bunnings gardenmate water tap timer / modifying pic code

[tuppy]

Bunnings have a great water timer with two rotary switches that
controls a ball vlave that shuts off
water from your tap. $25 It has a single PIC that controls the
logic. I wanted to dl the code from the pic and study it and reflash
my own code.
Anyway of hacking into the code of this pic?

 

[James]

"tuppy" <george@joho.com> wrote in message
news:1191488999.354685.274680@n39g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...

Bunnings have a great water timer with two rotary switches that
controls a ball vlave that shuts off
water from your tap. $25 It has a single PIC that controls the
logic. I wanted to dl the code from the pic and study it and reflash
my own code.
Anyway of hacking into the code of this pic?

They actually use a "PIC" do they? What is the number on the uC? And as far
as modifying the code goes it isn't going to be overly difficult to re-write
it from scratch anyway.

James

 

[David L. Jones]

On Oct 4, 7:09 pm, tuppy <geo...@joho.com> wrote:

Bunnings have a great water timer with two rotary switches that
controls a ball vlave that shuts off
water from your tap. $25 It has a single PIC that controls the
logic. I wanted to dl the code from the pic and study it and reflash
my own code.
Anyway of hacking into the code of this pic?

I just got two Holman garden timers from Bunnings, only $30 and has a
ball vale too, powered from two AA's, and has a very nice LCD with
membrane control panel. Very flexible in the programs you can set, so
no need to modify the code. Even comes with a nice rubber boot to slip
over the front to protect it.
And amazingly it's made in Australia, excellent quality, I'm
impressed.

Dave.

 

[David L. Jones]

On Oct 4, 10:56 pm, "David L. Jones" <altz...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Oct 4, 7:09 pm, tuppy <geo...@joho.com> wrote:

Bunnings have a great water timer with two rotary switches that
controls a ball vlave that shuts off
water from your tap. $25 It has a single PIC that controls the
logic. I wanted to dl the code from the pic and study it and reflash
my own code.
Anyway of hacking into the code of this pic?

I just got two Holman garden timers from Bunnings, only $30 and has a
ball vale too, powered from two AA's, and has a very nice LCD with
membrane control panel. Very flexible in the programs you can set, so
no need to modify the code. Even comes with a nice rubber boot to slip
over the front to protect it.
And amazingly it's made in Australia, excellent quality, I'm
impressed.

Dave.

It's this one:
http://www.holmanindustries.com.au/products.asp?product=RSR%20Prog%20Tap%20Timer

The one with the rain sensor input was $60, the one without was $30.
Bargain.

Dave.

 

[James]

"David L. Jones" <altzone@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1191503393.523153.174700@w3g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...

On Oct 4, 10:56 pm, "David L. Jones" <altz...@gmail.com> wrote:
On Oct 4, 7:09 pm, tuppy <geo...@joho.com> wrote:

Bunnings have a great water timer with two rotary switches that
controls a ball vlave that shuts off
water from your tap. $25 It has a single PIC that controls the
logic. I wanted to dl the code from the pic and study it and reflash
my own code.
Anyway of hacking into the code of this pic?

I just got two Holman garden timers from Bunnings, only $30 and has a
ball vale too, powered from two AA's, and has a very nice LCD with
membrane control panel. Very flexible in the programs you can set, so
no need to modify the code. Even comes with a nice rubber boot to slip
over the front to protect it.
And amazingly it's made in Australia, excellent quality, I'm
impressed.

Dave.

It's this one:
http://www.holmanindustries.com.au/products.asp?product=RSR%20Prog%20Tap%20Timer

The one with the rain sensor input was $60, the one without was $30.
Bargain.

Dave.

I know the one the OP is talking about. I bought a couple about 5yrs ago for
$20 each so I guess they are probably less than that now. They aren't really
any good if you are under water restrictions though as the simple timer only
allows a singular time interval so doesn't work for "odds & evens" watering.
Bought them to water some newly laid turf. Two months later upto stage 4
restrictions and it of course the lawn died anyway (by which time we'd sold
the house thankfully)

For $30 for the ones you are talking about I wouldn't even bother pulling
the cover of the cheapies, not worth the stuffing around.

James

 

[Sally]

"David L. Jones" <altzone@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1191503393.523153.174700@w3g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...

On Oct 4, 10:56 pm, "David L. Jones" <altz...@gmail.com> wrote:
On Oct 4, 7:09 pm, tuppy <geo...@joho.com> wrote:

Bunnings have a great water timer with two rotary switches that
controls a ball vlave that shuts off
water from your tap. $25 It has a single PIC that controls the
logic. I wanted to dl the code from the pic and study it and reflash
my own code.
Anyway of hacking into the code of this pic?

I just got two Holman garden timers from Bunnings, only $30 and has a
ball vale too, powered from two AA's, and has a very nice LCD with
membrane control panel. Very flexible in the programs you can set, so
no need to modify the code. Even comes with a nice rubber boot to slip
over the front to protect it.
And amazingly it's made in Australia, excellent quality, I'm
impressed.

Dave.

It's this one:
http://www.holmanindustries.com.au/products.asp?product=RSR%20Prog%20Tap%20Timer

The one with the rain sensor input was $60, the one without was $30.
Bargain.

Dave.

Looks good. I just bought a Galcon for about $90. One disadvantage: It comes

on with a jerk and the water pressure stresses the joints (one of which
popped off as a result). Does this one "turn" on rather than "lurch" on?

 

[Andy Wood]

"James" <dotatdot@TtpPigG.com.au> wrote:

.. . .

I know the one the OP is talking about. I bought a couple about 5yrs ago for
$20 each so I guess they are probably less than that now. They aren't really
any good if you are under water restrictions though as the simple timer only
allows a singular time interval so doesn't work for "odds & evens" watering.
Bought them to water some newly laid turf. Two months later upto stage 4
restrictions and it of course the lawn died anyway (by which time we'd sold
the house thankfully)

I got a different "Gardenmate" timer from Bunnings about 9 months ago
- I think it was around $30.

It has a LCD display and can be set for every second, third, etc day
but also for certain days of the week.

I found that there were also Toro/Pope timers on the market that are
physically slightly different to that Gardenmate one but are probably
using the same LCD and controller as the capabilities and way of
programming them appear to be identical. Just a week ago I saw that
Woollies had a similar one branded "The Green Gardener" for $20.

Andy Wood
woodag@trap.ozemail.com.au

 

[Andy Wood]

"Sally" <me@anon.net> wrote:

.. . .

Looks good. I just bought a Galcon for about $90. One disadvantage: It comes
on with a jerk and the water pressure stresses the joints (one of which
popped off as a result). Does this one "turn" on rather than "lurch" on?

The ones I have seen use a rotating ball with a hole through the
centre for the valve, so they do not turn on and off suddenly like
most solenoid valves.

Also, the valve only uses power when turning on or off which makes
battery operation practical

Andy Wood
woodag@trap.ozemail.com.au

 

[David L. Jones]

On Oct 5, 4:07 am, "Sally" <m...@anon.net> wrote:

"David L. Jones" <altz...@gmail.com> wrote in messagenews:1191503393.523153.174700@w3g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...

On Oct 4, 10:56 pm, "David L. Jones" <altz...@gmail.com> wrote:
On Oct 4, 7:09 pm, tuppy <geo...@joho.com> wrote:

Bunnings have a great water timer with two rotary switches that
controls a ball vlave that shuts off
water from your tap. $25 It has a single PIC that controls the
logic. I wanted to dl the code from the pic and study it and reflash
my own code.
Anyway of hacking into the code of this pic?

I just got two Holman garden timers from Bunnings, only $30 and has a
ball vale too, powered from two AA's, and has a very nice LCD with
membrane control panel. Very flexible in the programs you can set, so
no need to modify the code. Even comes with a nice rubber boot to slip
over the front to protect it.
And amazingly it's made in Australia, excellent quality, I'm
impressed.

Dave.

It's this one:
http://www.holmanindustries.com.au/products.asp?product=RSR%20Prog%20...

The one with the rain sensor input was $60, the one without was $30.
Bargain.

Dave.

Looks good. I just bought a Galcon for about $90. One disadvantage: It comes
on with a jerk and the water pressure stresses the joints (one of which
popped off as a result). Does this one "turn" on rather than "lurch" on?

Yes, the Holman has a ball valve that turns very slowly (maybe takes
10 seconds or so), and it's advertised as being anti-water hammer.

Dave.

 

[David L. Jones]

On Oct 5, 6:27 am, woo...@trap.ozemail.com.au (Andy Wood) wrote:

"Sally" <m...@anon.net> wrote:

. . .



Looks good. I just bought a Galcon for about $90. One disadvantage: It comes
on with a jerk and the water pressure stresses the joints (one of which
popped off as a result). Does this one "turn" on rather than "lurch" on?

The ones I have seen use a rotating ball with a hole through the
centre for the valve, so they do not turn on and off suddenly like
most solenoid valves.

Also, the valve only uses power when turning on or off which makes
battery operation practical

Yep, on the Holman unit I measured just over 0.1A from the two AA's
while the ball was rotating (around 10 seconds or so as stated
before), and then the usual uA's of sleep current.

BTW, great to see an Aussie company making an excellent and cheap
consumer eletronic product in Australia.

Dave.

 

[tuppy]

I too have to lcd version of the garden mate but when you open it it
just has a black blob custom lsi chip
and lcd controlling identical motor, limit switches setup as the $5
cheaper two rotary switch version gardenmate.
The two knob version has discrete components around a pic (number
rubbed off). I thought I could make it solar powered, have a 415mhz
reciever and have it turn on/off remote control. Reason?? To gravity
drain a watertank on my property into irrigation tubing. The reason
it needs the pic logic apart from the timing function is also for the
limit switches so it knows when to stop the motor spinning the ball at
the off position. Also fiddling with it (ie unsoldering the limit
switch wires) the unit knew there was a failure and didnt want to
activate.

 

[David L. Jones]

On Oct 5, 9:48 am, tuppy <geo...@joho.com> wrote:

I too have to lcd version of the garden mate but when you open it it
just has a black blob custom lsi chip
and lcd controlling identical motor, limit switches setup as the $5
cheaper two rotary switch version gardenmate.
The two knob version has discrete components around a pic (number
rubbed off).

If the number is rubbed off, how do you know it's a PIC??

BTW, if they went to the trouble of rubbing the number off, then it's
almost certainly code protected too, so you can't read the code out.

I thought I could make it solar powered, have a 415mhz
reciever and have it turn on/off remote control.

So ditch the electronics that came with it and add your own
controller.
Don't waste your time trying reverse engineer what's there.
You could custom design your own board to fit the existing mounts and
everything.

Reason?? To gravity
drain a watertank on my property into irrigation tubing. The reason
it needs the pic logic apart from the timing function is also for the
limit switches so it knows when to stop the motor spinning the ball at
the off position. Also fiddling with it (ie unsoldering the limit
switch wires) the unit knew there was a failure and didnt want to
activate.

Good to see the programmer was thinking then.

Dave.

 

[Sally]

"David L. Jones" <altzone@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1191530945.215398.170180@d55g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...

On Oct 5, 6:27 am, woo...@trap.ozemail.com.au (Andy Wood) wrote:
"Sally" <m...@anon.net> wrote:

. . .



Looks good. I just bought a Galcon for about $90. One disadvantage: It
comes
on with a jerk and the water pressure stresses the joints (one of which
popped off as a result). Does this one "turn" on rather than "lurch" on?

The ones I have seen use a rotating ball with a hole through the
centre for the valve, so they do not turn on and off suddenly like
most solenoid valves.

Also, the valve only uses power when turning on or off which makes
battery operation practical

Yep, on the Holman unit I measured just over 0.1A from the two AA's
while the ball was rotating (around 10 seconds or so as stated
before), and then the usual uA's of sleep current.

BTW, great to see an Aussie company making an excellent and cheap
consumer eletronic product in Australia.

Dave.

Hi Dave

Rushed off and bought the Holman timer at Bunnings. Great. My water pressure
is 740 kPa, which is within the unit's specs. I wonder if you find yours
leaking at the joints. Haven't tried it yet as it's 2.11 am! BTW, I note
they make a point of slow turn off, but it's turn ON that causes grief here.
Obviously the same action, but the long grinding of gears sounds a bit
expensive on batteries.

 

[David L. Jones]

On Oct 6, 2:12 am, "Sally" <m...@anon.net> wrote:

"David L. Jones" <altz...@gmail.com> wrote in messagenews:1191530945.215398.170180@d55g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...



On Oct 5, 6:27 am, woo...@trap.ozemail.com.au (Andy Wood) wrote:
"Sally" <m...@anon.net> wrote:

. . .

Looks good. I just bought a Galcon for about $90. One disadvantage: It
comes
on with a jerk and the water pressure stresses the joints (one of which
popped off as a result). Does this one "turn" on rather than "lurch" on?

The ones I have seen use a rotating ball with a hole through the
centre for the valve, so they do not turn on and off suddenly like
most solenoid valves.

Also, the valve only uses power when turning on or off which makes
battery operation practical

Yep, on the Holman unit I measured just over 0.1A from the two AA's
while the ball was rotating (around 10 seconds or so as stated
before), and then the usual uA's of sleep current.

BTW, great to see an Aussie company making an excellent and cheap
consumer eletronic product in Australia.

Dave.

Hi Dave

Rushed off and bought the Holman timer at Bunnings. Great. My water pressure
is 740 kPa, which is within the unit's specs. I wonder if you find yours
leaking at the joints. Haven't tried it yet as it's 2.11 am! BTW, I note
they make a point of slow turn off, but it's turn ON that causes grief here.
Obviously the same action, but the long grinding of gears sounds a bit
expensive on batteries.

Like I posted before, it's only about 0.1A or so for 10 seconds or so
each time it switches.
That would give over 20 hours of continuous operation on Alkalines. If
it only switches for 20 seconds a day, that's still a few years worth
of battery life.

Mine is hooked up to the water tank pump, don't know the pressure off-
hand, but doesn't leak.

Dave.

 

[Poxy]

David L. Jones wrote:

On Oct 6, 2:12 am, "Sally" <m...@anon.net> wrote:
"David L. Jones" <altz...@gmail.com> wrote in
messagenews:1191530945.215398.170180@d55g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...



On Oct 5, 6:27 am, woo...@trap.ozemail.com.au (Andy Wood) wrote:
"Sally" <m...@anon.net> wrote:

. . .

Looks good. I just bought a Galcon for about $90. One
disadvantage: It comes
on with a jerk and the water pressure stresses the joints (one
of which popped off as a result). Does this one "turn" on rather
than "lurch" on?

The ones I have seen use a rotating ball with a hole through the
centre for the valve, so they do not turn on and off suddenly like
most solenoid valves.

Also, the valve only uses power when turning on or off which makes
battery operation practical

Yep, on the Holman unit I measured just over 0.1A from the two AA's
while the ball was rotating (around 10 seconds or so as stated
before), and then the usual uA's of sleep current.

BTW, great to see an Aussie company making an excellent and cheap
consumer eletronic product in Australia.

Dave.

Hi Dave

Rushed off and bought the Holman timer at Bunnings. Great. My water
pressure
is 740 kPa, which is within the unit's specs. I wonder if you find
yours
leaking at the joints. Haven't tried it yet as it's 2.11 am! BTW, I
note
they make a point of slow turn off, but it's turn ON that causes
grief here.
Obviously the same action, but the long grinding of gears sounds a
bit
expensive on batteries.

Like I posted before, it's only about 0.1A or so for 10 seconds or so
each time it switches.
That would give over 20 hours of continuous operation on Alkalines. If
it only switches for 20 seconds a day, that's still a few years worth
of battery life.

Mine is hooked up to the water tank pump, don't know the pressure off-
hand, but doesn't leak.

740kPa is a shirtload of pressure, but there's no reason a device designed
for mains pressure should have a problem. By comparison a tank pump probably
cuts out at about 350 kPa. I'm interested in the ball valve idea, as
conventional solenoids require a certain amount of water pressure to open
and close reliably, which is a problem if you're trying to use low-pressure
gravity feed.

 

[Suzy]

I bought one too. Pressure nearly 8 bars. Was slight leak cured by using
PTFE tape. I too have that grinding of gears. *Sounds* more than 100mA!

"David L. Jones" <altzone@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1191619074.415303.318230@r29g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...

On Oct 6, 2:12 am, "Sally" <m...@anon.net> wrote:
"David L. Jones" <altz...@gmail.com> wrote in
messagenews:1191530945.215398.170180@d55g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...



On Oct 5, 6:27 am, woo...@trap.ozemail.com.au (Andy Wood) wrote:
"Sally" <m...@anon.net> wrote:

. . .

Looks good. I just bought a Galcon for about $90. One disadvantage:
It
comes
on with a jerk and the water pressure stresses the joints (one of
which
popped off as a result). Does this one "turn" on rather than "lurch"
on?

The ones I have seen use a rotating ball with a hole through the
centre for the valve, so they do not turn on and off suddenly like
most solenoid valves.

Also, the valve only uses power when turning on or off which makes
battery operation practical

Yep, on the Holman unit I measured just over 0.1A from the two AA's
while the ball was rotating (around 10 seconds or so as stated
before), and then the usual uA's of sleep current.

BTW, great to see an Aussie company making an excellent and cheap
consumer eletronic product in Australia.

Dave.

Hi Dave

Rushed off and bought the Holman timer at Bunnings. Great. My water
pressure
is 740 kPa, which is within the unit's specs. I wonder if you find yours
leaking at the joints. Haven't tried it yet as it's 2.11 am! BTW, I note
they make a point of slow turn off, but it's turn ON that causes grief
here.
Obviously the same action, but the long grinding of gears sounds a bit
expensive on batteries.

Like I posted before, it's only about 0.1A or so for 10 seconds or so
each time it switches.
That would give over 20 hours of continuous operation on Alkalines. If
it only switches for 20 seconds a day, that's still a few years worth
of battery life.

Mine is hooked up to the water tank pump, don't know the pressure off-
hand, but doesn't leak.

Dave.

 

[David L. Jones]

On Oct 6, 12:09 pm, "Suzy" <not@valid> wrote:

I bought one too. Pressure nearly 8 bars. Was slight leak cured by using
PTFE tape. I too have that grinding of gears. *Sounds* more than 100mA!

That's exactly why I was curious to measure it!
My first thought was "those poor AA's"!

Dave.

 

[Suzy]

"David L. Jones" <altzone@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1191644583.425651.110190@d55g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...

On Oct 6, 12:09 pm, "Suzy" <not@valid> wrote:
I bought one too. Pressure nearly 8 bars. Was slight leak cured by using
PTFE tape. I too have that grinding of gears. *Sounds* more than 100mA!

That's exactly why I was curious to measure it!
My first thought was "those poor AA's"!

Dave.

Yes. With two waterings a day (normal) that's two ons and two offs, makes 40

seconds. Your estimate of the life of a Duracell AA then?

 

[Franc Zabkar]

On Sat, 6 Oct 2007 14:56:54 +1000, "Suzy" <not@valid> put finger to
keyboard and composed:

"David L. Jones" <altzone@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1191644583.425651.110190@d55g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
On Oct 6, 12:09 pm, "Suzy" <not@valid> wrote:
I bought one too. Pressure nearly 8 bars. Was slight leak cured by using
PTFE tape. I too have that grinding of gears. *Sounds* more than 100mA!

That's exactly why I was curious to measure it!
My first thought was "those poor AA's"!

Dave.

Yes. With two waterings a day (normal) that's two ons and two offs, makes 40
seconds. Your estimate of the life of a Duracell AA then?

This is the Duracell AA datasheet:
http://www.duracell.com/oem/Pdf/new/MN1500_US_CT.pdf

The life of an AA Duracell is 20 hours at 100mA, so your batteries
should last ...

20 x 3600 / 40 = 1800 days

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.