An eight zone Wifi accessible, sprinkler valve controller based on an esp8266.
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This project uses an ESP8266 to control 8 relays to provide 24vac to operate a sprinkler control valves. It is a self contained web server, serving all the pages needed for configuration, status, and scheduling of up to 8 sprinkler zones for up to 30 schedules.
This project has been newly updated.. an OLED and a RTC added since the original project.
The code is held on GitHub and that is my preferred method for taking bug reports and feature requests (through the Issue system).
I've just completed a major rework of the project. It has a much improved UX and additional Time and RTC options.
is no pre-made board. I've made two of these systems so far, and both of them
are done with proto boards and point to point wiring and assembled in a
water resistant project box.
General Hardware Description
use of the flash storage for both OTA updates and spiffs. Generally this is
an ESP-12x, but other models may be used. In my case I used a WeMos D1 Mini
as the ESP8266 board. I had some in the junk box and it has the 3.3v
regulator, and the usb to serial interface built on board. It also includes
a nodemcu type reset and programming circuit.
The 8 relays are controlled through a 74HC595 8 bit shift register. This is
simply wired to the SPI interface of the ESP8266 (CS (GPIO15), CLK (GPIO14),
MOSI (GPIO13) connected to Latch, Clock and Data In of the 74HC595).
The shift register outputs are then connected via resistors (10k or so) to the
8 NPN transistors acting as relay drivers. In my particular case I had some
quad transistors in a 14 pin dip package in my junk box.
These transistors then drive 8 mini 5v relays. The relay contacts connect
24vac to the corresponding output, and therefore energize a sprinkler solenoid.
A 24vac center tapped transformer powers it all. One leg of the transformer
output is ground for the circuit, the other side is routed to the relays to
control the solenoids. The center tap is rectified through a single diode
to feed the input of a buck type dc-dc switch mode converter. The output
of the convert is set to 5v and is routed to the relays and to the D1 Mini.
The ST1306 OLED is an I2C device and therefore connected to SCL (GPIO5)
and SDA (GPIO4) of the ESP8266.
For the optional real time clock (pcf8563 or ds1307), I rigged that up on a
proto board stacked on the D1 Mini using stacking pins.
The following schematic can be used as a guide. A Fritzing file is also
included. It is also just a guide. Again DIY assembly and soldering skills
are required to complete this project.
Gather the Software
- Arduino-1.8.3
- ESP8266/Arduino :Additional Boards Manager URL:
http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package\_esp8266com\_index.json
- Time 1.5.0 https://github.com/PaulStoffregen/Time
- SimpleTimer https://github.com/jfturcot/SimpleTimer
(http://playground.arduino.cc/Code/SimpleTimer)
- NtpClientLib 2.0.5 https://github.com/gmag11/NtpClient
- ArduinoJson 5.6.7 https://github.com/bblanchon/ArduinoJson
(https://bblanchon.github.io/ArduinoJson/)
- U8G2Lib 2.13.5 https://github.com/olikraus/u8g2
- orbitalair-arduino-rtc-pcf8563
https://bitbucket.org/orbitalair/arduino\_rtc\_pcf8563/downloads/
(https://playground.arduino.cc/Main/RTC-PCF8563)
Have you taken a look at the LinkNode R8 board? They're available in the US for under $15 and have an ESP8266 + 8 relays all mounted and ready-to-go. There's no RTC or OLED, but it also requires no soldering and they have 3D printed case plans available for download. It looks like it'd be an easy and inexpensive platform for this project.
Looks very promising, especially the screenshot of the scheduler is impressive. But I am fairly new to ESP8266 (done some basic hello world blinks and webserver to control led/relay from my smartphone), and daunted by all the files in the github. Could you provide some guidance on how I should set this up ?
Also, is the 74HC595 shift register a requirement ? I was planning on just using my ESP12E pins directly controlling solid-state-relays. They are 5V logic but seem to respond just fine to the 3.3V digital out from the ESP8266.
Many kind greetings, Peter
Kevin Uhlir
Hello, i have a problem the Wemos is not connecting to the existing SSID. It stops at Try: SSID and then reboots and try again.
Part of the logging:
FS File: /sched-schema.json.gz, size: 600B
config file: /config.json not found
sched file: /sched.json not found
set relays=00
going to STA mode Bundy
HTTP server started
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