iWatch

I’d really like to control my sprinklers with my apple watch for spring zone testing purposes, blowing out my sprinklers at year end, and for general manual control when extra water is needed during hot weather. This would be a really helpful and cool feature.

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I would definitely like to also see this. Just being able to run a zone manually would be enough. Using the watch would allow you to also have your hands free to make adjustments to heads as you are checking the system instead of putting the phone in your picket and then pulling it out again and having to unlock it to go to the next zone.

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Assuming Rachio brings their promised HomeKit support this functionality should be available via Siri and Apple’s Home app which works on watchOS / Apple Watch. Apple announced support for sprinklers in HomeKit at WWDC earlier this year and Rachio’s logo was on the slide they presented.

Here’s looking at you Rachio! What’s the holdup with HomeKit?

p.s. what’s an iWatch? Did I miss a product announcement? /s :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

2 Likes

Exactly. I was thinking the same thing @jocamero

Let’s get busy Rachio and get your software homekit compliant!

:blush: my bad!

For those looking for an easier way to blow out their systems in the winter or maintenance throughout the year, I’ve revived the Winterizinator.com site that lets you turn on/off zones at random (Thanks to Varun Mehta for the original site years ago). Just enter your API Access Key available in the app.rachio.com user menu and click Go.

You’ll see all your zones and tap the button to turn on a zone, click another zone to switch to that zone or turn all zones off.

I hope to keep the site active until Rachio can at least add a ‘Skip to Next Zone’ button when it’s running a manual watering. Guess I could create my own AppleWatch app next. Lol

http://www.winterizinator.com/

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I think you can control the sprinklers with your watch if you have a Wink Hub. I do have a Wink Hub and apple’s watch but I do not have a need to control the sprinklers from my watch.

I think what you are looking for exists via simplecommands.com The simplecommands watch app allows access to all rachio zones, controller and schedules. It also handles rain delay and other rachio commands.

-supports multiple controllers
-supports rain delay
-supports creating unique groups for zones if you want to run certain zones in serial outside the regular schedule
-lets you create friendly names for things so that you can use the SMS module via siri with less name trauma

Unfortunately simplecommands won’t work with Canadian cell numbers.

Hi:

Sorry to hear your having an issue. We use the twilio service to deliver/receive SMS via our platform. From all indications SMS from and to Canada based numbers should work. What error do you get or when does it fail for you?

Thanks

This is what I received:
John Thompson (simplecommands)
Mar 3, 18:59 AST

Hi Mike!

Unfortunately at this time we only accept American phone numbers for the sms/watch listener. However, all of the native app’s functionality is still available for you! If you have any questions on how to use the app, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Best,
John
John Thompson
Customer Experience Director
SimpleCommands - Communicate on your terms