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Rachio Gen 2 and IFTTT or API Integration with Soil Sensors?

Posted: June 27th, 2017, 1:28 pm
by fusebox7
Has anyone done anything with their irrigation controller and IFTTT or are there any soil moisture sensors with a capability of using IFTTT or have a direct API integration with Rachio (gen 2)? It seems as if in 2015 the Rachio developers were looking into an integration with several vendors but I can't seem to find any updates (probably not a good sign).

I am doing some searching around since I'm a big IoT tinkerer and was curious if anyone else is into this stuff or has anything to comment about. TIA!

Re: Rachio Gen 2 and IFTTT or API Integration with Soil Sensors?

Posted: June 27th, 2017, 4:04 pm
by g-man
What are you trying to do? The Gen 2 Rachio has a soil sensor input, but it is not something I would use. Your entire lawn cant be summarize by a single sensor. My north facing shaded yard is always more humid than my south facing full sun backyard.

Re: Rachio Gen 2 and IFTTT or API Integration with Soil Sensors?

Posted: June 27th, 2017, 4:21 pm
by fusebox7
I want several remote soil sensors to control the smart schedule. I was reading a long thread with one of the developers explaining they were exploring this in 2015 but I haven't seen any updates (I'll have to look it up again). However, it's been confirmed that if any external devices support IFTTT, then they can be set up to work with Rachio. JW if anyone has done anything here but I might go do some browsing at Stack Overflow.

Re: Rachio Gen 2 and IFTTT or API Integration with Soil Sensors?

Posted: June 27th, 2017, 7:46 pm
by g-man
It would be nice to have a battery operated ~5in long that could be placed flat in the middle of each zone. The probes should measure soil temp and humidity and communicate it to the controller every hour or so. Maybe even have a small solar panel to recharge battery and measure UV. This could be used to more accurately determine evaporation rate and adjust the zone durations based on how humidity properties.

While the technology is there to make it, would there be a market for such a probe?

Re: Rachio Gen 2 and IFTTT or API Integration with Soil Sensors?

Posted: June 28th, 2017, 9:54 am
by fusebox7
That's the exact difficulty that these companies have had. The market for such home yard enthusiasts is so small and the level of complexity is so high. They would have to find a way to market to the business side, like farms but make it available to homeowners. The difficulty in doing that is the commercial side uses completely different technology and equipment than us homeowners so there would need to be a standard protocol developed that is plug/play with many different "hubs".

That said, I'm still on the hunt for soil probe technology that may be able to tap into IFTTT. If there is something that I find I'll post some updates... this thread might die quickly though :/

Re: Rachio Gen 2 and IFTTT or API Integration with Soil Sensors?

Posted: June 28th, 2017, 9:58 am
by fusebox7
Per my last post... something exactly like this: http://www.sensoterra.com/agriculture/

Re: Rachio Gen 2 and IFTTT or API Integration with Soil Sensors?

Posted: June 28th, 2017, 12:34 pm
by g-man
$110 each and their communication protocol. :-(

Re: Rachio Gen 2 and IFTTT or API Integration with Soil Sensors?

Posted: June 28th, 2017, 12:40 pm
by fusebox7
Found a cost-effective remote sensor that works with IFTTT so I'll be doing some tinkering with that when it arrives and I'll post updates on findings.

Re: Rachio Gen 2 and IFTTT or API Integration with Soil Sensors?

Posted: July 2nd, 2017, 12:08 am
by PW405
Interesting, my boss had created a way for the Rachio to read a water meter and feed it to the Rachio by for re-directing the URL that the rachio checks for rainfall amounts. I think it is possible, but I imagine you'd need a somewhat wide knowledge of networks, scripting, and communication protocols.

Re: Rachio Gen 2 and IFTTT or API Integration with Soil Sensors?

Posted: August 10th, 2017, 12:26 pm
by aug0211
fusebox7 wrote:
June 28th, 2017, 12:40 pm
Found a cost-effective remote sensor that works with IFTTT so I'll be doing some tinkering with that when it arrives and I'll post updates on findings.
Subscribed to see what you find out!

Re: Rachio Gen 2 and IFTTT or API Integration with Soil Sensors?

Posted: August 10th, 2017, 8:36 pm
by HoosierLawnGnome
I have been looking at the netatmo to set up as my own personal weather station and integrate with alexa.

I've used ifttt for several things.

I think it's easier to monitor rainfall than soil moisture to gauge watering needs, and it's more native to Rachio anyways.

Re: Rachio Gen 2 and IFTTT or API Integration with Soil Sensors?

Posted: September 28th, 2017, 11:36 am
by mabehr
fusebox7 wrote:
June 28th, 2017, 9:58 am
Per my last post... something exactly like this: http://www.sensoterra.com/agriculture/
Where would you put a big probe like that? Wouldn’t there be a pretty big risk of damaging it with a lawn mower? Or if you put it to the side of your lawn, in an area you don’t mow, wouldn’t the readings be wrong?

Re: Rachio Gen 2 and IFTTT or API Integration with Soil Sensors?

Posted: October 3rd, 2017, 3:28 pm
by fusebox7
mabehr wrote:
September 28th, 2017, 11:36 am
Where would you put a big probe like that? Wouldn’t there be a pretty big risk of damaging it with a lawn mower? Or if you put it to the side of your lawn, in an area you don’t mow, wouldn’t the readings be wrong?
IF I had a probe like the one I shared, I'd remove it before mowing and replace it when mowing is complete.

Re: Rachio Gen 2 and IFTTT or API Integration with Soil Sensors?

Posted: October 5th, 2017, 6:32 pm
by mabehr
Is there even just a good handheld meter that I could walk around the yard with? Amazon has products from under $10 to over $150. Rachio does not yet let users manually enter moisture levels, but I could at least verify see how accurate it’s calculations are and potentially tweak the settings. I have one zone in particular that always appears parched, but for all I know might be very moist 6 inches down.

Re: Rachio Gen 2 and IFTTT or API Integration with Soil Sensors?

Posted: October 5th, 2017, 6:42 pm
by mabehr
fusebox7 wrote:
October 3rd, 2017, 3:28 pm
mabehr wrote:
September 28th, 2017, 11:36 am
Where would you put a big probe like that? Wouldn’t there be a pretty big risk of damaging it with a lawn mower? Or if you put it to the side of your lawn, in an area you don’t mow, wouldn’t the readings be wrong?
IF I had a probe like the one I shared, I'd remove it before mowing and replace it when mowing is complete.
I was thinking of adding a Rainbird SMRT-Y soil moisture sensor which gets buried, but they are 150 bucks a pop, and it is very confusing as to whether Rachio supports multiple. It looks as if I can wire the sensor directly to the valve, completely bypassing any input to the Rachio. At that point it really starts to defeat the purpose of having a Rachio of course... there was some comment about each sensor needing its own common wire which I’m not sure was 100 % correct.