Posts made by ancalotoru

Hi there!

I have been doing some electronics and here is my thoughts about how to connect things. Any help will be very welcomed. My idea is to create a PCB after testing everything on a breadboard.

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@grubstake Thank you for your comments! You are totally right, I will probably never get the same quality as a aftermarket unit. I will just give it a try, see if works and if not, buy a new one.

I have been working with arduino for years but I am a newbe with electronics. I do not know how electronics work in the sense of physical phenomenas and so on. However, I know how to switch a valve with an arduino (that was the very first test) and many other operations like, read an analog sensor etc.

Regarding the coding, I hope that my degree in computer science helps haha

Furthermore, I have to say that I am really interested in mysensors because I would like to store as much data about my garden as I can. Why? Because I am currently doing a PhD in Artificial intelligence and going through all the steps of data science is kind a useful stuff

Hope I can post more advances soon! Thank you all

@zboblamont Ok thank you! I will keep it with two batteries then.

The original controller was running on one single 9V battery so maybe Rain Bird should revise that security possible issue

@zboblamont @skywatch I am looking forward to post tons of pictures and a full tutorial with code and electronics. I will get all the pieces in September so I will have to wait for a month....

Besides I have a question. Is better to have a 9v batteries to run the valves and then regulate its voltage to 3.3v in order to run all the sensors and the arduino, or is better to have two separated batteries? One for the arduino node and another exclusive one to drive the valves

Thank you!

I have nothing more to post but thank you all for the answers. I will have a look at how to get power from the house to the garden as @skywatch suggested. Also, I will see how to place a pole in the garden, similar to the beautiful node of @zboblamont. By the way, it looks very nice!

Finally, I have seen the GPRS and I also have one at home so, I definitely will give it a chance in this Ethan Hunt's project haha

Thank you all again!

@skywatch ok! To keep it in mind, when I say that the node is buried, in fact it is inside a box which is buried...

I totally agree with you in the sense that if the antennas are buried, I would not be able to communicate with anything.

Besides, I would try to put the node out of the buried box somewhere. A good idea is to bury a cable which connect the valves. In this way I will be able to place a pole in other, more appropriate places.

Regarding the rain, where I live, is very rainy. I live in the basque country, north of spain. And about temperatures, I have to say that we could reach -10 during winter, it can be covered with snow also, and in during summer the temperatures reach 35 degrees at most...

Thank you! I will buy rf69 modules to give it a try. I am also planning to contract Internet service since the basque government is installing optical fiber in the small villages like mine.

My tomatoes are going ti be the most expensive ones in the entire country for sure, but anyway, I am learning a lot

@zboblamont Absolutely, the controller is the problem, it is just broken. The thing is that I am learning a lot using mysensors. I would like to build my own controller rather than using an aftermarket one.

When you say that you would prefer a remote version with a cable, are you suggesting to communicate the GW and the node with a cable? That would be nice, but I would need to make some holes and remove some floor tails as the house is surrownded by a tiny path made out of them...

@zboblamont

This is the current situation of the house. In front of the Buried Box, there is a window in order to let us see the garden, if I place something in front of it... Anyway, as you have suggested, doing something "fancy" in order not to have a pole can be a good solution, I will check it out. I have been thinking on this kind of antenna sticked to the top of the box, but from outside it. It might work...

Thank you!

@skywatch You are totally right. What is the point of monitoring things with sensors if I can not check those values regularly? The thing is that the controller used to be this one from Rain Bird. This controller passed away and I started developping something with easier scheduling options (the rain bird controller is a headache...).

Another point is that one of the three valves controls the irrigation of my small garden with tomato plants and stuff. As a next step, I would like to place another sensor in order to check the moisture of these plants. Hopefully one day I will be able to get some juicy tomatoes thanks to you haha

Thank you for answering

@zboblamont thank you very much for your reply. You have my blessing to became into the new Ethan Hunt haha.

The main issue because I can not place everything into a pole is because the buried box is in the middle of the backyard so, having a pole is quite unsightly...

However, do you think that with a 433mHz radio, or with a 869mHz radio which is a permitted frequency in Europe I will reach to the node? I was thinking in the RFM69 or the RFM95

Regarding the RTC it is a beautiful idea. However, I am confused. If I sleep the node, can it still be able to communicate with the gateway? I suppose that I will have to get the node up once in a while to check.

But, suppose that the GW sends a new alarm schedule to the node when the node is sleeping, will the message reach?

There are some iot specific cell plans like Hologram or CheerIoT

You can check them out! Report if you find something interesting

@mrhutchinsonmn It is a good idea in my opinion. I would say that if you use a SIM 800L running on batteries, you will probably drain the batteries sooner than expected.

I will try with a RPi3 along with the SIM 800 connected to the power. However, depending in where the gateway is placed, you could not have enough transmission range to communicate with sensors.

Another alternative is to consider the thethingsnetwork solutions with the Lora modules. It seems that if a gateway is working nearby, you do not need a gateway in order to send data to a server.

I am not an experts, just sharing my thoughts... hope it helps.

Hello all!

I have been working on a project and I am currently stuck. The project is about building an irrigation controller that works with 9v latching solenoid valves of Rain Bird. I have the valves buried into a plastic box in my backyard. The system consists in a RPi3 gateway and an Arduino pro mini 3.3v battery powered. The gateway will stay inside the garage and the node will be along with the valves and inside another typical waterproof electric box.

Unfortunately there are many issues that make this project really interesting (at least for me )

• I only go to this house during the weekends so the system must be very very reliable
• The latching solenoid valves and the Arduino pro mini work with different voltages
• There is no Internet in the house so the RPi3 works like an access point without internet. Once I get to the house, I connect to the internet and I can work with the controller using localhost
• The radio communication must go throughout walls, the distance in a straight line is about 10-15 meters but there is a wall in between. Also, the node is in that buried plastic valve box.
• I am a complete noob with electronics

I have tested with nrf24 pa lna radio modules but the transmission power is not enough, they can't communicate the gateway and the node.

The node has this components:

• The radio nrf24 pa lna with the capacitor to increase the power and range (I think...)
• A 3.3v 8 channel relay board to drive the 3 valves
• A capacitive soil moisture sensor
• 2 AA batteries that power the node with a 3.3v step up booster
• Battery percentage monitor is also implemented as it is explained in the my sensors website

The gateway works with:

• RPi3 model B+
• It works like an access point following the official tutorial -> Tutorial
• I have installed mycontroller as a smart home controller -> Website

Here are the links to the mentioned valves, boxes and everything that I currently have:

• Arduino pro mini 3.3v -> Aliexpress
• Rain Bird valves -> Only the latching solenoid at amazon.es
• Capcitive soil moisture sensor -> Aliexpress
• Rain Bird like box that is buried on the backyard -> amazon.com
• Radio modules -> Aliexpress
• Waterproof electrical box -> Aliexpress

Of course, any of this can be changed, I am trying to learn and I think that this solution can work for others with similar problems like, no internet connection and latching valves. The only feature of this system is to be able to program an schedule in order to irrigate. Also, if the ground is moisturised I would not like to irrigate even the irrigation is scheduled.

Finally, I have been thinking into Lora stuff any related information is also very welcomed.

Thank you very much in advance