using a NO-valve for such a device is in my opinion a major design flaw, as you said: batteries too low in energy ->> not enough power to close the valve again. Murphy‘s law: it happens exactly during your family is travelling for holidays, what a mess!
It looks like Giex 02 , same functions, same price. I use 3 v1 and 3 v2 for over 2 months with 2 watering daily. Battery is now at 80%. All of them controlled by HA using an USB SkyConnect. For safety i have doubled the system with a smart plug which controls the garden water pump. Last thing in watering automation in Home Assistant is to turn off the pump...so no surprises ;)
Would be interested to put the water valve on my home mains so I can finally get water usage in home assistant. All the other alternatives are so expensive at >200+ usd It could also be used as an emergency shut off valve if there is a leak somewhere. I wonder how easy it would be to build that automation in HA.
I hope they'll release a version for Thread/Matter. And it would be great if it would handle timers/schedules locally on-device, such that missing a network packet wouldn't result in a catastrophy. And like you say, it should be fail-safe in case of power loss.
@@notenoughtech But in this case you could send a safer command like this: "open valve at time x and autonomously close it after y minutes". That way, automation is possible without the risk of missing a "close valve" message.
I'd assume that if the power is removed, it simply leaves the valve in the last state - either open or closed. I would worry more if it opened the valve when it loses power.
@@notenoughtech I'm wondering if I could put it in my attic on the flow to the central heating system, as that would allow me to shut it off, drain the system, and do everything I need to, without having to climb in to the attic to turn the water on and off. or maybe I need to just pick up one of the many (more expensive) zigbee water valves.
it's useful for the remote control and water consumption caculation
using a NO-valve for such a device is in my opinion a major design flaw, as you said: batteries too low in energy ->> not enough power to close the valve again.
Murphy‘s law: it happens exactly during your family is travelling for holidays, what a mess!
@@czi2011 I do agree with you.
Thanks Mat.
It looks like Giex 02 , same functions, same price. I use 3 v1 and 3 v2 for over 2 months with 2 watering daily. Battery is now at 80%. All of them controlled by HA using an USB SkyConnect.
For safety i have doubled the system with a smart plug which controls the garden water pump.
Last thing in watering automation in Home Assistant is to turn off the pump...so no surprises ;)
purchased 5 GiEX, 3 of them defect now. Will see how long the Sonoff will do its job (arrived, but not yet in operation)
@@czi2011 I also had problems with 2 of them...online but not closing properly. I have changed the batteries and they work like new now.
Would be interested to put the water valve on my home mains so I can finally get water usage in home assistant. All the other alternatives are so expensive at >200+ usd
It could also be used as an emergency shut off valve if there is a leak somewhere.
I wonder how easy it would be to build that automation in HA.
I have exactly the same thoughts about it - mostly to build up leak prevention system
I hope they'll release a version for Thread/Matter. And it would be great if it would handle timers/schedules locally on-device, such that missing a network packet wouldn't result in a catastrophy. And like you say, it should be fail-safe in case of power loss.
Timers are done on the device as mentioned just not automation. So if you trigger it via automation... This is where things could go sideways
@@notenoughtech But in this case you could send a safer command like this: "open valve at time x and autonomously close it after y minutes". That way, automation is possible without the risk of missing a "close valve" message.
Sonoff hubs should gain the Matter support soon and they will expose their devices via matter to other ecosystems
I'd assume that if the power is removed, it simply leaves the valve in the last state - either open or closed.
I would worry more if it opened the valve when it loses power.
Yeah that'd the case. It would be interesting to put it in line with the main water supply as a meter and emergency shut off.
@@notenoughtech I'm wondering if I could put it in my attic on the flow to the central heating system, as that would allow me to shut it off, drain the system, and do everything I need to, without having to climb in to the attic to turn the water on and off.
or maybe I need to just pick up one of the many (more expensive) zigbee water valves.
If using this with Home Assistant Green would I still need to bridge or could I pair using a zigbee dongle in HomeAssistant?
You can use your ZigBee dongle via HA
So could you use the leak sensor to stop the Water Valve from operating ? ie, if it rains then don't bother watering
You can use water leak sensory as your trigger
Can this be left out when temperature is below freezing ?
i don't want to say YES, but considering how little water was left in the unit when disconnected, perhaps you could get away with it.
How can I get this posted to the UK? I need this in my life
While it's a fresh release only via Sonoff store
Based in the Northeast of England - not sure why your reference to price in dollars?
Because the biggest traffic according to analytics comes from USA
Does the valve work with zigbee2mqtt?
It will.. Just the matter of days really
Not blocking the water if the battery is dead or removed is a non-starter for such a device in my opinion. Not happy
@@IlithiophobiaKiller I agree this adds a need for unnecessary oversight