Show current rain sensor status

Archive
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Hi. Just got my new 16-zone Iro installed and all zones are working well, setup was a breeze (thanks for the great software, Rachio!). The only thing I couldn’t figure out is how to see if the rain sensor functionality is working. I see that rain sensor events get logged in the history, but since I just installed the Iro, I don’t have any rain sensor history yet.

Please consider showing “current rain sensor status”, for example:

Not present
Disabled
Enabled: no rain
Enabled: rain detected

Most traditional off-the-shelf controllers supply this status information on their front panel… Would be great to see this little info on the main page in the app (same page as “Next scheduled watering time is…”).

I’m assuming the best way for me to test the rain sensor is to manually activate it using the self-test button on the external unit, and then check the Iro history. Please let me know if there’s a better way.

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@ramblinwreck

Agreed, this is something we are hoping to get into v2.0 of the software which is being released at the end of April.

Yes, that is the best way to test (the way we do it :wink: )

Let us know if you have any more feedback or questions.

Thanks!

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What’s the latest on this? Just installed my rain sensor the other day and have no idea if it’s working or not. Thanks!

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Product team @benblackmer has this captured, so in our software backlog and being prioritized.

For now, any rain sensor events will be in the activity card. Will show the stateful nature in a future release.

:cheers:

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I’ll add my support for the actual status. Right now the app shows that the sensor was last activated. But I can go our to the garage and see that currently it is not activated, so I presume somehow the deactivation got missed. What I really need is to be able to tell Iro to go check again or better, to have Iro periodically check the status and act accordingly.

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Hey @sbillard-
I definitely see the need for a better indicator of the sensor of your rain sensor. As for your current situation, the controller actually doesn’t “check” rain sensor status, the rain sensor notifies the controller (I’m not explaining that well.) When a rain sensor deactivates, it closes the circuit, so the controller knows immediately that this has occurred. If you are only seeing activated and not deactivated, I am concerned there is a wiring issue with your sensor… can you send me a screenshot of the notifications you received?
McKynzee :rachio:

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This is probably a “display” issue. In general the sensor is working correctly, so not a wiring issue. The sensor itself shows deactivated.

Here is what is showing in the Device Updates:

Last Saturday at 12:58 PM
Rain sensor activated.

Last Saturday at 12:58 PM
Rain sensor deactivated.

Jan 10 at 12:27 PM
Rain sensor activated.

But the zone where I have pots (and therefore no weather intelligence) are watering so I presume Iro knows the sensor has deactivated. The other zones are not watering because of recent rains.

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@sbillard You are definitely right, those last two notifications look like they just came in out of order, probably because they were so close together. Either way, just more reason to have a place where you can check what the status is!

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