What can a smart irrigation system do?

A smart irrigation system makes watering your garden a breeze. But how exactly does it work?

A garden's or irrigation area's water requirements depend on many factors. Important factors include temperature and sunlight intensity, soil structure, plant species and root depth, wind, and humidity. You can find more information on this topic on our page Plants, Water and Soil. And in most cases, the most important source of water is still natural rain, not artificial irrigation. As a result, the garden's water requirements fluctuate considerably. Even in midsummer, days with excess water from rainfall are followed by days with moderate or very high water requirements.

A smart irrigation system can communicate over the internet and optimize water delivery based on measured parameters and internet-based control, thereby promoting the health of the soil and plants.

The most important capabilities of a smart irrigation system

  1. App control and remote access: A smart irrigation system should be accessible via a smartphone app, allowing users to monitor the status, change settings, and receive notifications wherever they are.
  2. Customizable watering times: The system should support schedules that can be adjusted at any time to meet the individual needs of the garden and plants.
  3. Weather integration: An essential feature of smart irrigation systems is taking weather forecasts into account when deciding when and how much to water. If rain is expected, watering is reduced or stopped altogether.
  4. Soil moisture sensors: Using sensors to measure soil moisture allows the system to determine exactly when the soil is dry and needs water. This prevents both overwatering and underwatering.
  5. Water volume control: It should offer the ability to control the amount of water precisely to avoid waste and protect the environment.
  6. Energy efficiency: To be smart, the devices need to be connected, and constant communication consumes a lot of energy. Ideally, they should therefore operate with solar charging and a long-lasting battery.
  7. Compatibility with smart home systems: A good smart irrigation system should be able to integrate into existing smart home systems so that it can work with other devices such as weather stations or voice assistants.
  8. Adaptability to different plant species and areas of a garden: Different plants and garden areas have different watering needs, which a smart system can adapt to.

How smart is MIYO?

The MIYO irrigation system (Cube series) in a garden is controlled by the MIYO Cube. It stores and processes all data locally. With the LoRaWAN system, MIYO's smart functions are provided by MIYO servers on the internet.

The Cube is connected to the internet and communicates with:

  • the MIYO app on your smartphone
  • the MIYO Cloud for storing the garden status
  • Weather systems
  • Smart home systems
  • with self-created programs via the open API

For optimal irrigation, the garden is divided into irrigation areas. Any number of irrigation windows can be created for each area throughout the week. If a Sensor is used, the target soil moisture range can be set for the area.

On the garden side, the Cube is connected wirelessly to the valves and Sensors. It receives information from the Sensor about soil moisture, temperature, and sunlight intensity for the irrigation area. When irrigation is triggered based on the parameters or manually, the Cube opens the valves assigned to the irrigation area.

MIYO integration options

MIYO has an open API and can be integrated into a wide range of systems. We connect your garden to your existing smart home system.

LOXONE

MIYO Smart Garden smart home connectivity

The extensively documented plugin establishes a WebSocket interface with the MIYO Cube and sends the messages received through it to the Loxone Miniserver in a format that Loxone can process easily.

Details about MIYO & Loxone in the LoxWiki  or directly from the developer:
https://miyoplugin.phantasoft.de/ 

API Logo

Home Assistant

You can find details on setting up MIYO in Home Assistant here: MIYO Home Assistant Plugin

openHAB

You can find details on setting up and configuring the MIYO openHAB Binding here: MIYO openHAB Binding.

Homey

You can find details on integrating MIYO with Homey here: MIYO Homey App.

IFTTT

You can find details on using MIYO via IFTTT here: MIYO IFTTT Service.

Google Home

You can find details on using MIYO via Google Home here: MIYO Google Home.

What benefits does MIYO offer?

  • thriving garden: with MIYO, irrigation can be adapted to the needs of the soil and plants quickly and easily. This ensures that irrigation, a key factor in a thriving garden, is always optimized.
  • Water savings: thanks to its wide range of settings, integration of soil moisture measurement, and weather forecasts, MIYO can significantly reduce water consumption. During periods with frequent rainfall, savings exceed 50%.
  • Calculation of evapotranspiration: MIYO uses numerous factors, from precipitation to temperature, sunlight intensity, and wind, to calculate the garden's theoretical water requirements, which can be used as the basis for determining irrigation duration. You can find more information about evapotranspiration here.
  • no battery consumption: the energy for sensors and valves is provided by solar charging. Conventional valves, e.g. from Gardena, consume at least 3 AA batteries per irrigation season. MIYO requires 3 AAA rechargeable batteries for a lifespan of 5-10 years. Saving approximately 12 to 30 batteries per Valve (!) over the devices' lifespan makes an important contribution to conserving resources and protecting the environment.
  • Irrigation zones: with MIYO, the garden can be divided into as many irrigation circuits as desired, each of which can be individually adapted to the plants' needs. This ensures that plants with different water requirements are irrigated optimally and efficiently.

What can't MIYO do?

Every garden is different. The differences begin with the soil and extend through the microclimate, slope, orientation, and plants. MIYO cannot make adjustments for these conditions, but it gives garden owners a practical tool for efficiently and sustainably addressing one of the main concerns: water management.

Switch over and let your smart MIYO irrigation system do the work for you!

Do you want to connect your system to MIYO?

Here you can find the documentation for our API

Are you a system provider, business developer, or software developer?

Then contact us by email at support@miyo.garden or call for an interface description.