I have searched for moisture sensor integration and have found a lot, but not quite what I am looking for. So, if you have seen what I am looking for, please point me in that direction.
I have to use fixed day scheduling due to municipal watering restrictions. I can only water one day per week and it can only be during certain hours.
What I would like to see is the ability to place at least one sensor per zone and have zone watering run or not run based on the moisture content of the soil. For instance, my Rachio controller has 2 schedules (AM and PM) which have 4 zones in each schedule. I would like to see that when either schedule runs, that as the schedule cycles through the 4 zones, the Rachio controller checks each zone before it is watered to see if it “needs” watered. If it does not need watered, then skip the zone and move on to the next zone.
If anyone knows how to get my Rachio controller to work the way I would like it to, then please let me know. I have thought about IFTTT, but can’t envision the “logic” required to make this work, because I don’t know how the Rachio controller can support more than one soil moisture sensor.
Perhaps, since I have a Samsung SmartThings Gen 2 hub, I could use some Spruce Zigbee soil moisture sensors and have the SmartThings hub run a schedule for the zones that are set up using IFTTT? The SmartThings app for Rachio already exists, and the Spruce sensors are supported by SmartThings. So, I am thinking this could be possible? The Spruce sensors are about half the cost of the Rainbird or Toro sensors.
This kind of integration may not be possible with the Gen 2 controller. If it is not, then maybe it can be considered for an enhancement in a Gen 3 controller?