Yup; here its been years now running irrigation on a Seagate Dockstar initially modded with Dockstar Debian then changed over to ArchLinux.
Purchased a "few" Seagate Dockstars when they were on special. The deal was posted here on the forum. Thinking it was ~$30?
Initially started with the PogoPlugs but they got a bit warm with the integrated power supply. Today the Seagate Dockstar is POE power feed.
USB ports are connected to a pair of Rain8Nets via a serial port, one SSD drive and one CF drive.
Most expensive pieces relate to the two Rain8Nets. Data comes from the Davis Vantage Vue, WUN and NOAA stuff.
Using a CSV file for the Vantage Vue weather station variables over from the Cumulus weather server indirectly coming for the internet web page stuff.
The software has a custom touchscreen interface but mostly I do not play with it. Initially tested and got the Mimo USB touchscreen monitor working just fine. This was when I was using Dockstar Debian.
Michael McSharry ported the mcsSprinkler applicaton over from Wintel.
Best calculations for UV were the simplest.
I do have it configured such that I can use the wireless x10 palm pad to turn on and off individual zones while checking them outside. Comes in handy during spring startup and fall shutdown. The software is made to be controlled remotely if necessary,
[root@ICS-MCSSprinklers /]# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
rootfs 1.4G 887M 456M 67% /
/dev/root 1.4G 887M 456M 67% /
devtmpfs 60M 0 60M 0% /dev
run 60M 160K 60M 1% /run
shm 60M 8.0K 60M 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 60M 0 60M 0% /tmp
/dev/sda1 7.5G 285M 7.2G 4% /mnt/data
/dev/sdb1 1.4G 887M 456M 67% /mnt/data2
[root@ICS-MCSSprinklers /]# uname -a
Linux ICS-MCSSprinklers 3.1.10-11-ARCH #1 PREEMPT Mon May 21 05:59:32 UTC 2012 armv5tel GNU/Linux
[root@ICS-MCSSprinklers /]#
Many years ago ran a cat5e serial cable from the garage to the basement and it worked fine.
I like this set up because it all fits in the old Rainbird ESP box. Each piece is in a plastic case, these are velcroed to the inside of the Rainbird case and the door remains shut. There is a touchscreen monitor in the wall over the device; but its mostly off as I never look at it anymore.
Software is running in Mono and is quick. It does a nightly backup. DR is configured such that it will run from one memory card and automatically look for the backup memory card if need be. Originally scrambled the USB sticks. I am using the little mini USB port on the top for a USB to ZIF to SSD drive and a CF Card in a USB device. I did install a 1-wire temperature sensor inside of the box but never really saw that it got warm/hot.
I used the Rainbird PVC tubing to get from the garage to the basement. It was a real PITA to get the wires through the short run.