Looking for a keyfob or button of some sort to control my sprinkler system while I'm working on it. I have Rachio sprinkler controllers and can turn zones on and off from my phone, but when you're all wet and covered with mud, navigating your way through a phone app can get real frustrating. Especially if you need to turn the water off quickly.
All I really need is a single button. On/off and hold or double press to advance to next zone.
I'm thinking a zwave or zigbee button wouldn't work because the button wouldn't always be in the same physical location. A wifi button would probably be best but I can't seem to find anything. Ideally it would be waterproof, but putting it inside a small ziplock bag would be ok too.
There's plenty of button fobs for alarm systems and of course cars, but I can't find anything generic (and relatively inexpensive).
I have one of these in our guest room. Works great but it is usually confined to that one room. I'm not sure how it would work if you were moving around a lot over a wider area.. Z-Wave mesh routing being what it is and all..
When you're dirty and wet or have gloves on, using a touch screen isn't the best/fastest way of controlling something though. Also not the best environment to be using an $1300 phone in. Discovered I already have a crack in the back glass.
I want to stay away from zwave, too many problems. All my zwave devices are still on SmartThings
And in this case I doubt it would work. The device I'm looking for has to work anywhere around the perimeter of my property. It's not a huge property, but I doubt that there's a single zwave device that it could route through, and even then we don't have any control over zwave routing anyhow.
Same for zigbee or any other mesh protocol device.
I know you wanted to avoid the phone but if you don't come up with a button solution maybe a voice activation on your phone. I had a similar situation this summer. I was power washing all my buildings and driveways and I had a orbit hose controller setup so I could turn the water on and off with out having to walk back to the spigot.
I setup endpoint triggers and used Siri shortcuts so I could just hold my phone out and say turn on or turn off water. With Face ID and the shortcuts I didn't have to touch the screen, because like you, I was wearing gloves and I didn't want to have to stop take them off and dry my hands.
This of coarse supposes you have a IPhone, but I assume you could do something similar with Android.
This is interesting, wonder why it never came up in any searches. The button isn't bad but the hub is a lot more than I really want to spend on this. Looks like it uses Bluetooth so I'd have to have my phone with me, but that's not a deal breaker. Thanks for the tip.
Would NFC tags provide any sort of solution here...? Can't say I have used them or know of how they could be applied... Maybe someone else might know if they could be useful in this situation.
Those or something similar to the kind of tags you might use in an office situation to swipe and unlock / open an automatic door. Would those be RFID?
Been there done that. I use a device called a wife. I yell (speak nicely too) at her on what zone to turn on or off. Kind of like Alexa but her feedback can be much nastier.
I guess you could set up some virtual switch and then bring an Alexa dot outside. Your neighbors will think you have lost it though.
I've been using the aeotec nanomote quad as a garage door opener for a few months. I'm super impressed with it's performance, it outperforms the range on a standard garage door opener. I know you said you were hesitant to go with zwave, I was too. But this remote seems to work really well and the rechargeable battery works for months.
