Variable Range Sprinkler

[Pete], a musician, and the guy behind SparkFun’s pogobeds and locking footprints has a sprinkler hack. He wanted to keep his dog, Choppy, happy with a green lawn while also keeping his sidewalk water free. To solve this problem, he hacked his sprinkler and hose to adjust the sprinkler’s range. He uses an Arduino to read a potentiometer signifying the direction that the sprinkler is facing and a servo to adjust a hose valve that controls the sprinkler’s water flow. Be sure to check out the video above to see it in action.

Comments [10]

tagged: arduino, sprinkler, variable range sprinkler

10 Responses to Variable Range Sprinkler

sly says:

September 4, 2009 at 10:23 am

how to shoot a square pattern with a round pattern device.

Reply Report comment

Odin84gk says:

September 4, 2009 at 10:30 am

Or you can do it mechanically.

http://www.gilmour.com/Watering/Hose-End/Sprinklers/Large-Coverage/Pattern-Master-.aspx

Reply Report comment

dixon says:

September 4, 2009 at 10:58 am

Wonderful. Now all you need is an input device so that you can map the outer perimeter of the fall line. Then the arduino could shoot any pattern you wanted.

Reply Report comment

louis ii says:

September 4, 2009 at 11:02 am

That is seriously awesome.
Thanks for sharing!

Reply Report comment

RoHS says:

September 4, 2009 at 12:33 pm

way sweet post

Reply Report comment

Velli says:

September 4, 2009 at 2:01 pm

Odin84gk, you can’t do anything mechanically anymore. This is the digital age! If it doesn’t have an arduino in it, it’s not a hack.

GET OFF MY BROWN PATCHY LAWN!

Reply Report comment

Kidmose says:

September 5, 2009 at 12:20 am

Brilliant!

Reply Report comment

andrew says:

September 5, 2009 at 3:19 pm

another worthy arduino project. keep it up!

Reply Report comment

Pete says:

September 17, 2009 at 9:23 am

Hey thanks! This was a fun project! Sparkfun was kind enough to post it on their homepage yesterday! (http://www.sparkfun.com) And I found out from a comment about another guy doing some fancy sprinklers. No videos, but it sounds pretty cool and you can check it out here: “The SmartRotor” http://www.innogation.com

Also – hey Dixon – great minds think alike! I’m schemin’ up a board that will have 5 trim pots for user input. It will allow you to input different water pressure levels for 5 different windows of sprinkler position. Right now I gotta set my pressure levels in the code and re-upload, but it would be way better to adjust it in real time.

You guys got any other ideas for an input device?

Anybody interested in seeing my hacked arduino sketch? I’m sure there are much more efficient ways to write it, and I’d be happy to learn!