The DIY wifi sprinkler controller project intends to be a low-cost solution for more advanced sprinkler control. While the use-case here is targetted at sprinkler system control, the hardware/software can easily be used or modified for use on other automation projects.
Hardware:
- The hardware used is the HLK-SW16 16 Relay Board w/ WIFI
- The board costs around $50 USD
- Wiring
- You must power the HLK-SW16 with its included power adapter
- Use your original controller's power adapter (if the voltage is correct) to drive the sprinkler valves through the relays
- Tie the common wire from the sprinkler valves to 1 of the wires from the original controller's power adapter
- Tie each wire from a sprinkler valve each to 1 side of each relay
- Tie the other wire from the controller's power adapter to the other side of each relay
Software:
- The control software is custom Java software I wrote using JavaFX
- The software available on the web for the HLK-SW16 is a bit buggy, difficult to use, and lacks some features I wanted
- JavaFX and the gluon plugin for Netbeans/Eclipse makes my implementation compatible with Windows, Linux, and Android
- While I haven't tested building for iPhone, gluon supports it, so the port would likely be easy
- You will have to modify the IP address in the menu to point to your HLK-SW16
Background:
- Goal: Build a low-cost DIY sprinkler controller, accessible via WIFI, with advanced features such as running custom routines
- My original technical intentions were to reload the firmware on the HLK device w/ my own Linux and custom SW
- However, I found the feature-set of the current firmware sufficient
- It exposes all its interfaces over a simple TCP protocol (which I reverse-engineered in order to write this software)
- It has a sort of CRON job scheduler
- It can be attached to your WIFI as a client
Building:
- Netbeans: My environment had Netbeans 8.2, the Android SDK, and Oracle's 1.8 JDK. I also installed the gluon plugin for Netbeans through the Netbeans Tools-Plugins menu
- Command Line: Install Oracle's 1.8 JDK. Run ./gradlew tasks to see available build tasks. For example: to build a jar for Desktop Java use ./gradlew shadowJar
Picture of HLK-SW16 wired-up to replace my original sprinker controller.
Picture of the software control application in this repository.
