Well that answers it for me. Nothing is really fixed yet. I will stay on 615 and keep rebooting when it falls out of HomeKit every few days.
I was finally able to get HomeKit setup, but I am now getting the dreaded “not responding”. I am on 632 and have tried a controller resets WiFi reset and nothing. How do you go back to 615?
Good afternoon everyone! Here is the HomeKit connection issue update for May 15th, 2020.
No critical updates from last week as we spent a majority of our time on the firmware version 632 wireless flow meter problem that has been resolved. The good news is that both Apple and our WiFi chip vendor are both involved. Our chip manufacturer is still asking us to go to Apple Development Kit (ADK). We tried a sample application they provided and we were still able to reproduce the issue using the new ADK.
So as of right now, we are waiting on external vendors to get to the same replication state as us and then provide guidance or a fix.
Thank you everyone for being a Rachio customer and have a wonderful weekend.
Michael
4 Likes
With 632
The Rachio accessory is staying available in HomeKit for me for the most part. It seems like the ‘aid’ keeps changing or the mdns ‘c#’ value is being incremented without the device being exposed causing it to loose all the configuration and move back to the default room.
Additionally the name characteristics seem to only be exposed sometimes which results in sometimes it appearing with Zone1 and sometimes the name of the zone.
Additionally it appears that the mdns ‘sf’ value is sometimes updated to be 0 before pairing is complete which causes pairing to abort as HomeKit thinks Rachio has already paired with another HomeKit controller.
Well after a few days, my Rachio connects, then goes “no response” then connects again, then goes back to “no response”
Using a Linksys Velop mesh. I have separate 2.4 and 5 Ghz networks. I’m using the 2.4Ghz network.
Firmware is 632
I tried from scratch again, and it added the controller and then immediately went No Response. I pulled the power… then it went available then No Response again.
Meanwhile, Rachio WiFi app is working just fine.
My Rachio 3 is still rock solid after @franz helped get me back to 615. Hasn’t disconnected from HomeKit at all. Responds to all commands. I can update zone names and they stick. Exactly what I would expect the functionality to be. Running on an eero Pro mesh network secured with HomeKit.
I’m not sure what changed with future firmware updates, but I’m staying put until a beta is released to test.
So that’s my config… nothing works here… not 615 not 632.
I could add to HomeKit but it would never stay connected for more than couple of minutes.
I don’t understand what’s different? Other than I have DHCP reservations? And don’t have HomeKit secured on the Eero mesh yet…
Different hardware chip versions?
This problem has been so frustrating to me that I actually created an account here so I could share that this solution worked for me!
I pressed the square stop button (up) until reset and I was able to add my device to HomeKit.
Running version hk-5-632
I hope everyone will get this working and I have faith in Rachio to get it done…
Mine has been solid on 632 since they sent the fix to my controller
Good Luck all!
1 Like
Ok so unplugging a couple of times did not work. I just did a reset and that worked immediately. Simply press the stop (square) button and hold for a bit. Then, once second quadrant is orange, do the WiFi connect routine (go to update WiFi in app and press WiFi button on controller) and follow directions. Not sure how stable it will be.
Mine works great (“no response” is gone) after downgrading 615 as well. After all of the trouble, not sure I want to try 632. Out of curiosity, my Rachio3 now works with homekit from within the home on my mesh wifi, but still shows no response when I switch to cellular. Do you have the same issue?
I downgraded to 615 and “no response” is gone on wifi. Still have “no response” when connected to cellular. Would you recommend going to 632?
Hmm. External network access to HomeKit hardware is provided by a home hub such as a recent Apple TV, HomePod, or enabled iPad. If you have a home hub, perhaps reboot/power cycle it and see if that resolve off-network access. May want to power cycle the Rachio after rebooting the home hub in case there’s registration with the home hub that needs to happen.
1 Like
Is this issue going to get fixed or is it time to grow it in the trash and buy a different brand that actually works with HomeKit as advertised?
I’m head of our HOV community and I’m being asked to recommend a brand of sprinkler controller and right now I’ll going to tell everyone to stay away from the Rachio brand due to it still not being fixed after going on a year now. ,
The team continues to work on this issue with Apple and Cypress (our WiFi vendor). Our last update is here. Rachio 3 Not Responding in Homekit (Again) - #351 by Michael_I
We are hoping for a solution as much as everyone else on this thread 
.
1 Like
franz have a Rachio3 (have previously had 1 &2). Installed 3 at my new home last year when installed new irrigation system. No Hk since installation bc of this issue. Been waiting till this season and just read through everything here to see if fixed. I did a power cycle. Also did a WiFi reset. I have a Meraki network with 8 AP’s do plenty good signal throughout. Power cycled R3 just now and still can’t connect new HK accessory to my home. On iro3-firmware-hk-5-632
@adsussman - as an interim measure, you could ask @franz to have version 615 pushed to your controller. I’ve been at 615 since initial installation last summer and have had no issues with HomeKit (or Google Assistant for that matter) integration.
Does everyone in your HOA use Homekit? Having Homekit, IMHO, is a nice to have, but not necessary. The way the Rachio works, it can basically be set up, and then forget about it while it does it’s thing. I would think that the capabilities of the Rachio, and it’s ability to water when needed could be more valuable than having Homekit connectability. And that said, Rachio seems to be serious about getting the Homekit issues resolved.
iPhones here are extremely popular where I live so I would guess HomeKit is an important feature.
Rachio promotes this controller as working with HomeKit so I’m not going to recommend something that doesn’t work as advertised.