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Kindest,
I have just bought an Open Sprinkler DC with an expansion board (+ ehternet port). Given I live in Australia I opted to buy a local power supply here, which I did today. From what I have briefly researched, it should be sufficient. It’s from Jaycar and its a Powertech Plus 12V DC 2.5A rated power supply. I have taken a photo of it and shared it here:
Front photo – and – Back photo
The main controller will be 5-6m away from the solenoids, but the expansion board will be 25-30m away, so was planning to use reasonably heavy gauge cable to ensure there’s little loss with that long distance.
Just wanted to check with you gurus out there whether this would be ok and sufficient for my setup.
Appreciate any inputs!
Thanks in advance!
/Jorgen
I came here searching for exactly this same answer (I live in Adelaide). I’m also wondering whether there would be any negative consequence of using a power adapter with current capability greater than 2.5A (to keep it cooler, less stressed).
Yeah – have not fired it up yet, but crossing my fingers its all good. Will have the electrician put up a range of power points where I will concentrate outdoor lights and stuff like this. Though comparing to the US power supply, this should be more than enough… but new to this, so figured I would check with the gurus here. We’re based outside of Melbourne ourselves, but must admit we really like Adelaide! 😉
Yes, the power adapter (12VDC, 2.5A) is fine. If you want to double check, you can use a multimeter to measure the voltage, the polarity should be center positive, side negative (this is the most common type). DC-powered OpenSprinkler can accept any DC voltage in the range of 7.5VDC to 12VDC, with a minimum of 1 amp output current. More than 1 amp (such as 2.5 amp) is totally fine, and it allows you to open mutliple valves at the same time, but is not necessary if you only ever run one or two valves at the same time.
Awesome. Thanks for the responses here and apologies for late reply. Just got a valve from Bunnings this morning and going to test that with the controller at some point. Maybe this weekend if time permits.
Though wanted to ask. I have one extension board, which I was planning to put in the back yard behind the shed. That requires a control cable and from https://opensprinkler.com/faq/ it is mentioned that the standard cable is > 24 AWG < (multi core) cable. Looking at https://rayshobby.net/docs/os30_starter_guide.pdf the expanders are connected to the same bus in series, so would need to have an associated cable to link my main controller with the expander, which will be 60-70m away (cable run length). This thread (URL: https://opensprinkler.com/forums/topic/can-osospi-have-remote-expansion-boards/ ) indicates that a CAT6 cable should be sufficient to make a custom connection to bridge the two. Well – would need two as the main plug that connects the two boards are 2 x 5 wires. See this picture:
Hopefully that works. Looks to likely be the cheapest way to run a cable that lenght without having to buy something more specific.
Anyone of you guys tried that before? Now just need to find the type of connectors or re-use the connectors that were provided.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
Also just googling a bit to find the connectors that would be required to connect the boards. This was apparently the connector (“10 pin IDC”), which Jaycar also has here: https://www.jaycar.com.au/10-way-idc-line-socket/p/PS0984, so reckon I will swing by there today and get two.. so that’s ready to connect up.
Well, we have never tested the main controller and expander separated that far away (i.e. more than a few meters away). Sure you can make a custom expander cable using an Ethernet cable, as long as you make sure the wiring of the cable is the same as the provided expander cable. The connector you linked to is fine, or you can use any 2×5, 2.54mm spacing connector. The advantage of the IDC connector is that it’s polarized so it prevents mistakes when plugging in the wrong way. The bigger issue with a long cable is that the signal quality can degrade over long distance. Also, don’t forget about the COM (common) wire — all zones connected to the expander must also have a common wire that should be combined with the common wire of zones on the main controller (or if it’s a separate wire, it can go into the section COM port on the main controller). The bottomline is that in addition to the expansion cable, you most likely also need a long common wire (though you can make use of one of the spare wires on the Ethernet cable as common wire).
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