Page 3 of 8

Re: Any experience with RainMachine integration?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 13, 2018 2:03 pm
by siclark
Me wanty, me wanty.
Both the rainmachine and the plugin.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: Any experience with RainMachine integration?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 13, 2018 3:36 pm
by RogueProeliator
Got my HD 16 installed today, let me know if you need any beta testers for that plugin!

Still going to do a plugin... I have my Rain Machine in but haven't had a chance to install it yet. I'm thinking of just setting it up without zones attached in order to write the plugin -- would make testing easier without my neighbors thinking I had gone mad with sprinklers coming on and off. Not to mention watering when it is raining multiple inches/week...

I'll let you know when I get something worthy of beta testing.

Adam

Re: Any experience with RainMachine integration?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 13, 2018 3:53 pm
by siclark
Got my HD 16 installed today, let me know if you need any beta testers for that plugin!


I'll let you know when I get something worthy of beta testing.

Adam[/quote]

Awesome. I do however need to buy mine, redesign garden, then install it and plumb in all the new zones.... So don't wait for me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: Any experience with RainMachine integration?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 20, 2018 12:13 pm
by 7rdr7
Adam,
Good to know that you are considering the development of a plugin. Happy to be a beta tester. I've had a Rain Machine for two seasons and am very pleased, but an Indigo integration would be a nice addition!
Ron

Re: Any experience with RainMachine integration?

PostPosted: Sat Jul 21, 2018 2:25 am
by Coolcaper
+1


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: Any experience with RainMachine integration?

PostPosted: Sun Jul 22, 2018 9:10 am
by RogueProeliator
I don't do "closed betas" or anything in general, so I will post once I have had time to develop this out and can release a first version. I hope to get it installed sometime this week or next weekend.

Re: Any experience with RainMachine integration?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 9:01 am
by RogueProeliator
Got my RainMachine installed yesterday evening and.. color me impressed so far. Didn't go too far into the configuration, just ended up running some zones manually. But the setup was nice and clean and the app is pretty well done from what I have seen.

Hope to dig more into this very shortly...

Re: Any experience with RainMachine integration?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 9:11 am
by berkinet
RogueProeliator wrote:
Got my RainMachine installed yesterday evening and.. color me impressed so far. Didn't go too far into the configuration, just ended up running some zones manually. But the setup was nice and clean and the app is pretty well done from what I have seen.

Hope to dig more into this very shortly...
Note: It is possible to use a wired ethernet adapter with the Rainmachine. There are some minor limitations dealing with setup, but it works. Check their forums. AND, the next version, the PRO version, will directly support wired ethernet.

Re: Any experience with RainMachine integration?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 9:43 am
by RogueProeliator
Note: It is possible to use a wired ethernet adapter with the Rainmachine. There are some minor limitations dealing with setup, but it works. Check their forums. AND, the next version, the PRO version, will directly support wired ethernet.

That would be preferable, of course, but in my case not a necessity -- the controller is under the house in an enclosed crawlspace and is maybe 10' from the nearest WiFi AP. I did setup the Google Assistant interaction and my wife is going to flip out about that.

Still want to get this into Indigo so I can display current status / last run / etc. (whatever available) at a glance on a control page.

Re: Any experience with RainMachine integration?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 9:58 am
by berkinet
RogueProeliator wrote:
...Still want to get this into Indigo so I can display current status / last run / etc. (whatever available) at a glance on a control page.
Also, in case you missed it, the GhostXML plugin now supports the Rainmachine.

Re: Any experience with RainMachine integration?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 10:36 am
by jay (support)
RogueProeliator wrote:
Still want to get this into Indigo so I can display current status / last run / etc. (whatever available) at a glance on a control page.


Waiting patiently for the plugin... :D

Re: Any experience with RainMachine integration?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 11:44 am
by RogueProeliator
Waiting patiently for the plugin... :D

Yeah, well just took a look at their API and the amount of data they provide is almost overwhelming! I'm going to do a little thinking about how to properly map these into Indigo. I'm leaning towards providing a basic Sprinkler-classed object for manual control & "standard" UI use, and then additional custom devices for providing enhanced information -- such as a Zone Device, maybe Program device, etc.

I am not 100% sure how to map a few of the standard Sprinkler functions, though, just looking at the API. For instance, I don't see a specific ability to set a custom (one-time) schedule short of creating a full new Program in the app. Need to look to see if you can queue up zones to run or something. Surprisingly, also don't see a "Pause".

This one will be harder from a mapping / what's the best way perspective than technical. If you, or anyone really, have different thoughts in terms of structuring the devices please chime in...

Adam

Re: Any experience with RainMachine integration?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 1:58 pm
by jay (support)
RogueProeliator wrote:
Surprisingly, also don't see a "Pause".


Actually, not so surprising. Rachio didn't support it until a very recent API upgrade (at least I believe it's now in there). Seems like something that's easily missed by the hardware guys.

So, the Indigo Sprinkler device can be implemented in 2 ways: you can either have Indigo manually control the valves as part of the sprinkler schedule (the low-level API if you will - your plugin just has to turn on/off zones when asked), but it can also use a higher-level API where it just gets passed a schedule (with zone durations) and you handle it however. If their API has the ability to create schedules, and it supports pause/resume/stop (and optionally previous/next zone), then you can have the sprinkler controller do the scheduling and just have Indigo send it those higher level commands.

I didn't do the latter with the Rachio because it didn't support pause/resume. Now that it does, it might be worth revisiting, though there is still the issue of having the state up-to-date (which zone is running for instance).

Re: Any experience with RainMachine integration?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 2:33 pm
by berkinet
RogueProeliator wrote:
... If you, or anyone really, have different thoughts in terms of structuring the devices please chime in...
My suggestion is to live with your Rainmachine for a while, at least a couple of weeks. Get the feel for what it can, and cannot, do and how you can control, adjust and tune it.

It is essentially designed to be set once and left alone. So, any support you add for it in Indigo should, IMO, augment what the box can do. But, not replicate the functionality already in the box. For example: I see no point in developing a full scheduling capability in Indigo when the Rainmachine already does that extremely well. OTOH, using events (based on data reported by the Rainmachine) to allow Indigo to manage related actions (notifications, light control, pool covers er closing, etc.) would be quite valuable.

But, as I found, there is a lot there and it really does take a while to totally get their vibe on irrigation.

Re: Any experience with RainMachine integration?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 5:04 pm
by jay (support)
lanbrown wrote:
Couldn't you pull the schedule and see how long it expects to run that zone and then you could do say N - 60 seconds and then poll it at that point or N/2 and then the N - 60.

My vote would be to let their algorithm handle how long it waters. Why take a smart device only to have something with none of that smart logic control it?


Polling is an issue with Rachio's throttling.

If you want to use the built-in "smarts" then the Rachio plugin doesn't really do much for you though you would get status (slowish given the poll throttling).

I'm not interested in the "smart" part of the sprinkler (call me old fashioned but I like my way better!). If we ever get that Z-Wave sprinkler controller working then I'll switch to that to eliminate the "cloud" issue. I'm about to replace my Honeywell WiFi thermostat because it's WiFi is fundamentally broken and they can't keep their website up...