Over the last couple of weeks I managed to get my Apple Homekit connected to the Rachio V2.
What you need:
- Home Assistant
- Home Assistant - Homebridge Plugin
- IFTTT
- Some scripts
Home Assistant runs on my home linux server but you even run it on a Rasberry PI and has a very good IFTTT integration. I am a great fan of Home Assistant. Our complete home is automated. Philips HUE lightning, Nest Thermostat, Solar Pannels etc etc. Even some temperature and moisture sensors in the garden. Still have to link them to the Rachio so it can start watering if the soil gets to dry.
Steps:
- Within Home Assistant create a switch for each Rachio Zone.
- To each switch you link a script that calls an IFTTT applet to start a Rachio Zone for a period of time
- Create also an IFTTT applet to call Home Assistant once the zone stops to put the switch back to the OFF position.
- Create a script to each switch if switch goes from ON to OFF position to call an IFTTT applet to stop Rachio.
- Next setup the Home Assistant - Homebridge plugin to show the switches you created in step 1 into Apple HomeKit.
Now you’re done. You can use HomeKit on your Apple devices to start a Rachio Zone or even create a schedule. And you can call Siri to start/Stop a Zone. Everything runs instant. If I click on a zone in Home Kit on my iPhone within 1 second my zone gets water.
No problem to share the code for Home Assistant, the scripts and the IFTTT applets. It costed me a couple of days to get everything running smooth. I will help you to speed up.
