Hi everyone, we apologize for the delay on cycle soak. As we mentioned in the last update, this particular feature has been a bit of a challenge for us. We have had to make some changes to how we create schedules on the Iro and how schedules integrate with our weather intelligence.
Our number one goal is to save you water. Cycle soak is a great way to prevent runoff and optimize your water usage on your garden and turf. We know this is an important feature, especially as we get into the hotter months with longer runtimes. We are in our final testing now and hope to have this available to you this upcoming week (week of 6/23).
That said, we are happy to take any questions you might have about this, or just engage in a general conversation around the feature.
Follow-up. This does not have be perfect on initial release. Simply having the feature working will save water as a 20 minute soak twice a day is wasteful.
Yes, it will behave differently for sand and top soil and clay. Sand won’t cycle soak
We are still working on reports and I will have more info on this soon. If I’m understanding you though, you’d like to see the total minutes and then how the minutes are broken up into cycles?
Yeah, not really unless you’re in sand.
@PocketLab,
It is not available yet. Understood that it doesn’t need to be perfect, but we want to make sure it doesn’t break other things and that it makes sense for all of our customers. For example, if we release it without data on what’s going on, you’ll be happy that you have cycle soak, but Franky will be confused about what’s actually happening with his zones. As we’ve always said, our number one goal is to save water, and cycle and soak is a good way to do it. We’re getting there as fast as possible.
Yes @Natasha69, we submitted our app to Apple today. We will be pushing firmware updates to your devices tomorrow. The app will be released early next week. We will release either of them as soon as they are available.
Thank you for your patience with this one. It took a lot longer than we thought it would, but it’s a great upgrade to the application and we’re exited to get it in your hands.
Chris - I’m intending to install mine this week. Once my account is created and I’m connected / registered, how will I know when all firmware updates have been pushed to catch up with the already released software versions?
I now have a number of cloud connected / supported devices in my home - Nest, Skybell and soon Iro. One thing I notice in common and lacking, active comms to their customers before and after a firmware has been pushed. I appreciate the is the new age of the cloud supported devices. However, it still has a feel of being intrusive and entering our homes without a ‘knock on the door’ with permission to ‘enter’.
How can you guys be a leader in changing how you inform us of what is intended to be pushed and then confirm it has been pushed along with release notes on both ends? This should come in the form of an email or a push notification through the app on our devices.
Once my account is created and I’m connected / registered, how will I know when all firmware updates have been pushed to catch up with the already released software versions?
CK> You don’t need to worry about this. It happens automatically.
How can you guys be a leader in changing how you inform us of what is intended to be pushed and then confirm it has been pushed along with release notes on both ends?
CK> We can push release notes, which makes sense if it’s a new feature or may affect your privacy. The scope of privacy is outside of just firmware though. It includes the entire technology stack all the way down to your smartphone.
Here’s what I’m getting at: outside of more aggressive reconnect, mentioned in our release notes, our firmware update included JSON compression and better logic for looping through schedules. We probably wouldn’t include that information in release notes, no matter what part of the technology stack that update happened in.
However, if it turned on a new motion sensor (the Iro doesn’t have one) that wasn’t already enabled, we would absolutely let you know. Does that seem sensible?
@chris Regarding the firmware thread you had above with @SteinyD I think what I’d like to see is a “Technical Info” type view in the app/webapp that shows the current firmware version, last wifi update, etc. With other similar products (Nest for example) I find this information helpful in being an informed and knowledgeable user when I start searching online forums/KB’s or have to engage support. Plus the geek in me just likes knowing this detailed info and when things get updated
@chris - thanks for your response. However, the essence of my comments is that I want to be informed BEFORE you access my device to pull information or push updates to it, no matter how visible or transparent they may be. I also want the ability to reject an update (I may be out of town mid-summer and unable to respond to any intended or unintended after effects as an example). I want to be informed AFTER an update has been pushed informing me when it was completed and it’s success or failure.
And yes, whether or not the update is something as the owner of the device ‘touches’, please don’t assume on my behalf that the information is too technical or not of interest.
Again, I expect cloud providers to provide a ‘knock on my door’ as if you were a service provider coming to my home to provide a service. I need to acknowledge and let you in, and I want to know what you’re going to do and what you have done. I’m not leasing the device - I own it.
@steveganz and @Natasha69 Android is ready to go, however, we need to release this one with the iOS release. We submitted last week and expect to see it approved any day.
We have our history update queued up and will submit as soon as the cycle soak update is approved.
