Flex scheduling online app

[franz]

Community -

We’ve created a version of our web app that allows you to create/edit/delete flex schedules. This will allow anyone with existing flex schedules to create new ones or anyone new that would like to try out flex schedules. This is meant as a tool for flex and not as a general tool for other schedule types. It has all of the moisture charts, etc. that are part of the flex model.

https://flex-app.rach.io/

Our main goal is simplification for our growing customer base, so we will continue to learn this watering season and keep moving forward on improving our current scheduling software. We believe that our new water as needed schedules will work well with the majority of our customers but understand that flex has also worked really well for folks.

We already have ideas for next year where we can fully include all of the flex capabilities into water as needed schedules.

Please help us build something great by continuing to give us your feedback for all of our software by giving constructive feedback as to what is working well and what is not working well.

Thank you for being part of our community.

[franz]

[obmd1]

So for someone coming from a dumb controller to install this next week, would you recommended using a flex scheduling approach or (so I don’t know what I’m missing) move to as needed?

[emil]

would you recommended using a flex scheduling approach or (so I don’t know what I’m missing) move to as needed?

@obmd1, we believe As Needed schedules are easier to setup and configure for someone coming from a dumb timer

I’d personally recommend starting with As Needed first before exploring Flex. Flex is great if you know all of the inputs; root zone depth, nozzle application and/or zone precipitation rates, etc.

For more information on As Needed schedules, please see this support article.

[jemanner]

Are you saying As Needed does not factor in settings such as root depth, nozzle type, etc.?

[emil]

As Needed does not factor in settings such as root depth, nozzle type, etc.?

@jemanner, it does for the initial schedule creation, but you can edit zone durations by the minute after, so it’s easier to correct and fine tune for users with input errors who don’t wish to enter the correct data.

[jemanner]

Oh, then if as expected with new sod, I anticipate increasing my root depth, it will not reflect in the schedule unless I create a new schedule, i.e. As Needed does not dynamically adjust with changes? Flex does?

[gosox1982]

Being new to the product and the community, I just want to say that I clearly made a good choice by updating my controller to your product! You guys clearly care about your customers and improving your product based on feedback and Beta results. If only more companies would use that business model…

Thanks guys!

[stonecliff]

We’ve created a version of our web app that allows you to create/edit/delete flex schedules.

I know you feel that this a step backward for the company, but I truly believe this was a very good decision. I don’t get the angst over Flex being too difficult to use; it was the easiest thing in the world to get started with, and could be improved by adding data or tweaking usage amounts over time for those of us gung ho about getting the most out of your algorithms…

Like I pointed out in another post, you really should be looking at how to enhance flex, not create a fixed schedule with skips (i.e., As Needed), as that approach as implemented is fatally flawed (as the workarounds being discussed in other posts are making clear).

Thanks for listening.

[emil]

i.e. As Needed does not dynamically adjust with changes? Flex does?

@jemanner, As Needed schedules will dynamically update schedules after zone attribute changes are made

[boettcht]

Does this mean you will not be retiring the Flex schedules in Nov of '16? I really like them and hope they stick around.

[franz]

We will not disappoint our community, especially early adopters

Product team is listening/learning and we will continue to refine the scheduling models.

[garmanmd]

I also thank you for listening. I understood the concept of fixed (i.e. fully manual) and Flex (i.e. fully automatic). I had issues dialing in Flex, so it was not perfect for me either, but at least I partially understood it.

I still cannot figure out the hybrid “Water as needed” and what it is really trying to do and how it does it. It seems it’s not either manual or automatic, and therefore somewhere in no man’s land

[cwagz]

It has been really hot here for the last several days and is now cooling off significantly for the weekend. Waking up in the morning and seeing the magic of my flex schedules keeping everything watered just right makes me really happy to have your product. Flex is so impressive I bought the gen 2 unit and was able to sell my gen 1 to a coworker.

I was planning on trying the as needed setup but these last few days have really solidified my belief that flex is the best setup for my lawn. Thank you for continuing to support them with the new web app.

Chad

[bzimmer]

@franz - Just seeing this thread and am curious, if I were to purchase a Rachio, would I be able to setup flex schedules as a new customer? If you recall from the announcement thread, I was holding off purchasing because of the loss of flex.

Thanks!

[franz]

Yes, you can use this workaround for now to add flex schedules to your controller. After that, you can use the apps as normal…

https://flex-app.rach.io

Please know the product team is listening, aggregating feedback, and determining what our next software releases include.

This thread sums up my thoughts.

What is the REAL reason to abandon Flex?

Reading posts on this forum for a spell, I tend to think there is more to Rachio’s decision to transition from Flex to As Needed than meets the eye. It must require considerable computational resources on Rachio’s part to support Flex. Think about it, they must continuously monitor specific microclimate data for every Flex user location in the world and communicate the results to the respective IROs. Yes, to some extent this is probably true with As Needed, but I would venture not nearly as comp…

Thanks for your patience.

[bzimmer]

@franz - Very excited to hear this! I’ll talk to the wife and see if ordering one might be in the cards for this year.

[uladz]

Thank you very much for re-enabling the schedule. You may be right that this schedule type is over compilated for normal folks but for me it works perfectly so far after fine grain tuning and adjusting. Seeing that it’s gone from my app and web UI was quite a bit of shock at first. I was glad to discover a “back door” to get to the functionality. Why not to keep it for advanced users and hide for normal users? Just make it optional and continue to improve meanwhile to make it easier to use.

[franz]

Thanks for the feedback, very much appreciated.

We are continuing to iterate and I believe we will deliver the right solution.

[franz]