I'm just curious. Right now we have a basic irrigation controller that can only have 4 zones setup. We want to add a 5th zone to control watering a vegetable garden. So I'm thinking I have 3 solutions.
Just get a new irrigation controller that can handle more zones. Would probably get one that I can integrate into Hubitat if possible.
Keep using the controller for zones 1 - 4. Get a Zooz Zen 17 to control zone 5 for the vegetable garden.
Completely replace the irrigation controller. I'd need 3 Zen17s to do this. I'd probably want some sort of small power supply that can power all 3 at once instead of using 3 USB C plugs.
I have a seven zone system, i wanted to keep my exisiting controller to make it easier for the sprinkler company to do the yearly service and winterizing. It is a Rainbird system so I used a 8 relay board that was tasmota compatible, similiar to this, but not the same one.
I then used the tasmota driver in hubitat, along with some spruce zigbee moisture sensors to intelligently decide when to water and for how long, versus just monitoring weather forecasts.
It works like a champ, with the wiring from the rainbird passing through the normally closed relay contacts.
FYI I have a 4 zone controller as well but will be adding an extra valve for garden next year. I use both Zen17 and Zen16 and love these things. You'll just need to feed 24volt to the relay and wire that to your 24v valve.
I plan on using a moisture sensor as input to the Zen17 to know when to turn on the water valve:
