Several of my zones are showing they are not currently scheduled to run. They are on a flex schedule, but there are several rainy days forecast. That makes sense and everything is working as it should with flex.
I’m concerned that the yellow exclamation when a zone is not scheduled could lead some new users to think there is a problem. Might want to consider changing that part of the UI to something less alarming when a zone is included in a flex schedule, but just won’t run in the foreseeable future due to weather.
It would be nice to see the moisture level balance without having to drill down into the zone, but I also really like seeing the next predicted watering date – even if it is subject to change. My main concern with the current UI is the yellow exclamation point for “Not Scheduled” that could appear to indicate a problem when there is not one.
I’m a new user, but also had this on 2 zones and instantly thought something was wrong. That I had not set something up correctly etc. An exclamation point in amber/yellow usually means something is wrong, an error. I searched for ages trying to figure it out and play with various settings to get the thing scheduled without success.
Some suggestions
reserve error symbols for true errors. Meaning if they are not
addressed, it will not work, something is wrong that needs user
attention. In the current case, the zones are part of the schedule
and will receive watering when needed. Nothing for the user to do
except wait.
The term “Not scheduled” is sort of accurate, but also
misleading. It is part of the schedule, it is simply forecasted that
watering will not be required. “Not Scheduled” almost sounds like it
is not part of a schedule and will not (ever) be scheduled. Terms
like “Pending” may work. Or even say something like "Rain Forecast"
to clearly explain why it is on hold for now.
I like the idea of showing the moisture level balance. Although it
should not replace the predicted watering date. Some data is good
for more technical folks, but if it was just a huge table of data,
it becomes less mainstream friendly
I really like that idea, as it is time consuming to drill into every zone to see the moisture balance. I also think that people would want to see when the next watering date is scheduled too though. Ideally it would show both, as long as there is a way to add it out so it is not too cluttered.
@DigitalBoy, welcome to the community. The “Not Scheduled” language and yellow exclamation are holdovers from Fixed schedules, where they really are more indicative of a possible problem. The good folks at Rachio are still refining things for the new Flex schedules. I agree with your suggestions.
thanks @msdowdie. That makes a lot of sense. If there are real problems that the user needs to address, then absolutely flag it with a warning. I appreciate this is rapidly evolving, looking forward to future refinements!
I have a related question on “not scheduled”. I have four zones setup as a flex schedule with “shrubs”. These four zones have never run since flex scheduling was introduced. We have had rain so that doesn’t concern me too much. My issue is I also have flowers in these zones that I am now losing due to the lack of water frequency. The shrubs need less water and the flowers need more frequent water. Any suggestions on how to accomplish both under flex schedule?
@emil can probably offer a more authoritative answer, but I think reducing the root depth and/or reducing the maximum allowed depletion for the zone might help. I have a similar situation in a bed with mostly shrubs and a few perennials. The shrubs are OK with the flex schedule, but the perennials are not doing well at all. I was contemplating how to make adjustments this morning.
I brought this issue up through email as well and figure I’ll post it here too:
The way it is currently being presented suggests something is wrong, since the webui and iOS are showing an explanation point and no watered date for those zones. The explanation point screams to me that sometime is a miss and I need to take some type of action to fix it. It doesn’t suggest that it will resume watering at some future date.
I think a better presentation would be to continue to show the past watered date & a future date or if in my current case a future date for watering hasn’t been determined yet then in the Will Water field put a TBD
I’d liked see the past watered date & a TBD or as others have suggested the moisture chart.
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll give that a try. I was also thinking of just changing this zone type to grass so it will run more frequently when the grass zones run. It seems like if you could overlay a fixed schedule on top of this flex schedule you could do more frequent short watering for the flowers and let the flex schedule do the deep water for the shrubs as needed.
AFAIK, you can set up a fixed schedule to supplement the flex schedule for more frequent watering. Considering how infrequently these zones are watered now, if they were watered on a fixed schedule too then flex might never schedule them. The flex schedule takes account of fixed and manual runs in its calculations. So, I’d prefer just to have the flex schedule handle it and water often enough that the perennials are OK.
I’m also make some adjustment to my cool season grass zones because there are areas that are suffering and going brown in the heat. My warm season grass areas seem very happy with the flex schedule.
Yeah, just saw this on my app today and was like “OMGeee WHaaaaa?!?” And googled it which bright me here. So I guess all systems normal but definitely was not intuitive seeing the yellow exclamation point and “not scheduled”.
Im not sure there is a solution but here is a problem I see. If I’m right, IRO looks at the weather forecast and counts every possible chance for precip as fact when creating the upcoming flex schedule. In other words tomorrow I may have a 30% change or precip and in the moisture graph I will see the estimated amount of accumulation (such as .24 in) The problem is there is only a 30% chance I get anything at all.
Heres another example, in NW Florida we had 50% chance of precip every day last week. IRO showed forecasted rain totals everyday. We got zero (well .04" one day). Now in IRO defense it does look at past data and say hey theat 30% chance was actually no rain so its getting dry out there. The problem comes when it cancels or delays based on forecasted thunderstorms.