Send volt signal to water valve. Possible?

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Hello

I’d like to automate my irrigation system. Current situation is that I have a 4-way valve that switches on and off by using a computer attached to the valve. I want to replace the computer by a device that I can control with pimatic. The computer sends volt signals using a 5-pins cable. Depending on the pins that contain the volt it opens one of the 4 valves.

Now my question: is it possible to replace the 5pins cable with another one that is controlled by my pi? What kind of hardware should I get to make this happen?

Thanks

I think the PC-Pins work with 5V so I would do it with an Arduino. I think a Arduino with honeduino can do the Job.

yes… a 5V Arduino Nano sounds good for that but maybe the 3,3V gpio pins of your raspberry pi could directly handle that.

let us know a little bit more about your hardware, what kind of valve do you want to control?

@Joost-Breggeman Dear Joost,

What kind of 4-way valve you are using and how is this connected? How many Volt you have on the 5-core cable?

Otherwise you can control a relay device with the raspberry.

Best regards Johann

Thanks all. It’s a 4-way valve from For-q (hornbach brand). Not sure how much volt, but it will not be more than 3 volt I guess since the current computer only has 2x1.5 AA batteries in it. I will try an arduino. I ordered one some weeks ago so hopefully I can give it a shot shortly.

How does it work with an arduino? Can you program 5-pins to send a volt signal to the receiving device?

Thanks

@Joost-Breggeman said in Send volt signal to water valve. Possible?:

How does it work with an arduino? Can you program 5-pins to send a volt signal to the receiving device?

you could also try the gpio’s from your pi to control the valves first, check the gpio plugin

https://pimatic.org/docs/pimatic-gpio/

example:

{ 
  "id": "led-light",
  "class": "GpioSwitch", 
  "name": "led light",
  "gpio": 17 
}

to switch with an connected arduino on your pi you could check the pimatic homeduino plugin

https://github.com/pimatic/pimatic-homeduino

here as example:

{
  "id": "pin-switch",
  "name": "Pin Switch",
  "class": "HomeduinoSwitch",
  "inverted": false,
  "pin": 13
}

Hey @Joost-Breggeman here’s my five cents:

I do not recommend connect longer cables directly to the Raspberry Pi. I have had two Rpi after death . 433 MHz (homeduino) is mostly jamming and has little reach.
I would also dealt with Arduino Nano + Ethernet card + Terminal Adapter for NANO + relay board. And why not use the ISO standard for communication - MQTT. There is software for Arduino.
Then just install MQTT broker (perhaps mosquitto) and pimatic-mqtt plugin.

Theoretically, it could switch valves directly from the Arduino, but I assume that current consumption will be greater than the Arduino can handle.

If you did not want MQTT, there’s pimatic-johnny-five.

Is it possible to check on the valves what voltage/current they need to open properly? Most valves used in irrigation systems use 12V DC or 24V AC. It is quite possible that the computer features a step-up converter which generates 12V to open the valves. By the way, you are not using a 4 way valve, but 4 one-way valves and a manifold if I’m interpreting your setup correctly.
Do you have a power socket nearby the valves? The easiest way is to get an Arduino (or even better, an ESP8266 module) with a 4 channel relay board and a power supply.
I am currently building and testing my own setup with 24VAC Rainbird valves, which are controlled with a relay board + ESP8266 running ESPEasy. This way I can control my valves wireless via pimatic.

Thanks for all info. I will test the volt output the next couple of days. Keep you posted