The Easy-Reticulation Controller is designed to be small, simple to use, low cost, versatile and customizable. The reason I started this project is becuase I noticed that frequenty, households have reticulation controllers installed that cost around $300 and are packet with features which is fine if you need them but it makes them complicated to use in some cases. I have found most people only use upto 3 zones and a master solenoid at most. So I designed a small simple controller that would work with Home Assisant, could be mounted inside a Allbro ENL160806P case and could also be used to retrofit into an existing old school controller if you already have one to save on the need to buy a case or 24v transformer to run everything via WIFI.
I have called it a few names but have setted on Easy Reticulation controller. Eventually I would like to make it useable stand alone off WIFI entirely or with Home Assistant. Stand alone it would operate via Bluetooth with an App and it's time would come from a real time clock module. But first I would like it to work with Home Assisant nicely then I will work on stand alone model/version. At the moment this version is available to buy at egglec.com.au. If purchased it will come with the lastest version of the ESPhome YAML installed which will create a AP to connect to and Captive Portal for setup on your network.
- DO NOT EVER CONNECT TO MAINS LEVEL VOLTAGE IT IS DESIGNED FOR 24vAC safety isolated by a transfromer.
- Connect the device to a 24v AC power supply as is usual for reticulation systems
- Once connected the default duration for each station is 10 minutes
- If a momentary push button NO is connect to GPIO 9 on the left handside and ground this will start the program and cycle to the next station
- If an LED (red) is connected to GPIO 4 on the left handside and ground this will signal the station that is runnings
- It has an on board fuse TR5/TE5 Littlefuse 800mA Slow Blow
- AC has no polarity so the transformer leads at 24Vac can go to to either 24vac terminal. It would like work with DC as well but I've not actually tried it, but it would only work with the correct polarity, which is not indicated as it is designed for AC
- Station Terminal 1 or M is the Main Solenoid this will turn on whenever 1,2,3 or 4 are on this could running a main solenoid or a 24vac contactor to turn on a bore pump
- Station Terminals 1, 2, 3, and 4 are the 4 Station that will connect to the other side of each Zone or Solenoid in your system
- Connect your phone or computer to the AP the device creates EG. easy-reticulation-D2f682 there is no password
- Wait....be patient and dialog should pop up and you may enter your SSID and PASSWORD, the device is available at 192.168.4.1 if no popup comes up, but you will need to wait still for it to be active
- Once connected to your network Home Assistant will discover it in configuation/integrations area if it does not you will need to find out the devices IP on your router, and select add new device in the bottom right corner and then enter the IP address your DHCP as given the device
- Once Created it will make 14 entities it will make all the necessary entities in HA for you this includes:
- 4 x Station Duration set these to enter the run time in minutes of each station the device will time the duration and turn off the station when finished so you only need to setup and automation in HA to start the station running, if you ever want to change the run time place the Station Duration Entities in your Dashboard.
- 4 x Stations switches turn these on to start and stop a station running if you allow google home or alexa to access the switch you can ask it to turn on (example: Station One) and Station 1 will run for it's set duration
- 5 x Switch that will disabled by default that directly operate the solenoids
- 1 x Status Text Sensor that tell you what the system is currently doing
The Device can of course be reprogrammed as you would like too, if you have ESPhome installed, the ESPhome dashboard will allow you to import and install the YAML code from this repository simply by ADOPTING the device into your system. You can also manually copy this code or any YAML code that is valid as you wish into a newly setup device. If you need would like to change the name of the device, this will prevent the new yaml uploading, in the wifi section uncomment out use_address: and enter the device's current IP or network name ie easy-retitulation.local once the new code has been has been uploaded you can comment out use_address: again as the name will be used to access the device.
Design new smaller PCB, with additional output and more accessible battery sizeComplete- Design ESP32 Variant with ablity to use Bluetooth to control device
- Design add on buttons for mounting in/on case Allbro ENL160806P
- Design application for mobiles to control device stand alone via bluetooth
- Web dash-board for standalone usage
- Integration for Home Assistant
- Lorawan integration for remote or rental property
The PCB design files can be found here https://oshwlab.com/james_6977/easy-reticulation-controller-v2
The PCB design files can be found here https://easyeda.com/james_6977/basic-retic-controller_copy
Instructions For First Time Use
- Connect the device to a 24v AC power supply as is usual for reticulation systems
- It has an on board fuse M205 1A Fast Blow
- AC has no polarity so the transformer leads or 24V can go to to either 24 and C(common)
- C terminal is internally linked and is the common side that will go to ones side of every solenoid
- Station Terminal 1 is the Main Solenoid this will turn on whenever 2,3,or 4 are on
- Station Terminals 2, 3, and 4 are the 3 Station that will connect to the other side of each Zone or Solenoid in your system
- Connect your phone or computer to the AP the device creates EG. micro-retic-D2f682 the password is: password
- Wait....be patient and dialog should pop up and you may enter your SSID and PASSWORD, the device is available at 192.168.4.1 if no popup comes up, but you will need to wait still for it to be active
- Once connected to your network Home Assistant will often discover it in configuation/integrations area if it does not you will need to find out the devices IP on your router, and select add new device in the bottom right corner and then enter the IP address your DHCP as given the device
- Once Created it will make 15 entities it will make all the necessary entities in HA for you this includes:
- 3 x Station Duration set these to enter the run time in minutes of each station the device will time the duration and turn off the station when finished so you only need to setup and automation in HA to start the station running, if you ever want to change the run time place the Station Duration Entities in your Dashboard.
- 3 x Stations switches turn these on to start and stop a station running if you allow google home or alexa to access the switch you can ask it to turn on (example: Station One) and Station 1 will run for it's set duration
- 3 x Time Remaining Sensors these will show how much time there is remaining on the current run and can be included on your dashboard as info
- 1 x Status which is disabled in HA by default will show system Standby, Run, or Rain
- 1 x Light Sensor is disabled in HA by default will show if the board is in light or dark you can get a case with a clear lid
- 1 x Rain Switch if this is turned on, the device will not allow the stations to be turned on, you can create an automation in HA to activate this switch for a day if there is rain fall at a certain level in your area
- 1 x Restart switch is disabled by default is used internally to daily reset the system at 1AM as WIFI and API reboot are disable this will prevent the system locking out of the API or off WIFI
- 1 x System up time since last reboot disable by default in HA
- 1 x Switch Main it the switch to turn on the main solenoid relay