I've come to the conclusion that the value of the RPI is not so much in the hardware platform but rather in being the cheapest Linux running computer you can buy. Its much easier to program for than any embedded board.

> Its much easier to program for than any embedded board.

Indeed. I work in both MCUs and full-featured Linux environments and there is zero value to using the former for non-safety critical, non-power constrained, low precision applications. Running a sprinkler system on an RPi is an entirely reasonable choice: you have ample storage for history, trivially simple remote control using a variety of protocols and media and ample compute to operate high level languages and run easily maintained programs, including nice-to-haves like continuous integration of public weather data to optimize your schedule against prevailing rainfall.

Can you shoehorn all that into a ESP32 + micropython or whatever? Sure. I'll bet someone already has. And they spent 10x the time it would have taken otherwise. At least.

Esp32 ( https://www.espressif.com/en/products/socs/esp32 ) are what most folks should be using to do that stuff. It’s a great platform to build upon.

ESPHome even comes with a well thought out sprinkler controller module: https://esphome.io/components/sprinkler.html

It supports valves, pumps, schedules, etc. I programmed mine once a few years ago with YAML (no code!) and now I just power cycle them once every month or so. Been running great.

You can always replace them with RP2040 which have integer performance similar to the Cray-1 if that makes you feel better.

...freeing up a human to come inside and read hn