Sonoff Zigbee Smart Water Valve

What is everyone here using for an app to control irrigation? Did you write your own rule machine?

Just looking to gather ideas for mine. I just got it working and it’s awesome

I just purchased one to test and and found the generic switch driver also works but the Tuya driver was a much better fit.

In case anyone is interested, I ran a flow test against the orbit Bhyve and found that the Sonoff valve had a much better flow rate. My flow directly from the spigot is around 10gpm at 50psi. The Bhyve restricted the flow rate to 7.5gpm. The Sonoff's flow approached the 10gpm rate. I was pretty impressed with a sub $30 zigbee water valve.

The tests were performed using a 5 gallon bucket and a stop watch.

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This for me, it works great!

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thanks!

I just got one, and chose the Tuya driver. It works from the devices panel in HE. But the HomeKit integration doesn't quite work. You can turn it on, but it doesn't get the correct status (just says it's updating...) and in a few minutes indicates that it's off. I have to turn it on and off again in the Home app to get it to actually turn off. I'll try another driver mentioned in this thread, but it would be nice to have one specifically for this device. Anyone working on one?

Just to follow up, the Generic Zigbee Switch works fine in HomeKit. On/off only though.

@gopher.ny Victor, can you help - what attribute is the HomKit expecting to be changed also, when the valve changes from closed to open ?

Does HomeKit expect also switch or level capability for shutoff valves ?

Update to say I went on vacation this past week and while away I noticed the hose timer switch was on! I quickly logged into my HE remotely and saw that it had two conflicting statuses:
switch: on
valve: closed

Don't know how the switch status changed but at least I didn't come home to a flood.

Long story short, I have yet to find a fully functioning driver.

Until the core reason for the HomeKit integration issue is found and a solution is available, you could try the HE inbuilt 'Mirror' app. Map a virtual switch attribute (on/off) to the Zonoff device valve attribute (open/closed), then expose the virtual switch to HomeKit.

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I’ve noticed that HomeKit reports correctly, but only when I go into the valve driver and click refresh, and the valve state updates from closed to open.
But then it also says “waiting”. Not sure what for

Is there a way to auto refresh or poll the valve while it is running?

There is no need to refresh the valve state, this is done automatically as soon as the valve confirms the open or the closed position. The problem is somewhere else...

Do we have any HE inbuilt valve driver that works as expected with the homeKit integration?
I could compare the capabilities/attributes then... but I need a stock driver for a reference.

Just as FYI. Bought and installed the valve. Works great, except for the valve status indeed. When I go into devices and manually open the valve, status remains closed. When I click refresh the status jumps to open. When I close the valve, valve status gets updated immediately without refresh.

I'm not a programmer (anymore) so do with this information as you will :slight_smile:

(Just using HE, no HomeKit or anything)

Can you post a screenshot of the State Variables and a screenshot of the Device Details - Data section?
Something is different, I can’t replicate the same problem in HE with my valve.


Your firmware version looks different to mine.

Just set up two Sonoff valves and am observing the situation in which the "valve" state remains closed. I just tried Refresh and it does update the valve to the open state.
Otherwise, this works a treat and I appreciate the effort. I can survive with this behavior but would certainly be interested in any easy fix.

State Variables:

Summary

Data:

Summary

image

Yes it seems I have firmware 1.0.3
I'm in Europe, maybe that has something to do with it.

@hdebruin @Hatallica can you update the driver again, same version 1.3.5 timestamp is '2024/09/22 1:42 PM' ?

image

I can't replicate the problem with the valve attribute not being updated immediately to 'open', but I have made a small change that I hope will work.

If the change does not have any effect for your setup, next will be to schedule an automatic refresh - one second after the open() command is issued.

NM got it. Needed an initialise and configure....