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Are you still working on this project at all?
Here is another idea that I think would be cool – put this in a waterproof case filled with solar electric cellsso that it would float on the pool surface and get powered by sunlight. Kind of like the Solar Breeze pool skimmer:
Until a few weeks ago I had two sprinkler controllers – one in my basement and one on the side of my pool cabana. I wanted to consolidate these into one web-enabled controller in my basement – unfortunately I bought an IrrigationCaddy before I learned about OSPi. I had a spare CAT-6 drop running from my basement to my pool Cabana so I used that to go from one of the old unused controllers to the leads on my new IrrigationCaddy. I hooked it up about two weeks ago and it seems to be working fine.
My run is probably at least 100 feet – probably longer as I bought a 50 ft CAT-6 patch cable, cut it in the middle and connected one end to the COM, and Zones 4-8 of my new controller and plugged the RJ-45 into my main LAN drop panel in the basement. I connected the other end to zones 1-5 of my old controller and plugged it into my LAN drop in the pool cabana.
Thanks Dan – is your code available available on the web – at least the parts that deals with determing the Irrigation scaling factors or whatever you use? How do you find Weather Reach stations in your vicinity? I can find one close to me (http://www.exactet.ca/WeatherDetails.asp?loc=scarborough) but this doesn’t seem to have correct info, at least not when it comes to rainfall over the last few days. Can you calculate solar radiation yourself using some sort of sensor connected to the pi?
@DanTripp wrote:
One of my pet peeves is having my sprinklers come on when there’s significant rain imminent or, worse, when it’s actually raining. To prevent this I plan to use forecast data to reduce watering when rain is likely. Currently I’m using the Weather Underground QPF (Quantitative Precipitation Forecast) value to adjust my watering times. I look out a couple of days and scale today’s QPF value at 100% and later days at lower values. I’m wondering if there might be an alternative approach where future ET values are estimated based on forecast conditions and the result integrated into the irrigation scheduling calculation. What approaches are other people taking to adjusting watering based on forecasted rain?
Hi Dan – I agree with your view that it is important to also consider the weather forecast in determing an optimal watering schedule. Have you made any progress in this area? Unfortunately I bought an Irrigation Caddy before I found out about the OpenSprinkler project but I would like to do some programming of my IC to optimize watering depending on recently past as well as forecast weather for my area – which is Toronto.
