Rainmachine HD 12 - Homekit Unavailable while paused
I've been trying to troubleshoot something, my Rainmachine HD 12 is sporadically 'unavailable' via HomeKit.
I noticed yesterday that it seems to coincide with when the wired rain sensor has PAUSED the system - the moment the rain sensor dried out (I got a notification), then the Rainmachine could be operated via HomeKit. Is this by design? I don't find any mention of this in the knowledge base.
Even though my rain sensor was correctly preventing watering the lawn, I wanted to manually water my garden via homekit and could not, until rain sensor dried out a little while later.
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Hi.
No, this is not how it should work and we will look into it.
The HomeKit commands acts like a manual user intervention and should override the PAUSE caused by the rain sensor restriction.
We have tested and indeed the first time, the HomeKit "Start Zone" manual command from the Apple Home app did not worked. The next time we tried, the command get through and the zone started and the rain sensor restriction has been disabled. Once the zone finished, the restriction restored.Test 1
The test was made using an iPhone 12 with the latest iOS version and RainMachine iOS app.
The test was made Remotely through an iPad HomeKit bridge on the RainMachine location.
First "Start Zone" manual switch ON for a zone did not worked, the second one did. We think that this was because of the network lag.
Test 2
The test was made using an iPhone 12 with the latest iOS version and RainMachine iOS app.
The test was made Locally through an Apple TV HomeKit bridge on the RainMachine location.
First "Start Zone" manual switch ON for a zone worked for the first time we tried and the rain sensor restriction was disabled until the zone finished the "manual" watering time.Let us know if you are trying the HomeKit commands when you are on the same Wi-Fi network as the RainMachine device, or remotely.
Thank you for letting us know about this.
Julian,
RainMachine Support -
I was using RainMachine locally with Apple TV hub. I'm guessing it has nothing to do with the rain sensor; its back to Unavailable in Homekit and the rainmachine isn't paused currently. I can control it fine with the app, just not with Siri.
Equipment: iPhone 11 Pro running iOS 14.8 and Rainmachine HD 12 w/optional wired rain sensor adapter, running 4.0.1135 firmware and iOS app 4.6.117 (5)Apple TV HD running iOS 15 and Apple TV 4K (2nd Gen) running iOS 15. The Apple TV HD is the "Default" Hub and the Apple TV 4K is the "Standby" Hub.
Now that I'm thinking about it more, the issues could have started with the introduction of the 2nd hub. Should I try power cycling the RainMachine?
Thanks for the quick response!
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Oh, unfortunately, starting iOS 14 and up, The Apple HomeKit Siri voice commands are having issues that we will need to fix. This will take some time. It will need a firmware update for the RainMachine devices. Working on that with Apple and we will let you know when the fix will be available.
We're sorry for this inconvenience at this time.Thank you,
Julian
RainMachine Support -
So I power cycled Rainmachine thinking that would help with HomeKit showing it as unavailable. And when the rain machine came back online, it says "RainMachine is PAUSED!" due to Rain Detected. It was not paused when I turned it off. So I'm back to wondering if Homekit really does become unavailable whenever the rain sensor is triggered.
My rain sensor is attached via "Rain Sensor Cable adapter for RainMachine Touch HD-12/16".
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