Sprinkler 2.0
I've dabbled in the past with an ESP8266 based sprinkler board that worked okay but when faced with a dead control board at this new house it was time to find a replacement for this 5 zone system.
Initial Options
The initial plan was to use a replay board connected to an ESP32 for a web based control scheme built with a little AI help to polish the interface. I've done this before with the older boards for a 4 zone system and it works fine however it does lack the smarts and integrations for weather delays or easy for others to use and configure. Price wise it is the cheapest with an esp32 and relay board being maybe $20-30 to setup.
Another option was to use a prebuilt wifi connected sprinkler control system off amazon typically they run 80-100 but are all pretty old and their apps are at the whim of the developer for updates. Not ideal and the same problems with integrations
ESP Home does have sprinkler integration and it is a possibility. It does offer a polished interface and easy of integrations with other software which might be ideal. It is a strong option as well over the fully DIY route.
Chosen route
While researching the relay boards i ran across a Waveshare relay board that looked interesting. The https://www.amazon.ca/Waveshare-Raspberry-Board-Relay-Appliances/dp/B07J3YNVG8→ This bad boy has an 8 channel relay array and headers for the raspberry Pi boards. The comments had an interesting note that it was an easy install with OpenSprinkler a project i haven't really ever looked at before but glad i did. For $35 this was a great option as a relay board and made use of an old Raspberry Pi I had kicking around. The board also has direct headers to each relay if you want to bypass the PI with another control system and it has full access to all the GPIO pins if you want to add in more features.
Install was a snap and it is running really great on the Raspberry PI 2B. The sofware has a companion app on the android shop or you can access it over the web locally. Tons of control options and support for hundreds of potential valves. Install was a breeze following guides and it was setup in a few hours.
Upgrades and potential
I took the opportunity to also resurrect an old project i had with my old home server monitoring meters with the Software defined radios. I was able to pickup the water meter and gas meter for the house. The power is encrypted and not picked up unfortunately. Currently a script runs every 15 minutes or so to spin up listen for each meter and record their info and save to a local DB. I am just recording the data for now but will try integrate it into a little local web interface eventually. Maybe even on this site somehow might be a stretch goal.
Local control and status would be great. I want to make use of a screen and clicky rotary encoder to have a little menu to cycle through options or get information at the board.
Its still a PI so other potential data and processing tasks could be done looking at the gas meter or water heater run times without going overboard on how much it is taking on to bog it down.