I would like to re-enter with a date of April 1…thanks
Dear Mr. Gately, you’re now in at Apr. 1. Thank you for entering.
Best regards,
Bill
I feel like we can make a “bingo” type game out of the features we may see in V3.
Something like this:
Bingo card was removed due to edit, will be re-posted later.
Here is the excel template (link) for those who wish to join in. You can choose from existing suggestions, or add your own.
Few rules:
- Poker rules: card with the most number of winning lines (at the time features are publicly announced) is the winner. If more than 1 card has the winning number of lines, than the first to post is the winner.
- No editing the post with a bingo post, unless you are willing to remove the bingo card from the edited post and resubmit it at the end of the queue. (lets not make it easy to cheat by editing the post to feature a winning bingo card).
- You can change your bingo card / guess at any time, but the new card / new guess has to go to the end of the queue.
- If more than 1 card is submitted, than newest / last card is the one counted. (ideally you would edit the original post to remove previous card).
- Whoever makes a guess (post the bingo card), or updates their guess, has to be impartial. This means if you are part of beta or hangout with Rachio’s employees, I’m sorry you are disqualified.
- Any guess / edit made prior to disqualification event will be allowed, but you will have to provide proof that such guess was made prior to signing up for beta or befriending a rachio employee.
- No prizes yet, as of now, this is just for fun. This may change by the time V3 rolls around.
Cheers and let’s have fun. 
Gene
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Here is my guess:
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I believe the increasingly long delay on announcement of availability of V3, particularly noting public announcements, is due in part that improvements and enhancements, not at first considered for V3, are now additionally being considered and or are actually being added.
I used to think that V3 will be a s/w only update because a.) Rachio says itself that it wants its core competency to be focused as a s/w company, and b.) hardware model generation 2 hadn’t been available for very long.
Notes from today’s Business section of the Dallas newspaper (“A Bumpy Ride for Google” - AP) - slightly touched up for maximum applicability to Rachio:
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Old adage in the technology business: hardware is hard.
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Being a h/w company is an entirely different animal from being a s/w company. The cultures are very different, and, there are more moving parts in h/w so you have to learn along the way.
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A ‘fail fast’ philosophy that works well for s/w products doesn’t work as well for h/w products.
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S/w can be more forgiving of a development philosophy. You can’t ‘fail fast’ w/ h/w. You risk some backlash.
If I’m right that Rachio is increasingly considering h/w changes for a G3 product as part of this beta test period, my guesses are we’ll see these:
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Expansion of max number of zones under automatic control from 16 to 32 (this one doesn’t require a h/w change but it’s my guess that it’s easier to implement if there’s some kind of ‘daisy chain’ connection between two 16 zone Iro units.
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Accommodation of a direct-wired freeze sensor (many municipalities require this).
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Enhancements to already existing flow measurement capability (i.e., perhaps inclusion of wireless accommodation)
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Turn on multiple zones simultaneously while still maintaining individual zone control (maybe - I think this one may be a h/w subject).
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Cover fixed so that it can be removed after PVC pipe w/ wires installed to controller (should be pretty easy).
I don’t believe we’ll see any time soon:
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Ethernet connectivity (too expensive to design in relative to current level of commercial market penetration).
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Ability to put in a moisture sensor into each zone versus for master valve only (too much other stuff on the plate at this time).
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Local web interface (changing the Iro2 to be an Internet appliance would be a major effort, may not be possible to fit the algorithms into a local unit, and not sure where the bottom-line return would be).
Best regards,
Bill
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A release being far different than initially planned is the definition of doing a poor job of rolling out a release following a beta.
It never ceases to amaze me how impatient people are today. It’s all about ME, NOW!!! Don’t like how long it’s taking? Go buy a rain bird or Toro or some other name brand that never updates their products. One where if you want new features, you have to buy a new one. The current product works. Sure it could be better. Everything can be better. I’d rather wait for a great release than have to update weekly due to bugs. Learn to appreciate what you have you greedy fu**s.
I wholeheartedly agree with your thoughts on having a polished product rather than a buggy product that constantly needs patches or fixes…but, Beta was put out 9 months ago. That is a long time for Beta, which probably means something big happened, and hopefully it works out for the better!
Having worked for one of the largest irrigation manufacturers, it is embarrassing when a product is released but is really not ready for the marketplace. Think about the Samsung Note 7 mess. I would rather have a polished version 3 than one with lots of glitches. I have decided to be patient.
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Just because we’re anxious to see new work doesn’t mean we’re yelling for me and now nor does it mean that we don’t appreciate what we have. What it means is that a company started a thread to build excitement and to get people interested in seeing new software. Then 9 months later they have simply gone silent and stopped explaining what is going on. Had they not started the discussion no one would be even mentioning it. Being an ignoramus about why we’re asking and not fully understanding why some people may be asking is kind of short sighted.
Personally I only bought the unit because I was forced to when my WeatherTrak system went out of support. I have an issue with zones that are fully covered that there is no way to run them on a flexible daily and not have the local rainfall accounted for. This is pretty short sighted as the only way to resolve it is to pretty much disable most of the smart controller type functionality. Thus I’m hopeful that before the next major watering season there is an update that will make it so that I don’t have to manually babysit it or turn off most of the smart watering functionality.
As a former employee of The Toro Company it would typically take about 3 years for a new product to come out. But I dont see Rachio doing more than just a software upgrade. This is why I am getting impatient. I mean like how often do you get a software update on your smartphone? At least give us an occasional update.
It’s the beginning of the year, and thought I’d take a look at contest status.
I was going to repeat everything here, but, it looks like I did just this on Thanksgiving, not that long ago, and nothing has changed other than there’s one ‘casuality.’ So, I’ll leave things as they are. The ‘official’ contest posting remains as I wrote at the Thanksgiving point.
We do have one ‘casualty.’ tmcgahey = Dec. 1st is officially ‘out.’
Bill.Maupin = Jan. 1st, 2018 is currently in the lead.
I’ve updated the Thanksgiving posting.
There are seven of you with 2018 predictions ranging from Jan. 1 to June 15th. Four of you have predictions one year or more later than Rachio’s V3 Beta announcement.
The contest remains open to everyone, consistent with the few rules posted.
Should be an interesting year!
Best regards,
Bill
So this just happened for me…
http://community.rachio.com/t/do-my-eyes-deceive-me-a-rachio-3-0-update-on-ios/10764
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Hmmm.
As last posted:
Contest:
Have some fun predicting what date Rachio Iro V3 ‘goes live’ to the general public. Rachio may announce Beta Period 2, Beta Period 3, Beta Period XX, a list of features coming, or anything else of a marketing nature, but, the contest winner will be someone amongst all of us ‘don’t know what’s going on behind the curtain’ users who has the closest date guess to the actual, first day V3 is rolled out to the masses.
Prize:
Four 60W equivalent 9W LED lamps, commercial quality, warm color temperature to match traditional tungsten lamps, omni-directional, over 50,000 hrs run time capability, 5 year warranty, meeting the latest version 2 Energy Star requirements, and manufactured by Earthtronics (private label manufacturer for Philips and Sylvania).
I’m in the commercial LED lighting business. I have these lamps on the shelf, off to the side, labeled with shipping instructions to the eventual winner here.
Here’s the updated contest entry list:
plainsane = Aug. 1st
preilly44 = Aug. 14th
Linn = Aug. 28th
a0128958 = Sep. 14th
Marainwater = Sep. 21st
Jazzer = Sep. 26th
ghctim = Sep. 29th
jim_gately = Sep. 30th
Modawg2k = Oct. 1st
jkb = Oct. 15th
JasonM = Oct. 23rd
DLane = Nov. 1st
jleh = Nov. 3rd
Gene = Nov. 6th
tmcgahey = Dec. 1st
Bill.Maupin = Jan. 1st, 2018
wx16 = Feb. 1st
(anyone above this point is officially ‘out’
rgstech = Mar. 1st
shcaine = Mar. 15th
jim_gately = Apr. 1st
Brett = June 1st
robertokc = June 15th
‘Fine print’ items:
(1) Rachio has no involvement with this contest, other than (a) I’m using their community posting system to advertise it, and (b) I’ll ask them to affirm a published or stated ‘go live’ date is indeed legit. The contest is simply my idea to have a little fun. Prize material is all from me - I’m donating it from my business.
My request today:
I would appreciate it if someone from Rachio would affirm that indeed today, Mar. 1, is the first day of generally availability of V3 to the public.
(Based on the answer I think I’m going to get, I’ll make the ‘formal’ winner announcement here. Hold tight.)
Many thanks!
Best regards,
Bill
2 Likes
OMG OMG OMG
We have a winner !!!
rgstech WINSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!
And no need to use the ‘closest to the pin’ contest clause - rgstech picked the date, March 1st, exactly!!!
I’m stunned!!! Wish I knew how to use big font letters here!
rgstech: send to me a note at bneukranz@americaneei.com with your address details, and I’ll ship off the contest prize!
BTW, this thread shows the excitement toward V3. It ended up being the second most responded to thread all time. And it’s top 10 with respect to views (14,000+).
Thanks to everyone who participated. And most of all, thanks to keeping it a nice, well managed, fun contest. All of us ‘don’t know what’s going on behind the curtain’ users had a lot of fun!
Sincerely,
Bill
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@a0128958 Thanks for orchestrating this fun contest, the engagement was insane. Sorry for the silence on our end, felt more fun that way. Congrats @rgstech! And thanks to everyone else for participating!
McKynzee 
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Wow! I was off the forums over the winter as my sprinklers are shut down from October to April. Just had them opened this morning and hopped on the forums to see what was new. I wish I could pick lottery numbers like this!
Thanks for running this Bill!
Rob
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Rob, your package went out today FedEx.
This finishes remaining details of the contest. It was fun!
I recommend you turn your clairvoyant skills now to the lottery!
Sincerely
Bill
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