IoT Sprinklers

My IoT journey actually started with sprinklers about 6 years ago. In our old house we had 2 systems. One in the front, one in the back. To top off that design decision they ran the control cables smack dad to the middle, which meant they were in the basement under the staircase, and installed the clock. For normal operations no big deal, but when you were working on them you had to run up and down the stairs to the basement tracking dirt through the house. Very inconvenient to say the least. 

I actually started the journey by prototyping an Aurdino to run the sprinklers. But as such things go, time was always a factor and in one of my searches I found an EtherRain. It’s an incredible simple device. An ethernet port to call home to the LawnCheck website,  low voltage ports to drive the solenoids, and enough firmware to process the schedules. The device is so simple, so rock solid, that I set it up once, and never touched it again. Over the years, I would use the website to control my schedules, but I never actually touched the EtherRain. 

When Rachio, hit kickstarter, I so desperately wanted to participate, but hey if it ain’t broken… I continued to ride my EtherRain. About 2 years ago, I got my lucky break. My father called because their 30 years old clock had stopped functioning. A quick trip over to their house to verify it was dead, and I was off like lightning to Home Depot to get a Rachio. The Gen1 Rachio was so much superior to the EtherRain, I had serious clock envy, which was tempered a bit, by getting to set things up for the rents. 

Flash forward to today. When we moved into the church I knew one of my first projects was going to be to replace the horrible clock that the builder installed. The challenge was that our clock is outside and I knew the Rachio was for indoor use. I figured someone had to have figured out how to mount it outside. I hit up google and sure enough, someone had. Rachio! There is now a Gen2 device which can be mounted outside. 

The Gen2 clock was a tad bit more difficult to install than the Gen1. Nothing to do with the Rachio, but with the outside mount. The outside mount for the Rachio needs to be have a plug added to it. I was able to take the plug off my old clock, and use it for the Rachio. I have a simple device to check that the wiring is correct in an outlet and in about ~45 minutes I had the box mounted to the wall, and wired for electricity. 

Once the box was mounted it took all of about 5 minutes to install the Rachio and get it on-line. The app is awesome, and I appreciate the water saving features.