in a day, picking the right “personal satisfaction” projects can be tough. “Should it be done?” should be given consideration like “Can it be done?”

Just an FYI, the 8 zone version is $179 and the 16 zone version is $199. It appears there’s a savings of $100 in hardware but I’m pretty sure that would be greatly exceeded in personal time to setup and the lack of water savings intelligence in the home grown solution. It is true that the money savings would be of interest to many but just being good stewards of water conservation would be of interest to many others.

It appears that many of these home automation projects fall into groups (Security, Money Savings, Just Damn Cool\Convenience). This forum topic has placed the sprinkler control into the “Just Damn Cool” bucket, when Ranchio Smart Sprinkler controllers could also place it in the “Money Savings” bucket, unless there are plans to do the water savings intelligence better than Ranchio. @franzgarsombke

@Lojack, for me the main reason this project exists is
 2.5 years ago, no SmartThings enabled sprinkler controllers existed. If you wanted one, you had to build it. There were some solutions in the works, but nothing really workable. There were a few threads on this forum discussing the lack of sprinkler controllers and possible solutions, but none of them were well documented and many seemed like a bust.

Short answer
 @d8adrvn and I were too impatient to wait for a solution to built for us. :smile:

Why haven’t I switched to a commercially available solution? This project is still working very well for me and has not required any maintenance. The extra features sound nice, but not worth the money or effort to switch.

Want new features? We are accepting pull requests! :wink:

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@mattn and @Dan999 - Not trying to ruffle any feathers, I’m just inquisitive. Given that you’ve had a workable solution for 2.5 years, your reasoning is perfectly fine. If it’s not broke don’t fix it, besides it’s already paid for. Why do you think folks that currently have no solution would go this route?

No feathers ruffled. Your question is valid. I would not presume to guess why people would go this route over a plug and play solution. I can only speak for myself. This solution is here for those who wish to use and/or improve it. :wink:

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Loving the irrigation controller, it’s doing just what I was looking for. Thanks!

I was wondering if you’re interested in adding some functionality to the app? What I’d love to see is for the app to poll the weather (as done for expected rain), then reference the expected high temp for the day. Using this info, set the sprinkler run times accordingly. It’d be great if the user could custom select a range of high temps and assign them to a ‘slot’ and then assign run times to each of those ‘slots’. An added bonus for me (hot summers) would be to add multiple-times-a-day watering as an option to each slot.

Is something like this doable?

Again, great job, and thanks for automating my yard!

@Rigging65 Sounds interesting. I live in a hot climate and could probably use something like that. I would suggest forking the repo on Github and making the changes. Once you have it in a working state, you could post your repo here and I think some people on this thread will try it out and give feedback. If it seems to be working well, then you can submit a pull request.

Oh, I clearly was misleading in my post. I’ve got no coding ability whatsoever. I was hoping you guys might be interested in trying to update your already really great code to include what I was talking about. I’m sorry for the confusion! Great app!

Haha! Darn, I thought you were volunteering! :wink:. @d8adrvn and I have talked about adding features like you are describing, but haven’t added any of them due to lack of time and a desire to provide a simple and solid solution. Not making any promises, but if we were to code it, would you be willing to help us test and troubleshoot it?