Favorite Sprinkler Controller

I’m an idiot. Just one and its there. I think it has always been available though. I thought that was just a quick run but its the actiual schedule. Thanks!

Ha no worries! Glad it’s there. FYI you can creat schedules just to use in HASS and have them disabled in Rachio so they don’t run unless you start them with the switch.

Cool. Would be nice to have more control then just the switch but I guess can create as many schedules as you want.

Yea I have several disabled ones just to have a few options to run from the switches.

My sprinkler system requires 9 valves at the moment, and for over a year I was on the fence to buy a Rainmachine pro (16 channel) for $200 on amazon. Now it seems covid has all but taken out the RM pro; only place I can find it is on the RM site for nearly twice the price! I’m not paying over $300 for 9 relays and a controller!

Has anyone else seen the RM pro on sale for a reasonable price? I’m thinking I’ll just have to DIY this with esphome instead, but I really liked the idea of not having to build anything, and the RM integration is pretty nice.

I’ve read a few reviews, and seemingly the biggest inconvenience with RainMachine is that it’s indoor only. Does someone have experience with using it outdoors?

I can probably create a basic cover for it, and can mount it to a northern wall to avoid direct sun, but it would still get a bit a freeze every winter.

I might be able to install it in a unheated workroom too. It might not freeze there.

I am looking at finding a controller. I used rainmachine stand-alone with its app. There is an orbit box you can install a rainmachine in and mount it outside. I had them in those boxes in SWFL which his VERY harsh conditions and they were fine. The box needed the lock / latch replaced from the UV and cracking it.

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Good luck getting one of these! Out of Stock.

You are probably right, but you have replied to an old post from April, 2020.

I’m still building mine out, but this setup works great in testing with OpenSprinkler and an old RPi3 I had laying around. I power everything from a 24VAC power supply and use a buck converter to power the RPi with 5VDC. The real issue is getting an RPi though.

Enclosure
Relay Board
Buck Converter
Power Supply

Rainmachine (which I was using before) hasn’t had anything in stock for over a year. I guess its getting harder to keep the lights on so they are changing their model to charge a subscription fee to annually so you can reach your controller over the internet (vs locally) and get “better support”. I get it, I really do. They probably should have started this way, but I think stuff outside the box is perfectly ok since adopting HA as my central nervous system. Less transferable if I ever sell the house for sure. Also, I moved to higher in the country where the soil retains more water and irrigation being broken for a couple of days doesn’t disable your bushes or lawn to a near death!

I did buy a couple of these: https://rocketcontroller.com/ on aliexpress.

I was playing with them and got them in ESPhome - they come with tasmota but it’s a specialized version so I went with ESP Home.

I haven’t installed them but down the road, I will. Unfortunately, I need a series of transformers because the units don’t run off 24v AC which is what the sprinkler valves are using so I need a 24v AC adapter for the vales and then to convert that to 12v DC OR get another 12v dc adapter to put in the box with it.

I am using a similar setup, but for the power side, I use a buck convertor to go from 24VAC to 5VDC.

This is the set I bought, but no longer available. Should be other AC to DC ones out there.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08B3T9DX4/