AccuRain Watering System
Posted by Max Dunn Wed, 30 Aug 2006 02:13:00 GMT
Sprinkler systems are really dumb. The majority of the water gets blown away as mist, lands on the sidewalk or runs off. And since it is so difficult to get even coverage, most areas are over watered so the few drier areas will get at least some water.
After struggling with my sprinkler system and trying different heads and sprinklers to get even coverage, and fixing many leaks so water is not wasted, I realized that there must be a better way to water my yard. Here is the story of that quest.
Wiggly Sprinkler
My first thought was to develop a wiggly water system, similiar to the kids Crazy Daisy toy, but smaller, so that it would fit in a standard sprinkler head. The water jet would be metal and would wiggle around randomly inside a shaped collar. There would be collars of all different shapes, so you could find one to match closely the shape of the area you were watering. The stream coming out of the jet would consist of large drops, so they wouldn’t evaporate or get blown away as mist before they hit the ground. I even developed a prototype of this with a flexible tube as the water jet, but it would take a lot of machining to develop a real prototype.
Noodlehead Sprinkler
Then I saw a Noodlehead Sprinkler and thought that it might do the trick. So I ordered one and played around with it when it arrived. The problem with the Noodlehead is that it doesn’t provide very even coverage, except for small areas. And it is large and needs to sit above ground, so it is more suitable for a small garden then a large yard with a lawn.
Dancing Water
I then thought about a computer controlled water jet, like the ones they have in amusement parks that can through a smooth stream of water or even large goblets of water. If you could use one of these to move the water jet, it would make a really good watering system. There are a few companies that offer these dancing water jets, but they are very expensive or designed for fountains.
AccuRain
I then stumbled on AccuRain It looked exactly like what I was thinking of, and although not cheap, at about $400 for the starter kit, it wasn’t out of the question. So after a quick consult and okay from my wife, I ordered one.
Installing was pretty straightforward. I wanted to test it out first before permanently installing it, so I drove a pole into the ground and used plastic ties and duct tape to secure the watering head to the pole. I then made a weird pipe-thread-to-hose-thread-socket-to-socket connecter so I could hook it up to a hose. Finally, I had a bunch of CAT-5 cable around, so I used two wires for both the positive and ground and hooked it up.
One possible gotcha: on the watering head there is no indication of which is the positive and negative terminal! So I hooked it up according to the picture in the manual, which puts the negative terminal closest to where you plug the controller into the watering head. Nothing blew up, and it worked okay, so this must be correct (or the polarity doesn’t matter).
To program the watering head, you hook the controller up directly to it and then control the water flow coming out of the head to mark points around the area you want to water. The process is pretty straightforward, but rather tedious. If you press Next too long, it thinks you are done and then you need to go back through the points again to get back to where you left off. (It does remember the points you previously entered.)
The biggest problem I found is that even a little wind affects the stream significantly when the stream is farther than about 10 feet. This shouldn’t be too much of a problem with watering early in the morning, but when trying to program it during the day, it slows the process down considerably to have to wait for the lulls.
So now I have it all programmed and will be watching my front yard to see if everything stays green and if I use a lot less water.
I like my Accurain set. However, I am under the impression that the controller transistor components need a higher wattage rating. I have to buy a new controller after 1 year.
A problem that has just started for me is that the head sometimes loses its position and watering the wrong place. I haven’t had to replace the controller yet (my unit is still under 1 year), but maybe this problem is related to the controller.
Here is an email from Accurain about the problem:
—-——
Max: Either over-lubrication or insufficient O-ring lubrication is one cause. If you try to lube it yourself the O-rings in question are the 2 that are associated with the rotating top. Use only silicone O-lube, not petroleum based lube as it will damage the plastic. The other cause is the screw that holds the top on. If it is too tight or too loose the problem is aggravated. Tighten it gently until you feel it bottom out, then back up 1/4 turn. The vintage of robot you have doesn’t an angle sensor and relies on the stepper motor steps to know where it is pointed. If a step is thwarted by too much friction, the step will be lost and the pattern is now off course. Let me know if you are not able to correct the problem.
—-—-—--
I lubricated the O-ring and reset the hold down screw, and it is working fine now!
Hi guys- I had great service from Accurain for the last couple of years. But now I can’t get them to call me back or reply to email. After leaving voice messages for days in a row I get a “mailbox” full message.
Does anyone know what’s going on over there?
Kevin
Hi Guys- Just to finish off my last comment- I did get an email and a call after a couple weeks from Steve at accurain that the head was fixed and on the way back, no charge.
I also got a separate email from a user that is having the same non-communication problem. I guess you just have to be patient and persistant.
Kevin
Installed 4 Head system July 07 – had to have 1 head replaced in Aug – Turned off my system in last Sept and recharged in early June only to find out 1 head won’t shut off, 1 head shoots about 2’ (I recalibrated it according to the instructions- still doesn’t work) & the head that was replaced does not work at all – have tried for 2 months to get in touch w/ someone but to no avail – would not recommend this system until product & customer service improve!!
Speaking as a person who has owned 3 generations of the Accurain system (I, II, and IIM), I can say that this system in plagued with problems. It is probably the single worst purchase of my life, as $2,000 and hundreds of hours of wasted labor. Read my review on epinions.com and look for videos of head failures posted on YouTube. Just search for “Accurain” on either site.
I would love to give this product a thumbs-up rating—it’s an ingenious idea. But there has been poor execution spanning 3 product generations from 2005-2008 and medicore customer service. Software updates are complicated, requiring you to remove and ship back the robots and controller. All data may be erased by the updates. Software is still buggy as of July 2008 (just spoke with an Accurain tech the other day about a minor bug he admitted is unfixed still).
Furthermore, the company makes many little hardware tweaks to things like the controller and junction box. The tech told me that earlier generation junction boxes had a tendency to introduce line noise, which interfered with robot communications. They re-released the $28 junction boxes with updated hardware components. No announcement went out. No telling how many customers like myself banged their heads against the wall dealing with hardware design issues in even the most simple components like the junction box.
I have installed a 5 head IIM system and two of the heads are not working properly. One no longer controls distance at all shooting water 30 feet against the neighbor’s windows at night, and the other will only shoot water a few feet at most until it for some reason or other decides to work properly.
I have called Steve and left many messages. He has not answered. Is there any other way to reach someone at Accurain?
Thanks,
Bill Hagerbaumer
Hi Bill,
Unfortunately, the Accurain people are not responding very well to customer problems and it is necessary to repeatedly contact them to get a response. You might try an email to see if that works. Some of the email addresses they have used in the past are:
(These are all @accurain.com, I didn’t include the whole email address to prevent spammers from getting these email addresses.)
—Max
I have had accurain sprinklers for about 3 years now, and until this summer customer service had always been prompt. Most of my units are the older round “Death Stars”, but I have a couple 2m robots that are definately more reliable. However one started leaking last spring so I sent it in for repair and haven’t got it back yet. They were waiting for some new molds to arrive, and it seemed the replacement would be 2 versions newer than the one I had.
A problem that has been common to all of them for me so far has been that the range will drop off. It will be trying to water out to the maximum flow (255) but once it hits say, 180 it will stop and water the same spot while the program ramps to the end point and back down again. There isn’t any lack of pressure because if you press the valve with your finger it will open and shoot out to 30ft but for some reason the robot can no longer make it open that far.
It’s been a little frustrating at times, but it’s no less reliable than my underground sprinklers were. I was constantly replacing heads, fixing broken risers, and trying to figure out why a circuit would no longer get enough pressure to pop the sprinklers. All without the ability to fine tune the spray to compensate for extra sun at one end of the yard.