After several months of hard work, my first ‘serious’ Arduino-based electronics project is up on the project page now. Check out the OpenSprinkler – An Open-Source Sprinkler Valve Controller. This is a collaboration between me and Chris Anderson (editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine). A video demo is included below. For details and how to order a kit, please refer to the project page.
3 Responses to “OpenSprinkler v1.0 Released”
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RAYSHOBBY.NET
Ray's DIY Electronics Hobby Projects
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Looks really good I’d like to combine something like this with the my High Power Wireless server.
This is a cool product. I’ve always hated reprogramming traditional sprinkler timers – they all have quirky interfaces and are easy to mess up. Many of them will lose their program if the backup battery dies and then you have power outage. (Bad news if you are on vacation when this occurs – as happened to me this last summer.)
I bought an OpenSprinkler kit and assembled it in about 2.5 hours last week. The only minor problem I had in getting it running was that my D-Link router’s DHCP server didn’t provide an address. No problem; I turned off DHCP request on the sprinkler timer and assigned a static address. (I prefer static addresses for my network equipment, anyway.) Then it worked right away.
The web-based interface used in OpenSprinkler makes it easy to reprogram the controller from my computer. Therefore, I’ll be more likely to change the schedule frequently as the seasons change – probably saving a lot of water. Since the code is open source, I’ll probably make some changes to the web interface to suit my preferences. OpenSprinkler doesn’t require battery backup and won’t forget its schedule if the power is interrupted.
As Ray suggested, I bought an ASUS RT-10N+ wireless router for about $30 (from Amazon) and configured it as a wireless bridge. I plugged it into the sprinkler controller and it worked right away. This was much easier than running ethernet cable to the timer. I can access and reprogram my sprinkler controller from anywhere in the world. (I defined the OpenSprinkler’s address as a virtual server in my router, so it is visible to the outside world.)
It would be nice to have a 10- or 12-station version of the OpenSprinkler (or just a daughterboard to add more channels). I have existing traditional sprinkler controller (12 stations) that I would love to replace.
David, great to hear that you got it working. Thanks for your feedback!