Good to know about that Synology Routers can do TimeMachine.
I also have two airports that I stream music to.
Right now everything works perfect with the exception of the rachio so don’t see myself buying new base stations anytime soon.
This is a very frustrating thread.
So many posters stating things like “Why do you need it?”
Here is the real concept here - some of us bought this because of HomeKit integration. And at least once a week, it disconnects from Homekit. This is the ONLY device I have doing this. Clearly something needs updating here. Please Rachio - get this done and let’s be done with this.
And to everyone else, stop derailing with useless comments about how “you don’t need homekit”.
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I agree this is not about why do you need homekit, it is about a product supposed to work as advertised. I am blown away that Rachio has been aware of this issue for ages and still has not rolled out a solution. An update from @franz would be nice.
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They are selling a defective product and they know it and yet are still adverting it for HomeKit.
Yep. Had other choices and chose this product because of the HomeKit ecosystem.
Turning up my sprinklers again for the spring and was hoping it would be ironed out. Hopefully soon 
You don’t need HomeKit. You need oxygen, water, food, shelter and a few other things.
Except for a couple of users who have created sophisticated automations, HomeKit won’t even make your grass greener, or significantly reduce your water bill. It just makes life a little more convenient.
There are two common applications:
- Hands-free control, e.g. when cleaning or adjusting heads, so the phone need not be touched with wet and dirty hands.
- Simple interlocks, e.g. don’t water on days when the gardener is scheduled, or don’t start the robot mower until the grass has dried.
Although it would of course be best if Rachio would fix the problem, there are (at least) two ways it could be greatly mitigated without their help, using the collective brainpower of the community:
- Document how to easily implement these functions without HomeKit.
- Discover why HomeKit connections are lost, and find easy ways to minimize these events.
For example, you can easily set up Google Assistant, then tell your iPhone “OK Google, please water ‘front west’. … OK Google, stop watering.” Unfortunately, that doesn’t work via Apple Watch. I don’t have one, but surely someone with this watch could find a simple and reliable way to turn zones on and off by voice, which many users here would appreciate.
I don’t believe that his Synology APs have a secret sauce that maintains connection. If we understood the pattern better we could prescribe a fix, e.g. “assign a fixed channel” or “set up this $25 AP dedicated to Rachio”.
Finally, I would think that
is not only a great solution, but Homebridge adds many capabilities to HomeKit that many users would want. Why is it not well accepted?
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From what I understand this overrides the controller’s built in functions like watering based on weather.
This was also my understanding from research I did some time ago… If I recall that was the dealbreaker for me.
Very well said Stewart! The other day I drug out my hose’s and watered in my beds (with liquid miracle grow) due to the drying out that occurred from the brutal Texas freeze we just endured. I really sort of enjoyed it… Hahaha
I first had problems with Rachio / homekit back when I started this thread. I purchased a Synology router (for other reasons) for home, then another to create a mesh network at home to reach distant wifi cameras better… (I then did the same thing in my 12,000 sq. ft office building / business).
Anyway, regarding synology. This router is crazy good and is the only reasonable explanation I can come up with as to why my Rachio works 99% perfectly with homekit and the home app on my Macs, iPhones, iPads and apple watches for my wife and myself.
**I can dig into my sinology settings and relay any information that may help but I don’t think there is a constant channel involved. I do know that it uses tri-band technology and I have it wired via ethernet for backhaul. You can pretty much get as granular as you desire in settings… I have noticed that the Rachio can be on the 2.4 GHz network and sometimes it will be on a 5 GHz network while other times it will be on 5-1 GHz network (this I believe is a synology thing)… Typically it is on the 2.4. If I simply turn off the secondary network node it joins the primary immediately and vice versa.
**We just don’t use the home app to water, that’s all. Not saying others shouldn’t want to use it for whatever reasons they have…
I will say that when the Rachio beta came out recently and it bricked my controller, Franz had a new brand new controller here within a week. I connected it to my network and it “Just Worked” just like the last one did… I think my controller was out of warranty (If I recall). That is great support AND I think the Rachio is the best controller out there. I literally don’t need to touch it and it does it’s thing based on weather, moisture content, skips for wind and freeze etc, etc, etc… Better than I ever could.
I’m not sure when I started this thread. 2 years, or so ago I think… I do hope they get this Homekit sorted out for all that want to use it and I think they will.
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How about they just fix the feature they advertised the unit as having instead of looking for work arounds or rationalizing Rachio’s painfully slow reaction to fixing this problem?
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I’m thinking it is more of an issue with my U-Verse gateway as while our city is upgrading all our power lines before hurricane season my internet goes down for just a few minutes. This seems to result in the Rachio dropping off from HomeKit and often is a bear to get back online requiring not only holding down the wifi button but also restarting my gateway and AppleTV hub.
No ida why my internet going down would cause the rachio to loss HomeKit but it does.
The other thing that will cause the Rachio to go offline is if I have my iOS devices on the same wifi as the rachio when I leave my home and my iOS devices switch from my WiFi to cellular.
None of my other HomeKit devices have this issue.
Very strange Tzterri, It seems there is no rhyme or reason why it works for some and not for others… I just wish I could give my functionality to everyone else. I can come and go from my home ne work. As I move through the house my phone is handed off from one Wi-Fi mesh point to the other… I can switch from 2.4 to 5 GHz and never lose connection. I just don’t get it…
With 5 base stations all in bridge mode all hardwired to my gateway my wifi is very strong even in my front and back yard.
Yes, this is definitely a Rachio issue. Hopefully Franz and his team can get things sorted out.
For me, Homebridge, as great as it is, defeats the purpose of the Apple ecosystem which is security and locally controlled. Homebridge relies on cloud based services and opens up a security hole in your network, especially if you set it up with the default settings. If you are using Homebridge, you may as well use Google or Alexa which would provide far better security.
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I think it’s bricked. Can’t get it back on wifi. Not reachable in the rachio app.
I just put new sod down this is not good.
I noticed that the Rachio app updated yesterday (I think)
To check current controller firmware version go to:
Rachio App / More (at bottom) / Controller Settings / Technical Info / Firmware version
*The current Controller firmware is: iro3-firmware-hk-5-632
Rachio can push a firmware to your controller with a call (if it is online)
I hope this helps - Chris
Unless that was old data, it appears to be online.
When you log in from your computer at app.rach.io , does the controller appear in your account? If so, does it show as online? If so, can you run a zone?