122 Zone Sprinkler Automation

[tmbrown97]

OK - if this were for me, I'd spend weeks/months agonizing over the best solution - but I can't, as I'm just trying to help someone else out... So, I'm hoping a few quick suggestions and a few hours of research can help me point her towards some options...

A friend has 7 acres, on which she has 122 individual valves to run individual sprinklers. 4 months out of the year, she waters all 7 acres - by walking around the property, turning on 7 valves at a time... then circles back and turns those off and turns on the next 7... Very time-consuming process.

So - I was kinda thinkin' - for the price of 122 electronic valves and some wire, it wouldn't be all that hard to convert those to some form of automation. So - next question - anyone got an idea for a simple and ideally programmable control she can set up to cycle through these?

I imagine if she wanted to she could combine 7 valves into one zone, provided her transformer doesn't mind the load, and cut down to 18 zones to save money on hardware - but otherwise, anyone got an idea for a cheaper standalone programmable controller that can handle 18-125 zones? Basically trying to control both ends of the spectrum. She didn't seem to have any issue paying $2.5 to 3.5K to not have to walk around the whole property like that every couple of days.

Thx! Looking forward to some creative ideas... I already have a handful in mind, but think this would be a fun one to solve inexpensively, and I'm sure others will have some creative ideas as well!

 

[electron]

While I am in a hurry right now, I do want to mention the WGLdesigns product line, the guy that runs the company is really nice, and the hardware is rock solid.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

WGL Designs has a 40 Zone WiFi controller but for seven acres you might want to see how the valves are "clustered" around the property and group your controls via zones and connect them that way.

Actually more info is needed before deciding on the ultimate system. For instance, is power available on site? If so where (probably not the entire site)? As stated above, where are the valves on the property? Do you have a map of the area (showing approximate valve location)?

Is there a place to install a computer (power, environmental controls, etc...)? If so where would it be located on the site?

As far as the valves are concerned can you get say a 24 VAC operated one that will be a direct replacement for the manual control? If not are you prepared to plumb all those zones with new valves?

Do you need confirmation that a valve opened and watered an area (say leaf wetness sensor and some type of digital input monitor)?

Another option would be to have a few PLC's such as an Ocelot (with input/output options) with the program stored for the start and watering times and let them just run without any computer control.

 

[[email protected]]

I agree with what the previous posters have written.

It would most likely be fairly easy to get power distributed over 7 acres to power the valves, just alot of trenching! There are lots of solutions available. You could just distribute low cost timers amongst the property and program each one seperately, that would be arround 16 8 Valve or controllers 11 12 valve controllers. You'd have to individually program each one.

You'd most likely want to distribute the controllers, if you located them centrally, you'd be running alot of control wires around.

If you are looking for complete, centrally controlled and automated, here's a link to a distributed idea that might work for you:

http://www.quicksmart.com/downloads/128%20...0App%20Note.pdf

This would let you distribute the controllers and would give you centrallized programming control using this vendor's "OptiRain" irrigation valve control software on a PC. You'd also have to establish a WiFi network using the new WDS standard. WDS lets you establish a wireless backbone. It would seem that a wireless backbone should be able to cover 7 acres. Would be an interesting project to try. Most likely for experimenters and automation freaks only!

Once you have determined that your WDS WiFi worked, you could use the EtherRain valve controllers for distributed control. You'd have to mount the Wireless WDS Access Points and the valve controllers in weatherproof enclosures.

You could then program and control all of the valves from a PC attached to the WiFI network. An interesting automation project this would be! Here's a link to the controller: http://www.quicksmart.com/qs_etherrain.html

Do a search on WDS. Most new Wireless routers support this, or you can install 3rd party open source software into your preferred router using WRT (search DD-WRT).

The hardware cost would be in the multiple thousands to implement a complete centrally controlled system, but you could start with a few areas at a modest cost and then proceed if you found the project beneficial.

have fun

 

[tmbrown97]

I don't have a map of the property, but it didn't sound like it would be too impossible to run the wires back to a central place, like the main house... I guess a lot of them are in line with each other, so you could go down the line with a single trench, then turn back to the house to bring them all home. The valves would need to either be conversion valves (probably easiest) or just cut the old ones out and place new ones.

With the wires coming back to one place, she shouldn't have to worry about wifi over the 7 acres - just to wherever the wires are run to. That takes care of power, etc. Programming a bunch of individual timers is probably a bit much - but clustering every 6 valves to a single zone would probably work just fine as long as the transformer can handle the load. Also not worried about the confirmation - I think she'll look out the window the first handful of times, then just trust it.

I'll take a look at the WGL stuff as well as the others later tonight...

Thx for your input guys!

 

[FrankMc]

Hi Todd

Although not a stand alone controller if the lady has a pc maybe have a look at building several of Gerrys Sprinkler controllers....

http://www.rgbled.org/sprinkler/index.html

Im currently building one for my vegie patch.....

HTH
Frank

 

[keepersg]

If you're going to go wired, check out the rainbird gear. I have one of these: http://www.rainbird.com/contractor/products/controllers.htm

the LX model which should handle her situation. Easy to program, adjusts to rainfall, set it and forget about it.