Sprinqua - Smart Irrigation Controller for Raspberry Pi

Overview

Sprinqua is a self-hosted, open-source irrigation controller that runs on Orbit OS. It was designed to work with off-the-shelf relay HATs available on the market for Raspberry Pi — no custom hardware needed. Schedule watering zones, skip irrigation when rain is forecast, and integrate with Home Assistant — all from a clean web UI on your local network.

No cloud. No subscription. No data leaving your home.

www.sprinqua.com

Components

Hardware:

• Raspberry Pi 3, 4, 5 or Zero 2W
• Relay HAT (any supported board — see list below)
• MicroSD card (8GB+ with Orbit OS installed)
• 24V AC solenoid valves — one per irrigation zone
• 24V AC power supply — to power the solenoid valves

Supported relay boards:

• Waveshare 3-Channel (SKU: 11638) — 3 zones
• Seengreat 3-Channel (SKU: 250509) — 3 zones
• Keyestudio 4-Channel (SKU: KS0212) — 4 zones
• Seengreat 4-Channel (SKU: 220741) — 4 zones
• BC Robotics 4-Channel HAT (SKU: RAS-193) — 4 zones
• Waveshare RPi Zero 6-Channel (SKU: 20863) — 6 zones
• Waveshare 8-Channel (SKU: 15423) — 8 zones
• Seengreat 8-Channel (SKU: 260115) — 8 zones

Don't see your board? Open an issue or submit a PR on GitHub — we're happy to add support for new relay HATs.

Software:

• Orbit OS Community Edition — orbit-os.org
• Sprinqua app — Orbit OS Store or GitHub

Features

Zone Control Turn zones on/off manually, run a 5-minute pulse, or let schedules handle everything. Safety auto-off per zone prevents overwatering.

Flexible Scheduling Weekly schedules per zone with day-of-week selection, custom start time, and duration. Visual weekly overview chart included.

Smart Watering Integrates with Open-Meteo (free, no API key required) to automatically skip irrigation when rain is forecast above your configured threshold. Two methods available:

• Zimmerman — default, simple and effective
• ETo/FAO-56 — advanced evapotranspiration method for precise water management

Activation History Full log of every run — manual, scheduled, MQTT, or skipped. 7-day stats, 24h timeline chart, and skipped-run visibility.

MQTT + Home Assistant Auto-discovery for all zones as HA switches. Two control modes:

• Standalone — Sprinqua manages its own schedules
• HA-Managed — Home Assistant has full control via MQTT

6 Languages Full UI in English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, and Italian.

Follow the complete installation guide at:
👉 https://www.sprinqua.com/install.htm

Step 1 — Install Orbit OS on your Raspberry Pi

Download the Orbit OS installer and run it on your Raspberry Pi. It sets up the OS, the app runtime, and the store in one go. After installation, the device will automatically restart

Download Orbit OS 26 installer

Step 2 — Install Sprinqua

Open the Orbit OS App Store in your browser, and search for Sprinqua. Click install, the app will be installed remotely in the selected device. At just 3MB, it's deployed and running in seconds — no Docker, no SSH, no terminal needed.

Once installed, Orbit OS keeps Sprinqua up to date automatically. Whenever a new version is published to the Store, your device is updated silently in the background

Step 3 — Hardware Wizard

On first launch, Sprinqua opens a guided setup wizard:

1. Select Board Pick your relay HAT from the supported boards list. Sprinqua configures the GPIO mapping automatically.

2. Name Zones Map each relay channel to a zone — give it a name, type (sprinkler, drip, mist), and a safety time limit.

3. Test Relays Pulse each relay for 3 seconds to verify the physical wiring before going live.

4. Done Set your schedules, enable Smart Watering, and you're watering.

Step 4 — Configure Smart Watering

Go to Settings → Smart Watering and enable it. Sprinqua connects to Open-Meteo automatically — no API key, no account, completely free.

Set your rain threshold. When forecast precipitation exceeds it, the scheduled run is skipped and logged in history with a 🌦 tag.

Step 5 — Connect to Home Assistant

Enable MQTT in Settings and enter your broker address. Sprinqua publishes auto-discovery messages and all zones appear automatically in Home Assistant as switches — no manual configuration required.

# Topics published by Sprinqua
sprinqua/zone/1/state → ON | OFF
sprinqua/zone/2/state → ON | OFF
sprinqua/mode/state   → Standalone | HA-Managed

# Commands accepted by Sprinqua
sprinqua/zone/1/set ← ON | OFF
sprinqua/mode/set   ← Standalone | Home Assistant Managed

Switch to HA-Managed mode and Home Assistant takes full control — internal schedules pause and HA handles everything via MQTT.

Step 6 (Optional) — Remote Access

If you need to control your irrigation system from outside your home network, Orbit OS provides an app called Orbit Connect that gives your device a private web address, allowing you to access Sprinqua from anywhere — no port forwarding, no VPN, no router configuration needed. Install it in one click from the Orbit OS Store.

The screenshot below demonstrates Sprinqua being accessed over 4G — no WiFi, no VPN, no port forwarding required.

What is Orbit OS?

Orbit OS is a recent open-core platform for embedded Linux and edge devices — inspired by Android's architecture.

One of the core goals is to accelerate embedded hardware development by removing the complexity of deployment, updates, and infrastructure — so developers focus only on their app logic.

Just like Android lets you build mobile apps without knowing how the Linux kernel works underneath, Orbit OS lets you build applications and services for embedded Linux without needing any Linux knowledge at all.

Following the same model, Orbit OS provides a multi-language SDKs — Go, Python, Java, and C++ — to build applications and services packaged as signed .orb packages, analogous to Android's .apk. These are deployed from the Orbit OS Store in one click and updated automatically over-the-air.

Where Docker is a general-purpose containerization tool adapted for embedded use, Orbit OS was built specifically for the edge — lightweight runtime, signed packages, and OTA updates designed for resource-constrained devices from day one.

This also makes projects like Sprinqua much easier to replicate — anyone with a supported Raspberry Pi can install the app from the Store in one click, without having to follow complex setup instructions or deal with dependencies.

Community Edition supports Raspberry Pi 3, 4, 5, Zero 2W and Arduino UNO Q.

Contributing

Sprinqua is open source and contributions are welcome. Whether you want to add support for a new relay board, translate the UI into a new language, report a bug, or suggest a feature — feel free to open an issue or submit a PR on GitHub.

If you build something with Sprinqua or have questions, join the conversation on the Orbit OS forum.

Links

• 🔗 Sprinqua website
• 🎬 Sprinqua Install Demo Video
• 🔗 GitHub — app-sprinqua
• 🔗 Orbit OS
• 🎬 YouTube — @orbit-os-edge