Flex Daily Schedule set to run in AM even though it rained 0.41 inches today

Hi, Rachio superfan here on my 3rd season with the 2nd Gen hardware.

Was hoping v3 would bring increased transparency and accuracy to the moisture charts. Unfortunately they are still confusing… best case, they are woefully behind due to the Aeris weather import.

It rained 0.41 inches this morning. My zones only require 0.36 inches to saturate the roots (calculated by rachio), yet for some reason Rachio is telling me it’s going to water tomorrow morning.

Screenshots proving rain was recorded by my weather station today:
FindU:

Wunderground:

Directly from the weather station:
image

All reporting 0.41 inches of rain observed this AM.

Then there is Rachio… all zones are reporting only 0.02 inches of rain. Not enough to defer a watering tomorrow, which is NOT needed:

I should be able to go to sleep tonight knowing that Rachio will respond and adjust to weather events but instead I’m worrying about overwatering.

Where’s the disconnect with the data? @franz, can you have Aeris look into this?

Are these data from the same weather station? They have different designations; I’d check the weather station Rachio is looking at and try switching to a station that better matches your observations or is closer. Also personal weather stations can be unreliable compared to NOAA/NWS stations.

yes, MID_E9605 is the CWOP designation for my station and that’s what Rachio is using:

Click the analyze link on the latest data string sent to CWOP and you’ll see today’s rain is reported correctly (10.4mm = 0.41 in).

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Okay — I’m stumped!

@johnny2678

I had our engineering team look at one of your graphs and the data looks good. We do have the .41 inches of moisture recorded from yesterday. From the look of it all of your zones current moisture levels are now at 79%.

I’ll have them do some more research and determine when that precipitation value was recorded to determine if there is any data latency issues. Also wondering if the graph you were looking at was possibly cached in your browser. Keep being a super fan! We love it.

:cheers:

Hi @franz, thanks for looking into this.

Rachio was reporting a planned watering this morning so I don’t think it was just a cached moisture chart.

This screenshot was also taken yesterday showing a planned watering today - coinciding with the moisture chart I posted above:
image

Thankfully, the watering did not happen and now all moisture charts are showing the correct data. I do believe data latency could be an issue so any more research into that would be appreciated.

Maybe you could add “Weather Station Last updated at…” and “Next update scheduled for…” footnotes to the moisture chart for increased transparency?

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Here’s another UX issue that doesn’t instill confidence:

The dashboard was forecasting a watering on the same day it’s supposed to rain - Monday March 12.
image

So I dig in to see what zone - it’s the Back Yard:

** Missed opportunity here to allow users to click on the zone in the above screenshot to go to that zone’s settings ** Instead, I have to click Zones on the left (bottom on mobile) -> Back Yard :wink:

Drilling into the moisture chart, but the moisture chart isn’t forecasting a watering for the 12th. It’s forecasting a watering on the 13th:

Same on Mobile:

Also, the moisture chart is forecasting rain on 3/10 & 3/11 but the dashboard screenshot above says it’s going to rain Sun & Mon (3/11 & 3/12).

Now, I’m sure at the last minute all the data will reconcile and rach.io will behave correctly but shouldn’t the data presented to the user be consistent? You can at least see why this would be confusing, right?

UX guy here… just trying to help :wink:

:beers:

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@johnny2678

After more research we did find an issue with displaying the observed precipitation for “now” (today). We are displaying forecasted precipitation and not observed precipitation. The schedule calculator (determines if we need to water) is correctly using the observed data . We will fix the graph data display issue today.

Regarding the calendar mismatch, we rebuild calendars at 12 hours and 1 hour before the schedule run, but rebuild the moisture graph dynamically. I’ll work with the engineering team if there can be any changes made there.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

:cheers:

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This is why I’m a super fan. Amazing responsiveness from the Dev team. You guys continue to put on a start-up clinic for customer engagement. It’s very appreciated.

Let me know if I can help test/ provide more feedback. Cheers.

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This fix was deployed last night, please let us know if you see other data issues.

Thanks!

:cheers:

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@franz

Unfortunately, I’m still seeing this behavior where the Dashboard/Moisture charts are out of sync.

Checking this AM, the Dashboard is reporting the next watering will be Thurs 3/15 but the moisture charts say it will be tomorrow, 3/13:


@johnny2678

This is due to our system only re-calculating the calendar at 12 and 1 hour intervals, whereby the moisture graph is rendered dynamically.

We have plans to rebuild the calendar (somewhat expensive operation) whenever the moisture graph is rendered. This will be implemented in the near term.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

:cheers:

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:cheers:

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Sorry, quick clarification because I’m trying to understand this but failing :wink:

Does this mean that the calendar is redrawn at 12 noon and also every hour? or every day but only at 12 and 1? am? pm?

This was my calendar this morning after 5 hours of watering. Pretty sure that the calendar hasn’t updated to reflect today’s watering. Until it get’s rebuilt, I’m trying to understand when the calendar reflects the most recent data.

@johnny2678 We rebuild the calendar 12 hours and 1 hour before the calculated start time. For flex daily we assume there is a potential watering every day, so rebuild the calendars at a few minutes after Start-12 and Start-1 every day. Other schedules, if they have weather intelligence enabled, also trigger a rebuild at the same time but only on scheduled days. Hope this helps.

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@theflexdude, yes - this helps me understand the current calendar. Thanks!

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