I have seen this topic on old posts but nothing recent. Are you able to get Google Assist to water a zone more than 3 minutes? Thank you
I don’t believe so. For some reason they stripped almost all of the capabilities from before.
Could you please explain the restriction in more detail?
Google Assistant has many commands that take both a name and a number as parameters. For example, “OK Google, set the master bedroom temperature to 22 degrees.” or “OK Google, tune the living room TV to channel 32.” So there is likely an API that would allow you to specify both a zone name and a duration.
IMO, it is important for Rachio to be able to simply claim “hands free operation” as an advantage over most competitors. This is a much more powerful statement than “hands free operation, if you have an iPhone, a HomeKit hub and a non-E Gen. 3 controller.”
We were confused as well. Here are the limitations set by Google, we have no control over this API.
https://developers.google.com/assistant/smarthome/guides/sprinkler
Maybe this is just a bug, rather than an intentional limitation. Or, maybe the required wording is strange.
The page at Smart Home Device Traits | Cloud-to-cloud | Google Home Developers says “Each device type has a number of recommended traits, but you can add whichever ones you want.” Good, we can add the Timer trait to a Sprinkler device, even though it’s not ‘recommended’. And, the page at Cloud-to-cloud | Google Home Developers says “For instance, a smart sprinkler controller or smart light switch may have a built-in timer. This trait can be used to control a built-in timer on devices …” Good, with ‘sprinkler’ specifically mentioned, it seems that the Timer trait should operate with a Sprinkler device. Have you tried filing a bug report, or discussing it on their forum?
We spent about 4 months working directly with their implementation team and what we have today is what was built after collaboration with them. It did lose functionality from what we had before which felt like a couple steps backwards and we did press for more functionality but did not see movement.
Wow, they must have hired some guys from Apple. Perhaps a workaround is an alternate device type, e.g. a blender. “OK Google, blend front yard west for 30 minutes.” And with luck, you could define ‘start watering’ as a synonym for blend. Is it possible to also define a custom icon?
What happens when you include the Timer trait on a Sprinkler? If you don’t get an error, perhaps there is some way (perhaps awkward) to set the parameter, e.g. “OK Google, start watering front yard west with a 30 minute timer.”
I tried that… And Google just sets a 30 min timer and starts it. No watering begins.