OpenSprinkler bonsai project

[JaseH]

Following on from this earlier thread: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=19226&hilit=opensprinkler&start=45

Which was a discussion where OpenSprinkler was mentioned.

httpss://opensprinkler.com/

I have been using OpenSprinkler for a while now and think its great. One thing though, which I mentioned in that thread, was that I found the 'out of the box' weather control less than ideal for use as a bonsai watering system. So I'm writing my own application to control it based on bonsai specific requirements. I hope to have it working well by summer when I'll be busy cutting hay and will need it to take care of my trees!

At the moment it regularly checks real-time local weather conditions for your area, if the weather conditions meet one of your pre-configured settings - it will trigger a watering cycle. A pre-configured setting might be for instance:

"If its above 32C, trigger watering if watering hasn't been triggered in the last 2 hrs."

The program currently can be configured with:

- 3 temperature points and watering delays
- Run at night setting (yes or no)
- station run times(in seconds)

In future I may add humidity and wind conditions to the trigger point conditions and I can also add more trigger points if needed. The run at night setting takes the sunset and sunrise times for your area and can disable watering between these times if you choose.

I thought I would post up here to see if anyone else is using OpenSprinkler and interested in this functionality. I'm thinking about making the application into a cloud based service. You would simply need to go online, plug in the URL to your OpenSprinkler unit, your password and configure your settings to start using it? Of course your OpenSprinkler unit would need to accessible from the internet - which can be done with simple port mapping on your internet router.

If there is any interest, questions or suggestions let me know!

[Luke308]

Wow I am living in the dark ages with my Dramm watering wand & manual labour

I will need to look at one of these before my honeymoon. I love the idea of being able to control from anyway via android phone.

Do you mind if I ask Jase how much total set up cost you? including solenoids, fittings, hoses etc? Forgive me if I missed it, but what type of solenoids are you running? And are you using the 25mm hoses into 19mm feeder hose?

[JaseH]

I still prefer to hand water with the dramm

But I figure our trees can live for hundreds of years, but it only takes one day of distraction to kill them, or at least set them back years. This system means I can stress less over summer knowing they are protected in case I'm too busy or unable to get to them

Also I can still travel and they don't need as much baby sitting.

Besides the OpenSprinkler unit, most of my system is just sourced from bunnings. I'll do a quick write up later when I get time.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Ryceman3]

Very interesting indeed! I've been thinking about a watering system for a bit now and the complete customisation/remote access capabilities of the "OpenSprinkler" system sound appealing. The code you are proposing for bonsai specific functionality is really just adding to the appeal - it's a great idea and I applaud your skill/vision to get it up and running. If this summer is as hot as this winter has been cold, it will be worth the investment! great idea...
Would love to hear about your system when you get a sec.

[kcpoole]

I have a commercial timer unit, but when time for a refresh I will go with open sprinkler.

I run 3 solenoids over 3 lines to different areas of the yard. All on 1 manifold
Probably all up about 4 20M rolls of poly pipe, 40 Sprayers, risers and 10 ish elbows. Elbows

all up maybe $200 - $250 in parts

Have very few issues with it but when I do a refresh, I will put 3 more solenoids on a differnet tap on the other end of each line, driven by a second controller for redundancy. Each controller will come on for 1/2 the time each.
Reason is that if any of the components fail, then each line will get at least minimum watering and thus stop any failures when i am not here to monitor it ( holidays).

Systems are cheap enough to do now so why not?

Ken

[JaseH]

I run 3 solenoids over 3 lines to different areas of the yard. All on 1 manifold
Probably all up about 4 20M rolls of poly pipe, 40 Sprayers, risers and 10 ish elbows. Elbows

all up maybe $200 - $250 in parts

Ken, sounds very similar to the rest of my set-up.

I'm also running 3 zones via 3 solenoids off a single manifold. One for a row of benches, one for a bunch of pedestals/monkey poles and another for a nursery/growing stock area. I have the OpenSprinkler unit mounted on the wall in the house and run a signal wire out to the solenoids which are housed in one of them irrigation boxes.

The OpenSprinkler unit can run up to 8 zones out of the box and you can add expansion boards to run many more.

I'm using the ~$20 solenoids from Bunnings, so far they have been reliable(but its only been 12months). From memory I run 25mm poly from the solenoids to each zone then break out to 19mm for the sprinkler runs.

One thing I did a lot of experimentation with before I was satisfied was the spray nozzles. The best thing you can get for individual trees in pots are the CFd Downsprays!

[JaseH]

Very interesting indeed! I've been thinking about a watering system for a bit now and the complete customisation/remote access capabilities of the "OpenSprinkler" system sound appealing.

The system is great as is. Over summer I schedule it to water in the morning and late afternoon every day. I can open the app on my phone where-ever I am and make sure it has run to schedule or trigger an extra watering cycle if I feel the need. It has automatic weather adjustment ability but its just not suited to bonsai watering. Its more designed to reduce the watering cycle length based on rainfall.

The project I'm putting together is designed to take care of those occasional days when a morning and late arvo watering cycle isn't enough. Such as the Melbourne heatwaves we get each summer - these are the days when trees are lost or damaged. This will kick in on those days and trigger the extra watering needed automatically based on real time weather conditions. I also see it useful to trigger a misting system on those days to keep things cool and humid.

[Elmar]

G'day all,
Have you tried any of the 'Mist-spray' nozzles?
As I learn more and more (slo learner here!) I find that the Wind seems to be my main opponent (can't call an element of nature and enemy)! The heat will be intense but it is an almost humid heat... Yes I know that sounds weird, but thinking back most damage was done on high wind days...
My plan is to finish setting up a protected area (using the frame of a shade-house but covering it with shade cloth) and then installing mist sprays. I'm not 100% certain it's the answer for watering but it can't be worse than leaving them out in the open to roast!?!?


Cheers
Elmar

[kcpoole]

G'day all,
Have you tried any of the 'Mist-spray' nozzles?
Cheers
Elmar

Yep i use the Mist sprayers on my growing benches as they drench everything.
i use 2 runs along each bench, one along the front (pointing backward., and one along the top of the fence pointing down.

on each pot on monkey poles, I have 2 similar to this http://www.holmanindustries.com.au/prod ... ro-sprays/ with fed from a adjustable inline tap so they each get a little gentle spray on the soil surface.

Ken

[salbahra]

Hello!

I am Samer with OpenSprinkler and just wanted to let you know we would be happy to incorporate your weather method into the main weather service if you are interested. The system is very flexible, open source and works by storing a weather method variable in the controller. This is then sent to the API which looks up the weather and using the provided method returns instructions to the controller. Our methods also support a JSON object of options to be sent to the service.

Basically, we could add the method and allow configurable options such as temperature values to respond to, etc. All of the weather code is available here: https://github.com/OpenSprinkler/OpenSprinkler-Weather .

Currently we have one method: Zimmerman (scales the water percentage) but we are planning to add more such as just rain delay method or even an ET based method and would be happy to also incorporate this one. Let us know!

Thank you!

[JaseH]

Hi Samer, didn't expect to see you pop up on a bonsai forum! Great project btw!

Happy to have this incorporated into the weather module. I'll have a closer look when I get time and get back to you.

The code I have written is in python and uses json to get info from the unit and http calls to trigger run once programs.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Elmar]

on each pot on monkey poles, I have 2 similar to this http://www.holmanindustries.com.au/prod ... ro-sprays/ with fed from a adjustable inline tap so they each get a little gentle spray on the soil surface.

Ken

Thnx Ken,
is there any reason you've gone for brass fittings? Are the plastic not any good?

I like the idea of taps and manually adjusting the pressure ... I can see that can be of benefit for different soil mixes (mame/shohin)

I thought they may last better than the plastic and the spray on low pressure with them is really gentle.

Ken

[salbahra]

Hi Samer, didn't expect to see you pop up on a bonsai forum! Great project btw!

Happy to have this incorporated into the weather module. I'll have a closer look when I get time and get back to you.

The code I have written is in python and uses json to get info from the unit and http calls to trigger run once programs.

I use Tapatalk which allows me to search across forums in order to identify issues or areas of improvements. I was very happy to find this thread because we are currently improving the weather service and find this a great time to identify the types of interactions users might need from such a service.

Our code is in JavaScript running on Node.js so should be simple to translate from Python (the original service was also Python and just recently changed).

Look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks!

[JaseH]

on each pot on monkey poles, I have 2 similar to this http://www.holmanindustries.com.au/prod ... ro-sprays/ with fed from a adjustable inline tap so they each get a little gentle spray on the soil surface.

Ken

Thnx Ken,
is there any reason you've gone for brass fittings? Are the plastic not any good?

I like the idea of taps and manually adjusting the pressure ... I can see that can be of benefit for different soil mixes (mame/shohin)

I thought they may last better than the plastic and the spray on low pressure with them is really gentle.

Ken

I didnt have much success with the adjustable pressure nozzles - they were too hard to balance. Being on town water - my water pressure was too inconsistent. I was continually adjusting them to get the right spray then the next time it triggered it would be all messed up again. I found the downsprays and they just cover the pot surface with a good fine spray with no or very little wasted overspray, no adjustment needed.

[Elmar]

Samer,
General question: have you ever considered a plug-in option of thermometer &/or barometer, for localized more accurate climate readings?

I'm asking because where I live there can be up to 10 degree difference in summer (irregular) based on where the BoM station is locally compared to me.
I think this could have major impact on my trees and may very well be the difference between successfully saving my trees and allowing them to suffer/die while I'm working...

Blue-sky question, I know, but you may have already worked on something like this ...


Cheers
Elmar