Spring is arriving. Any new SW tricks?

It’s been a bit quiet, anything on the horizon with software updates? Looking forward to our Gen2 maybe getting some new SW tricks when we come out of winterization. :beers:

FWIW I do expect “no comment on future releases”, but wanted to put it out there that news would be welcome. :slightly_smiling_face:

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:slight_smile:

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I’m hoping they will allow manual cycle and soak with drip irrigation.

Why the need? Do you have large flow bubblers or something?

I have drip irrigation for my 18 fruit trees on slope with clay soil. While I understand that I can specify some other nozzle, I feel that this would be inaccurate in daily flex algorithms. I’m currently using monthly flex, but I would like to switch over to daily flex after one or two seasons. I understand the reasons for disabling smart cycle in drip irrigation, but I think a manual override should still be available. Franz has acknowledged that it’s a defect in a previous post. Hopefully it’ll get addressed in one or two seasons.

What is the PR of your drip? Building small wells doesn’t satisfy?

About 18 years ago, I built a raised bed by about 8-12 inches for each tree to improve the drainage whenever we had El Nino seasons. Glad I did, the recent wet winter would have killed my trees. There’s a dedicated gutter/drain that went between the trees. Making small wells would seem counterintuitive to what I’ve been doing for this orchard for a long time. I don’t need to find more ways to circumvent what has already been acknowledged as a defect–I’m already using flex monthly to apply soak cycles.

Each small hole in my drip line puts out about .5 gallon per hour. Depending on the type of fruit tree, some I install drip lines with more holes (ie citrus, etc) while other fruit types I install drip lines will less holes. I also have a dedicated line that I water into a large container so that I can measure how much water is being put out. I obviously reuse this water for other purposes like container plants or vegetable beds beyond my irrigation’s reach.

This is at my personal home where I can monitor my orchard on a daily basis. After one or two seasons if I’m successful, I hope to deploy a dozen or so Rachio controllers to my commercial properties.

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Just to give an update, it seems Rachio has updated to allow smart cycle with drip irrigation! Much faster turn around that I originally anticipated!

Edit: Unfortunately, smart cycles and manual cycles are selectable for drip irrigation but they don’t work still. The irrigation still does one continuous run without soak breaks, so the defect was only superficially fixed. :frowning:

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