Rachio for sprinklers?

[pete_c]

I will absolutely be paying someone else to dig trenches. Beyond that, meh, it has everything to do with finding a contractor that actually knows WTF they're talking about.  Which narrows the field drastically.  So it'll probably end up being a mix of someone to do the design, someone cheap to dig the trenches and then I'll automate it.

 
Yeah; here the automation came afterwards.  I just contracted a Rainbird irrigation installer and hung around the day of installation to oversee it paying the installers to install my PVC chases for stuff.  Using it today for all my LV stuff.  (probably some 20 more PVC chases from the house out to the edges of the property - $100 cash at the time and learning how to use one of those PVC installation machines. IE: paid the guys to teach me and had the extra PVC lines installed while playing.  There were no berms at the time and it was still being planned.  I was very impressed how fast they could run lines under sideways etc.
 
Funny too years later did the same thing except for a gas and oil facility (well compound / little city) and laying fiber along the peripheral edges of the facility and creating little streets with fiber runs everywhere.  (in Peru).  Sort of helped me relating to timeframes of implementations when I learned this stuff. (bigger toys to play with).
 
It might be easier to just hire an irrigation company; put in whatever is cheap (you can find controllers for $20 these days).  Not sure if you will be able to find someone to trench and install PVC lines only.  My neighbor tried to DIY it with folks that had no clue about irrigation line digging and had to redo his entire system some 3-4 times before it was right over 1-2 years. (kind of a costly endeavor).
 
Watching the connectivity pieces of solenoids to the controller.  Funny cuz one person didn't have a clue about wiring.  I did rewire everything and gave it some order.  The automation wiring et al came in pieces and years after initial installation.  Initially tried to modify / hack the Rainbird ESP controller; then just removed it and replaced it.  Thinking at the time (early 2000's) it was around $4000 or so for 10 zones.  Sister covered her stuff (on two acres) with 20 plus zones with a larger Rainbird ESP device and paid around the same price ($4000). She used a landscaping company that did irrigation stuff.
 
I did change the plumbing as the company wanted a short route to the external stuff and I have a configured utility section in the basement such that I had them route the plumbing that way.  Same for the wiring taking a longer route from one side of the house to the opposite side of the house and into the garage.

 

[NeverDie]

I am leaning toward open sprinkler.  The basic unit uses a board based on Arduino.  But the Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone based units would be cheaper and have more capability.
 
All these use the same expansion boards for more zones so here's a comparison of a basic 8 zone system (ignoring price of needed memory card, etc):
 
Arduino based unit:  $150
 
Raspberry Pi unit: 
   Price of Pi             $35
   Pi sprinker board  $75
   Total                      $110
 
BBB                           $ 55
BBB sprinkler board  $ 70
   Total                       $ 125
 
I am planning to have a tablet as the control panel so that adds to the cost but also allows other control so it seems like a reasonable tradeoff.

Just a caveat emptor: the open sprinkler may be open source, but because it doesn't run on a standard arduino platform, it may be more complicated to modify than you might expect:  http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:MU75ZhNP1_0J:www.saulsbury.org/arduino/index.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us (at the moment the blog article is down, so the link I'm posting is to the google cache version).   The interesting info comes after the point where he says, "if you've ever considered buying this kit or assembled product - think hard."  My take after reading it: it's a pity the sprinkler wasn't built around something like a Mega2560, even if it cost $5-$10 more, but which is a standard platform and isn't as resource constrained.  After all, an open source offering, if it's hard to modify, defeats almost the entire point of being open source.
 
Of course, it's hard to calibrate a review like that.  Maybe you're smarter or more skilled than him, so YMMV.  If you do wind up buying one and modding it, please do jot a quick sentence about how it went.  I'd be interested in whether you end up agreeing with him or not.  I'd also be interested in opinions by anyone else who may have already tried modding one.  Anyone here tried it?  One of cocoontech's advantages, compared to other forums, is the apparent absence of sacred cows, which makes honest assessments easier to post (and remain posted).

 

[JimS]

NeverDie,
 
Thanks for posting that.  I wasn't aware that the basic Arduino circuitry and ethernet were non-standard.  But I wasn't going with that version.  As I noted, the Pi or BBB versions are more capable for less money so it seems like an easy choice.  The only thing you give up (that I know of) is the local display and that is easily added with a small tablet.  That offsets any cost advantage but allows control of other things, which is part of my overall plan.
 
You make a very good point that even very small mods may be difficult.  Hopefully the Pi is a little easier for software mods.   I want to do some special things with it like controlling two water sources and detecting when my pump lost prime.
 
It seems to have a good forum for support and others also doing things with it which should help.  Sounds like I should look at the software for the Pi version a bit closer.  I am much better at hardware than software. 

 

[nelieto060]

The Rachio smart sprinkler system will give flexibility that you can operate is from anywhere. If you don't remember when you have used your system then you can see schedules and run sprinklers accordingly. You can also access it from your android phone. Visit link to know  more about Rachio smart sprinkler system:
http://www.smartsprinklercontroller.com/rachio-vs-rainmachine-vs-skydrop-vs-hydrawise-vs-blossom/

 

[wuench]

Looks like the bots are getting both smarter and more attractive...