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Hi -was looking to use OS to control the irrigation system in my vineyard, replacing a 15 year old rainbird. Internet is not currently available at the controller site, which is about 150m from my house. I have power there, which has been run from the house. A couple of questions :-
1. In the absence of an internet connection can I program the unit direct from a laptop or do i need to remove the unit and take it to the house or fudge some sort of network ?
2. Is it possible to get reliable Ethernet over power at 150m ? I have some old Netcomm NP 504 powerline adapters and they have never been reliable in the house and I am not sure why. A quick test tonight seemed to confirm they were not going to connect reliably from the house to the irrigation controller site. Is there some sort of installation guide or troubleshooting that can help me work out the optimum installation that I can use ? I assume there are some tricks to try and minimise noise and maximise success. The powerline from the house to the irrigation controller has no other loads on it(no pumps or anything else) it so I am assuming that would be positive.
Forgot to tick the email reply box
Based on the Netcom NP504 support FAQ, they are designed to support up to 200m of wiring. Keep in mind that the wiring inside walls can be longer than it seems outside. I’ve also seen that powerline adapters have problems with three phase power supply (both ends have to be plugged into same phase for it to work properly) and they also misbehave when used with extension chords or UPS systems.
However, you could try plugging the source powerline adapter (one that is connected to your ISP modem or router) to the same wall socket as the irrigation powerline system.If I were you, I would buy an Ethernet cable (~160m) and use that to reliably provide internet to the device in your vineyard directly from the router.
Why not use wifi? I’m using the TP-LINK nano router in client mode since my garage isn’t wired. It’s about 40 feet from the router. However you can get routers that will accept an external antenna to increase the range. It would get the opensprinkler on the network where you could access it. The other route is to bury cat 5. We did this at my dad’s place when we ran power and everything else to the new shop which was about 200 feet from the house.
Mark
I have used CAT 5 in the end. The first run is approx. 80m to a switch, in a weatherproof enclosure, then 120m to the shed. Despite all the info on the internet saying more than 100m is the limit for ethernet, it seems to speedtest, and pingtest ok, but a little slow. I guess i’ll find out for sure when OS turn up.
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