Rachio 3 Not Responding in Homekit (Again)


All Apple airports are connected by Ethernet to the internet gateway.

All are named the same and allows seamless Wifi throughput my whole house.

I have many HomeKit devices and only yours has issues.

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I am using a Synology AC 2600 mesh router and not having any problems at all. I am only using the one base station as it covers my entire home. No other access points…

I sure do wish Apple would begin making routers again though!

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Seems like an ongoing problem for many months. Don’t mean to be rude, but there are a long list of emails describing the problems that we all seem to be having with your advertised support of HomeKit. Your question regarding mesh network support may be helpful but appears to be several months behind. Is there any upgrade to your sprinkler system that can be provided more quickly?

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Today when it went offline I discovered that just a quick press of the Wifi button gets it back online but now the LED is doing something I’ve never seen it do before. But it’s working normally.

Instead of being solid it’s doing this. Tried to upload a video but couldn’t so here is three stills of what it’s doing.

Possibly it’s “Watering delay active”
https://support.rachio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003815533-Light-Codes-Rachio-3-

I do not see a banner at the top of the Rachio home screen.

It just went offline again and tapping the Wifi button on the controller put it back online again and now the led is doing that strange chasing lights again but it’s working properly.


Screenshots

Hey @tzterri - thanks for sharing this. Super strange - it looks like it’s doing the light code for Direct Access but everything on your account seems to be online and working fine. Our CS Manager, Dane, is going to dig into this a bit and might reach out later today! Thanks as always for sharing a ton of info with us to help us get to the bottom of this :slight_smile:

Hey @Skidmd!

I’m sorry for the frustration. We’ve been waiting on a couple third parties to get this fixed before we can do anything on our end. We’re starting to take matters into our own hands given the entirely too long wait on this and see if there are any hacks or fixes we can do internally while we wait on others for a full fix. I’m keeping everyone updated as I hear more details.

:cheers:

It’s been doing something different the last few days. It goes offline. I briefly press the Wifi button and it goes back online almost instantly. It does the chasing blue light for a bit that I posted pics of before finally going solid. Then some hours later it goes off line again. With the led a solid blue.

As the OP (original poster of this thread) back in April 2019, I think this bears mentioning again:

The Rachio app is far more capable and is really the only good way to use the Rachio device…

My HomeKit has been working perfectly with Rachio for quite a while now…

Having said that, HomeKit integration doesn’t really offer anything except for quick operation of any given watering zone… I typically use it if I want to get the grand kids wet when they are playing in the yard. That’s about it… You can easily use the Rachio app for that same zone watering - Just as fast…

While HomeKit Integration was promised and should be delivered as promised, I think you will find that it’s all not what it is cracked up to be… Just sayin…

Now, if HomeKit gets better, I may change my mind. But for now, I would advise that you just use the Rachio App and spend your time on other things…

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Hello @laura.bauman - sorry, very long thread so I don’t know if I caught all of it, but I have been skimming through it and wanted to provide my data point. I have been having this issue too for a long time (pretty much since I got the device 2 years ago). I saw a post here where you asked if anyone has a mesh network. I do. So that’s one data point I guess. But before or after the latest FW update, I am still getting the No Response, unless I power cycle - then it will be controllable in the Home app for a variable amount of time. It is always available and connected through the Rachio App.

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Thank you so much for the information @Lucanaut!! Sharing this with our team for more research :slight_smile: (cc: @franz & @dane)

Hey team! This is the latest update I have. This is by no means an official solution, but something our CS and Eng teams are investigating.

It seems that if a HomeKit user doesn’t have Apple TV, HomePod, or a configured iPad on the same network as the Rachio controller at all times, then the controller will go offline in the HomeKit app. This means that if a HomeKit user is using an iPhone and it switches to cellular, the controller will go offline in the HomeKit app. If they are using a HomePod, Apple TV, etc, they have to take the steps to ensure that the Apple device is connected to the exact same band as the Rachio 3 (which means they’ll need to configure their APs at appropriate distance from Rachio 3 and HomeKit device.) It seems that both the HomeKit hub and the Rachio controller need to be on the 2.4 GHz or 5.8 GHz network. The team found that if the Rachio controller is connected to the 2.4 and the HomeKit hub is connected to the 5.8, the controller will lose connection to HomeKit.

Does this apply to any of you? Again, this is just speculation at this point, but I’m working hard to keep everyone as updated as I possibly can!

First of all - a HomeKit hub must be an Apple TV, HomePod, or iPad (it can’t be an iPhone).

Can the Rachio connect to either 2.4 or 5.8, or is it only able to connect to 2.4?

How does this apply to backup home hubs as well? That is, if I have two apple TVs and a HomePod, only one is “active” at a time - do all the hubs need to be on the same band as the Rachio?

Correct!

Rachio 3 controllers can connect to both, Gen 1 or Gen 2 controllers can only connect to 2.4.

Great question! Let me ping the team to see if they know.

I have three HomePods, an iPad and three Apple TV’s. One is a hub and the others on standby. So is the one that’s the active hub the one that needs to be on the same band or any one of them? That kind of makes a big difference.

Checking on this - great question!

This is something we need to confirm with Apple, but the educated guess is that only the Active hub needs to be on the same band. That is not an official answer - just an assumption based on research and knowledge at this time.