Garden watering

Hi,

Sorry for my poor english :slight_smile:

I have a drip that waters my entire hedge on one network and another drip that waters a clump on another network.
Do you have solutions to automate watering, particularly depending on the weather or soil moisture? Preferably wireless :slight_smile:

Thanks a lot

I use LinkTap values. They are excellent and will do exactly what you have asked for.

I saw LinkTap but impossible to buy. Is ok with Homey ?

I make the app for Homey so I hope so :wink:
The Homey app can select the watering mode, including “Instant” so it starts watering straight away. You can also define the Eco mode settings and get information such as flow rate.
LinkTap support is excellent and they will be improving the API this year to make it more responsive to alarm conditions, etc.

The battery life is really good. One of my valves is now two years old and still working with the original set of batteries. They have been out all year and still look as good as new.

I would recommend the G2 or G2S as that provides the extra information such as flow rate and volume of water used plus you get alarms if the water has been switched off or if the rate is too high indicating there is a leak or if the unit has fallen, etc.

The new G1S and G2S also have a button on the relay to turn the water flow on and off but that can be disabled via the LinkTap app if you desire.

The system has many option for when it should water, along with an option to skip the slot if there has been or will be enough rain (based on the local weather forecast).

Then by using the Homey app you can add extra sensors such as moisture sensors to trigger watering cycles. My favourite is a motion sensor to turn the sprinklers on when someone walks on the lawn :rofl:

P.S. I don’t work for Linktap, I am just a very happy user.

Link tap + GARDENA Automatic Water Distributor - Guide to Set Up - YouTube
I have 6 independent water circles with that setup.

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I have also the gardena set up with the six way water distributor. Also two sensors. Made six water distribution points so i can water 6 different parts of my garden. With some flows i made the watering depending on the weather. For the rain forecast i have made a little script that saves the value of rainfall for the upcoming rain and with the Netatmo rain gauge i have the real value if it is raining.

Works quit well. Only problems i have is with the automatic water distributor. It always has to run a complete cycle. So when al six waterpoints are set to on on the automatic water distributor is always has to run this full cycle. If waterpoint does not need water a flow waters this part for about 10-15 seconds, otherwise the distributor does not go to the next watering point.

Also the gardena app has not been working great all the time. In the last three years the app had to be updated by Athom/ Gardena. This meant that the app did not work for a few weeks.

In that case you can go back to Gardena’s own app what does work, or ifttt what also works.

So i am satisfied enough, but it could be improved

This does not work to buy one? Wireless Water Timer - LinkTap

I tried with amazon.fr and it doesn’t work but with amazon.co.uk it seems to work.

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With the gardena water automatic distributor, is it possible to know the water’s quantity used ? which programmator are you use with ? have you an interface in homey ?

Youless has a measure device to stick on your water meter. It has an optical pulse input, and S0 input for external pulse reader.
Your watermeter should have a reflecting moving indicator.

App

I also saw the gardena Multicontrol duo. I have only two parts to watering. I think it’s a good alternative. What do you think? But i don’t know if i can control by Gardena app of ifttt.

Absolutely, that will work. But it is a “stupid” water timer. Nothing wrong with that. So you can’t control it with Homey, Ifttt or any app.

No you can’t see the amount of used water. You can control it with Homey, ifttt, and by hand

For me, I need to control only 2 separate way water. With the six way water distributor, i can control it by Homey with IFTTT ? I discover IFTTT so i don’t know really what i can to do.

No you need the gardena smart hub and smart water control also

Like this ?

I can control only one way.
I want to have only one interface, Homey, to integrate my garden.
So it’s not possible with gardena ?

Yes this is the kit you need and yes you can control it completely with Homey. You need the Gardena app from Gardena one time only to add the water control into the Gardena app. After that you can control everything with the Gardena app from Homey. I have the same setup.

With this kit it’s not possible to water several way at different time ?
For exemple, i want to water a zone for 30mn and another zone 30mn after

Maybe this link helps Link

You need something extra to water two different places.

This is the valve and hub on Amazon UK

And this is just the valve if you need the second zone: