Not sure if this has been asked for, but I’d like to be able to use activation of my cheap, externally connected hard-wired rain sensor to initiate a user-specified minimum rain delay, rather than being at the unpredictable mercy of the foam discs inside the sensor to dry out and deactivate itself using it’s normal mechanism.
Reason for this is that I’ve found that my cheap little Orbit rain sensor dries out too quickly even though I’ve got it set to the ‘slowest’ dry-out setting. For example, after a 1/2" rain which triggers the sensor, it can dry out and deactivate itself in less than 24 hours. So I could (for example) get rain on Wednesday morning, yet my system will still irrigate on Thursday morning, and I don’t want that.
So, I’d like to be able to set Iro to “when rain sensor triggers, initiate rain delay for 2 days” or “when rain sensor triggers, initiate rain delay for 3 days”. This would give me a predictable ‘system off’ period following any activation of the external rain sensor.
This is a “wish list” item. Let me know if unclear.
I think the new version and flex schedules will do this for you. Search flex schedules in the forum and you will find a lot of information. Once the new release is finished up and in production, I think flex scheduling will do exactly what you are asking.
If I am wrong, I am sure someone from the forum or Rachio will chime in.
This makes sense, I’ll make sure product team gets this in the backlog. It’s kind of like giving the attached rain sensor a booster. Might not ever get built, bit I like the concept. Maybe we can incorporate somehow.
This is what I have been asking for on the calls today.
It’s rained and rained. The ground is saturated and the day after the rain sensor deactivates the watering schedule begins.
Weather forecasting and predicted rain is great looking ahead but not in the past. I went to the added expense of adding a weather station in the back yard for accuracy. My moisture levels are at 86% for all 11 zones.
We need to have a manual rain delay tied into the rain sensor as an option. The system wanted to water for 4 1/2 hours today. completely a waste.
Yes, all that is working. But 48 hours look back is really too short.
Think about it. You have water restrictions. You can only water on Wednesday and Saturday. It’s been raining for days until the water is flowing thru the backyard. Wednesday morning the rain stops in the evening. Then 2 more days of clouds, no wind and temperatures mild. The rain sensor set at 1/8 inch resets on Friday No rain is forecasted and the rain skip is active.
The zones are at 86% and above for the moisture level. I have the replenish level at 70% not the 50% so it should be even dryer before it should water.
The system then says ok, time to water your 11 zones for 4 1/2 hours.
How is the system thinking it’s ok to water? It should wait until the following Wednesday to try to water again. Which is predicted to rain again.
You should add a Rain skip that you can set the day delay for. If I had one, I would set it for 4 days or more. Then it might actually hit the moisture threshold that I set.
