Domoticz

It's time for me to do some DIY project and there for starting a 2 way thread.
1. for showing of my project
2. for learning and suggestions

Going to start small scale in my front garden to see if it works before i waste big money.
Earlier this week i started to rebuild my flower garden in front of my house.
It's tiny but suitable for a small automated irrigation project.

Flower garden dimensions are:
- back to front: 80cm wide and 7mtr long
- left to right: 6mtr long and 120cm deep
- 4 led light controlled by a dimmable KAKU (ACM-100)

Before:

In da works:

After:

Evening:


Irrigation project idea:
Next to my frontdoor i have a water supply which we use to manually irrigate the flowers.
I want to connect a double splitter to use one as water supply for the irrigation and one for other purposes like car washing ect ect.
The water supply for the irrigation still has to be digged right in front of the house from the frontdoor to the left (neighbor side) from where i start with the irrigation system.
Already have some electric digged there as have a powersocket plugged into the wall on the outside for many years now.
The idea is to use wireless moist soil sensor to measure the moist and sent it to domoticz.
From where i write a script or use lua to power on/off the irrigation.
Already ordered 2 Opus xt300 wireless moist sensors (http://bit.ly/1QYcm3s) and hope they arrive soon.
I ordered two because i want to split up the irrigation in two sections.
Because the first section (near the house) has shadow almost all day while at street side has sun all day.
An don't wanna over irrigate a section if it aint necessary.

Hardware needed or in mind:
1. Dripple hose
2. connectors for dripple hose
3. Wall mounted locker to keep all electric dry and valves out of site.
4. 220v Electric washing machine inlet valve (http://bit.ly/1IVdFAV)
5. Some sort of electric switch to control the valve for example a KAKU module.

Electric valve:
I first wanna discuss the electric valve and controlling it.
I was think about a simple washing machine inlet valve.
As far as i know it opens when it has power and closes when the power is cut off, right?
This valve will be situated in the locker out side the house.
As those valves are usinf 220volts current i simply connnct it my already available power cable from my cupboard to the garden in front.
i will use a simple KAKU on/off module situated in my cupboard to get the inlet valve powered on or off.

Whats your opinion on this or do you have some other ideas for other hardware while keeping in mind it should be a low budget domotica irrigation system.

Irrigation:
As for the irrigation it self it is rather simple.
Just create a connector which will fit on the washing machine inlet valve and connect a dripple hose to it.
And put it between the flowers.

Project Pictures:
Coming up when i start building

Hiya,

I use one of these to control 2 irrigation lines in my polytunnel. I switch it with but I'd prefer to use z-wave.

I check temp/lux/humidty by z-wave and will soon add soil moisture sensing. I like the idea of the Opus XT300 but the range issue worry me, so I think I'll have to use either "MySensors" or RaspberryPi GPIO and relay the info back to the master Raspberry.

I'll be interested to see how your project goes...

Just a quick note...

The washing machine valves work fine but buzz like hell when on!

blackdog65 wrote:Hiya,

I use one of these

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http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WASHING-MACHINE-UNIVERSAL-COLD-WATER-FILL-SOLENOID-DOULBLE-TWIN-VALVE-180-DEG-/360771645775?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item53ffaa714f

to control 2 irrigation lines in my polytunnel. I switch it with

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http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LightwaveRF-Connect-3-Way-3000W-Inline-Relay-JSJS-LW825-/171823123784?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item280174cd48

but I'd prefer to use z-wave.

I check temp/lux/humidty by z-wave and will soon add soil moisture sensing. I like the idea of the Opus XT300 but the range issue worry me, so I think I'll have to use either "MySensors" or RaspberryPi GPIO and relay the info back to the master Raspberry.

I'll be interested to see how your project goes...

Thx...
About the range issue, i read some other reports without issues so i'll let you know when they arrive.
As for the washing machine valve, how do you control it?
Just put 220v on it and it opens and when disconnected it closes?
That buzzing doesn't worry me, as it will only irrigate when i'm gone or a sleep

Yeah just feed it 220v and it opens. Make sure the electric supply is on an RCD.... water + electricity; )

blackdog65 wrote:Yeah just feed it 220v and it opens. Make sure the electric supply is on an RCD.... water + electricity; )

Great, sounds easy enough now.
Wasn't sure on how the valve works.
RCD for sure, will build a with two compartments to separate the electricity and water to minimize the risk of a short circuit

blackdog65 wrote:Yeah just feed it 220v and it opens. Make sure the electric supply is on an RCD.... water + electricity; )

btw: how do you empty the hoses and nozzles to prep them for winter

Ha! This is my 1st season so no winter yet.
But, because my system is inside a polytunnel, it doesn't get too cold in there.

At the moment I have one of these kits but they really need mains water pressure to work. I use a gravity fed rain water supply... so low pressure

I'm looking to use this instead if it will work on low pressure
It would also be ok over winter with a little water in it, but I'm sure it'd drain easy by removing the end fitting.

With a rain sensor, you can improve it later on.

I'm also working on a ground humidity sensor in mysensor, but you could also use the imagitronix ones, max 3 with rfxcom, and change the antenna to ged a decent range.

I see and thx blackdog65...
The dripple hose isn't something i can use as want to feed my plant induvidual.

@epierre
As for the rainsensor, have a weather station connected to Domoticz so i can use it

Today i start digging the main water supply.
And this morning i ordered some stuff and awaiting there arrival tomorrow and later this week.

- 2 Gardena micro sprinkler


- Gardman Micro Irrigation set


- KAKU 3way ACM-3500-3 module


- Velda Garden Protector ($%@#@& cats out, they shit my garden)


- Washing Machine Inlet Valve 220v (Double)


- 2 Opus xt-300 Wireless moist Sensors


Have some spare wood so i can build a valve box for all the hardware.

- 2 Opus xt-300 Wireless moist Sensors: those are imagitronix, simply solder in a 17cm antennae from a cupper wire and make a hole in the tom, else you get only a 3m reception capacity... only 3 can be managed by the rfx !

- Gardman Micro Irrigation set : this seems a clone of the Antelco originals. From a 6 year experience on several clones, the Antelco are the best in its original form, I use them for plants and cabbages on 4 networks, I guess something as 70 units... very precise, very easy to manage, just removing a bit of limestone every year. A feedback too, your set has only 4 mm tubing, this is very low, I've recently replaced that kind by 16mm or 20mm for the ones at the end of the line weren't getting enough water, and those at the start too much (spike clones problem too...).

epierre wrote:- 2 Opus xt-300 Wireless moist Sensors: those are imagitronix, simply solder in a 17cm antennae from a cupper wire and make a hole in the tom, else you get only a 3m reception capacity... only 3 can be managed by the rfx !

- Gardman Micro Irrigation set : this seems a clone of the Antelco originals. From a 6 year experience on several clones, the Antelco are the best in its original form, I use them for plants and cabbages on 4 networks, I guess something as 70 units... very precise, very easy to manage, just removing a bit of limestone every year. A feedback too, your set has only 4 mm tubing, this is very low, I've recently replaced that kind by 16mm or 20mm for the ones at the end of the line weren't getting enough water, and those at the start too much (spike clones problem too...).

Thx for the tips...
As for the moist sensors, will see when they arrive.

As for the Gardman, it was cheap and wills see and learn
i know it has several different tube sizes in the package...

Just got a email from Plantcaretools.

1 setback:
Those xt-300 are in backorder but they hope to have them on friday and ship them to me.

2 setback:
Hate digging but with this soil over here it will be a pain in the ass the dig a slot for the water supply.
Living at seaside where we have some of the finest blue clay.
First layers some sand for those pavers, then a solid (hard as rock) clay and then some of the finest sticky an moist blue clay.
So i decided taking in mind i also have blow the hoses empty for winter to dig between 30 and 50cm.
I'm not affraid for frost as i blow the hoses empty.
Also not afraid of punching a hose it lays under a paved floor.

Lets start digging:

that KAKU relay unit is identical to the LightwaveRF unit I use

blackdog65 wrote: that KAKU relay unit is identical to the LightwaveRF unit I use

LoL... It does indeed.

Just got a little bit further.
Water supply and power are ready.
Now awaiting for several parcel, so i'm stuck for now.

Here will come a unit for the water valve and switches:

Mailman came by, yeah...
Let the fun begin.

My new low pressure drippler hose arrived today too!
It's been around 40c in the poly tunnel today so I stayed out

Did the humidity sensors arrive? I'm really interested in those.

blackdog65 wrote:My new low pressure drippler hose arrived today too!
It's been around 40c in the poly tunnel today so I stayed out

Did the humidity sensors arrive? I'm really interested in those.

Damm thats hot.
20c overhere and 23 in my patio.
Perfect for fiddling with my irrigation.
Unfortunately the sensor are in backorder and they hope to sent them this Friday.

Today i build cabinet for the garden protector, KaKu unit and washer inlet valve.
Sealed the inlet valve as the valve has open power connectors and also don't want someone (childeren) be able to get there hands on the 220volt.
I only have to paint it when the silicon has dried.

Tomorrow i will fine tune all the water supply hoses.
Layout the irrigation hoses.
And hopefully if the silicon kit has dried out paint the cabinet.

I gave the ACM-3500-3 KaKu unit three functions.
1. Irrigation 1
2. Irrigation 2
3. Garden protector

Almost done building the cabinet and ready for testing:
device (upper right is the batterypack for the garden protector.


Test set-up:


Main water supply is ready:




Washer inlet valve sealed and child-save


Test set-up first run:
Test run of both inlet valves...

Finished
Only awaiting the Opus xt300 which are in backorder...

Cool project and Thanks for sharing! What were the costs for this whole project?