I still do that because of cost (and it all passes inspection lol) Drains, bring in a friend for that because of certain codes)
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There is already an app that can be used for irrigation. It's called 'Switch Scheduler and More' It's pretty easy to set up once you get your head around it. You can also add isolating sections whne there is a rain trigger. There's also the option to not isolalate all sections if they all aren't effected by rain.
I'm trying to integrate a water flow valve so I can count how many litres are flowing onto the grass & garden. Can anyone help with that? It is a 3 wire valve. 24v, Common & trigger
I am an incurable DIY person as well. I tend to spend on premium supplies when I do things though. My rationale is I am saving a fortune not needing tradesmen to do things for me so I don't skimp on supplies and required tools. In this example I wouldn't blink about buying 24VAC valves and a bunch of PVC fittings to build up a manifold for all the zones. For control I would use some sort of dry contact relay either ZWave or Zigbee, but a commercial device like a ZEN58 or one of the zigbee 4 channel units. I'd put in a hose bib(s) for winterizing and draining. Then I'd come up with amounting scheme out of the way but accessible for maintenance.
I'm using 2 x konnected wifi boards with 1 x 8 & 1 x 2 channel relays. I haven't replaced the old irrigation setup yet, but I'm about to in a day or 2.
Interesting, I like it. Is there a driver for the konnected boards? Do they present as just 8 switches? or did you do your own hubduino app?
I couldn't find any 8 channel Zigbee boards, but I did find this thing on Ebay
It is Tuya Zigbee based, so I have a feeling it would work with the Generic Zigbee Multi-Endpoint switch driver and create 24 child devices. Though I have my own driver for those boards now that will allow direct access to the relays from a single parent device.
Edit: I didn't notice they have no Zigbee versions in stock 
Edit2: Ali has them for $50.
Ali also has the 12 Relay boards:
And they have the 8 channel boards:
I just bought the 12 channel from Ali. $27.65 total with shipping. I may want more than four irrigation circuits, and I would like to keep it all in one driver if I add-on. This leaves me options to add more valves.
I only wanted the 8-channel, but there seems to be no 7-24V Zigbee in stock for those.
I use konnected boards. The konnected boards I have are 6, plus they have a 'Alarm/Out' which can be used as a switch. They have changed their range a bit of late, so it couuld be more connections. Nate from konnected is very helpful if you make contact.
