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A Smart Lawn Sprinkler System?
An anonymous reader asks: "I'm about to install a sprinkler system for my lawn. There are lots of timers and computers out there to automate the watering of your lawn. However, before I go out and buy something, I wanted to know if there are any interesting open source projects for watering lawns. I've heard about smart sprinklers that get weather from the internet/satellite and water accordingly. What have other Slashdot readers done?"
"Smart" means getting tried and true equipment designed for the purpose. A good timer will do everything you need reliably and with minimum power draw. Just be sure to get a timer with non-volatile memory and a backup battery for the clock.
Any decent timer will allow you to add a rain sensor that will turn off the sprinklers if it rains. Most rain sensors consist of pieces of material that absorb water and swell up causing them to push a switch. The sprinklers won't resume till the sensor dries out and the amount of moisture needed to stop the sprinklers is adjustable. Butt simple and reliable.
If you want to get way fancy then you can get a system that incorporates soil moisture sensors.
Depending on your situation you may want to check out subsurface drip irrigation for the lawn. Subsurface drip is generally more expensive but really excels 1) in very hot areas, 2) for oddly shaped or narrow areas that don't work well with sprinklers, 3) where it is often windy and 4) on steep slopes.
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"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
"Code has been written for DSC Alarm pannels, Stargate LCD displays, Slinke IR send/receive, Marrick X10, RCI X10 sprinklers, Xantech preamps, ISDN modems, voice modems, ComPool and Aqualink pool equipment"
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http://www.misterhouse.net/
There's several perl sprinkler scripts
Words to men, as air to birds.
I had tried X-10 years ago and it seemed pretty lame, but I recently installed the latest hardware on my home server and bought a Rain8 and a rain sensor and it works great.
The best part is that the Indigo software for OSX that drives the X10 has an awesome community who have come up with plenty of ways to do what you're asking about.
Mark Gibbs at Network World ran a http://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2004/071904gear head.html/couple of articles about networking the garden. X-10 came up, as well as some other interesting technical problems. He points to a couple of sources for software, mostly closed source.
And xeriscaping http://www.google.com/search?&q=%22xeriscape%2 2/ may give you a few ideas about designing for a water-restricted future.
while perhaps false.
spacepen
The leason is not...
SOOOOOOOO nice of you to go off on some for no REAL reason.
Back in the early days of the space program, NASA spent tens of thousands of dollars on research to develop a pen that would write in zero gravity. The Russians used a five cent pencil.
No, no they didn't.
Looking for hardware (Currently need: Large Etch-a-Sketch) Have one? See my journal!
In which city? I've never heard anything of sprinkler systems being permanently banned, can't see that going down well.
The ban comes in next year; it was mentioned vaguely in the SMH on Saturday and Sunday.
Vino, gyno, and techno -Bruce Sterling
You may have a zoning ordinance which requires you to have a lawn and mow it and keep it green. Many, many towns do. They even have "weed ordinances" which fine you if you have native plants. Too bad because native plants are better adapted to your soil and climate conditions, and some are quite attractive.
O=='=++
I moved into a brand new home 3 years ago and did the landscaping and watering system myself.
;)
I'm in Sydney, so the above comment on water restrictions applies!
7 X10 Universal modules and a few relays mean I have x10 control of up to 64 zones (42 of them currently in use!) all computer controlled of course.
The system works well and being able to sh/perl script everything has had many advantages, mainly due to the adaptability.
1) I adapted one zone to do automated water changes on my (large) aquarium
2) When I got my weatherstation (la crosse2310), which connects to my computer, I sh programmed the system to keep track of the dampness in each area of the garden (based on temp,wind and rain) and only water what needs watering when it needs it.
3) When we got our 9000l rainwater tank and a pump for it, the computer keeps an estimate of how full the tank is and uses tank verses Sydney town water however I program it (i.e. use tank water whenever available).
4) When our first set of water restictions came in (we are in drought in Sydney) of no sprinklers between 8am and 8pm, a couple of lines of shell scripting sorted that out!
5) When the second round of restricitions came in (no sprinklers anytime) a couple more lines of shell script meant that the sprinklers were only watered by tank water and the drippers by town water.
6) When the next round of restrictions come in in a few weeks (maybe only drippers allowed and only on a full moon, only between 5am and 8am, and only within 2 days of when the australian cricket team wins a game... or something like that... they're keeping it a secret), I'll be ready
7) Another zone fills the fish pond as appropriate (computer estimates evaporation from the weather station).
8) It allows the easy use of a heap of zones (42 and counting). This means that each zone is very targetted and you don't have to water one area of the garden just because some other area is too dry!
9) With an X10 remote I can controll the system from the loungeroom or the garden.
10) My (geekier) friends like to see a demo of the system, each zone operating for 5 seconds!
11) It operates itself when I go on holidays, or have the flu, or are busy at work, or don't feel like going outside to handwater in the dark at the only legal time.
As for the lawn itself, we made sure it was less than 25% of the garden, and use a drought resistant buffalo that doesn't particularly mind going brown in a drought and coming back when it rains. Now we just need the robotic lawn mower and we'll be set!