Automatic garden watering

1. Introduction #

Having a beautiful garden is not only about aesthetics – it also brings numerous benefits for your health, well-being, and property value. A garden can become your favorite place to relax or spend time with family and friends. Being in contact with greenery helps reduce stress, especially after a long day at work or school.
For a garden to thrive, proper irrigation is essential. Manually watering the garden requires a significant amount of time for repetitive tasks. And when something is repetitive, it’s a perfect candidate for automation. That’s why our goal was to create an automatic garden watering system that adds yet another important functionality to the smart home.

2. System Features #

1. The ability to define any number of watering cycles, such as a morning cycle, evening cycle, and an additional cycle in case the garden requires extra watering.
2. For each cycle, you can define its start time using the Remote app. The DOMIQ system will automatically initiate watering based on these settings.
3. The ability to define any number of watering zones. Each zone can have the following parameters specified:
   • Identifier of the solenoid valve controlling the water supply.
   • Days of the week on which the zone should be watered, allowing you to adjust the irrigation intensity to suit the needs of the plants.
   • The number of watering cycles that a given zone should support. This allows you to easily create varied watering schedules.
     Example: in one cycle, all watering zones are active, which serves as the base mode of operation, while in another cycle, only selected zones participate—those that require additional irrigation.
   • Watering duration (expressed in minutes) assigned to a given cycle.
4. Automatic Mode:
   • Automatic mode is the default operating mode, which is launched based on time rules defined by the user.
   • In automatic mode, sections assigned to a given cycle are watered sequentially.
     Example: If you define three zones with the following watering durations: 5, 10, and 15 minutes, and set the start time to 4:30 AM, then the system will start zone one at 4:30 AM for 5 minutes, then zone two for 10 minutes, and finally zone three for 15 minutes.
   • Automatic mode can be turned off manually at any time from the Remote application.
   • Automatic mode can be paused and then resumed at the point where it was interrupted using the interface in the Remote application.
   • The system has the possibility of enabling a lock for automatic mode. Its operation is as follows:
     • If the lock is enabled and the time condition for starting a given watering cycle is met, then watering will not start.
     • If a given watering cycle is in progress and the lock is enabled, then watering will be stopped.
5. Manual Mode
   In manual mode, you have control over the operation of the entire system regardless of the adopted time rules. Starting watering manually causes the currently running automatic mode to stop.
   In manual mode, you can control:
   • Individual zones:
     • You have the possibility of manually setting the watering duration from the Remote application.
     • Possibility of manually starting and stopping watering of a given zone.
   • All zones:
     • The system will enforce sequential watering of all zones planned for a given cycle, regardless of the selected days of the week for a given zone.
   • Cycles:
     • Possibility of manually starting a given watering cycle. This is the manual equivalent of the operation of automatic mode. It is useful when, for any reason, the automatic mode could not be started at the planned time.
     • Watering in this mode can be paused and then resumed at the point where it was interrupted using the interface in the Remote application.

6. The system has a function for calculating the end time of watering of a given zone as well as the entire watering sequence. Both pieces of information are displayed in the user interface.
7. Additionally, the user interface displays information about the currently watered zone and (optionally) the state of the rain sensor and the reading from the external temperature sensor.
8. (Optional) The system anticipates the possibility of taking into account information from the rain sensor according to the following scheme:
   • When it is raining and the time condition for starting a given watering cycle is met, watering will not be started.
   • When watering is in progress and the system receives information from the rain sensor about rainfall, watering will be stopped.
9. (Optional) The system enables the handling of an external temperature sensor. Information about the temperature is used to optimize the watering duration of individual zones according to the following rules:
   • When the temperature is below 5ºC, watering will not be activated – protection of equipment and plants.
   • When the temperature is in the range of 5-14ºC (cool), the watering time will be shortened by 30%.
   • When the temperature is in the range of 15-25ºC (optimal), the time entered by the user will be used.
   • When the temperature is in the range of 26-30ºC (increased evaporation), the watering time will be extended by 20%.
   • When the temperature is higher than 30ºC (extreme evaporation), the watering time will be extended by 40%.
     
10. (Optional) The system supports control of the main solenoid valve, which is a master valve cutting off the water supply to the zone valves. The main valve is closed after the watering cycle is completed or as a result of manually stopping the watering.
11. A predefined user interface is provided for system control, which only needs to be imported in the Remote tab in the configurator.
12. Additionally, a file with the definition of time rules is provided, which takes into account the settings adopted by the user in the Remote application.
13. All user settings are saved in non-volatile variables, so they remain unchanged even after restarting the DOMIQ system.

3. User Interface #

Below we present an example user interface that is included with the watering system.

4. System Start-up #

Starting the system consists of importing the user interface in the Remote tab and then adjusting it to the needs of the installation, as well as importing the definition of time rules in the Timers tab.
Everything is completed by defining the zones, which must be done in the Logic tab.

If you are interested in purchasing an automatic watering system, please contact us by sending an order to info@domiq.eu.

The cost of the access key is 499 PLN net.