@jayjaytocool I would like it to sense a defined moisture content in the soil then open a solenoid valve till water is sensed at the drain. I would also like it to only water from morning to noon. So if it's needs water at 4pm it waits till morning to water. Also I would like there to be an off delay. So water is alowed to continue flowing for x time after water is sensed at the drain. One greenhouse can have 500-100 plants. So u can see my concern with cost. Either way I think it will be fun to try. Great forum thanks for all the information and help

got it I didn't realise this laptop didn't have java. now on to setting up a esp8266 as a gateway.

I followed the download instuctions and double clicked start.bat. how do I get to the dash board?

I was trying to use mycontroller,I would like to build an irrigation controller for a small greenhouse. there is 30rows with 10 plants in a row. each bucket is on a dripper I would like to have one soil moisture sensor in one plant for each row. there should be a solenoid for water on each row. it should water when the soil becomes dry enough (1 to 2 times a day)and only from 6am to 2pm. it will have to turn on the pump relay when any row calls for water but only open solenoids for rows calling for water. so far it seems like each row should have a sensor, solenoid, a nano and a nrf24. ive got a uno r3 with a 5100 shield for a gateway. I also have a esp8266w/wifi. Ive kinda gone amason crasy with arduino so i have a ton of other stuff. Im most interested in what will work the best rather than making do with what I have. what controller should I use? Is there step by step instructions? I was able to run domotics (one key on my key board doesn't work). but haven't got it working yet. Any guidance is appreciated.

I getting really frustrated I understand everything except how to access the controller ive been at it for days

@jayjaytocool I would like it to sense a defined moisture content in the soil then open a solenoid valve till water is sensed at the drain. I would also like it to only water from morning to noon. So if it's needs water at 4pm it waits till morning to water. Also I would like there to be an off delay. So water is alowed to continue flowing for x time after water is sensed at the drain. One greenhouse can have 500-100 plants. So u can see my concern with cost. Either way I think it will be fun to try. Great forum thanks for all the information and help

Thank you for the help. I'll start with the pi and no for the gateway and the uno with a nf for the nodes. I ordered some nanos last night pretty cheep 5for 12$ I think. I'll try them after and then maybe move on to the chip. I agree time is worth a lot. I planning on trying to automate the watering for a commercial green house. With independent control over each site. I saw the gardino and other builds but nothing quite like what I have in mind.
Any recommendations for the controller?

@jayjaytocool forgot to mention I have 10 nf24l01 2 uno r3 and one raspberry pi 3 as well as a uno r3 most complete starter kit to work with. hope u guys don't mind giving me a little kick start

yes im a noob. I have a couple questions. do all the nodes have to have there own board like a nano or uno? if so can one be made cheeper using a chip? I would like to build a network with a couple hundred nodes that have 2 inputs and one output. input1=temp input2=switch output=relay. what would be the cheeps way to build a wireless node? as u can see cost of a couple hundered would add up quick. is 10-20$ doable? thank u all. love the site so far. l'm pretty new to all of this but finding the iot is quickly becoming my new number one hobby.
oh also do I need a gateway using a uno r3?