I think it’s because Gardena uses a closed wireless system? Like tado°, Somfy io and such
Sometimes things are technically not possible, or the manufacturers don’t want you to use other sytems to control their products.
I’d suggest you write to
Gardena when you want to use it with Homey without Gardena hub;
Athom support to request Ble support for Gardena gear, while Athom is the dev of the (only?) Homey Gardena app:
It’s a pity Homey can’t ‘just’ connect to devices like your smartphone can.
BUT the Bluetooth range is up to 5 meters, like Arie stated already, seems to me pretty useless for garden tools imho.
I kinda doubt that … as you state, it ues Ble which is supported by Homey. The only “closed” thing could be the signals they use. Wouldn’t it be possible to get these signals through reverse engineering the app or intercepting the signal with something like a programm or device listening on the frequency, like a man in the middle attack?
I am pretty sure other devices which work with Homey w/o a hub also were not planned to work with Homey out of the box but manufacturers want to sell hubs, too …
Furthermore: Just did some research and found some very interesting things:
A pdf of a presentation that deals with legal issues due to the fact that the software is open source. The pdf aso gives details on the hardware and also where to find the code:
Github site of the code, as far as it is open source:
Another Github site that deals with Home Assistand integration:
And anoher one that deals with “iobroker”, thedescription says one can crete an alternatve app that can be used side by side to the Gardena app:
I am not an expert, but this looks like there’s enough information to create a working app for Homey to avoid the requirement of a hub.
I’m brand new to Homey and am just having a play round to see which of my smart home devices I can use with the system.
I’ve got a gardena watering system (soil sensor and water controller with gateway) which has added to Homey with no problems.
The issue I have is when I try and use the sensor in an advanced flow. I’d like to do the following:
At 08:00 check the water humidity and if >60% water for 1 minute and if <60% water for 10 minutes. For some reason I don’t seem to be able to use the sensor as an “And…” card (after the time trigger), only a “When…” card. I’m not sure this will work properly as it looks like it will only trigger as the sensor passes 60% humidity, rather than being something I can check at a set time every day.
The AND cards are mostly available as a Logics card, where one can use the value tag of the sensor (or anything else).
But on Homey it’s imho easier to turn it around. Make the time a condition, and make the humidity a trigger
I’m so new I hadn’t yet worked out the logic tests but it all makes sense now.
I’ve managed to get it working, only issue I have now is the one which was flagged a couple of years ago - the Gardena system turns on for just 1 minute then shuts itself off, the timer in my flow doesn’t make any difference.
Has anyone managed to get this irrigation system watering for the correct amount of time?
Yes, it was a bug that @Gerben_Zomer referred to here:
But I worked it out - for some reason you have to go into the device settings for the controller (within Homey) and set a default length of time for watering, provided this is longer than you’d ever want to water for you can then use the delays in Flow to turn off after the appropriate amount of time. For example I set the watering time to 60 minutes, this means that if I just turn it on it will do a full hour but if I use a delay at, say, 10 minutes it will shut off.
I’m afraid I can’t see how to share the flow but will try and work that out too!
I have 5 zones that work perfectly with and I control them all with homey. I can’t use the Gardena app because of my pump that is switched on and off via the homey (smart switch).
But now I want to try to use the gardena app instead. Why? because of the functionality of the app. Then I can stop watering when there comes heavy rain ore water more when there is a lot of sun coming. This all is very easy when is it all taken care of by gardena.
The problem is that I can not get the valves and pomp work seamlessly with each other. Probably because there is no ‘’ if ‘’ button when making a flow.
Is maybe someone smart enough to help me with my problem, and knows a work around when gardena does not have a ‘’ if ‘’ button.
@Arnoud_Fleer You can use the Watch/Listener When-flowcards from the Device Capabilities app to create When cards for devices/apps that do not have those flowcards.
