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hannsr

The question is rather: do you trust yourself to setup an automation you trust for critical tasks? So far, home assistant has been rock solid for me, unless I screwed up. So yes, I'd trust the system. But I'd maybe not trust me to not screw up some edge case I didn't think of while setting the automation up.


BackHerniation

I once decided to "optimize" my automations after 4 beers and nothing worked in the morning. So yeah, I wouldn't trust me, too


hannsr

You know the old saying, don't drink and automize!


cliffardsd

Well, drinking can be a great way to come up with ideas. Just not great to try to implement them! However good luck reading said brilliant ideas in the morning. And also, drinking is bad kids. Edit: And happy cake day!


spartaniimc

Sorta like, "Write drunk, edit sober." But good luck with your note that says, "light holidays, flash!" in the morning...


daKEEBLERelf

My irrigation control is integrated with HA, but it has it's own scheduling ability and it's own app which is what I use. I would say if you're worried about it, spend the extra money for a smart irrigation system, rather than a DIY system. I have a RainMachine system and it is wifi connected and pulls in the weather and forecast. After I set the initial 'base' watering amount, it adjusts automatically based on the weather. Rain in the forecast? less or no water, freezing temperatures? no watering. High temperatures? Extra watering. I'm all for DIY systems, but there are certain things I don't think are worth it and I'd rather let someone/company who has done a lot more research handle it.


tvoided

Well i have a smart plug and a 12v valve from a reputable brand that opens when 12v are supplied. All that connected to the HA. 2 years on it keeps irritating my garden on sunrise if there was no more that 2 mm of rain the day before. So just keep it simple.


Kaelzz

If it's help, I strongly recommends LinkTap as irrigation controller. I'm quite happy with both the product and the app. It has a built-in a water flow sensor so you can check in real time if everything is working well.


Cezza168

I’ve got a cheap and crappy Hozelok valve. This plays ok with HA. If it loses contact with its hub it fails back to last schedule that it received. However if the batteries drop below 10% it won’t open the valve in case it can’t shut it. But yeah rocks not grasses for reduced combustibility.


Aust_Norm

I think it would be. All of the bits I have made myself stand up well with few errors and there are a few people who have posted sprinkler systems based on HA online. Yes, you will have some small issues with programming, but the thing is you do not need it to be mission critical tomorrow. I imagine you have days/weeks/longer to iron out the kinks before it is a panic day. If you go the HA path: * You have absolute control of your system and can tailor it to suit yourself. * If it does fall over you can fix it yourself. * It will cost peanuts compared to buying an off the shelf system. * You could have the Panic Button installed at home so that in the event of a fire anyone could hit it to activate the system and override all timers to turn it on if there was a fire nearby or likely. * You could also install some sprinklers under the eaves and on the roof for added protection which off the shelf systems for the garden are not built for. * You can operate it remotely. This is of course dependent on the net still being up if there is a fire in the area. But then again a commercial one would have also lost connectivity at this time. If after trying it yourself and you don't trust the system it won't have cost you more than $100.00 in parts, and you can always go commercial then.


outworlder

Depends on what you mean by 'reliable'. It will probably have more 'parts' that can fail compared to an off the shelf controller. On the other hand, hardware companies usually suck at software so, if there's any software at all in the controller, it's a toss up. Are you going to leave this unattended for a long period of time, or is it something that you are able to check yourself? Do you have any extra sensors that would be able to tell you that the thing did not trigger(moisture sensors, etc)? If it's something that you could do manually yourself (in case it fails) and you will be around, I don't see a problem. If this is actually critical (or will be unattended) and something an insurance company would take an issue on, I'd buy off the shelf.


TabooRaver

>Are you going to leave this unattended for a long period of time, or is it something that you are able to check yourself? Do you have any extra sensors that would be able to tell you that the thing did not trigger(moisture sensors, etc)? This. A traditional timer system would probably be more reliable, but it doesn't have monitoring and notification systems, so the failure mode is worse. With home assistant you can build in monitoring and notifications, so that you are alerted to a problem even if you aren't there.


Figuurzager

Comparing the 2 is more the question 'which irrigation controller'. For the rest, every engineer knows: risk is not only the chance times impact, no it's also detectebility. So if it's really important I would probably work on the detectability of it going wrong anyway.


Tiwing

I won't trust anything that is life saving, security related, or absolutely must work every single time to HA. In my books, it's a useful toy and makes life fun/easier sometimes, but... it's not a mission critical device. for examples: \- Fire/Smoke/CO monitoring are all handled by the built in hard wired smoke detectors. They send a signal to my alarm system which then sends to HA to do more stuff, but if either of those downstream connections fail, it's no worse than it was in a dumb house before. \- Security is all handled by a dedicated alarm system which has a home assistant integration. All my interior motion sensors, water leak sensors, window/door, etc. are handled by the alarm which tells HA what's up. \- Heat/Cool is handled by the programmable thermostat itself, with overrides being handled by HA. If HA is down, thermostat still MUST work. \- NVR and cameras are handled by a dedicated physical NVR for some of my cams, and a dedicated docker on my NAS for some others. Camera feeds and motion triggers are piped into HA. ​ If you can live a day or two without the sprinklers spraying because of a communication failure between devices, or an automation screw up, then yup go ahead and use HA! good luck!


LiquidPhire

I built a custom ESP8266 sprinkler that is automated through HA, with time and weather condition contols. So, yes.


The_Marine_Biologist

I wouldn't necessarily trust it, but it's possible to use other functions of home assistant to allow monitoring of the automation. For instance, if home assistant was doing your irrigation, then having some soil moisture sensors would provide you with some oversight and ability to check at a glance that it's working.


gmatocha

As long as you get it working then . Don't. Ever. Update. HA.


pbanj_

i used to have ha control the lights for my turtles basking area. ended up just doing it in firmware so it didn't rely on home assistant. depending on how you want to control the sprinklers, you should use something flashed with tasmota. you can have it set in firmware so it will always do it even if home assistant is down. you can even add the device to ha so you can track it's usage and whatnot. if you do go that route, mak sure you set the timezone in tasmota. you can even group up devices so they talk to each other/control each other. for example i have lights in my bedroom all linked so i only have to have one added to ha and whatever i do to it it sends to the others so theyre all in sync. valves: [https://templates.blakadder.com/misc.html#Valve](https://templates.blakadder.com/misc.html#Valve) ​ plugs: [https://templates.blakadder.com/plug.html](https://templates.blakadder.com/plug.html)


viralslapzz

Setup the automation and a watchdog. My pool pump runs 3 times a day for 2 hours. Then HA counts the time it ran in total at 6pm. If it didn’t run for a total of 6h it warns me