@ Tom,
Nice comparison of the various options.
And thanks for the tip on the Orbit outdoor timer box. That looks like it should work for a lot of different configurations. I’m going to pick one up on my next trip to Home Depot.
@ Nathan,
I have been running a Pi based system for ~2 years without any reliability problems.
The GitHub web page for the Python program (now SIP) has an overview of the program.
http://dan-in-ca.github.io/OSPi/
Note: as of today (June 11 2015) I am in the process of updating documentation and renaming things. If the instructions don’t work for SIP, Try the old name (OSPi) instead.
Dan