Background Information
I’m considering two ways of using the Rachio. I’m not sure if Rachio supports both use cases. A good chunk of my confusion centers around the fact that I’m not sure how the “Repeat” parameter of a Watering Time is used.
I get the sense that the “Repeat” parameter is a directive to Rachio, essentially demanding the system be run on certain days regardless of whether or not the grass needs it. Or perhaps the parameter is interpreted as the days/times Rachio is allowed (but not required) to water…and the sprinklers are only turned on those days/times if the algorithm determines the grass requires it.
Use Case 1 (Rachio takes control)
Configure Rachio with all of the relevant data:
- Nozzle/Precipitation Rate
- Grass Type
- Slope
- Sun Conditions
- Geographic Location (to find weather stations)
- Instruction that it can water any day at 5 AM.
Rachio uses all of that data (and history of previous runs) to determine when the grass needs water and only runs at 5 AM of that day.
Use Case 2: (I take control)
If, for whatever reason, I don’t like the algorithm Rachio uses to schedule runs then I’d like to take control.
I’d still give Rachio the information necessary to properly cycle/soak (slope/precipitation rate).
Maybe I’d still give Rachio the information necessary to calculate a good run time (grass type/precipitation rate) or I could manually tell Rachio how long to run each zone.
But the main point is that I wouldn’t want Rachio to perform any schedule calculations/determinations. Essentially, I’d come home one day to find the blades of grass folding in and I’d tell Rachio to schedule a one time run for 5 AM the next morning.
It looks like I could use IFTTT/Google Calendar to schedule a one time run but it sure would be nice to have a more simplistic, all in the app solution. https://www.rachio.com/blog/Cooking-with-Rachio-and-IFTTT?p=2689682971632801036
Questions
Does Rachio support these use-cases right now? Are there any details I should know about either?