Support for more zones
I've used the 12-zone rainmachine for a couple seasons now. I'm quite happy with it and enjoy the flexibility of being able to use a simple port-forwarding scheme as opposed to a cloud solution to control it remotely. I have lots of friends who would be very interested in purchasing one, but they have more than 16 zones. I have a typical 1/8 acre lot and I use 10 zones. Many other lots are well over 1 acre of mowed lawn. My dad's Hunter controller utilizes about 36 zones.
If the firmware was updated to support, say, 36 zones, couldn't you create separate "expansion modules" which would contain 12 more triacs and be activated by a 2-wire interface? Essentially, this is what Rainbird and Hunter do with their controllers. The base unit controls 12 zones, but you can expand to 60 zones and purchase expansion modules as needed.
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Official comment
Yes, we're evaluating this option.
Comment actions -
Please add another vote in support. BUT: Only if it financially makes sense. An 8- / 16-zone expansion has to cost significantly less than $159/$219, otherwise I'll just buy a Mini-8 or Pro-16.
A different product that also would make sense is a remote exterior expansion: Something that I can connect with 2 wires to the main unit, and that then fans out to 8 or 16 or however many valves. Again, the alternative is to get a weatherproof box and put a Mini-8 or Pro-16 into it.
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