Indigo Domotics

well. the time has come. i've had two ezrains working flawlessly for close to ten years. one, it seems, has now failed.

so. i'm going to replace. from smart home.

BUT. other than arduino, which i don't have the time for unfortunately, is there any other, more reliable irrigation controller i should consider?

smarthome, i must say is frustrating. the quality is hit or miss sometimes, and i have without doubt noticed a lifespan.

i've had my system, (many subsystems, but in insteon at least... 65 controllers), for close to 12 years. the first batch of insteon controllers failed around the ten year mark. 1, 2, 3, 4... they went, it was almost predictable. and now another wave is happening. i KNEW this ezrain was gonna go because of its age. i've been dreading this for months. and today, i think it finally happened.

all this is to say, while ten years is a vaguely respectable lifespan, i'm bummed that smarthome's stuff seems to have one so predictable. perhaps it's a capacitor or something that just gives out in all the controllers. i have never really tried to assess the specific failure mode. again, no time for that these days.

just a word of warning. whether planned or not, there is obsolescence in them there hills.


thanks for any thoughts.

Ugh... My EZrain just died . Ive been using this since Indigo V2.

Looks like the newer EZFlora is not that reliable. What else does Indigo 7 support?

Edmond

There are these 3rd party plugins. Surprisingly, as far as I'm aware, there aren't any Z-Wave based irrigation controllers on the market yet. I think a couple have been announced but I don't know if they are yet available.

I spent a fair amount of time working with OpenSprinkler, but after a season of that, I decided to go with Rachio. Their evapotranspiration calculations were at least as good as mine and with their API, I can do things that I find interesting, like force rain / freeze delays.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11477&hilit=sprinkler

viewtopic.php?f=107&t=10865&hilit=sprinkler

viewtopic.php?f=123&t=16600&hilit=rachio

I'm looking into a 12 zone Rainmachine for my mom, simply because 8 zones aren't enough any more, even though the EZFlora has worked fine for the past 5 years. Supposedly it will talk directly to her Davis VantageVue which should give really accurate estimates of the needed water and just looking at the API, I'm hoping I can hack and slash something pretty simple through scripting to get/set the watering times and lengths into Indigo variables like I had for the EZ.

One of my EZFlora by Smartenit devices just broke - not getting a signal. Smarthome does not seem to stock them anymore. Any suggestions for updated technology or replacement or should I try to track one down. I have 17 zones so use 3 of these devices.

Unless you want to use cloud-based products, or build your own, the EZFlora is probably still your best bet. I just added another to mine and discovered the same as you. You can still buy them from the Smartenit website.

If I could tolerate the cloud, I’d go with Rachio.

Terry


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't know if this is supported by Indigo but there is a Z-wave irrigation controller on the market that seems to be well reviewed.

Matt or Jay:

Is the GoControl WI15VZ-1 Z-Wave Irrigation Controller supported by Indigo?

Not yet, but it is definitely on the request list. I've looked over the documentation and been meaning to get one to develop/QA against.

Matt or anyone that can please help.

My EZFlora went on the fritz and was randomly working. I purchased a Smartenit 5010V which is considered the same device (at least from what I can tell). I went to sync it over the original device and it replaced the device as a lamplinc module saying the firmware was not in the database table 0 firmware version address is unknown (should be in device table).

Is this device not supported? am I doing something wrong??
I have relied on this controller for my sprinklers for a few years and i expect things to fail, but now the new one not showing up right is frustrating.

Is there a solution?

Hi Jim,

Try factory resetting the module (normally that involves unplugging it, press-holding the SET button on the side, plug it back in, wait 10+ seconds, release SET button). Then, re-sync it again. Presuming it still mis-identifies, copy/paste the Event Log window results into a reply for me.

Reset it twice this morning. The following is the events for the new device:

Linking - entered discovery linking mode (240 seconds)
PowerLinc Linking - sending engine version request to 23.8B.CA
PowerLinc Linking - received engine version 01 from 23.8B.CA
PowerLinc Linking - sending id request for device information to 23.8B.CA
Trigger Nest - Variable - Temperature Settings - Master
PowerLinc Linking - sending id request for device information to 23.8B.CA
PowerLinc Linking - received id request response from 23.8B.CA
PowerLinc Linking - retrieving firmware version
Error firmware version address is unknown (should be in device table)
PowerLinc Linking - initializing remote device "Smartenit 5010" (address 23.8B.CA, firmware version 01)
PowerLinc Linking - initialize complete
PowerLinc Linking - syncing remote device "Smartenit 5010" (address 23.8B.CA, firmware version 01)
PowerLinc Linking - syncing all links
PowerLinc Linking - comparing local and remote links
PowerLinc Linking - compare complete
PowerLinc Linking - sync complete
PowerLinc Linking - device "Smartenit 5010" links updated
PowerLinc Linking - syncing PowerLinc links (address 19.BE.8A)
PowerLinc Linking - . . adding: INSTEON plc link to controller 23.8B.CA, flags 03, group 01, data 00 00 FF
PowerLinc Linking - PowerLinc links updated
PowerLinc Linking - sync complete
PowerLinc Linking - exited linking mode

Well Matt - I think I just solved my issue. I got the 5010V and I need the 5010A (which is the EZFlora Device). The 5010V is a Rainbee and requires a hub. The vendor is selling the wrong model as the EZ Flora.

Hey Matt -

I spoke too soon once again.
Got the new EZFlora 5010A today.
Plugged in, started a sync as new device.

PowerLinc Linking - entered discovery linking mode (240 seconds)
PowerLinc Linking - sending engine version request to 23.8C.D5
PowerLinc Linking - received engine version 01 from 23.8C.D5
PowerLinc Linking - sending id request for device information to 23.8C.D5
PowerLinc Linking - received id request response from 23.8C.D5
PowerLinc Linking - retrieving firmware version
Error firmware version address is unknown (should be in device table)
PowerLinc Linking - initializing remote device "new device" (address 23.8C.D5, firmware version 01)
PowerLinc Linking - initialize complete
PowerLinc Linking - syncing remote device "new device" (address 23.8C.D5, firmware version 01)
PowerLinc Linking - syncing all links
PowerLinc Linking - comparing local and remote links
PowerLinc Linking - compare complete
PowerLinc Linking - sync complete
PowerLinc Linking - device 23.8C.D5 links updated
PowerLinc Linking - syncing PowerLinc links (address 19.BE.8A)
PowerLinc Linking - . . adding: INSTEON plc link to controller 23.8C.D5, flags 03, group 01, data 00 00 FF
PowerLinc Linking - PowerLinc links updated
PowerLinc Linking - sync complete
Received INSTEON "Kitchen - Sensor - Motion" on (button 1)

Jun 27, 2018 at 16:04:53
Received INSTEON "Office - Sensor - Motion" off (button 1)
Received INSTEON "Office - Sensor - Motion" on (button 1)
PowerLinc Linking - exited linking mode
PowerLinc Linking - entered discovery linking mode (240 seconds)
PowerLinc Linking - sending engine version request to 23.8C.D5
PowerLinc Linking - received engine version 01 from 23.8C.D5
PowerLinc Linking - sending id request for device information to 23.8C.D5
PowerLinc Linking - received id request response from 23.8C.D5
PowerLinc Linking - retrieving firmware version
Error firmware version address is unknown (should be in device table)
PowerLinc Linking - initializing remote device "new device" (address 23.8C.D5, firmware version 01)
PowerLinc Linking - initialize complete
PowerLinc Linking - syncing remote device "new device" (address 23.8C.D5, firmware version 01)
PowerLinc Linking - syncing all links
PowerLinc Linking - comparing local and remote links
PowerLinc Linking - compare complete
PowerLinc Linking - sync complete
PowerLinc Linking - device "new device" links updated
PowerLinc Linking - syncing PowerLinc links (address 19.BE.8A)
PowerLinc Linking - . . adding: INSTEON plc link to controller 23.8C.D5, flags 03, group 01, data 00 00 FF
PowerLinc Linking - PowerLinc links updated
PowerLinc Linking - sync complete

I have tried everything. What do I do now?

Help - Dying landscape in California.

JIm