Wanted to come back and update. After reading another thread here, I did the “soft reset?” by holding the up direction on the controller wheel. After controller came back, Home app was able to see the controller finally. Then it went into connecting and never got anywhere. I bailed out after a few minutes of standing next to controller and went back through the process a second time. On the second attempt, it did finally connect and tell me my new device is ready to use. I did this with an iPhone 11 Pro Max on the latest iOS 13.5. Finally. And Rachio, perhaps let people OPT OUT of pushed firmware updates in the future so our controllers don’t suddenly stop working for no apparent reason.
One way I would like to use HK is via automation. When I arrive home, pause the sprinklers for a few minutes on the zone that is next to my driveway. Or, if I open the garage door to leave, pause a zone there. If it’s windy or whatever, it would be nice since the water blows across the driveway.
I have seen others mention the use of a motion sensor to activate a zone perhaps to discourage someone from letting their pets leave presents on their lawn. Especially if the owner isn’t kind enough to clean up after their pets.
Not interested in Google / Alexa / IFTTT.
The point is not if I have a sound use case for HK. This conversation is about a product that is not ready (in term of HK), and obviously not performing at what is being advertised.
Since Google Assistant is very easy to set up, I assume that you are avoiding it because of security or privacy concerns. If for another reason, please explain.
Would
meet your needs? It is completely open source and well reviewed, so you should not have any worries about tracking, etc. Also, you would be using the HomeKit front end (Siri, etc.), so the experience should be identical to using ‘native’ HomeKit connectivity.
Why have to go build a Homebridge server for something that’s supposed to support HK natively? It’s because you shouldn’t have to.
It’s not like the Rachio 3 just came out a month ago. The HK issue thread is a year long. I am sitting here with Ring equipment that was promised for HK for years now and still Ring has not delivered. The golden rules of buying because you want HomeKit support are 1. Never buy on a promise; 2. If you put works with HomeKit on the box, it really should work well with Homekit. At this point, it doesn’t work well and by that I mean, it doesn’t work for everyone so it is a crap shoot if you decide to buy.
I upgraded from a Rachio 2 to Rachio 3 because I wanted it for its HomeKit support. I wished I would have checked the forum before clicking buy. I could have just stayed on my 2 and waited. Now I’ve spent money for a feature I can’t use. The new Director of Engineering appears to be taking it seriously and is promising weekly updates on progress of fixing it. This week’s update was not posted so it doesn’t feel like this is going to get resolved very quickly. They only recently have been able to recreate the issue after a year of user complaints.
If I was going to go the HomeBridge route, I’d buy a 2 (I have one for sale actually) and implement it that way. There are other HomeKit options in the irrigation space if that’s a critical issue.
The fact Rachio is a cloud based model, direct local access via HomeKit is a plus when it works because you can still control your system if needed.
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It shouldn’t be a crap shoot. The community could really help here, by documenting which setups work and which don’t. I don’t know whether it’s your access points, your hub device, or your client iOS version that makes a difference. If a hundred users reported what equipment they have and whether HomeKit works for them, I believe that the pattern would be obvious. If they don’t already have them, Rachio would purchase an appropriate AP, iDevice or hub, set it up in their lab, observe the failure and find out what is going wrong.
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I think the community is already doing that and offering to do even more. I believe Rachio knows how to now reproduce the problem and I assume they know why it’s happening. They just need the right resources to code the fixes.
How is that done? I did a soft reset manually on the controller and it still does not work.
I am setting up my Rachio 3, first time user. The device I have is the Nov 2019 build date and very likely has old firmware (number is not showing in the app). I have been unable to make the wifi work. Have tried many things, including trying to connect to the wifi on the rachio itself.
Is there a way I can do a manual firmware upgrade?
I have on old iPad which is also running ioS14.2. Will that work?
Any other suggestions?
Finally was able to connect.
- It seems that any Apple Hardware running their newer OS has the problem with the old firmware. I have tried iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone X, Mac Book Air M1.
- With the iPhone X I got a pop-up asking me to use the Wifi Setting Panel to add device (it didnt work since the phone was already updated to 14.2+).
- With the iPhone 12 Pro, I did not even get that warning. So please enable that also.
- I had to use a MacBookPro from 2011 running High Sierra to get to connect.
- Promptly updated to iro3-firmware-hk-5-632
Take-aways:
-
Provide a separate workaround which can use the low level APIs to send the message in the right format for devices running older firmware. My Rachio 3 was manufactured in Nov 2019 and is old firmware.
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Provide a way to checkup the firmware number via the serial number. If the serial number has the old firmware installed from factory, prompt to use the workaround.
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Please add a way other than Wifi (USB Port, Ethernet, Bluetooth) to access the control menu. An ethernet port is the most reliable and will not add much to the BOM. Connecting via a USB cable would be the other wired option. Bluetooth is the alternative wireless option. Wifi has a gazillion options/versions and is the most vulnerable to network stack incompatibility which caused this issue.
@franz FYI
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I just upgraded my Rachio 2 to 3 after being gifted a new one over the holidays. I have it all hooked up and it’s working and all, but I have to ask, is iro3-firmware-hk-5-632 really the latest firmware? Based on when this post was started, that would mean this firmware is over 2 1/2 years old. Yet, it still looks like the Rachio 3 is the newest consumer model being sold, but it hasn’t gotten any software, or more importantly, security updates in all that time. Has support really been dropped? Can we expect any security improvements at the least? Considering how many vulnerabilities from a security standpoint that have probably come up in all that time, it just seems really bad if support has already been dropped, yet you’re still selling them.
It’s a great product, I just don’t want it to get lumped in with all the other IoT devices that don’t get updated and contribute to more vulnerable home networks. Too often these kinds of devices end up being so quickly ignored because firmware updates don’t directly bring in more revenue.
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Yes, I have the same concerns. Hopefully, someone responds further. Can you speak to this @Michael_I ?
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Hi @franz
I created an account just to echo the above.
Security fixes are not only key to protecting the users, but also the company itself.
I’m addition, g the effort that Rachio put in over the last 2 years on HK, although the end result wasn’t what was wanted, I’m sure there were many bugs that were fixed along the way on that journey.
If I recall correctly, Rachio even transitioned from custom HK SDK from wifi vendor to the Apple supported one, etc.
These changes were beta’d so first step of sanity testing was done.
Would really appreciate the support to keep the devices secure from a toolset perspective.
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Any update on future software / firmware updates?
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@franz @dane Can we please get a status update on the firmware? There are multiple vulnerabilities that need to be addressed. Why let all that HomeKit work go to waste?
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Their communication has sure gone silent over the last few months. Shame, use to be very active on answering inquiries on here
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What are the vulnerabilities that need to be addressed? I just installed an R3 and would like to determine how I’m currently at risk and/or mitigate that risk within my system.
Thanks.
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I’m mostly referring to vulnerabilities within the Wi-Fi stack that have been discovered/published since Rachio’s last update. There have been a few major ones. They had done a lot of work for HomeKit and worked with their chip vendor to upgrade the chipset firmware but then never published anything because it didn’t solve HomeKit. This makes no sense to me. My best advice is to isolate the Rachio on a guest network at this point. This appears it will end up being one of those IoT devices that get no love and bring the security of an entire network down, unless you isolate it. A real shame honestly.
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Regardless of homekit, could this have anything to do with R3s going offline (wifi) every few days? This is my 3rd season with an R3, never lost connection before, but the past 2-3 weeks its going offline A LOT.