IoTPlay Sprinkler System 2.0

After running my SprinklerSystem 1.0 for 3 yrs, its time formore & new concepts. Find below the still-in-progress functional requirements, to which I am building the system.

Introduction

A 4 x leg sprinkler system, and borehole pump switching system with RPi & Node-RED, and ESP8266. Where-as Sprinkler 1.0 did all the control from Node-RED on the RPi, the next version - Sprinkler 2.0 will provide the variables of control to the ESP8266, and it will do the control.

Specifications of the System

Find below the requirements for an edge-based solution:

Functional:

• 4 x sprinkler leg valves to be switched on- and off.
• A borehole pump to be switched on before any leg is activated, and switched off afterwards.
• Switching can either be automatic, or manual.
  • For automatic, A schedule of start / stop / in-between leg-rest time will be downloaded to the ESP from the RPi at startup of the ESP.
  • If manual, a message will be sent via mqtt for the leg to switch on, and duration it has to be in this state.
• Whilst sprinkling, the ESP will send back a message to show the time left till it switches off.

Schedules:

• On the sprinkler leg schedules:
  • Able to switch each leg on twice a day;
  • Able to choose which legs should sprinkle on which days;
  • Duration between legs on as a variable- to allow the borehole water to fill-up;
• The above must be downloaded as variables to the ESP.

//DEPRECATED//- All schedules functions to be data-driven, where a json file on the system stores the definitions of all above, to allow this file to be manipulated to change sprinkling time, rest period, sprinkle period, and days,- per leg.

Interacting with the System

A Web front-end to work on a phone, where the sprinkler system can be:

• Actions:
  • put into auto-mode, where the data-file is used for the schedule;
  • put in non-auto mode or manual, where the schedule does not determine the on/off times;
  • Able to switch any leg on/off manually, including the pump;
  • Button to override All Off - switching the pump and legs off at once.
• Reports:
  • A report to determine the total sprinkler time per day;
  • Report on how much water was pumped for the day;
  • Report to view the current schedules, times, and rest periods that are set.

Homie

• the ESP8266 will be controlled with the homie 4.0 standard, (as at 2019 Aug - not yet promolgated).

Apple HomeKit

• must be able to work with Apple Homekit.

Implementation

Systems Components Used

Building blocks are:

• Node-RED on a Raspberry Pi
• Mosquitto as MQTT server running on the same RPi
• The sprinkler solenoids is controlled with an ESP8266, on a wifi network, using mqtt from Node-Red.
• We use ESPEasy on the Node-RED, from the community letscontrolit.com.
• /DEPRECATED/ A MariaDB instance to track stats of sprinkling.
• All servers running on the RPi, runs in Docker images & containers.

Notes on Solution Components

• About the Electronics
• About the Screens of the App (old)
• Node-RED & ESP config (old)

Todo

The project is not yet completed. Further requirements includes:

• Did it, or is it raining? Is it, or will the rain be enough? Use either barometric pressure, and/or Darksky forecast, and the IoTPlay ESP8266 rain meter to stop sprinkling for a day;

• Amount of water to drop based on levels of Soil moisture, using for instance Tindie's SoilWatch10.

• Change starting time of the cycle with the season's changes.