Small flathead screwdriver, Phillips head screwdriver, and needle nose electronics plier.Mounting kit: 4 screws and pop toggles.8x 8 inch solid wire (same gauge as Rainbird wire).Tapered machine screws to attach back to front of OpenSprinkler housing (screw head must fit into OSPi slot).Rainbird irrigation system with 7 zones and 24V AC sprinkler valves (OSPi can handle more zones with additional parts).A case and power supply for the Raspberry are not needed. However, a Raspberry Pi starter kit will work fine.
In other Raspberry Pi applications, I have measured and found the above configuration performs better than a starter kit. SanDisk Ultra 16GB Ultra Micro SDHC UHS-I/Class 10 Card with Adapter (SDSQUNC-016G-GN6MA) from Amazon $8.49.Micro USB to USB cable 3ft from Amazon $4.69.
FTDI TTL-232R-RPI Serial to USB cable from Mouser $15.24V AC sprinkler transformer (output voltage 22V AC ∼ 30V AC, note that it’s AC, not DC!) $12.00.Hopefully, the savings on water bills justifies the project. OSPi integrates with a weather system and rain sensor, which means no watering when it isn’t required. The OSPi user interface is very intuitive. $ indicates a command executed in a terminal window on the MacBook and usually is being executed on the Raspberry Pi.I’ve attempted to credit every source used.text enclosed in spades, like this ♣replace-this♣ should be replaced with an actual value.
At a minimum, I would need to upgrade the Rainbird controller. My house came with a Rainbird ESP-M controller, which is not WiFi enabled and cannot be accessed from the web. In general, I try to water as little as possible, but because it runs in the middle of the night I forget about it.
If I water on the wrong day, during the wrong hours (after 10pm and before 7am), or if water runs into the street, then I get a $50 fine. My neighborhood is under severe watering restrictions. I used a MacBook to communicate with the Raspberry Pi, but any computer can be used.įor the last ten years, Central Texas has been in a severe drought.
Also, the parts list in the OSpi Manual is not complete. So, I had to take the RPi and OSPi apart, insert the micro SD card. However, once the Raspberry Pi and OSPI are connected, the micro SD slot is not accessible.
For example, when following the OSPi User Manual steps, I connected the Raspberry Pi to the OSPI (Step 2) and then many steps later imaged the micro SD card (step 8 = 7 hardware steps plus 1 software step). I changed the order of some OpenSprinkler steps. This is a great source for the latest OpenSprkler documents. The OpenSprinkler v1.4+ User Manual (updated May 31, 2015) is the basis for this document.