This project started when we installed a new lawn and found myself needing to diligently water the new grass but not having the time to constantly be moving hoses twice a day. Any IOT hose timers I found were either expensive or had horrible reviews. Wondering if I could hack a dumb timer I found this four valve Melnor digital water timer at Lowe's for relatively cheap (~$45). What caught my eye was that the four valves are separate from the timer controller and connected by a cable with plug on the end. The cable is prime connection point for a hack so I purchased two and began a tear down of one.

I'm going to document my findings and hacking attempts here. My end goal is to use a Wemos D1 Pro Mini (ESP8266) to be able to control/schedule the valve over MQTT and be able to have it not run when it rains or the ground is still wet.