Holiday Watering

[kcpoole]

Funnily enough I went out this morning to find one of my timers not working it's not one of the ones pictured above. I had to add a line a while back for some collected trees and the green shed was out of the ones I usually use. I bought a similar one rather than go somewhere else to get the same one. Lesson learnt. I'll replace it with the same as above now as I've not had any trouble with them.

Josh.

I actually had one too this morning

My Daughter had a few friends over for a sleepover, they unplugged the controller from the mains and plugged in their iPod dock instead!
Saw that they had not come on this morning and set them to run manually after fixing it and yelling at the kids

Funny how the unusual jumps up to bite us

Ken

[Boics]

I've had a look at what happened to me and it would appear it was user error on my behalf that caused my fault.

Wrcmad that Solenoid kit looks great.
There are some fantastic youtube video's which make it a no-brainer for anyone wanting to install this type of system.
It would integrate nicely with any of the opensprinkler systems as well.

Question guys.
Do your solenoid controller stations carry battery backup?
Are they waterproof and installed outside - or inside?

[kcpoole]

My controller is inside on the wall next to the back door. Yes it is battery backed as well. 9 v batery

[wrcmad]

My controller is mounted inside the garage. 9V battery backup.

[matty-j]

Great posts guys, very informative!

A question tho, at what height are you running your lines and sprayers?

Ken it looks like you are running yours along the top of your fence? I would have thought that would have been to high and the water would disperse to much before it reached the pots?

I have my plants arranged like kens, long benches along the fence stack with plants! running individual sprayers to every pot seems like a lot of work. understandably if it is for a few pots on display then thats fair enough. i like the idea of spraying all of them from above but i worry that if pots get changed around along the benches then they won't be covered by the watering system.

Cheers
Matt

[kcpoole]

Hi Matt
I have 2 runs along each bench
1 along the top of a 6 ft fence as you picked up. these are pointing down so the spray gets to the top of each tree.
A second run along the front of each bench with 1/2 circle sprayers pointing back over the trees. These give a second direction of spray to ensure all trees are covered.

Ken

[shibui]

If you put the spray heads closer together so the spray pattern overlaps properly you should get good water coverage. Need to allow for flow to drop off when you have lots of sprays on the line because the spray pattern of all the sprays is less. My system has areas where the spray does not overlap so a few spots get less water - you do not find out until it gets hot and dry but you can usually pick up wilting plants in late spring and make adjustments. I know the drier areas in my system and have pines and others that like it a bit drier in those spots.

[JaseH]

I set up a system based on OpenSprinkler. I run three solenoids - one for my benches, one for the monkey poles and one for the nursery bench area. I spend a lot of time at my other property and its been great to be able to log in via my phone or a PC and trigger watering cycles wherever I am. If its a particularly hot day and I want to do an extra water for the trees on the monkey poles I can just pull my phone out and trigger it off. I was recently overseas for two weeks and had access to my watering system the whole time.

It also knows if it has rained or is forecast to rain and can adjust watering based on that. I'm currently working on a script which will check the feed from a local weather station, and self program watering cycles based on temperature and humidity, so for example if its 35c and low humidty it will know to water for a few minutes every 3hrs.

I've been running it for about 5 months now and its been very reliable - definitely worth a look

https://opensprinkler.com/

[kcpoole]

I set up a system based on OpenSprinkler. I run three solenoids - one for my benches, one for the monkey poles and one for the nursery bench area. I spend a lot of time at my other property and its been great to be able to log in via my phone or a PC and trigger watering cycles wherever I am. If its a particularly hot day and I want to do an extra water for the trees on the monkey poles I can just pull my phone out and trigger it off. I was recently overseas for two weeks and had access to my watering system the whole time.

It also knows if it has rained or is forecast to rain and can adjust watering based on that. I'm currently working on a script which will check the feed from a local weather station, and self program watering cycles based on temperature and humidity, so for example if its 35c and low humidty it will know to water for a few minutes every 3hrs.

I've been running it for about 5 months now and its been very reliable - definitely worth a look

https://opensprinkler.com/

Already had my commercial up and running before I found out about Opensprinkler, but when due for replacement i will certainly move to it.
the controller I use can only have 4 programs configured, so for any more than 2 - lines it becomes an issue if you want to run several program times per day.


Maybe we need a thread just for opensprinkler to post our individual processes and hacks?

Ken

[Phoenix238]

I'll certainly be keen to give Opensprinkler a go one day, don't have enough plants (or money) to make it worthwhile yet

[Paul W]

Maybe we need a thread just for opensprinkler to post our individual processes and hacks?

Ken

Good idea Ken as I need to find out as much as I can before spending a couple of hundred bucks, when are you going to start it.

[kcpoole]

Maybe we need a thread just for opensprinkler to post our individual processes and hacks?

Ken

Good idea Ken as I need to find out as much as I can before spending a couple of hundred bucks, when are you going to start it.

When i buy one .
Actually will do next week as rather busy till then,

Ken

[JaseH]

I'll put some info together about my set up next week when I'm back at work.

[matty-j]

what size pipe are you all using?

is there a noticeable difference between 13mm and 19mm pipe?

I was thinking of running 19mm pipe as the feed line from my tap 15m to the corner of the yard where the solenoids will be located. then using 13mm pipe for the system which the sprayers will be attached to.

Any thoughts?

[Ray M]

what size pipe are you all using?

is there a noticeable difference between 13mm and 19mm pipe?

I was thinking of running 19mm pipe as the feed line from my tap 15m to the corner of the yard where the solenoids will be located. then using 13mm pipe for the system which the sprayers will be attached to.

Any thoughts?

Hi Matty,
From an engineers point of view. The larger the diameter of pipe you run the better. It doesn't matter if it's water the same applies to air pipes. There is internal friction involved and the larger diameter will help overcome this problem.

Regards Ray