This development board is the perfect addition to any irrigation IOT/irrigation automation project. The WATERKARMA development board offers a hack interface to nearly every existing RAINBIRD, HUNTER, IRRITROL and TORO irrigation controller on earth. Hack interface with 1 of the following brands our all 4 simultaneously. In some cases it is possible to simultaneously control several of the same brand controllers. **

Rain Bird Controllers:Esp-Me, Esp-LX, Esp-RZX, Esp-SMT, ESP-LX basic, ESP-LX plus, ESP-LXME, ESP-LXMEF, ESP-LXD, ESP-LX

Hunter Controllers: X-Core, Pro-C, PCC, I-Core and ACC. Irritrol Controllers: Kwik Dial, Rain Dial-R, Total Control-R, MC-E Blue, Toro Controllers: Evolution Series, Custom Command, TMC-212, TMC-424-E

** Benefits for using WATERKARMA in your project/product.
Save time and money on irrigation related electrical component development and Configuration. Recycle/Hack some of the most robust electrical components available. No need to include 24VAC Transformers, Relays, Terminals, UL Listings or Massive Waterproof Enclosures. Existing irrigation controllers already have that stuff.
Reduce your risk by taking advantage of the default safety features built into existing controllers. Don’t water Zone 21 for 99 days, feel comfort knowing the existing controller cuts the water at 99 minutes. Bugs, Glitches and Connectivity issues could cause actual damage to lawns, landscapes and homes. That risk will also delay your release because of testing. Reduce install times. No need to rewire the entire system or even remove the old controller off the garage wall. WATERKARMA adds the “Plug and Play” feature to your project via Molex 5, 6 connector, ribbon cable or even bare copper wire under existing screw terminal ports. Average consumers don’t feel comfortable rewiring an entire irrigation system.
Implementation of the WATERKARMA Add-On vs full replacement is HIGHLY desirable to users with more than 12 zones and it’s a no brainer for 2 wire encoder/decoder systems. Full replacement of a 2 wire system is very expensive. The hardware is already buried and configured and it could take a crew of pros a day or more to complete the most difficult of all controllers to configure. It would be insane to replace a configured 2 wire system for the best cloud based controller system. $1000’s in labor and headaches galore. The fruits of my labor/hack have been integrated into the code, compiled and uploaded to an Arduino Pro 328 - 5V/16 MHz (Sparkfun Arduino Board). Send commands to the Arduino locally or remotely via your comm hardware of choice. These simple documented commands can be sent via Raspberry Pi B, B+, A+, Raspberry Pi 2 B, Intel Edison, Beaglebone Black, Xbee, Bluetooth, RF and Infrared. When the Arduino receives a command it will parlay that command directly to the CPU of the selected irrigation controller via wire. The arduino to irrigation controller communication is unbelievably responsive and takes less than 250 milliseconds. Send the command: “Hunter ACC Zone 1 for 10 min” and almost instantly the electric irrigation valve solenoid pops and water sprays from the heads in zone 1 almost instantly. Turn that water wasting dinosaur into a “SMART” controller. Automate your irrigation schedule and allow weather conditions, ET and sensor data to effect zone time durations with minimal coding.

I’ve been in the irrigation business for 12 years now and interfacing with existing controllers to upgrade them into cloud based controllers is an untapped/nonexistent market. The average consumer/irrigation system owner is not ready to do a full replacement of their existing controller. This becomes very apparent when you consider systems that have more than 12 zones. If your system has 36+ zones then you’ll need to buy 3 x $300 crap.io’s, 3 iphones and 3 Apple Id’s to water your lawn from the cloud not to mention trashing your perfectly good $1000 Hunter ACC or $2200 Rain Bird EspLXD….

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please don’t hesitate to send a message. I’d be more than happy to assist. The controller library is growing quickly. If you don’t see your model let me know and I’ll look into it.