Scottsdale Arizona Install

[mkstahldesign]

This install of OSPI in the southwest desert has been a dream. I moved the disassembled the old Rainbird 6 valve sprinkler and installed another 7 valves for a total of 13. I wanted control over more of my wife’s diverse plants either in pots or plantings.

I used a GFI along with a surge protector in a new Orbit sprinkler box and so far have had great success. We are also enjoying our new herb garden, watered daily with OSPI.

Thanks to all the contributors to this great project especially Ray, Dan Kimberling and Jonathan Marsh and Samer Albahra for his work on the mobile app and anyone else I don’t know about.

Mark
Scottsdale, AZ
…not 100 degrees, but soon

[Karlyn]

Hi,

I’m also an Arizona resident, and am considering a Opensprinkler install. I’m down in the Queen Creek area. How has your install held up to the extreme heat over the last week or so? My current controller box (a Hunter) is mounted on the outside, west of my home. I have some shrubs that might shade it from most of the direct sun, but I’m still a bit concerned about running into heat issues.

Let me know your experience so far. I have one installed in another state where it is much cooler and inside the garage, and have had very good luck so far.

Thanks!

Karlyn

[Ray]

Thanks, Mark, for letting us know!

[mkstahldesign]

No problems so far with the heat on the south/east side of the house that I have partially shaded in the heat of the day. I have some loss of wireless access at times but I am not sure this is related to the heat. Otherwise it has worked impressively.

Mark

[cmartinsen]

Hi Karlyn,

This is a year out from your post. I also live in Queen Creek! I’ve got opensprinklers installed in Queen Creek and multiple other places throughout the state. They work great and I’ve had no problems with heat. I even have a few installed using solar/battery power in remote locations with no problems.

– Craig

[Karlyn]

Hello Craig,

If you are willing, I would like to see how you are doing your installs. I still have not pulled the trigger here in AZ. The only thing I’m still trying to figure out is how to best adapt my current wiring, which is running directly to my breaker box. I assume a version 3 AC powered unit will work with either a new transformer, or re-using the existing one in the Hunter box.

Thanks for the information, and glad to see someone in the area making use of what I would consider a well kept secret in this space :).

Karlyn

[cmartinsen]

Hi Karlyn,
Sorry for the delayed response. I’d be happy to show you how I setup my system or even give you a hand setting up your system. I found it easiest to wire a water proof receptacle off the bottom of my electric panel and just plug-in a power supply you can purchase with a version 3 AC unit. I recently pulled apart an old hunter system to reuse the box and it worked fine. You can also get a NEMA enclosure off of Amazon pretty easily (I recently used an Orbit outdoor enclosure for a project). If your existing wiring in the Hunter box runs 110v to the Hunter transformer and the transformer is putting out 24vac (a likely scenario), then you could use the existing box with the existing transformer. Basically, just move the valve control wires and 24vac power wires to the new unit.
– Craig

[jnissen]

I did this exact thing last night. I labeled all the wiring and removed an old Hunter controller and wiring modules. The Hunter system used a backplane that wiring pieces would plug into. A nice concept but the thing was intermittent with the old cable. With all guts removed from the box I just screwed the new controllers into the back of the box. I installed the wires and plugged in the AC. I had tested the unit for a week or so in my office so I had it pre-configured with the WiFi and a program to run. I used the mobile program and run through a quick test. I’m blown away at how nice this is. Much better than my old setup and give me real time valve current. Amazing and want to thank all the folks who have been working on this.

I have done various IOT programs on the ESP8266 in the past year and can tell you that platform is not easy to make it work solid. You guys have done a good job because so far I have not run into any issues. Thanks again.

[Ray]

Thanks for sharing your story!

[Philip]

I’ve been running OpenSprinkler in Laveen, AZ since 2013 (and before that in Tucson). I didn’t have any problems when I had by controller outside, but last year I moved it into the house and it has been great. I simply had to reroute valve wiring through the attic to my media panel. Its wonderful having everything centralized.

Now if only OpenPool would come out to take over control of my pool equipment!;)

-Philip

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[Ray]

That’s neat. Thank you!

[Cosmacelf]

That’s a really nice neat media cabinet! I’m jealous.

[Author]

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