Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller

isabellep · July 1, 2022, 9:21pm

In the following discussion, Rich Koshak reported in April 2020 that exposing items has been turned off in the openhab cloud:

   https://community.openhab.org/t/exposing-items-to-cloud/97234?u=isabellep

My understanding is that the relevant Rachio items need to be exposed for the callbacks to work. But while I do request for my rachio items to be exposed (I tried both the cfg file and the paper GUI) there does not appear to be any items visible on my openhab cloud. Unsurprisingly then, the rachio callbacks don’t work for me.

What am I missing?

JustinG · July 1, 2022, 11:45pm

You do not need to expose any items for the callbacks to work.

Here you can see, in my setup, that I have no items set for the cloud connector:

But I do get successful event callbacks:

This took me quite a while to get the configuration correct, in the end the problem for me was that my rachio bridge and box things were holdovers from much earlier versions of the binding. I deleted all my things and recreated them with the callbacks configured as listed in the docs and now all the callbacks work.

kovacsi2899 · July 3, 2022, 7:58am

Hello,

I have refreshed the system to openHAB 3.3.0
Release Build
Now binding does not register our things:

Status:
OFFLINE
COMMUNICATION_ERROR
For input string: “120.0”
Here is the debug log:
rachio.log (73.7 KB)
I do not know that something visible from it.
I use org.openhab.binding.rachio-3.1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar currently.

I went back to openHAB 3.3.0.M5
Milestone Build

Binding works. I can sed the connection log if necessary. I contains personal data so I do not want to upload.

Wolfgang_S · July 3, 2022, 10:43am

Is there any error message in openhab.log file on top of to the attached log file ?
Did you try if cleaning/clearing the cache helps ?

kovacsi2899 · July 3, 2022, 12:09pm

There is no more. Yes I did of course. I had removed and add binding again as well. I would check what has been changed after M5. It looks like binding does not connect to Rachio server.

JustinG · July 3, 2022, 6:57pm

I have the binding working with the 3.3.0 release. But I did see some initial problems when I first updated. Try deleting the Rachio bridge thing and recreating it. Copy the UID of the old one fist and put that in for the new one; if you do that then you all the other connections will stay the same and you won’t have to change anything else.

kovacsi2899 · July 3, 2022, 8:40pm

Ok, I will try it. Many thanks! I have downloaded the development enviroment IDE to start fixing it. Now I wait. Also the rainsensor channel was never working. Callback works fine but something is wrong with that channel. It might worth to look at it.

isabellep · July 5, 2022, 7:37pm

@JustinG Thanks for your suggestions. I tried deleting all my rachio things. Then I rechecked my callback configuration, stopped OH, erased my tmp and cache directories and restarted OH. Unfortunately, no change. For example, zone-specific Last Event items remain silent regardless of any activity started on the relevant zones.

I noticed that in my OH logs, the rachio devices appear to rediscovered every 15 minutes: see my log excerpt below. Is that normal? Or is a result of the issue I am experiencing?

2022-07-05 14:17:58.455 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Found 1 devices.
2022-07-05 14:17:58.455 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Check Rachio device with ID 'adf2d13f-c67a-4f2d-9204-8d666fcd1fff'
2022-07-05 14:17:58.455 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] -  Rachio device discovered: 'Rachio-BDE9CA' (id adf2d13f-c67a-4f2d-9204-8d666fcd1fff), S/N=AC5364343, MAC=009D6BBDE9CA
2022-07-05 14:17:58.456 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] -   latitude=45.8473891, longitude=-72.3559189
2022-07-05 14:17:58.456 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] -    device status=ONLINE, paused/sleep=OFF, on=ON
2022-07-05 14:17:58.456 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Found 8 zones for this device.
2022-07-05 14:17:58.456 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Checking zone with ID '6f0c451c-1166-4279-8b2e-beafe915bd62'
2022-07-05 14:17:58.456 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#6 'Zone 6' (id=6f0c451c-1166-4279-8b2e-beafe915bd62) added, enabled=OFF
2022-07-05 14:17:58.456 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#Zone 6 '6f0c451c-1166-4279-8b2e-beafe915bd62' is disabled, skip thing creation
2022-07-05 14:17:58.456 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Checking zone with ID '6d6391cb-a2f8-4d88-9ee0-85c41e87d8cd'
2022-07-05 14:17:58.456 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#1 'Zone Gazon' (id=6d6391cb-a2f8-4d88-9ee0-85c41e87d8cd) added, enabled=ON
2022-07-05 14:17:58.456 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Checking zone with ID '78d4eec3-6800-49b9-afd2-6f67dc512515'
2022-07-05 14:17:58.456 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#7 'Zone 7' (id=78d4eec3-6800-49b9-afd2-6f67dc512515) added, enabled=OFF
2022-07-05 14:17:58.456 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#Zone 7 '78d4eec3-6800-49b9-afd2-6f67dc512515' is disabled, skip thing creation
2022-07-05 14:17:58.456 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Checking zone with ID '88c9df12-7d10-40af-834d-af2f51715a5c'
2022-07-05 14:17:58.457 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#2 'Zone Plates-Bandes' (id=88c9df12-7d10-40af-834d-af2f51715a5c) added, enabled=ON
2022-07-05 14:17:58.457 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Checking zone with ID '484bbf05-e7d2-477c-8429-2445e692ebfb'
2022-07-05 14:17:58.457 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#5 'Zone 5' (id=484bbf05-e7d2-477c-8429-2445e692ebfb) added, enabled=OFF
2022-07-05 14:17:58.457 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#Zone 5 '484bbf05-e7d2-477c-8429-2445e692ebfb' is disabled, skip thing creation
2022-07-05 14:17:58.457 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Checking zone with ID '26ec8496-4d8d-4294-a527-9fd98e725fe2'
2022-07-05 14:17:58.457 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#8 'Zone 8' (id=26ec8496-4d8d-4294-a527-9fd98e725fe2) added, enabled=OFF
2022-07-05 14:17:58.457 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#Zone 8 '26ec8496-4d8d-4294-a527-9fd98e725fe2' is disabled, skip thing creation
2022-07-05 14:17:58.457 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Checking zone with ID 'c64bac95-2e17-47a4-8586-7661e54c55eb'
2022-07-05 14:17:58.457 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#4 'Zone 4' (id=c64bac95-2e17-47a4-8586-7661e54c55eb) added, enabled=OFF
2022-07-05 14:17:58.457 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#Zone 4 'c64bac95-2e17-47a4-8586-7661e54c55eb' is disabled, skip thing creation
2022-07-05 14:17:58.458 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Checking zone with ID '5c01427c-511b-444f-b201-0f580d5757fc'
2022-07-05 14:17:58.458 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#3 'Zone Avant' (id=5c01427c-511b-444f-b201-0f580d5757fc) added, enabled=ON
2022-07-05 14:17:58.458 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - 1  Rachio device initialized.
2022-07-05 14:32:58.467 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Found 1 devices.
2022-07-05 14:32:58.467 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Check Rachio device with ID 'adf2d13f-c67a-4f2d-9204-8d666fcd1fff'
2022-07-05 14:32:58.467 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] -  Rachio device discovered: 'Rachio-BDE9CA' (id adf2d13f-c67a-4f2d-9204-8d666fcd1fff), S/N=AC5364343, MAC=009D6BBDE9CA
2022-07-05 14:32:58.467 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] -   latitude=45.8473891, longitude=-72.3559189
2022-07-05 14:32:58.467 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] -    device status=ONLINE, paused/sleep=OFF, on=ON
2022-07-05 14:32:58.468 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Found 8 zones for this device.
2022-07-05 14:32:58.468 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Checking zone with ID '6f0c451c-1166-4279-8b2e-beafe915bd62'
2022-07-05 14:32:58.468 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#6 'Zone 6' (id=6f0c451c-1166-4279-8b2e-beafe915bd62) added, enabled=OFF
2022-07-05 14:32:58.468 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#Zone 6 '6f0c451c-1166-4279-8b2e-beafe915bd62' is disabled, skip thing creation
2022-07-05 14:32:58.468 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Checking zone with ID '6d6391cb-a2f8-4d88-9ee0-85c41e87d8cd'
2022-07-05 14:32:58.468 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#1 'Zone Gazon' (id=6d6391cb-a2f8-4d88-9ee0-85c41e87d8cd) added, enabled=ON
2022-07-05 14:32:58.468 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Checking zone with ID '78d4eec3-6800-49b9-afd2-6f67dc512515'
2022-07-05 14:32:58.468 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#7 'Zone 7' (id=78d4eec3-6800-49b9-afd2-6f67dc512515) added, enabled=OFF
2022-07-05 14:32:58.468 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#Zone 7 '78d4eec3-6800-49b9-afd2-6f67dc512515' is disabled, skip thing creation
2022-07-05 14:32:58.468 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Checking zone with ID '88c9df12-7d10-40af-834d-af2f51715a5c'
2022-07-05 14:32:58.468 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#2 'Zone Plates-Bandes' (id=88c9df12-7d10-40af-834d-af2f51715a5c) added, enabled=ON
2022-07-05 14:32:58.468 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Checking zone with ID '484bbf05-e7d2-477c-8429-2445e692ebfb'
2022-07-05 14:32:58.468 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#5 'Zone 5' (id=484bbf05-e7d2-477c-8429-2445e692ebfb) added, enabled=OFF
2022-07-05 14:32:58.469 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#Zone 5 '484bbf05-e7d2-477c-8429-2445e692ebfb' is disabled, skip thing creation
2022-07-05 14:32:58.469 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Checking zone with ID '26ec8496-4d8d-4294-a527-9fd98e725fe2'
2022-07-05 14:32:58.469 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#8 'Zone 8' (id=26ec8496-4d8d-4294-a527-9fd98e725fe2) added, enabled=OFF
2022-07-05 14:32:58.469 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#Zone 8 '26ec8496-4d8d-4294-a527-9fd98e725fe2' is disabled, skip thing creation
2022-07-05 14:32:58.469 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Checking zone with ID 'c64bac95-2e17-47a4-8586-7661e54c55eb'
2022-07-05 14:32:58.469 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#4 'Zone 4' (id=c64bac95-2e17-47a4-8586-7661e54c55eb) added, enabled=OFF
2022-07-05 14:32:58.469 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#Zone 4 'c64bac95-2e17-47a4-8586-7661e54c55eb' is disabled, skip thing creation
2022-07-05 14:32:58.469 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Checking zone with ID '5c01427c-511b-444f-b201-0f580d5757fc'
2022-07-05 14:32:58.469 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Zone#3 'Zone Avant' (id=5c01427c-511b-444f-b201-0f580d5757fc) added, enabled=ON
2022-07-05 14:32:58.469 [INFO ] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - 1  Rachio device initialized.
2022-07-05 14:47:58.479 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Found 1 devices.
2022-07-05 14:47:58.479 [DEBUG] [nal.discovery.RachioDiscoveryService] - Check Rachio device with ID 'adf2d13f-c67a-4f2d-9204-8d666fcd1fff'

JustinG · July 5, 2022, 9:17pm

This is certainly not the behavior I see. My rachio devices appear to be re-checked every minute or two, but that has always been consistent with the polling time I have set in the cloud account thing (60s). Do you have that polling interval set to 15 seconds?

What version of OH and what version of the rachio binding are you using?

kovacsi2899 · July 6, 2022, 5:21am

Thanks for the hint. Delete and add all things worked as I was not waching with the cloud connector and it received a new name. Then I modified the channels in the items, as my rachio items are in a text file. Now it works as before with 3.3 stable version. I will try to fix the rainsensor channel as it does not change the status:

Switch     RachioC04DACRainSensorTripped   "Rain sensor tripped"

I was asking Markus to add this channel a few years ago but at the end I could not use it.
I wanted to use to see when it starts to rain and it stops. I see in Rachio app that this is very accurate. Then I have bought a weather station so it is obsolete for me but if I can I will fix for fun.

markus7017 · July 6, 2022, 2:08pm

If remember correctly I made a change, but never received an feedback - so what.

You could fork my repo, implement the change, create a PR and then I could merge it

isabellep · July 6, 2022, 2:51pm

@ JustinG
The rechecking goes on every 15 minutes, not every 15 seconds. My polling interval is set to 180, i.e. every 3 minutes I understand.

I am running OH 3.2.0 under Windows 10. The version of the rachio binding in my addon folder is “org.openhab.binding.rachio-3.1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar”. Not sure if I should be using a more recent one?

kovacsi2899 · July 6, 2022, 8:35pm

No we had some conversation as it was not working. Then we talked about that, I was fixing my Callback ulr set up as you suggested that it might be the issue. As far as I see my Callback ULR works fine for me but this channel does not receive data. Then I was stop asking it. But never mind this binding is very good without that. If I can find out where the problem is I let you know.

JustinG · July 6, 2022, 11:55pm

Sorry, misread your post. Rechecking every 15 minutes seems pretty normal to me.

That’s the most recent binding and it certainly works with OH 3.2, so I’m not sure at this point what sgoing wrong with your setup.

isabellep · July 11, 2022, 7:41pm

@JustinG Thanks for your comments.

Perhaps you can help me better understand what exactly I should expect from callbacks once they work correctly.
Whenever I start a sprinkler from my OH interface, say Zone1, I can see that the item RachioZone1Run is turning to State=ON for the duration of the sprinkling session.

My expectation is that if I start the same sprinkler from the Rachio app rather than from OH, then the callback process will have the effect of turning the state of RachioZone1Run to ON. Is that correct? And if it is indeed correct, what delay is involved before this happens: will it be: a) instantaneous; or b) delayed until the next polling, as controlled by pollingInterval I defined?

At the moment, when I start a zone using the Rachio app, I never see the OH RachioZoneNRun becoming ON. Also, I don’t understand why the rechecking appears to be done only once every 15 minutes while mypolling interval is set to 180 (i.e. 3 minutes, not 15).

kovacsi2899 · July 12, 2022, 9:47am

I have programmed to start and stop zones by zwave buttons through openhab. Faster end easier. You do not need phone. I set zone to 30 min in my program but it can be programmed any way.

JustinG · July 16, 2022, 3:44pm

I think that the callback function only populates items linked to the callback channels with messages, but I’m not sure; I haven’t closely monitored the switch items timing. If you haven’t created any callback items, then you just might not be seeing any callbacks even if it is configured correctly.

isabellep · July 18, 2022, 2:15pm

@JustinG Thanks for your response. By “callback channels” do you mean the trios LastUpdate / LastEvent / LastEventTime associated with individual devices and individual zones?

JustinG · July 18, 2022, 2:49pm

Yes.

isabellep · July 18, 2022, 6:14pm

@JustinG OK, thanks for your feedback.
At the moment, these LastX values are all remaining NULL even though my callback configuration appears to be obey the requirements in the documentation.

Also, I am puzzled by the fact that the rechecking acknowledged in the OH logs only happen every 15 minutes even though my polling interval is set to 90 seconds.