Pete’s lawn sprinkler was covering too much unnecessary ground (pavement) so he designed a method for regulating the water supply based on the sprinkler’s position –
I’m using a similar setup to the rudder control on my model airplane. The cable gets pulled in and out as the sprinkler turns (kind of like a rudder). The cable then turns another servo horn attached to the potentiometer inside that black box. From my arduino board, I send the pot VCC/GND and a third conductor to sense the position of the pot. (three conductors total = why not use extra mic cable I had lying around my garage). After a little averaging on my ADC I was able to get a pretty smooth reading of the position. The servo horn and cable apparatus is a pain to setup, so I’m excited to just hot-glue a compass or gyro to the top of my sprinkler for the next setup!
[via Sparkfun]
6 thoughts on “Sprinkler control w/ Arduino”
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Very cool setup. :-)
Just wondering – did you happen to have any issues with the servo power and the possible stiffness of a water valve? Thinking of similar projects, and wanting to try a similar setup as you have.
In the comments on Vimeo Pete mentions he spent a good deal of time checking valve smoothness @ the store –
http://vimeo.com/6409575