Best option for an Irrigation System?

[mike123456789]

I have read a few threads relating to Sprinkler Systems, but wanted get an idea of what everyone was doing for them?

 

I am in the very early planning stages of this project and thus have nothing for the actual sprinkler system yet. I have an ISY 99i running all INSTEON products.

 

The controller that I am looking at is the EZFlora. Is that the best route to go? I have read that the EZ stuff is having issues with the ISY, are these sorted out yet or is there a better option that works out of the box with the ISY? Any recommendations on which brand to go with for the actual sprinkler system?

 

Anyone have any good program examples for their sprinkler system?

 

Thanks,

Mike

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello Mike,

 

Currently, EZFlora is the only option and it seems to work with ISY (most recent firmware) but, unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that it works with all firmware versions.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

 

I have read a few threads relating to Sprinkler Systems, but wanted get an idea of what everyone was doing for them?

 

I am in the very early planning stages of this project and thus have nothing for the actual sprinkler system yet. I have an ISY 99i running all INSTEON products.

 

The controller that I am looking at is the EZFlora. Is that the best route to go? I have read that the EZ stuff is having issues with the ISY, are these sorted out yet or is there a better option that works out of the box with the ISY? Any recommendations on which brand to go with for the actual sprinkler system?

 

Anyone have any good program examples for their sprinkler system?

 

Thanks,

Mike

[Allan]

mikestreb,

 

I have recently created an evapotranspiration (ET) irrigation system using the ISY 99i (running version 2.7.5 beta) and the EzFlora (v.24).

 

This combination is working very reliably and I haven't had any problems. I did notice that a quick on and off of a zone (without any wait in between) will not reliably turn off but this sequence would never be necessary in an actual irrigation system.

 

The ISY only controls the 8 zones and does not interface with schedules in the EzFlora (which is all you will probably need anyway).

 

The maximum run time (timeout) for a zone can be set from the ISY which is very convenient. This is a timer built in to the EzFlora that will ensure that the zone shuts off after a period of time even if an Insteon off message is not received by the EzFlora.

 

I have started blogging about my irrigation system at http://blog.allanglen.com/2009/07/building-a-smart-irrigation-controller-part-1.

 

I will post this link in the "How Are You Using ISY?" forum once I get the rest of the series of blog posts completed.

 

The bulk of the logic for my system (ET calculations, water balance tables etc.) runs outside of the ISY on an internet-hosted web server and I plan on open-sourcing all of that code if anyone expresses an interest in using it for their own system.

[Michel Kohanim]

Allan,

 

Very impressive. Thanks so very much for sharing it with us.

 

Two questions:

1. Can we link to your blog from our Wiki?

2. We are very interested in incorporating ET calculations and water balance tables within ISY. Do we require any type of sensors for any of these calculations?

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[Allan]

1. Can we link to your blog from our Wiki?

Absolutely. Please link to the first post in the series (http://blog.allanglen.com/2009/07/build ... ler-part-1) as I will link future updates to that initial post.

 

2. We are very interested in incorporating ET calculations and water balance tables within ISY. Do we require any type of sensors for any of these calculations?

Local meteorological data is all that is needed for ET calculations (at least at the precision needed for lawn irrigation control). I can get everything I need from WeatherBug. I suppose that sensors would help the accuracy (particularly for calibrating the actual water balance) but I haven't really seen a need for that level of precision.

 

I am using the FAO Penman-Monteith equation as it is a universally accepted approach for calculating ET. In my research I discovered that most of the ET controllers that are available on the market use the Penman-Monteith equation. The equation is quite complex (there are a lot of different calculations involved) but the math is relatively simple. The link I provided above provides a full explanation of all of the components of the calculation. This documentation was the primary source that I used to implement the equation.

 

The equation needs the min and max temperature, min and max humidity, and windspeed (as well as net radiation but this can be estimated based on the location and time of year). All of these parameters are provided by WeatherBug so I download this information nightly to a hosted web application (triggered by a schedule in the ISY) and run the calculations on the web app. I calculate the ET daily which makes the calculations a little bit simpler (24 hour period vs. hourly).

 

I will be posting a lot more details on my blog as time permits but hopefully this helps for now.

[ryarber]

Great read. I can't wait for the next page. I'm very interested in what you are doing. Thanks so much for sharing that with us.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Allan,

 

Thanks SO very much. This is great and surely something we would like to add to ISY as a feature: you shouldn't have to do these calculations outside ISY. What would help is if you already have the Penman-Monteith equation implemented in any type of programming language which we can take and simply incorporate into ISY. If you do - and if you do not mind sharing it - please send it to support@universal-devices.com. I would sincerely appreciate it.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[jamesx0]

I am truly looking forward to this addition. Right now, I have a very basic set of programs that waters based on the prior day's temperature and rainfall.

[TJF1960]

I will be looking forward to more information and the additions to the ISY as well. I do not have the EzFlora yet but it is on my list, soon!

 

Thanks Alan for the great information.

 

Tim

[Allan]

Michel,

 

I will send in a copy of my implementation of the FAO Penman-Monteith equation (it is written in PHP). I wrote it pretty quickly so I'll add some more comments to explain everything.

 

I am using 24 hour calculations (instead of hourly) so there are some assumptions which I will note in the comments.

 

Please note that this only covers the ET calculations. There are other calculations for the water balance (things like runoff calculations based on rainfall rate and infiltration rate) that need to be included.

 

I have a link on my blog to a paper on the water balance approach that provides more detail on how to track the water balance.

 

Thanks,

Allan

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Allan,

 

Thanks SO very much. I shall be looking for your code and hope to be able to incorporate it into ISY. It seems to be not that difficult.

 

Thanks again.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[ryarber]

Hi Allan,

 

Thanks SO very much. I shall be looking for your code and hope to be able to incorporate it into ISY. It seems to be not that difficult.

 

Thanks again.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

 

Great news. Thanks Michel

[Allan]

I have posted the rest of the details about my irrigation system (part 4 and part 5 of the series). I was out of town for about 3 weeks so it took a while to get the rest of this online.

 

I sent a copy of my ET calculations to Michel so I look forward to seeing how that turns out in a future update.

 

Feel free to ask questions or provide suggestions.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Allan,

 

Thanks so very much! I have indeed received the calculations and it's currently planned to be supported after we are done with ECM1240. In short, it's in our plans ...

 

Thanks again so very much,

With kind regards,

Michel

 

I have posted the rest of the details about my irrigation system (part 4 and part 5 of the series). I was out of town for about 3 weeks so it took a while to get the rest of this online.

 

I sent a copy of my ET calculations to Michel so I look forward to seeing how that turns out in a future update.

 

Feel free to ask questions or provide suggestions.

[ryarber]

A couple of questions:

 

1. I'm not familiar with the "dashboard" you speak of. I assume this is just a small widget like web page that contains your calculations. I this run on a webserver in your home? How did you set this up?

 

2. One of the problems I'm looking at is that I have a low area that gets a lot of runoff during rainfall, but not during irrigation. That area stays wet and it is hard to mow it because it takes so long for it to dry out. Any ideas how you would compensate for that?

 

I had thought about using your ET calculations for my yard and just setting up a sepearate set of calculations for that one zone and just set the water level at a very low level before triggering an irrigation event.

 

Most of us have a ditch or some other problem area where our lawns might drain off that will require less irrigation.

[Allan]

1. The dashboard is a web application that I developed using PHP with a MySQL back end. The application is hosted online with a web hosting provider that I already use for hosting other sites. I have it set up like this so that I don't need to have a computer running at home to run the system.

 

The dashboard is a view of the content that is stored in the water balance database in MySQL. The dashboard itself does not perform the ET calculations but there is a second part of the web application that provides that capability (no user interface, just HTTP requests). The ISY interacts with the 'controller' by sending GET requests as resources in the Networking Module.

 

2. You bring up a really good point that I hadn't considered. The area that I am irrigating (front and back yard) is all very similar so i never encountered this as an issue. As a result I only track a single water balance for the entire area.

 

I suppose it would be possible to track multiple 'areas' that would each have their own water balance (I am using 'area' as opposed to 'zone' with the idea that an area could be comprised of multiple irrigation zones). The ET calculation itself would be the same but the water balance parameters would be different for each area (infiltration rate, soil type, soil moisture capacity etc.).

 

I could also see where this would be really helpful for tracking the water balance for something like a vegetable garden (independently from the lawn).

 

With my current design I am constrained to a single 'area' as I am using the Flex Alert system to trigger the irrigation cycle. This is a single on/off value so I would have no way of irrigating the areas independently.

 

I like the idea of being able to support multiple areas and I would suggest that UDI consider this in their implementation.

[strahan001]

I just wanted to see from the thread if the calculation that was noted in the various posts was implemented into the ISY. Thank you

 

Sean

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Sean,

 

We were hoping that it would be included in 2.7.7 but it didn't make it. It should be available in the next release.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

 

I just wanted to see from the thread if the calculation that was noted in the various posts was implemented into the ISY. Thank you

 

Sean

[peterd]

Michel -

 

I'm considering using my ISY-99i to control irrigation. Before I purchase EZFloras...

 

• Has this calculation ever been implemented?

• Where would one see it w/in the admin console?

• I haven't purchased the WeatherBug module yet. Will I need to have this installed to see the ET calculation results?

Thanks,

Peter

 

PS - Love my ISY. Way to go UDI!

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello Peter,

 

Unfortunately not because the algorithm is copyrighted and we have not been able to get the organization to respond to our queries.

 

Sorry.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[peterd]

Michel -

 

First, thanks for the prompt reply.

 

While I can understand where the various papers published which cite the algorithm would be copyrighted, I can't comprehend why the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations would adopt and recommend an algorithm which would not be freely available.

 

Are we certain that the algorithm itself is copyrighted under a "closed source" license?

 

Peter

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Peter,

 

The main problem is that the paper itself is copyrighted. We contacted the contact person on the paper at least twice but he never replied.

 

From business perspective, we might be liable in case they want to exercise their copyright.

 

I welcome any pointers, contacts, documents, links etc. which would explicitly state that the algorithm could be used freely or via some type of agreement.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[peterd]

Michel -

 

It took some digging, but here's what I've been able to find. On this UN FAO page: http://www.fao.org/nr/water/eto.html is a public domain program for calculating ET. Among the program's downloads is the reference manual. This manual (which has no copyright notices that I could find) reiterates that the software is public domain. One of the chapters in this manual lays out all the formulas used in the program including the FAO Penman-Monteith equation.

 

It would seem to me that if the software is public domain and the accompanying (non-copyrighted) documentation spells out the algorithms used, then those algorithms must themselves be unencumbered so reimplementing them elsewhere should be completely legal.

 

Have a look and see what you think...

 

Peter

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Peter,

 

Thanks so very much: this is great!

 

I have moved up the priority now that we have this public domain version! We should have it implemented in one of our next releases.

 

Thanks again and with kind regards,

Michel

[peterd]

Michel -

 

This is great news! Glad I could help.

 

I really do believe that having a sophisticated yet user-friendly irrigation capability which leverages the ISY's existing capabilities (location awareness, climate module, etc.) can be a significant differentiator against competing HA controllers.

 

I'm building out my HA system now in stages, and will be tying in the irrigation over the coming weeks before spring arrives. I look forward to beta testing this functionality.

 

Peter