Home Assistant and Rainpoint sensors

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Jackie.P

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Hi

Has anyone been successful in integrating some of the Rainpoint sensors into Home Assistant?

I am interested in their Wireless Pool Sensor which looks quite nice.

I see that it is working wirelessly, with a Smart Mini Hub that then connect to your Wifi and gives you access to their app.

www.rainpointsa.co.za

Rainpoint SA

At RainPointSA, we provide smart irrigation and water management solutions, from Wi-Fi-enabled timers to soil moisture meters, to help you manage watering effortlessly and conserve waterâall accessible through our easy-to-use RainPoint app.
www.rainpointsa.co.za www.rainpointsa.co.za
 
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Wow, over a grand for a DS18B20 and ESP8266 in a plastic bottle? I'm in the wrong line of work...
 
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I have some RainPoint products. I have the 8 zone irrigation controller, and also temperature and humidity sensor, rain gauge and water meter which I use for wellpoint usage tracking.

All of three except for the irrigation controller requires the hub to function.

The app is really solid, but unfortunately it's a closed ecosystem with no native HA support yet. I did notice they've now added a RainPoint Tuya app to Play Store.

I am not sure what it does, and if that perhaps can be a way forward for getting this into home assistant.

Other than that, the product quality is premium, and I will soon also install a water flow meter on my municipal mains.

Edit: One drawback is that despite all the data logging, you cannot export it. Apparently soon there will be an app update which will add that functionality. Perhaps as the consumer uptake grows, so will product and app/ecosystem support.
 
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Jackie.P said:
Yes, I did see that, but I've seen quite clever stuff coming from some users on this forums. So I was hoping maybe someone had found a workaround before I invest in their products
Click to expand...

I'm sure there's a solution but chances are the complexity of it exceeds that of just building the product yourself from (much cheaper) parts, like the abovementioned temperature sensor and WiFi chip.
 
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Stephan Maritz said:
Fairly basic, but most people are not tech savvy enough to build their own.
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But I disagree - if you're savvy enough to work your way through the quagmire of IoT apps and APIs to get an "unsupported" combination working, then I am pretty sure you can handle hooking a temperature sensor to a wifi module. You don't have to learn C. You don't even need to solder.

Bonus is you will be able to keep your DIY solution working long after the app has been banned from the app store.
 
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Stephan Maritz said:
Fairly basic, but most people are not tech savvy enough to build their own.
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I hear you. My first ESP project was a cut and paste affair with some minor changes to suit my environment. Muttley's post spurred on my second project, a non-floating version of his floater !

Screenshot 2025-05-29 at 18.09.18.png

Now I've developed an ESP addiction :S Largely write all my own code and have them in several corners of the house, feeding pets, interfacing with the home alarm system, controlling robot-vacs, and so much more. The learning curve is steep. But once you get your head around it, you can't help but want mooaaaar !
 
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Tomtomtom said:
But I disagree - if you're savvy enough to work your way through the quagmire of IoT apps and APIs to get an "unsupported" combination working, then I am pretty sure you can handle hooking a temperature sensor to a wifi module. You don't have to learn C. You don't even need to solder.

Bonus is you will be able to keep your DIY solution working long after the app has been banned from the app store.
Click to expand...
The average person who buys this and uses it with the accompanying app and does not tinker with interoperability with other ecosystems, is almost certainly not savvy enough to build his own.

For someone in a specific field, it's always strange to see how others find what comes naturally to you, very complex.

On the point of the app being banned, why would that happen?
 
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Stephan Maritz said:
The average person who buys this and uses it with the accompanying app and does not tinker with interoperability with other ecosystems, is almost certainly not savvy enough to build his own.

For someone in a specific field, it's always strange to see how others find what comes naturally to you, very complex.
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I'm belabouring the point now but OP was prepared to do some officially-unsupported integration work following instructions from a tech-savvy forum, so they are already not the average person. Anyway, it might be true that the learning curve is steeper, but fwiw I think this would make a great first DIY HA project.


Stephan Maritz said:
On the point of the app being banned, why would that happen?
Click to expand...

Most likely over security concerns. Chinese IoT networks don't start on a very secure footing from Google's point of view, I imagine. Someone changes a policy or just waves a hand somewhere and they'll be gone.

But if you can get local network access to the device you are independent of the app and network - and this is probably what OP needs to do to get it on HA as well. Something like this.
 
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Tomtomtom said:
I'm belabouring the point now but OP was prepared to do some officially-unsupported integration work following instructions from a tech-savvy forum, so they are already not the average person. Anyway, it might be true that the learning curve is steeper, but fwiw I think this would make a great first DIY HA project.




Most likely over security concerns. Chinese IoT networks don't start on a very secure footing from Google's point of view, I imagine. Someone changes a policy or just waves a hand somewhere and they'll be gone.

But if you can get local network access to the device you are independent of the app and network - and this is probably what OP needs to do to get it on HA as well. Something like this.
Click to expand...
You're right. For someone interested in that kind of thing, it's probably a no brainer.

The Rainpoint products are quite expensive, except for the 8 zone irrigation controller. They do "feel" premium though, very solid build, and has operated from December without a hitch, except for the water flow meter whose batteries died. There I noticed the battery level alert doesn't seem to work.

As for a pool thermometer, I'd probably not spend money on it even if I had a pool. That alone, and the hub which is required, makes it too pricey.
 
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Stephan Maritz said:
The Rainpoint products are quite expensive, except for the 8 zone irrigation controller. They do "feel" premium though, very solid build, and has operated from December without a hitch, except for the water flow meter whose batteries died. There I noticed the battery level alert doesn't seem to work
Click to expand...

Just realised where they got their brand name from. I have a solenoid valve here by Rain Bird, a much older company.

Planning to hook that up to a DIY controller next summer which I imagine will be another relay on a ESP8266, plus software.
 
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Thank you everyone for your replies. I was actually hoping that someone had opened up their sensors to see what chips are being used and if replacement chips can be added.

Or alternatively if the Bekn chips were used and it could have been flashed with the new ESPhome. I saw mentions of a Tuya app so that may be the case and it can be reflashed.

Guess I will have to buy one and cannibalise it to find out!
 
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Jackie.P said:
Thank you everyone for your replies. I was actually hoping that someone had opened up their sensors to see what chips are being used and if replacement chips can be added.

Or alternatively if the Bekn chips were used and it could have been flashed with the new ESPhome. I saw mentions of a Tuya app so that may be the case and it can be reflashed.

Guess I will have to buy one and cannibalise it to find out!
Click to expand...
Are you just going to buy the rain gauge or are you planning to buy it with the hub. I guess we'll need to modify the hub and not just the rain gauge
 
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Jackie.P said:
Thank you everyone for your replies. I was actually hoping that someone had opened up their sensors to see what chips are being used and if replacement chips can be added.

Or alternatively if the Bekn chips were used and it could have been flashed with the new ESPhome. I saw mentions of a Tuya app so that may be the case and it can be reflashed.

Guess I will have to buy one and cannibalise it to find out!
Click to expand...
I am curious as to what the RainPoint Tuya app does. I just don't want remove all my scenes and settings in the RainPoint Home app and try to add it all again to see what the Tuya app does.
 
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