I just looked at the start date on this thread. Wow.
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There are some here who have commented that Rachioās doing a poor job with rolling out V3 after having announced it and announcing a beta testing period.
There are others here (including me) who believe the final product coming will be far different than initially planned, and hence the additional time being consumed.
Weāll see!
Best regards,
Bill
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I would like to re-enter with a date of April 1ā¦thanks
Dear Mr. Gately, youāre now in at Apr. 1. Thank you for entering.
Best regards,
Bill
I feel like we can make a ābingoā 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 Rachioās employees, Iām 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 letās 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 hadnāt been available for very long.
Notes from todayās Business section of the Dallas newspaper (āA Bumpy Ride for Googleā - 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 āfail fastā philosophy that works well for s/w products doesnāt work as well for h/w products.
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S/w can be more forgiving of a development philosophy. You canāt āfail fastā w/ h/w. You risk some backlash.
If Iām right that Rachio is increasingly considering h/w changes for a G3 product as part of this beta test period, my guesses are weāll see these:
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Expansion of max number of zones under automatic control from 16 to 32 (this one doesnāt require a h/w change but itās my guess that itās easier to implement if thereās some kind of ādaisy chainā 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 donāt believe weāll 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. Itās all about ME, NOW!!! Donāt like how long itās 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. Iād 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 fixesā¦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 weāre anxious to see new work doesnāt mean weāre yelling for me and now nor does it mean that we donāt 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 weāre 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 Iām hopeful that before the next major watering season there is an update that will make it so that I donāt 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.
Itās the beginning of the year, and thought Iād 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 thereās one ācasuality.ā So, Iāll leave things as they are. The āofficialā contest posting remains as I wrote at the Thanksgiving point.
We do have one ācasualty.ā tmcgahey = Dec. 1st is officially āout.ā
Bill.Maupin = Jan. 1st, 2018 is currently in the lead.
Iāve 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 Rachioās 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 meā¦
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 āgoes liveā 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 ādonāt know whatās going on behind the curtainā 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).
Iām 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.
Hereās 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 āoutā
rgstech = Mar. 1st
shcaine = Mar. 15th
jim_gately = Apr. 1st
Brett = June 1st
robertokc = June 15th
āFine printā items:
(1) Rachio has no involvement with this contest, other than (a) Iām using their community posting system to advertise it, and (b) Iāll ask them to affirm a published or stated āgo liveā date is indeed legit. The contest is simply my idea to have a little fun. Prize material is all from me - Iām 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 Iām going to get, Iāll make the āformalā winner announcement here. Hold tight.)
Many thanks!
Best regards,
Bill
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OMG OMG OMG
We have a winner !!!
rgstech WINSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!
And no need to use the āclosest to the pinā contest clause - rgstech picked the date, March 1st, exactly!!!
Iām 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 Iāll 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 itās 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 ādonāt know whatās going on behind the curtainā users had a lot of fun!
Sincerely,
Bill
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