1. For some time I've been considering how best to construct the Overall Assembly of the equipment that forms the Zone Controller' I.e. that required at each, in my case Raised Bed, to control the Irrigation. Those following the Project will have noticed that I've adopted a new housing (still based on a readily available Garden Lamp) that provides a waterproof container with integral Solar Panel, Battery and three small switches for Reset, Boot and Manual Override respectively. The original Control Electronics have been removed as has the LED Lamp Asembly.

The hole vacated by the Light Sensor is now used for a waterproof grommet for a cable to the Solenoid and the Soil Sensor with a small junction box being used to split the single cable into the 5 cores to the Solenoid and 3 cores to the Sensor (not fitted at time of photo)

Jelly filled 3M connectors are used within the junction box. Water and corrosion are enemies in outdoor installations. A new Custom Designed PCB will be fitted on the same mountings as the original LED Lamp PCB although the many protrusions from the back cover, notably the battery holder, makes PCB layout a complicated task which is yet to be completed. Although changing to an ESP8266-12 will facilitate Over the Air (OTA) updates, space has been found for an FTDI port accessible when the back cover is removed. Layout sketch to follow in next post.