I have now added all my rachio sprinkler zones to my hub. Rachio itself automates when to water based on weather conditions. I am looking to learn / understand how others are using Hubitat with the sprinklers ( in case they have something like rachio which automates it anyway).
I am also especially looking for some kind of zwave soil moisture sensor for a particular zone which might need a bit more watering in the heat of summer. I have a few delicate plants in this particular zone. The idea is to use the soil moisture sensor to activate the rachio zone if and when required. Any ideas ?
I don't know that you need to integrate Ranchio with Hubitat. Ranchio is already automating the watering of your lawn based on the weather and the composition of your soil, correct? As long as you don't water it outside of Ranchio, it will always know when is best to water it. Seems like it doesn't need anything else.
It all depends on what you want to do. Some people use a motion sensor to trigger their systems to deter wildlife. I live in a completely different micro climate from where Rachio gets its weather data so the rain delays based on forecast don't work for me. I have a personal weather station and use its rain data to determine rain delays on my Rachio.
I am looking to do something simpler i.e find a zwave soil moisture sensor that can talk directly to hubitat, which can then trigger watering in the rachio zone where the sensor lives, based on the reading of the sensor.
So I am looking for soil moisture sensors that can talk directly to hubitat and not Rachio.
But then you would also have to build in all the weather stuff into hubitat as well. Because, correct me if i'm wrong, but Rachio checks the weather forecast and doesn't water your lawn if there is rain in the near future. That would have to be built into any driver/app for Hubitat.
Not really. I am not trying to recreate what Rachio already does very well - scheduling watering times based on weather forecasts. Rather, I am looking for the ability to water a specific zone based on soil moisture conditions - which is a different proposition.
For instance, I have a few hydrangeas in one zone. They do very well with the regular rachio schedule. However, there are some days when the temp outside is so high it dries up the zone very quickly. I'd like to turn on the sprinkler on such occasions, just for a short period.
So this just requires a sensor which sends the soil moisture level directly to hubitat, which turns on the rachio zone for a few minutes to bring the moisture level up. Of course, the sensor can also talk directly to the rachio panel. same thing. This is a bit more precise than what the rachio weather forecast offers.
They say this can be controlled in SmartThings using zigbee and maybe there is something that can be brought over from ST. Not sure. A little pricey. https://spruceirrigation.com/
Interesting. I am already invested in the rachio system. The Spruce system is exactly like the rachio with the addition of the realtime soil moisture sensor - which illustrates what I am looking for - the supplement of hyperlocal weather intelligence with soil moisture sensors. Thats what rachio is missing. I was hoping I could find something similar with zwave or zigbee or even wifi - going through hubitat.
(you can also use your PI for soo much more of course).
You could add a maker api call to that python script that sets a virtual switch that turns on when wet / off when dry.
Update: Just bit the bullet and am going to give it a shot.. I already have a PI on hand. Also bought extended sensor cables though I'm not sure how they will hold up outside. With a slight script modification you can add more sensors to the PI.. maybe have a virtual button group or something via Maker. Another thought is to make it available via a RESTful interface (I use Node) and create a custom driver.
Thanks for pointing me towards this - I am actually thinking of going this route by using a z-uno and Adafruit Stemma Soil Sensor.
My son dabbles in this stuff so thinking of making it a small home project for him - we even discussed 3-d printing an enclosure for all this. Will keep you posted.
That looks interesting too! The sensors I linked to are very inexpensive - I got 5 for less than $9. The trick is being able to extend the wiring from the sensor to the unit. I found this (if it helps any):
If you are just looking for a way to tell if the moisture level at a certain depth is there or not I wonder if extending the prongs on a water leak sensor would work. Put the sensor inside a small waterproof plastic case. I used this one to house a d/w sensor for a mailbox.
Most low cost soil sensors are resistive style, where there's two prongs and the sensor measures the conductivity between the two. These work OK at first, but eventually start to oxidize because of the exposed metal. Even if they're gold plated! The resistivity measurement goes up and up, so you constantly have to re-calibrate your code. Also, resistive measurements don't always work in loose soil.
This design is superior with a capacitive measurement. Capacitive measurements use only one probe, don't have any exposed metal, and don't introduce any DC currents into your plants. We use the built in capacitive touch measurement system built into the ATSAMD10 chip, which will give you a reading ranging from about 200 (very dry) to 2000 (very wet). As a bonus, we also give you the ambient temperature from the internal temperature sensor on the microcontroller, it's not high precision, maybe good to + or - 2 degrees Celsius.
Why would you want two systems controlling the watering though? Why wouldn't you get a sensor that connects to Rachio so that it can control it all by itself. If the soil is very dry but there's a major rain event an hour away, you really don't need hubitat watering your plants, do you?
You are absolutely right. That is the better route to take - a sensor that talks to rachio directly and enables rachio to use that data together with its weather forecast data, They call it bypass scheduling. However Rachio seems to support only wired and expensive sensors (with very detailed wiring setup) - toro soil sensor and RAIN BIRD SMRT-Y Sensor
The DIY setup we discussed above will cost much less and perhaps much simpler to setup. But you are right that it doesnt take into account the immediate weather forecast. Would have been great if I can tie the DIY stuff into rachio.
Also rachio seems to advocate the use of sensors, in addition to their weather intelligence feature:
Many lawns have multiple micro-climates that they need to account for; from south-facing and full sun to north-facing with a slope, a mesh network of sensors is the best approach for a true closed loop feedback of your lawn's health.
I am also not sure "bypass scheduling" is really the solution to my problem. Rachio describes their bypass scheduling as
Bypass scheduling is similar to that of a rain sensor; it interrupts the common wire and prohibits the controller from watering.
It only interrupts watering? vs watering a specific zone when its soil moisture level is dry ?
@erktrek So you are thinking that with the DIY setup, I could also add this weather data into the "trigger" process in hubitat ? Water the zone if soil moisture level is less than X and there is no forecast of rain in the next 6 hours or so ? Something like that? How is integration of weather data into hubitat? easily done?
I'm not sure I'd have to look at it a bit - probably look at APIXU's attributes and tie it in using RM - haven't looked at the forecast stuff yet so not sure how it's reported.
You can also check with the developer @bangali for advice as well.
That APIXU driver is also good for illuminance checking etc for things like automated exterior lighting instead of just sunrise/sunset.
edit: Looking at the driver code there is a "percentPrecip" attribute. So you could do a comparison like you were thinking maybe, uncertain how far out that goes.
edit2: so I think exposing that attribute you may have to use another app by @bangali called WATO
You'd use this (I think) to set a virtual switch when the chance of rain crosses your threshold.. then in RM you'd compare the moisture sensor + chance of rain switch and act accordingly.
