In the market again, but have some questions

[Anonymous]

I bought an arduino open sprinkler a few years back, before there was a raspberry Pi version around.  That was included when I sold my old house last summer.  I went most of last year without watering at all, but I am getting ready to set up a new sprinkler controller but have some quesitons.

What I want:  I love opensprinkler and liked being able to control it by android.  I also have a network cable that is available to the unit, so it needn’t be wireless.  THe Pi verison looks to be a lot more advanced than the arduino version and seems to be where the development energy is being applied.  I was also really intrigued by Ray’s work with the remote power switches and have always thought that it makes sense to use the opensprinkler to run landscape lights and other low importance home automation.  I see his fascinating new RFToy and love what it does.  It does not look to be compatible with the Pi version.  Is that right ??

I don’t need it today, nor do I need it next month, but I would like it to help me chlorinate my pool as much as water my grass.  I plan to hard wire a relay to control a peristaltic pump as a 9th zone, so expandibility is also important.  Which version should I get ?

[Ray]

Regarding controlling remote power sockets: you are correct that the functionality hasn’t been added to the OSPi software yet. Also, OSPi doesn’t have designated pin headers to solder an RF transmitter, so you will need to solder some wires separately to connect a transmitter. If this functionality is important, you should probably consider the Arduino-based OpenSprinkler.

In general, the Arduino-based OpenSprinkler is targeted to typical customers who want an out-of-box working solution, and OSPi is targeted to advanced customers who have experience with RPi, want to tinker with it, and possibly modify the software to extend its functionality. Arduino-based OpenSprinkler also has LCD and buttons.

Regarding relay: on both versions there is a built-in relay, and the software supports the relay. So you don’t even need to hard wire an external relay. In the next revision, however, we are going to remove the relay from all versions, because it doesn’t seem to be that useful, and the original plan to use it for garage door opener would require additional components (like a reed switch or IR switch to read back the status of the garage door). So I feel the relay is a feature rarely used, and should be removed (although the software support can still remain).

[Author]

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