Hi,
I’m a relative newbie to the “sprinkler” entity in Esphome but have successfully set up two esp8266 devices as separate irrigation sprinkler/dripline controllers. Each irrigation controller drives a 4 channel relay module, which in turn controls three 12v solenoid valves (it should be four, but I need to work out how to get a fourth gpio pin working on the esp8266 in a way I understand)
My ultimate goal is to have three irrigation controllers - 2 x 4 channel and 1 x 8 channel, to control drip lines in separate areas of a large garden.
The two controllers are not yet “live”, but seem to work really nicely being driven manually in testing mode in the sense that the relay indicator lights are doing exactly what’s expected and I can change settings. In addition I’ve set up a standalone esp8266 soil moisture sensor and would like to use it in the irrigation control process.
The configurations started off pretty much cut and pasted, but I’m getting a better understanding of how to trim them down as I play around.
I am now investigating methods of automating the controllers from within HA. This is where I came across irrigation_unlimited, which seems to provide an overarching method of being able, relatively easily, to manage the separate controllers and relay+solenoid combinations.
Problem is I’m missing the probably quite obvious way of referring to the relay/solenoid entities as defined in Esphome on the esp8266 devices, and “seeing” them in the configuration.yaml file for irrigation_unlimited.
Any links or references, or comments about better/different ways of achieving this, would be very welcome. e.g. it seems one can achieve a whole lot just using the “sprinkler” component, but irrigation_unlimited seems to offer an easier way.
Thanks for any insights/advice.
