@Chris & Support team - I’ve had my Iro installed for just under a week. I’ve had a couple of schedules running and have posted questions in another thread about the short cycles the system is scheduling. I now have questions about the services you use for the future predicability of rain events and its impact on skipped schedules. I had a watering schedule set for 4:30a this morning. At about 4:15a, I received notification from Rachio that my 4:30a schedule was going to be skipped because there was an expected .49" of rain within the next 48 hours. At about 4:00p this afternoon, I received notification that my 4:30p watering schedule was being skipped because of an expected .69" of rain within the next 48 hours.
I use a regional weather group (www.epawaweather.com) and subscribe to their services. From what they are reporting and from what I’ve been reading from NWS, weather channel and other sources, the prediction for rain in my area (07940) is of ‘scattered’ showers (burst variety), not expecting an organized line, and no more than a 50% chance of rain for a couple of hours and lessor amounts around that. I’ve spoken to epawa just now to confirm that the forecast since yesterday hasn’t changed. They don’t have the same point of view as to what your weather provider is predicting. Of course, they could be wrong.
Could you please provide some background as to how your system comes to the decision to cancel. What is your weather source? How regional / local is the information to my zip code (5.5 sq miles)? What is the accuracy of this weather source over the last 1-3-5 years?
When cancelled, why will it then water on the next scheduled date? What if it now doesn’t rain or rains far less than predicted? Is there intelligence to re-adjust or water as the same start time of the next day?
My watering schedule that was cancelled is based on my prior watering schedule. If I’m conserving water, I’ve taken my planting material and turf to the ‘edge’. If the weather does not work out as predicted and the delay takes me to the next scheduled date, I will likely start to brown out the planting material. Isn’t it better to adjust based on what has happened instead of attempting to predict what mother nature has in store?
P.S. - we won’t know for another 36 hours whether or not any forecaster got this one right!
Thanks for your feedback. This is an area we are spending a lot of time on, so you can expect to see improvements very soon, both in terms of the accuracy of our forecast data and improvements to our weather intelligence feature. We have also updated our app to make it easier to run a skipped schedule or change the start date on a schedule. We have also added the ability to adjust the sensitivity of the weather intelligence feature. The new app should be available for Android in a few days and for iOS as soon as it clears the Apple review process.
@matt - thanks for your response. I have asked in two separate threads for some specific information so that I can understand the impact of decisions i make within the given configuration options. In this thread, I’ve asked how these decisions are made. In another thread, I’ve asked about the specific selections of my zone types; irrigation head choices, soil types, terrain pitch, etc… I haven’t received anything specific in either case that helps me to understand how decisions are being made so that I can make the right configuration choices and compensations for my property.
I appreciate the product is new and the benefit if a cloud product is that it has the ability to evolve. However, I need to maintain my property in the meantime and have yet to find any in depth information about what I’ve purchased.
It would also be beneficial to know what is in the release that is pending Apple review and even what is the release plan for the next release you are working on, etc.
@dbmet pointed out the link to our features in the pending Apple review. Franz has completed a pretty in depth write up and has a link to it in that thread.
As for your request for in depth information about how our weather intelligence works and how we use zone attributes (the other thread you are on with me) to create schedules, please let us take some time and write something up for you. We will add it as an article on our helpdesk and provide a link here.
Understanding that we have competitors that read our forums, please allow us some time to think through how to present this information in a way to you that gives you the guidance and answers that you need, without completely exposing how we create our algorithms.
@Chris thanks for your response. Yes, I realize with my request it may ride the fine line of proprietary information. I think you understand why I / others might want this information. I appreciate that you and the team are working to put something meaningful together.
