I’m planning to automate my garden irrigation. I’ve seen the Ezyvalve 4-valve box and am planning to use a Sonoff 4ch Pro for that. But now I don’t know how to wire it up.
The valves need 24Vac, the Sonoff either 220Vac or another dc voltage. Can someone explain what to use and how to wire this. I’m planning to use a Cat7 cable for the valves over a distance of about 30m. My guess is that that could be possible as (POE) can also cross that distance.
I do not use the 4ch pro, but have recently created an 8 channel system (Linknode R8 - 8 station sprinkler controller build ~ $65)
Looking at the specs for the Sonoff 4ch Pro, it looks like you can use 5-24VDC input. If you check the link on my build, I used a 120VAC -> 24VAC wall wart, then I stepped it down inside my box to 5VDC for my relay board, but you may just need to get a bridge rectifier (AC->DC) converter if the Sonoff can run at 24VDC.
Speaking of the Cat7 cable, I’d hypothesize that the wire gauge should be able to carry the voltage (24VAC) and small amperage (solenoids shouldn’t use more than 500ma each), but I haven’t tested this myself.
Good luck, hopefully something above helps you.
Thanks for your answer. Like you suggested I bought a 24Vac transformer. However, I’m planning to use 220 ac to power the Sonoff Ch4, and a Sonoff Basic as well.
The Sonoff Ch4 is always powered, and the Sonoff Basic powers the water pump and the 24Vac transformer. If a Sonoff 4Ch relay is closed, the pump and the transformer are powered. In this case you can’t run the water pump without output nor a sprinkler without the pump running. And it saves energy to not have the transformer powered whenever it’s not even being used.
To save time I bought an official signal cable. The weather is improving so I better get it fixed before summer is over 
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Because you’ll need the 24VAC transformer either way, would it not be easier (and safer) to just have the 24VAC transformer power both controller and solenoids (one cable, split the power (one leg to the relays, the other leg to the rectifier and then to the 24VDC input) vs having both a 24VAC line and the mains power (220AC) going to the box?
General consensus I’ve found is that it’s safer to isolate mains away from a box (especially if water is a concern). Obviously either way should probably work with your device, but one way may be safer than the other…
Thanks again for you suggestions. My relays are 40 meters away from the valves so no water is involved. I do need mains voltage to the box to switch the pump. Sorry to be this stubborn . I’ll put the waterlines in the ground first to give myself some more time to think.
Ah, I overlooked the pump part…no worries, good luck and post the results!
This is how I build my test-setup. I power the Sonoff 4CH Pro with mains, as well as the 220-24Vac transformer. The transformer’s power is spread over the 4 channels that are corresponding to the 4 valves of the Ezyvalve. Next I’ll hook the water pump to a Sonoff and the transformer as well. Thanks for the help.
Have you use 2 power supplying ?
1 -220v for the sonoff mail power
2-24vac fir the sprinklers
Guy
Yes, the water pump is powered by a shelly 1 in a box in the garden soil. The 4CH is powered by mains and the transformer is powered by another 4CH I use for several other use-cases like lights and main-powered motion detectors.
All 4 connections on the sprinkler 4CH are using 24Vac and the 4CH itself is powered by main power.
thanks, is there a way of using only one power supply ?
If your pump isn’t controllable via HA not, I’m afraid. It is possible to use main-power, split it in two, one for the transformer and one for the 4CH. Then use the 24Vac to the outputs of the 4CH. You’re left with switching the pump then.
Thanks, last question, do i need the pro version or the regular ? (4ch)
The Pro, since the regular 4CH can only switch mains-power. Or as they say: the pro can switch dry-contact.
Thanks for your answer.
Hope you don’t mind one late question about this :). Planning to do the same. How has your set up been though? I’ve never used Sonoff (heard lots of cursing about them from my friends though), any issues with it?
But basically was planning to operate 4ch via 230v and buy a separate 24 VAC transformer to power the solenoids. This is basically the way it’s (or it can be) done right?
In fact I need two 4ch’s since I got to get control for 8 different solenoids for irrigation.
My setup still works like a charm. The only thing I’m planing to change is to replace the timer per zone from HA to the Sonoff 4ch itself. In that case, if HA fails or restarts my irrigation is not bothered. I know all timers and shit are basically covered in HA nowadays in case of restarts and updates but see it as my backup plan, my next level of redundancy.
Ow, and another thing. I also added another 4ch to also switch on/off the 230 to 24DC transformer. No need to have that powered day and night if there is no need to water the garden. The other position of that 4ch are users to switch some garden-light-groups.
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Sonoff can actually do that reliably and locally? I’ve never used them as I mentioned so no idea… Do they need separate gateway / hub for such features?
Yep, it’s possible since I flashed the 4CHs with ESPhome. Than you can fix everything in the yaml.
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@LennartIsHigh thank you for your post and your pictures! I’m currently in the process of building something similar. I got 2 questions about your setup maybe you can help me understand it better.
First - it looks like you bridged the NC contacts on your Sonoff. Can you explain why? Shouldn’t COM(common) be the line bridged and the NC(normal closed) be the lines going to the devices ?
Second I’ve read that you flashed ESPHome on the device. Do you mind sharing your config? I’m looking to do the same , as ESPHome added support for a sprinkler system and I want to use 2 Sonoff for the valves, the light and pump.
Thank you very much !