poor man's garden sprinkler

[comet48]

Awesome rules from that link!

But that image is awesome. What app is that?

Thank you so much!

That screenshot's from my CQC setup. (www.charmedquark.com). You should give it a try, it has a 30 day trial. It has supported the ElkM1 for years, but the latest beta includes features to update custom values (the durations on the right on the screen shot).

Here is a link to the rest of my screenshots:
CQC BlueGlass Theme

However, if the elk restarts, your custom values are set to zero, and also CQC can't read changes made to custom values made by the elk via rules. Add to this the fact that there is no persistence in CQC and that you can't for example turn your sprinklers on every fourth day (only 4th day of the month. Means that for a 31 day month, you water on the 28th and then the 4th of the next month) from within the elk it's not a great solution. I for one am not interested in having CQC determine when I should water - don't trust the PC to keep running while I am away.
So until CQC supports persistence and can read custom counters, and the Elk can support rules like "every fourth day" I think the Elk is a poor solution. I have 28 valves running and would not have used the Elk had I understood the limitations prior to implementation.
And hold onto your hat waiting for Elk. Their rate of updates is very slow and you never have any idea of what is going to be added until it arrives (or doesn't most likely)!

 

[edmidor]

I want to put a couple of 24v valves to control my sprinklers using EtherRain controller.
But all "classic" tutorials I found call to put valves into buried sealed box, while I would prefer simply "hanging" 'em just as on the post above.

While I can put the controller inside, the valve will be outside - I'm a bit concerned about bare electrical contacts (on the valve) in wet environment - rains, occasional leaks from the faucet, etc?


What do you think?

Well I have to report that Etherrain controller with "improperly" setup 2 valves works for last 2 seasons without any issue.
I control the entire thing from Micasaverde Vera (gen 2) using my plugin. I don't have network socket where Etherrain controller is, so I used my old Asus 520gu as wireless bridge

 

[Holmz]

First post here but figured I would share my experience of yesterday.
 
I have 5 sprinkler stations (of 9) moved to the Elk box, from a stand alone unit that loses its mind when the power shuts off..
Set them up using the 25A SSR from ebay at 5-8 $ each, where these re "switched on" from the M1G's outputs 9-16.
 
That all worked fine with iPhone app to turn them on individually.
I put a 1A 24v (AC) transformer daisy chained across the 5 SSRs.
But I want to auto start them and run them sequentially as each valve uses ~280mA, and I do not want them all on at once.
 
First wanted a master on/off for "rain mode"
 
Here is basically what I did:
output-64 used as the on/off (nothing hooked up physically here, but I can only control an output on the iPhone, not a counter directly.
 
RULE Master On:
WHEN OUTPUT-64 == 1
SET counter 13 to 1
 
 
RULE Master Off:
WHEN OUTPUT-64 == 0
SET counter 13 to 0
 
Then used a counter to keep track of the station # (Counter-12) for sequential operation.
 
 
RULE Manual Start:
WHEN OUTPUT-12 == 1
THEN SET counter 12 to 1
 

RULE Auto Start:
WHEN Time==8PM
AND every 2nd day
AND Counter-13 == 1
THEN SET counter-12 to 1
 
 
Running through the stations...

 
RULE Start Station #1:
WHEN Counter-12 Changes to 1
SET Output-9 to ON for 20 minutes
 
 
Rule Stop Station#1:
WHEN Counter-12==1
AND Output-9 is OFF
THEN SET counter-12 to 2
 

 

RULE Start Station #2:
WHEN Counter-12 Changes to 2
SET Output-10 to ON for 20 minutes
 
Rule Stop Station#2:
WHEN Counter-12==2
AND Output-10 is OFF
THEN SET counter-12 to 3
 
<Etc>
 


 
Rule Stop Station#5:
WHEN Counter-12==5
AND Output-13 is OFF
THEN SET counter-12 to 0
 
 
And they all run as expected, both manually and auto start, and I can change the duration and start time without having to set individual times in each rule.