Installing my netAqua by Roslen

[GPowers]

This last weekend I install the netAqua 9D and the 9 station expansion module. I also bought the rain sensor and the temperature sensor. I had been watching the market for a sprinkler controller that allowed web access and internet weather. I never understood why this feature set took so long to get to market.

When installing I did a bench setup, by a computer, first. This made sure my PC could access the netAqua 9D and the 9D could see the expansion module. I was pleasantly surprised when every thing connect up the first go at it. So I moved every thing to the garage where it will permanently live.

Here is where I encountered my first difficulty. Not a problem, but is was tough connection all the wires to the terminals deep inside the unit. So I took the controller off the wall and moved it over to the work bench, to connected all the station wires. I think this was the biggest disappointment, that every connection was surface mounted on the printer circuit board. This made it very time consuming to connect all the wires. And there are a lot of wire in a very tight space. In fact i'm still working out how to manage all the wires.

Setting up, the netAqua, on the computer was a breezy. very simple web interface, nothing fancy but it gets the job done. I was able to get 12 stations up and running, on two schedules, with out reading the documentation.

Connecting and configuring the internet weather, rain sensor and temperature prob was also straight forward.

I have been running the netAque for only 4 days so there is a long way to go.

Things I would like to see:
- easier access to all the wire connection.
- iPhone app
- easier internet access(outside the local home network), like the Nest thermostat does with out needing serves like no-ip
- some way of automatic adding days or removing days depending on weather. temperature etc...
- having the option for the display to light up when watering is in progress (very minor)
- Having rain sensor delays logged in history
- manual operation should display zone aliases instead of zone number
- ground moisture sensor
- option to connect to a local home based weather station (temperature, humility, wind speed ext...)
- some logic (if then else) built in, to making water timing & duration decisions

Some of these are probably outside the scope of the netAque design, but they would still be nice to have.

[Orangehills]

Hi GPowers, Thanks for sharing your installation notes on the netaqua. I am also interested in this controllor.

What system did you replace? Do you have any pictures?

[GPowers]

Here is a picture of all the stuff that came in the two boxes. Do not have any pictyres of the install yet as I'm still trying to work out all the wires. It is a mess right now.



The old unit, pictured below, was an Orbit Water Master, 12 stations.

[Orangehills]

Ok I can see the terminals now, it would be difficult to wire with the entire assembly together. Do the instructions say anything about freeing up some room by removing the silkscreened label or maybe releasing the printed circuit board assembly and wiring it with the printed circuit board assembly above the enclosure? Speaking of instructions you can have your own personal weather station, you port the weather station to weather underground and then you choose your weather station from the weather underground and you have your own data, that is what the manual indicates. How many zones are you running?

[aquaman]

A note from Roslen Eco-Networking Products: Thanks to GPowers for a thorough review and sound suggestions for improvements to the netAQUA. A basic tenet of our “lean” approach to business is to solicit and use feedback to guide the development of the system. It is no coincidence that what he has outlined is very close to our current roadmap for the netAQUA. The space for wiring was an economic tradeoff in the initial design to keep the cost of the enclosure to a minimum, but features that are software based are all amenable to updates as we get them done. Going down GPower’s list, now planned for future updates (although not necessarily in this order) are:

-iPhone and Android apps,
-optional cloud based Internet access to avoid the necessity of port-forwarding,
-automatic ET (EvapoTranspiration) adjustments to watering duration using Weather Underground data,
-enhanced logging details including delay info, and soon, zone aliases on the manual page,
-moisture sensors for individual zones are being researched and will probably be implemented through our expansion architecture.

You can use your personal weather station now if you connect it to the Weather Underground network. Please feel free to contact us directly with your questions and ideas.

[GPowers]

An update to my whish list:

Things I would like to see:
- easier access to all the wire connection.
- iPhone app
- easier internet access(outside the local home network), like the Nest thermostat does with out needing serves like no-ip
- some way of automatic adding days or removing days depending on weather. temperature etc...
- having the option for the display to light up when watering is in progress (very minor)
- Having rain sensor delays logged in history (DONE update version 1.2.12 5/2014)
- manual operation should display zone aliases instead of zone number (DONE update version 1.2.12 5/2014)
- ground moisture sensor
- option to connect to a local home based weather station (temperature, humility, wind speed ext...)
- some logic (if then else) built in, to making water timing & duration decisions

[Rickc]

I just installed my netAqua I got on Kickstarter in 2014. Noticed that it had had some software upgrades but with the company not in operation I can’t get the software upgrade. Does anyone have the files for upgrading the software?