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Clustering / Scaling Rain Machines

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Neilheuer

I don't think this would be a very popular option but I have two rain machines running off of one well.  I need to order a lot of my zones that are interdependent on each of the two machines.  For example I need Z1 on Rainmachine 1 (RM1) to run and then I need Z1 on RM2 to run when that is complete.  Also when the rain machine alters the programming based previous or forecasted rain I still have to wait for the full time the zone was programmed to run. If the two could communicate and act as one unit or communicate it would let the next one know it is time to run.  I know a long shot but something to cluster two or more systems for a more scalable solution might open the doors to the commercial market.

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    Jerry

    Yes, Neilheuer +1 for that!
    That would be my suggestion, too.

    In order for this to work flawlessly, RM1 and RM2 should "talk" to each other. One of these two RMs should be the MASTER and the other the SLAVE, then the Master Valve should be controlled only by the MASTER RM to avoid low water pressure. 
    This will rely on the Wi-Fi network stability, IMO.

    I am thinking on a way to create RainMachine groups within the app, select the devices from the list and create a group, name it and then, when open you will see the group as one RainMachine actual interface, but with all zones from all devices from the group and no programs. You have to create a program from scratch because right now you can add zones from different devices. I don't know what resources this will involve and how hard is to be implemented. But that's how I see it.
    Hope it won't be hard :)

    Thanks.

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    Whit Purple

    You have my vote for this!
    I don't know how many users have multiple RainMachines, but for me, it would be a very good addition.
    I have a Touch HD-12 and Mini-8 devices and I achieve that using ifttt.com RainMachine triggers and actions. But for this, it is required as Jerry said beside stable Wi-Fi connectivity a stable internet connection in order for this to work. Until now it worked :)

    So, what I've done:
    - of course, I set up the same remote access account on both RainMachine devices and validate it
    - then I signed up on ifttt.com and linked RainMachine channel
    - started my own applet and used for "THIS" action the RainMachine "Zone has stopped" trigger and selected my Touch HD-12 zone
    - for "THAT" action I used a specially created program, set it as Inactive (I've read other users replies here on the forum about the ability to run inactive zones/programs through ifttt.com - and you can :) ) for the Mini-8 zone since the ifttt.com RainMachine "Start a zone" action will let you add only fixed times in minutes. When you create a program you can add as many minutes you want and so on. It is inactive not to run by itself.
    - so, when my Touch HD-12 zone finishes, automatically this ifttt.com applet will run and will start my Mini-8 program with its zone with the chosen time.

    Repeat this with many applets for each scenario. I have only one scenario since my zones are quite far, but close to each other and they need more watering times and I couldn't connect them to one RainMachine device.

    Anyway, that's a workaround with drawbacks as I said, but it's working. You should try it :)

    W.

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