Rain doesn't stop watering

[bainesmann]

I have just installed a Gen 2 system and connected to my PWS. The watering schedule seems to be working properly based on rainfall prediction but not actual rainfall. Yesterday we had nearly 1 inch of rain and the watering cycle was not stopped this morning. I have checked the raw data published by my PWS and it shows the rain. My PWS is MID_C2887. The threshold for skipping is set at 1/8 inch and Weather Intelligence is ON and Rain Skip is ON. Any suggestions?

[Dub9]

The watering process will not be stopped because of rain unless you have a rain sensor installed.

Rachio looks at the weather report for the day (say at 1 am) and determines the watering needs. If it determines watering is needed for today (forecast shows little or no rain) then that program will run, even if a monsoon hits.

Tomorrow at 1 am, Rachio again looks at the weather yesterday (rained) and the need today, and determines if it should water.

The program if flex daily and not synchronous live tracking.

Although re-reading you post, I see it was in fact yesterday’s rain and not today’s that you were posting about. So perhaps the accumulation was not updated to the web for access. Sorry.

[franz]

@bainesmann The data we received is reporting 0 precipitation from yesterday.(look for precip)

http://jsonblob.com/5774484be4b01190df7d36a9

Do you have a URL that I can send to our weather provider that shows this data discrepancy?

[883]

I am a little confused. I know that the Rachio checks the forecast at 1 am. However, if rain skip is activated (see: http://support.rachio.com/article/511-rain-skip) shouldn’t the system also check “1 hour before your watering schedule starts.”? It seems this might have prevented the system from running unless the predicted precip. quantity was below the desirable threshold.

[RandyJ331]

I just need to understand how the rain sensor works. I installed a rain sensor when I installed my new rachio gen2. I set it to water every 3 days beginning last Sunday morning. It rained Sunday afternoon, and the rain sensor “activated”. It rained Monday also, and the rain sensor “deactivated” yesterday, just in time for the scheduled 3rd day watering to occur this morning. I would have thought the sensor would push back the 3 day schedule instead of just activating and deactivating within that 3 day window. Can someone explain how I can get it to help me by delaying watering if it rains between the 3 day schedule?
If I water on Sunday and it rains Monday thru Wednesday, I don’t need it to water again on Thursday now do I? Is the sensor saying the rain between just wasn’t enough?

[Linn]

The rain sensor acts like an on/off switch. When it’s activated, your system won’t water. Once it’s deactivated, the system can water again. So having the sensor activate and deactivate in the middle of your 3 days will not change the pattern.

I use Flex daily, so I’m not familiar with how the interval watering handles the rain. On Flex daily it will take into account how much rain you got and not water again until you need the water, but it will not be a predictable schedule like your every 3 days.

[Linn]

Do you have rain skip activated? If so, the weather station you are using probably didn’t get enough precipitation to cause the watering cycle to skip, even though the rain sensor at your location activated.

[RandyJ331]

Maybe this is something for the rachio engineers to include on the next update. I understand using the “closest” weather station to determine how much water has been received, or how much is predicted to be coming, but the rain sensor I have attached to my controller is RIGHT HERE. Cannot get more accurate than that! I’m sure we are not the only location to have rain fall two neighbors down, but not on our yard, or vice versa. And most of the selectable weather stations are farther away than that.
The controller should be programmable so that if the sensor receives enough rain to be activated then the schedule is “reset” to start counting again, otherwise it defaults to every X days as programmed. Is that what the FLEX schedule does? Maybe I should change my program?

[mstormo]

You have to understand that the normal rain sensors for irrigation systems are very crude units. Basically they are just an on/off switch, with a cork which soaks up the rain water, which turns the switch off. Once the cork dries out, the switch is turned on again.

Many rain sensors have a way to adjust the sensitivity of the switch (how far the cork must travel before on/off, so you can try adjusting that to get the effect you want.

But I must say, with the full evap. model in the Rachio’s flex schedule, you would get much better performance out of the flex daily schedule and slightly off local Weather Station, than a fixed schedule and a plain rain sensor.