Opensprinkler bee how to#
Opensprinkler bee software#

To lower the cost, I have to stick with off-the-shelf enclosures, which means minimal customization.

Opensprinkler bee how to#

One tricky part with preserving the water-proof design is how to make the connection from the controller to the sprinkler valve. Serpac 121 enclosure with water-proof perimeter seal.This will provide OSBee with the capability of soil moisture based control.

Soil moisture sensor using a capacitive soil moisture probe and a Schmidt trigger oscillator to measure capacitance.This allows OSBee to interface with many types of valves at different operating voltages, such as 9V, 12V, 24V.

Opensprinkler bee software#

PWM-driven boost converter with software defined boost voltage, and an H-bridge to drive sprinkler solenoid.

SMT buzzer, push-button, 16KB EEPROM (borrowed from SquareWear 2,0 and Mini design).

It also has a version with amplification which can extend the transmission range to a kilometer! This chip has excellent operating voltage range (1.9V to 3.6V) and reasonable transmission range (up to a couple hundred meters?). This is one of the most popular and lowest-cost RF transceivers. MCP1640 has a bypass mode, allowing it to turn off boosting when microcontroller is sleeping.

Powered by two AA batteries, which are boosted to 3.3V VCC using Microchip’s MCP1640 (same design with first-generation AASaver).

ATmega328 microcontroller, classic Arduino stuff 🙂.

So far forward four years to now, after releasing the classic OpenSprinkler and its variants OSPi and OSBo, I’ve finally decided to finish up what I started a long time ago, that is, the OSBee!įor the technical minded, here are some details about the prototype design: But battery-operated sprinkler valves are also very useful - they are power-efficient, most of them can be hooked up with garden hoses so they are very mobile - you can move them anywhere you have watering need. That’s why instead of focusing on battery-operated valves, we started designing the classic OpenSprinkler for 24V AC valves. After some market research, we figured out that most common household sprinkler systems (particularly underground sprinkler systems) use the 24V AC sprinkler valves. We then started collaborating on the OpenSprinkler project. It was soon spotted by Chris Anderson, currently the CEO of 3D Robotics. I was starting to learn about Arduino and had this great inspiration to design and make my own sprinkler controller using an Arduino 🙂 There I made it, and I posted a video about it (see below). That was summer 2010 and I was shopping for a sprinkler controller for my new installed lawn. It is a wireless sprinkler timer that is small enough to fit inside a mint tin. The history of OpenSprinkler Bee traces all the way back to my very first Arduino-based sprinkler timer project - the Minty Water Valve Controller. Different from the classic OpenSprinkler, OSBee now comes with a water-proof enclosure, which means it can be left outdoors, such as in a garden, and will do its work diligently, like a Bee 🙂 Also, ‘Bee’ reminds me of the garden, and gardens need to be watered, so, there is the connection. It may very well have an XBee slot in the end, but the name was not intended to imply XBee. It’s co-incidence that it sounded more like XBee. The name ‘Bee’ comes from the abbreviation Battery-Enabled Extension.

This way OSBee can communicate with a base station or a smart phone, for creating web or smartphone-based user interface. Also, OSBee does not have built-in Ethernet interface, but it has a 2.4G RF transceiver (nRF24L01) and I am considering leaving spaces to add additional modules such as XBee and Bluetooth. In contrast, the classic OpenSprinkler is powered by 24V AC wall adapters. The main difference is that OSBee is designed to work with battery-operated sprinkler valves. Like the classic OpenSprinkler, OSBee is an open-source Arduino-based sprinkler timer. Today I am going to show you the first prototype of OpenSprinkler Bee (OSBee) - a programmable sprinkler timer for battery-operated valves. In the meantime a lot of new exciting projects are happening. Update: check out our new standalone OpenSprinkler Bee (OSBee) 2.0 with built-in WiFi and OLED display.