Irrigation Controller (up to 16 valves with Shift Registers)

[petewill]

Hey Everyone,

I just made a follow up video to this irrigation controller that shows my logic I'm using to save water. It's pretty specific to my environment but hopefully you can use some of the ideas to save water in your environment. I have attached the logic I used in my PLEG device.

Pete

PLEG Irrigation.pdf

https://youtu.be/_voDZH2EBgw

[epierre]

Hello,

looking at the project, I'm wondering why you propose 3.3V only, is this for the shift register and the screen ? Why not stay in 5V ?

[petewill]

@epierre Where did you see that I don't remember? Perhaps for the NRF radio?

[epierre]

@petewill it is here: http://www.mysensors.org/build/irrigation

it is hard to know the BOM from the page, so I was wondering why you would neeed the powering adaptation if you input 5V

[BulldogLowell]

@epierre

If you watch the video, you can see he's using the voltage regulator to supply power to the radio.

Are you getting ready to build?

[epierre]

@BulldogLowell said:

@epierre
Are you getting ready to build?

I've ordered the 8 switch, I have soil moisture, leaf moisture, ground humidity, rain gauge and found some evapotranspiration algorithm so I have all inputs and now need to have outputs in parallel of my rainbird scheduler (too dumb...)

So I'm ready to build as you say ;-)

[charlybrown]

@hek said:

Added your project to the main site togeter with @petewill excellent new video.

http://www.mysensors.org/build/irrigation

https://youtu.be/l4GPRTsuHkI
Excellent project.
Can you help me with the android code, to send instrucctions from my cell phone to Arduino? like on-off light , bomb, etc.

thanks for your time!
best regards.

[charlybrown]

Excellent work. I need help with android code. Anybody can help me with this?

thanks

[shemmozhipandian]

Hi,

I made the circuit, but later i realize it required vera controller to sync all the data. Is there other way or idea to send data to the built system.

[petewill]

@shemmozhipandian Sorry for the delayed reply. It does require a controller (like Vera) but there are free ones out there. Take a look here: http://www.mysensors.org/controller/

I know Domoticz is free and seems to be fairly popular here. There are others as well. If you find one you like you may want to write a quick post to check compatibility. I personally use Vera so I'm not sure how the others work.

[A Former User]

Hello Pete, thanks for your hard work on this. Superb!
I want to build a irrigation controller like your project but can't figure out hows the wiring. On the wiki an image is shown but I can't see what the connections are in this "virtual proto board"
Is there something clearer or like a pinout to pin list?
I'm using an Arduino Nano, so things will be something different.
Thank you very much.

[petewill]

@Sergio Jim (@BulldogLowell) posted some more details above but here is my fritzing project as well. Hopefully you can zoom in where you need to see more.

Fritzing Irrigation Controller Wiring.fzz

[A Former User]

Mmm... I finally assembled the device. But I'm having problems with it. It doesn't activate/deactivates the relays. I'm getting the power for the relay board from the nano itself. Could that be the problem?
Also, my domoticz doesn't receive the off signal from the controller. (doens't turn the light off) and sometimes throws some error telling that can't contact the node.
BTW I tried to contac Bulldogloweel without success :sob:

[petewill]

@Sergio said:

Mmm... I finally assembled the device. But I'm having problems with it. It doesn't activate/deactivates the relays. I'm getting the power for the relay board from the nano itself. Could that be the problem?

Yes, that is most likely the problem. Most of the relays I have used need more power than what the arduino can supply. Try feeding it more power (like from a phone charger).

Also, my domoticz doesn't receive the off signal from the controller. (doens't turn the light off) and sometimes throws some error telling that can't contact the node.

Check the serial monitor with debug enabled. Does this happen every time? It could be radio issues. Do you have a 4.7uf cap on the radio? Is it close enough to your gateway?

[fusion_man]

@BulldogLowell

I need to add a relay for a master valve. This will open when any zone valves open. I think it could be mapped to All On 0(1) but I am not sure how to accomplish this. I don't know the code for that or electrical connection. I also noticed we are about maxed out of data (99%) using ProMini. Any ideas?

[BulldogLowell]

If you are worried about Program Space you can turn off Serial debug to rid yourself of a bunch of overhead in the sketch. I am not using String class so there is PLENTY of RAM and I've been using this for a while with no stack corruption issues:

#define DEBUG_ON   // comment out to surpress serial monitor output

if you propose to turn ON the master valve when each valve is cycled on, then I believe all you need to do is add that valve to the bitmask (logical OR) each time you updateRelays().

void updateRelays(int value)
{
  if(value)
  {
    value |= 0b0000000010000000;  // master is the eighth relay, there are 7 controlled in this example (active HIGH in this example)
  }
  digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, highByte(value));
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, lowByte(value));
  digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
}

not tested

[fusion_man]

@BulldogLowell

By commenting out the DEBUG, it went from 99% to 63% used memory.
The modification to void updateRelays worked very nicely. I only wish the master control valve would remain ON during cycling through each valve (subjected to VALVE_RESET_TIME) as I am using it to control a chemical feed pump to prevent hydrogen proxide (30%) from entering my irrigation system.

Awesome job and I am very pleased with your design.
The only problem I had when building the controller was getting the LCD to communicate.
I added this comment to my program under Instructions.

• If your LCD is unresponsive, download sketch http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=128635.0 then check serial monitor for LCD address. Insert your address below.

[fusion_man]

@BulldogLowell

I ended up going a different approach. I modified the program so I could use Arduino digital pin6 as an output powering my master valve relay. I then added digitalWrite (masterValvePin, HIGH) where you have updateRelays(BITSHIFT_VALVE_NUMBER) to turn ON the valve. To turn off the valve I added a delay then digitalWrite (masterValvePin, LOW) to if (state == STAND_BY_ALL_OFF). This has tested perfectly for my situation.
The only thing missing from the Controller is the ability to add the RainBird rain sensor to the board. I think the way of achieving this is an input to my Vera controller.

[BulldogLowell]

@fusion_man

maybe we can add a rain sensor this season. It is a good idea to include it.

[fusion_man]

@BulldogLowell

I already did and it is up and running. I used A0 as the input for the rain sensor. I can see the rain sensor in Vera as a motion sensor. I didn't post the code as I didn't want to offend the designer. Being a newbie, I didn't know how to handle this update.