Smart lawn watering - searching for smart irrigation valves connected to HA

Hi all,

I do have a small lawn in my backyard with automated watering. I currently use 2x WOOX ZigBee Garden Valves since I do have two loops. Unfortunately one just died since water came into the electronics and the other one does not react always and sometimes has a delay. So I’m wondering if I can trust it.

Therefore I’d like to buy another one that hopefully fulfills all my requirements:

  • No cloud, connected locally only
  • No gateway in between I do have a zigbee stick for HA, WiFi, Bluetooth and could think about Matter (Thread)
  • Distance between HA is roughly 7 meters with one wall in between.
  • Nice to have: Water consumption
  • I don’t want to built it my self. I’d rather buy something from the market

I already ordered an RTX ZVG1. Unfortunately I can’t get it to work via Zigbee with Conbee II and deCONZ. It was paired but does not have any functionality whatsoever. I also can’t see it in the phoscon app. If you have any tips regarding this, I’d also be very grateful. I still have it here but most likely will send it back.

Do you have any suggestions which one to get in germany without spending 100 of euros?

Environment:

  • My HAOS runs on an Intel NUC
  • I do use Node Red for automations
  • For Zigbee I use ConBee II with deCONZ / Phoscon

Thank you very much!

self build maybe? :hammer_and_wrench: :construction_worker_man:


A simple (or sophisticated) setup based on a esp, some valves, relays and flow meter should be possible for around 25€ when ordered directly from the country of manufacture :cn::package::airplane::truck::house:

Some esphome sprinkler goodness on it and you are ready to go :raised_hands:

../_images/sprinkler.png

1 Like

Hey there,

thanks for your answer. I appreaciate people building all this but I’m not that self build guy. I’d like to buy something I can “just” use.

Looks fancy what you got there :smiley:

kind regards
F4Ck0R

Is it possible to share your setup? I’m especially intersted in how you made your valves waterproof and suitable for outside use.
Thanks!

What detail do you need? It’s really easy and you can make use of a lot’s of components (maybe already in your drawer :card_file_box:?)

  • esp82xx, esp32 or a raspberry pi pico for the :brain: of operation
  • 12V DC PSU (or something else :zap:)
  • Valves, for example 12V DC (or again, something else :potable_water:)
  • Some flow meter if you wanna know the amount of water (specially useful if you have alternating pressure on the system - for example because of using a tank which stores rainwater :sweat_drops:)
  • some relays (which fit your valves, typically all AC/DC ones will do or maybe some solid state ones :control_knobs:)
  • DC-DC buck converter to power the esp/pipico from your PSU :tada:

Well, that was easy an cheap. I just upcycled :recycle: :do_not_litter: some pastic container (~5L) for that task and installed is as a cover like seen in the picture :point_down:

works :tm: since ages :raised_hands:

Hi, welcome to the forum.
Do you use other zigbee devices on your network and do those respond immediately?

You might have a look at this: Guide for Zigbee interference avoidance and network range/coverage optimization