well. the time has come. i've had two ezrains working flawlessly for close to ten years. one, it seems, has now failed.
so. i'm going to replace. from smart home.
BUT. other than arduino, which i don't have the time for unfortunately, is there any other, more reliable irrigation controller i should consider?
smarthome, i must say is frustrating. the quality is hit or miss sometimes, and i have without doubt noticed a lifespan.
i've had my system, (many subsystems, but in insteon at least... 65 controllers), for close to 12 years. the first batch of insteon controllers failed around the ten year mark. 1, 2, 3, 4... they went, it was almost predictable. and now another wave is happening. i KNEW this ezrain was gonna go because of its age. i've been dreading this for months. and today, i think it finally happened.
all this is to say, while ten years is a vaguely respectable lifespan, i'm bummed that smarthome's stuff seems to have one so predictable. perhaps it's a capacitor or something that just gives out in all the controllers. i have never really tried to assess the specific failure mode. again, no time for that these days.
just a word of warning. whether planned or not, there is obsolescence in them there hills.
thanks for any thoughts.