For some time now, I've wanted the ability to control my sprinklers from my home automation network. The easiest way to integrate it was via my house's X-10 system. Commercial units are available, such WGL Designs' Rain8 units, but at the end of the day I'm cheap and I'd rather build my own anyway.
Fast forward to Saturday, 29-Apr-2006. After spending yesterday digging, raking, laying irrigation piping, and then laying sod on one of my friend's yards, I was way too sore to do anything productive today - at least anything requiring physical effort. So, I plunked myself down at my workbench and started working on my own irrigation controller. Initial codename: Project Tinkles By 1900h, the code was working well enough that I actually ran through a programmed sequence and watered my front lawn with the unit. By 2330h, I had the code in a finished state, and had managed to sketch out a crappy schematic.
The unit is capable of controlling up to 8 zones individually. It consumes the first 9 unit codes of a single house code. It can either run an individual zone for a user-selectable length of time, for a preset amount of time, or execute a program that will run through a preset amount of time on all 8 zones. (Unused zones can be skipped by
programming them for zero time.)
In addition, while the unit is idle, it acts as an X-10 line monitor, displaying the last two commands that it saw go across the power line. I figured I had an LCD screen and some spare real estate, so why not?
X-10 Commands for the XSC
- ON Commands - Each zone has a programmed maximum amount of time (configured in EEPROM, see below) that it is allowed to be on. Zones 1-8 occupy unit codes 1-8 on the chosen housecode (A-P, defaults to K). The zone will remain on until either an off command is received for that unitcode/zone or the zone runs for the maximum allowed time. An ON command to unit code 9 will load the predefined run times for all eight zones and start running them in sequence (1-8). Note: Issuing a command to a zone while another zone is active will queue the new zone up for when the current zone finishes. Issuing commands to unit code 9 overrides immediately.
- PRESET DIM Commands - In addition, each zone can be turned on for a chosen amount of time by using the preset dim commands. Sending a preset dim between 0-31 to any of the unit codes will turn that zone on for 0-31 minutes respectively. Note: If the maximum time for the zone is less than 31 minutes, any greater preset dim will be ignored and the unit will run for the maximum configured time.
- OFF Commands - Sending an off command to unit codes 1-8 will turn off the zone, if currently active, or de-queue it if it is queued up to run. Sending an off to unit code 9 will shut off all zones immediately.
The XSC Display
In its idle mode, the unit will show *All Off* in the upper left corner, with the software version number on the right side of the first line. Below it, you'll see X-10: followed by the last two commands to pass over the power line. A housecode followed by a number is an address. A housecode followed by alpha characters is a command word. The only exception is preset dim commands, which appear as *00 (where 00 is the preset between 00-31), because no housecode is encoded with preset dims.
Commands you might see:
(x = Housecode)
xAOF - All units off
xON - Addressed units on
xOFF - Addressed units off
xLON - All lights on
xLOF - All lights off
xBRT - Brighten
xDIM - Dim
xEXT - Extended Code/Data (can't decode)
xHRQ - Hail Request
xHAK - Hail Acknowledge
xSRQ - Status Request
xSON - Status On
xSOF - Status Off
Configuration
Configuration is entirely done by changing EEPROM values. This is quite easy using a PC serial port, since the unit has a bootloader that can be interacted with using a serial console (19200 baud, 8-n-1). Connect up the console and hit Z (yes, it must be a capital Z) within the first second or two that the unit has power (or after you briefly ground the MCLR line on the PIC). You'll get a prompt. The syntax for writing to EEPROM is:
W DD @ AA, where % is a two-digit hex number to write and % is the address at which to write it. So, if I wanted to program housecode K (0x4B in ASCII), I'd type W 4B @ 00
Maximum Minutes - The maximum time a zone will stay on. This is a safety to prevent X-10 communication problems from wasting water by running a zone forever. A zero disables the zone.
Program Minutes - When the program is activated by sending an ON command to unitcode 9, these are the times at will be loaded for each zone. A zero disables a zone.
Documentation
Version 1.0
Released: 30-Apr-2006
I apologize for it being crude and hand-drawn - cleaned up version coming... | [png] |
Firmware
Version 1.0
Note: Compiled with C2C 5.97 compiler, targetted for PIC16F877A with bootloader | [src] - [hex] |
![[png]](http://www.ndholmes.com/uploads/Electronics/x10sprinkler-v1-schematic.png){kind=link}