1.8 Release!

Here are highlights of the new features coming in 1.8. Development and testing should be done this week, hopeful for app submittal early next week.

http://www.support.rach.io/article/312-version-1-8-new-features

This will be our last 1.x release, we are actively starting to work on a whole new 2.x series and a re-design of the mobile app.

Release of http://electricimp.com/docs/resources/releases/release30/ which addresses a number of reliability and compatibility issues, in particularly around WiFi which also benefits from being brought right up to date with with the latest Broadcom firmware. These changes will be released Saturday November 8th.
Water hammer minimization. We now have a setting on the device that will open the ‘next’ zone to run in a watering schedule 10 seconds before the current running zone ends. This will help with the pressure surge that is caused when abruptly shutting down one zone, and then having the other zone turn on a few seconds after. A smooth transition will now occur stopping the knocking noise in your pipes and helping the overall system.
Watering interval picker now allows for days 1-21.
Reporting charts now show manual zone data as well as scheduled zone data
Virtual Iro!
Zone area square feet input. This in conjunction with nozzle inches per hour allows for very accurate gallon usage. Advanced zone settings, edit zone size.
Advanced zone settings: available water, root zone depth, management allowed depletion, and efficiency.
Share water savings reports with friends!

Virtual Iro ??

Virtual Iro allows you to create a device through the mobile app or our website that is virtual but will have 100% of the functionality of a real Iro. This is mainly a tool that will be used to educate consumers that have not purchased the Iro. They will essentially be able to demo the software and all of our features.

Can you explain how I would calculate “available water”, “root depth”, “allowed depletion” and “efficiency” in the advanced settings? Thanks

@KbIrish‌ @emil‌ Great question, here is some documentation we put together. Let us know if this helps, or doesn’t. This is surely advanced only :slight_smile:

http://www.support.rach.io/article/304-advanced-zone-setttings

Yes that helps. It lets me know that this stuff is WAY over my head. Thanks a lot

@KbIrish‌ lol, my guess is less than 5% (or even lower) of people will use this. More for professionals and we needed it for EPA Watersense so we could dial in our run times.

Water hammer minimization - nice; been meaning to mention this, as it has seemed more violent than my old system (might just be ageing valves tho’).

@jimmyjimjim‌ Sweet, hope this helps a lot of folks, easy to do in software :slight_smile:

@franz‌ Regarding the first bullet point about a new version of Electric Imp…when you say “These changes will be released Saturday November 8th” does this mean any connected Iro will get this update pushed out automatically? If so, should I power mine back on? I just went through winterization last weekend and put mine to sleep until Spring :slight_smile:

@ted_chappell‌ I wouldn’t worry about it, when it is plugged in again the firmware updates will take place automatically. Thanks and see you in the Spring!

Franz, what’s the current status of the v.1.8 release for iPhone or Android?

@eganders‌ We will be submitting iOS tomorrow for approval in the app store (takes about 7 days) and I should be releasing Android to the Google Play store tomorrow (only take 2 hours for approval, thank you Google!)

… or thank you Apple for doing their best to protect their consumers from malicious app developers :slight_smile:

@svento‌ LOL, that’s a common argument we have around here. I gravitate towards the Google model, others like the control of Apple.

@franz‌ I was a little worried I would start an OS war with that comment… but it had to be said! haha