This project is a series of experiments with irrigration systems. The goal is to achieve the most optimal irrigation but at the lowest cost. The system employs multiple Internet weather sources as well as custom sensors, to determine whether the irrigation system should deliver water to a particular zone. Generally, the system is run on a schedule so when the time comes to run a zone, the system checks but the Internet sources as well as the local sensors. Here is a recent data collected from this decision making process: Data Collection System

The most interesting component of this irrigation system is the dynamic water level sensor. This custom build sensor acts as a switch to indicate whether the system should run or whether the monitored environment has sufficient moisture. This sensor has a float, which is raised or lowered by water collected in the sensor. If the float reaches the top of the sensor, it will return that the irrigation system should not run, otherwise it will return that the system should run. Here is a picture of the sensor installed:

Small scale demo of an irrigation system linked to a home monitoring console. The demo shows the irrigation system with water sensor, temperature sensor, humidity sensor and a custom water level switch. The water level switch is designed to shut the zone off, when the level of water reaches a particular configured level.

The demo system utilizes an Orbit irrigation valve, 24 volt irrigation power supply, zero clearance pool cover pump, Arduino Yun, two solid state relays and a 5 gallon acrylic fish tank.

The home control monitor is run on a Raspberry Pi 2, using Apache, PHP and Tomcat. The Yun provides Restful interfaces for the sensor data. The Yun utilizes a web sockets interface to inform the console of changes to the system state.

YouTube Demo of the System