Welcome to SIP
(Sustainable Irrigation Platform)
If you are interested in putting together a DIY Raspberry Pi based irrigation controller that can have custom software and hardware features you have come to the right place.
The core software is written in Python
and runs under Linux.
The user interface, accessible via your favorite web browser, is
created in JavaScript
and jQuery.
The web UI is responsive and usable on mobile devices including phones.
To get started see the instructions
for setting up the software on the project's wiki.
Connecting to your irrigation system
There are several options for interfacing your Raspberry Pi to an irrigation system.
- The least expensive option is to use a relay board as described in the documentation for the relay_board plugin for SIP. Relay boards have the added advantage of being able to control other AC or DC devices such as lights small pumps etc. You can also build a simple, reliable, and inexpensive DIY Relay board interface if you need more than 16 stations.
- An Interface board from OpenSprinkler.com. This includes an enclosure that is designed for an Arduino based system. You will need to cut some holes in the enclosure to be able to access all the ports on the Pi/BBB
- TIAO Smart Sprinkler Pi - 16 Station Sprinkler Controller. A less expensive Chinese clone of the board listed above. Does not include an enclosure but has more stations without needing to add an expansion board.
Customizing the software
If you are a programmer, or would like to learn, you can easily create plugins to experiment with new software features without affecting the core program. See the Plugins Wiki for information about writing plugins
or
With the included Node-RED plugin enabled, and Node-RED installed, you can use Node-RED's fun to use, graphic, flow based programming to easily add custom features to SIP. See Node-RED for an introduction. See the Node-RED plugin documentation for information about using Node-RED with SIP.
or
you can select from a growing number of useful plugins shared by others.
To learn more visit the SIP discussion forum.