We are excited to announce a new feature we are calling ‘Landscaper Access’.
Need your sprinklers blown out when you are not home?
Need somebody to repair a sprinkler head when you are not home?
Want to give your friend access to your sprinkler control, well hey just because you can and they can’t?
This new feature will allow any individual to be sent an email with a URL link to control your Iro.
The best part is that they don’t even need to install an app and the control token will expire based on your preset expiration date!
As always, feedback, questions appreciated (and almost expected!)
@franz - this is great and just in time for the eventual winterization of irrigation systems here in the northeast.
Could you clarify the example point you gave of no history, etc. I absolutely want to know what the ‘other user’ did while they had access to my system. I also want confirmation that they accessed the system, for how long they accessed it, etc.
Is this part of the feature? I realize they have access to my IRO. However, by providing access to my IRO they in effect have access to my home network. Yes, these are trusted people and they have better things to do. However, I must maintain as secure a network as I can. With more and more cloud services coming online, I expect this of all of the services I consume from the cloud.
For that matter, I would like my logs and history to include when you guys are accessing my history, records, pushing firmware updates, etc.
This is great! However I didn’t understand from the article exactly what the other user has access to? (ie, can they change schedules, or can they only start/stop current runs?). So I gave access to another one of my emails addresses to test this, set to expire tomorrow, and when I click “Add” I get a message saying “Error adding temporary User”.
@SteinyD Normal history events will show up, none of that functionality has changed.
They definitely will not have access to your home network. The only difference is the device will be controlled through a webapp and not a mobile app. Everything still goes through our cloud which in turn controls the device. We use an OAuth token that expires after a preset amount of time.
Let us know if you have any feedback regarding the functionality. Thanks!
@svento They have access to a simple zone control dial to turn zones on/off for a period of time. @Dan will work with you on the error message you are seeing, it could be a browser issue.
I can confirm that the process worked for me. I logged onto the website via Safari. I created an account for myself via a different email address. I logged into the website. I was able to turn on and off zones.
Could I ask for 2 additional features. Could you make it so that the ‘other account’ can turn and off a zone without specifying an amount of time. As I’ve watched them winterize my system previously, they connect an air pressure tank to my main valve. They then open one zone at a time and let it go until there isn’t any more water. They turn it off and go to the next zone. It would be easier in my case to let them turn on a zone until they don’t need it open any longer.
The second feature I’d like to request is not to display any zones that are not enabled. In my case, I use 12 zones with 4 not in use. They are displaying to the ‘other user’. It would make it easier to not confuse them or have them running around looking for a zone that doesn’t exist.
@SteinyD : I’d be really concerned if someone else had access to turn my zones on permanently. I’d worry that they accidentally logged into my system and left a zone on without being there to notice. Where I live this could result in massive water wasting fines. Although I see what you are asking for… I feel like selecting a long zone run time is much safer than giving a choice to keep the zone on indefinitely.
@franz@svento - I agree with the concerns regarding ‘forever time’. However, in the 15 years I’ve had irrigation companies (it has only been 2) maintain my system, they have never left a zone running and walked away. This would especially be the case during winterization as they only way to winterize is to have the water source turned off. However, I don’t mind having the 60 minute duration as that is more than long enough. I was hoping to have less buttons for them to push/ selections to make.
@Dan - I can confirm that I no longer see the inactive zones. Thanks for the quick fix!
I just spoke with my irrigation maintenance company. I had informed their field manager months ago that I was going to be removing the Hunter controller and installing a more intelligent, cloud based controller. I don’t think he knew what that meant at the time. Today, I spoke with their office manager who I have a good relationship with. I called to make sure they can deal with controlling my IRO via a smartphone. The only concern they had was that they do not issue phones to their field techs. It would be up to them and agreeing to use their personal devices / data plans to do it. However, they didn’t think this would be a problem.
More interesting was that she wanted all the details about Rachio and Iro. She thought it was very interesting and was going to inform the company owner of the product. I gave her a run down as to the benefits, how it works, cost, etc. I invited the owner to stop by for me to provide them with a demo. They cover a very wide area of the NJ/NY/PA area. Who knows, there may be some interest.
