Using Rachio 3 with a canal

Troubleshooting Sprinklers & Irrigation
1

Hi, our house is right beside a canal in South Africa and therefore we use the canal water for watering.

However the problem is that there are times, especially in the winter months when the canal is emptied to do repairs and cleaning. My question is if there is possibly a solution to stop my rachio from watering these days without me constantly having to do rain delays in the app.

We do get a schedule at the start of the month when the canal is scheduled to be stopped and I do have Home Assistant set up in my home. But I do not know if I should go the schedule programming path or rather install a physical sensor somewhere.

I do have a water detection sensor in my pump which auto turns it off when no water is in the pipe, however this causes the pump to turn off when normally trying to turn on irrigation with the canal full. Therefore I would like to uninstall this, but would then like a other method to do this automation.

TL:DR - I am looking for a way to automate my rachio to not water when the canal outside our house is empty. We do have Home Assistant and we do get a schedule of when the canal is empty and I do have a water detection sensor at the pump, but this is malfunctioning and is probably going to be uninstalled.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

2

Not automated but there is a simple way. The first day that the canal is drained (or a day or so before) go into the settings of the controller within the app and turn on “Standby Mode”. This will stop Rachio from trying to water until you turn that back off.

3

Thanks for the info.
That would work, now I just need a type of sensor or maybe just an automation to turn the controller on standby from the schedule. You don’t possibly know of a way to implement a sensor and where that sensor should be? (Don’t know if it would be smart to put it outside in the canal)

4

I do not know of a way to implement a sensor and automate the standby mode.

5

I’m sure there’s a way, just not through the Rachio app. You could integrate some sort of sensor with Homeassistant, Hubitat, IFTTT, etc that has the ability to control the standby switch.

Sorry just re-read your post and see you have HA. Can you build or load a calendar and have the event trigger an automation for the standby switch?

6

The rain sensor circuit is just an on/off on the common wire. (the schedukles still run, but they don’t do anything because the circuit is open)
Find some way to get an on/off sensor in the canal, or in the pipe feeding your pump.