I'm thinking of replacing my original RainBird sprinkler system with a Rainmachine.  I like the fact that the Rainmachine isn't dependent on the cloud.  And it looks like there's good integration between the Rainmachine and the ISY through NodeLink.  However, I have a question on this integration...

I currently have a rain sensor in my yard that disables the sprinkler system when it's raining.  Is it possible (through NodeLink) to detect when this rain sensor is tripped?  Often times my kids will leave a window open in the house and when it rains some of it will get in the house.  My windows are already hard wired for my Elk alarm system so my ISY "knows" their open/close state.  It would be cool to have my house alert me when a window is left open and it starts to rain.  I guess I could use local weather conditions to trigger this alert if NodeLink can't do it, but this would be my second choice behind having my local sensor trigger the alert.

-Brian

 

RainMachine supports an external sensor.  If you hook it through the RainMachine NodeLink will be able to see it.  

Another option is to wire the rain sensor to an Elk zone directly and either "push" a pause to RainMachine via NodeLink or use an Elk output to control the rain sensor input on RainMachine. The advantage of the latter is it will work even if your network and/or nodelink are down. Wiring the sensor directly to the Elk has an added advantage if you are using a sensor like the Hydreon in that the Elk can monitor and tally total rainfall. Then you can use logic to determine at what point you want to suspend irrigation and for how long.