Sprinkler Control

[torgrimj]

I have been using my Elk M1 for about 6 months now and am looking to control my sprinklers with it. Love the Elk M1 !!

I have looked at past threads and see alot of people like the Rain 8 controllers from WGL. I want to have my Elk control the sprinklers, and am not worried about hooking into CQC or homeseer.

I understand that I could purchase an ELKM1XOVR for my Elk, and run Cat 5e out to my sprinkler valves. I am assuming that I would need some sort of 24VDC power supply as well. Am I missing anything, and any suggestions from folks that have done it this way in the past?

Thanks in advance.

Jeff T.

 

[electriclight]

Jeff,

I have done pretty much the same thing. I installed an M1RB (did not want to take the RS485 bus outside) in the M1G cabinet and ran 18ga cable(s) out to the valve sites. I built a fused 24 VAC power supply in a small metal box (all parts available at Radio Shack) and mounted that near the M1G cabinet. It is really straight forward and works great. No more sprinkler timer to mess with!

 

[mustangcoupe]

I am in the process of doing the same thing. If you have a irrigation controller already you should have a 24 vac ps... That will be switched by the elk relay board for each valve. there should be 1 common from all valves and then one hot to each valve through the relay contacts. (if you are not going to purchase an elk relay module you can use relays with 12 vdc coil less then 50 mA one relay for each zone)

 

[torgrimj]

Mustangcoupe,

I actually have not bought any equipment for my undergrounds at this time. I am just in the process of getting ready to bring in topsoil, and will be running my underground lines in, and will then be working on the valves. So I do not have any existing controller at this point.

JT

 

[RonX]

I don't want to be an intruder in this thread but it seems you are very informed in irrigation systems. Where to start in order to install a simple and automated irrigation system? What do I need to buy and where? valves? lines? controller? wiring? power supply? etc. Maybe a URL where I can start reading.

Thank you

 

[mustangcoupe]

RonX

I have a local friend in the irrigation buisness... so I used his services for supplies ect... But I do know that Home Depot does carry the Toro brand which is what I use. And their prices are not too bad.... But check around on the net for a wholsaler or dealer to sell to consumers. if you are going with an "off the shelf" controller then it will have the needed power supply, you'll also need zone valves, heads, lines/Hose (I used the 1" black poly and crimp rings but I hear out west they prefer to use white pvc and glue it) dont forget a rain sensor to shut down the system if it is raining.... this will plug into the controler. Also then you should check into your local zoneing rules I was required to put in a backflow preventor this keeps the laen water from flowing back into the drinking water.

HTH,

 

[mustangcoupe]

JT then depending on the zone valved you pruchase will depend on the power supply you need. Some valves will work on AC and/or DC. mine run on 24 VAC powered from the controler and it's power supply. I am reusing the power supply in my elk setup.

 

[jlegault]

All this talk motivated me to finish posting my M1 sprinkler install,

hope this is useful. It's pretty basic, but gets the job done.

M1 Sprinkler Install

 

[Mike]

All this talk motivated me to finish posting my M1 sprinkler install,

hope this is useful. It's pretty basic, but gets the job done.

M1 Sprinkler Install

That is great. Thank you for posting this. I have an existign controller with a radio remote that I wanted to work in if possible. I bought the M1OVR to connect to the Elk, and was trying to figure out if a Rain8 was something I should add.

Your diagram is exactly what I was wondering about.

 

[Spanky]

jlegault,
Nice job on the sprinkler example.

 

[gduprey]

If you are a handy type with a solder iron, you can build a sprinkler controller yourself that you can then easily integrate into the Elk (or any other controller). The controller supports anywhere from 1 to 27 valves and you only need a 2 wire RS232 line to feed it, so you can keep it at wherever you might have installed a timer. Commands to the controller are text and very simple.

If you're interested, the details are at www.rgbled.org -- just scroll down to the Sprinkler Controller. All schematics, documentation, etc are there.

Gerry