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I had a feeling that might be the case. Apple is so paranoid about apps sneaking in undesirable (or unwanted by Apple) features, that software for controlling third party hardware takes forever to gain approval. I think they need to create a separate department / segment of the Developer Portal, exclusively for apps designed to control vendor’s hardware. That would at least allow,them to maintain a core group of software testers / evaluators who are more familiar with these types of apps.
Any ideas on when the updated iOS app might hit the ITunes app store? The OS X version updated about 10 days ago; but I haven’t seen any updates for my iPhone / iPad as of yet. Thanks.
Just curious as to how things are progressing with your exploration of adding flow-rate sensor capabilities & the extent of functionality that you are contemplating. In general, I thing the following features would be helpful to a wide base of users:
° Ability to setup / record normal flow rate for any given zone & save that Value for ongoing analysis.
° Once the above has been accomplished; monitoring flow rates of each zone as it runs its normal programmed schedule. If the measured flow rate of any given zone is above or below a defined percentage from the established normal flow; automatically send an email to the address(es) of your choice; to alert homeowner / irrigation contractor that there appears to be a problem and that the zone in question should be checked. This could save a fortune in water billes (& wasted water) by promptly alerting users of possibly broken irrigation heads or cuts in drip tubing. Rather than waiting to see a sky-high water bill; you are promptly advised of problem areas; so that you can fix the problem, or at least disable that zone until you do have an opportunity to check it out.A bonus feature would be the ability to save this information in your logs (if you have logging enabled) and even calculate the number of Gallons / Liters of water used by zone or program.
This hits home for me; as I just got my water bill today and it went up from $150,00 to $670.00 month to month. I now know that I need to perform a walk-through inspection of my entire system for broken heads / lines; but it would have been great if I could have discovered the problem early on and avoided the extra $500 in water fees.
Regardless, Ray & Samer have done incredible work on this platform & I truly appreciate everything they do when it comes to listening to customer requests and trying to bring the most popular requests to fruition. (While I don’t live in California; the speed with which a Califorinia Drought specific prorgram was rolled out was lightning fast and something that I have never seen successfully executed by any other irrigation controller company.) You guys ROCK & your hard work has not gone unnoticed. Thanks for all the time you put into dealing with the liteny of user requests.!
I realize this topic has been inactive for a while; but I concur that it would be a nifty feature to have (perhaps under a tools section of the interface. This is something that I have seen on a number of higher-end residential / commercial controllers.
The reasoning for this feature is that over time (especially with larger systems) valve boxs are often buried by growing vegitaation. This makes it very difficult to locate a specific valve box for repairs. (I live on several acres; some landscaped, some natureal. The way the valve boxes were originally installed does not make complete sense; since a valve box may be located 150 feet away from the zone it controls … very frustrating.)
On systems that offer this feaure; they mention that they rapidly switch the solenoid on and off; which creates a detectable noise to aid in locating the valve.
Not my number one requested featue; but something that could have saved me several days of hunting down valve boxes when I first installed my system.
For irrigation purposes; seconds are relatively irrelevant. Using minutes makes far more sense to me.
Hopefully the change to individual station timing will permit simplification of the programming process. (Especially for those of us in drought zones with heavy restrictions on watering dates and times.) In the San Antonio, Texas area; we can only water one day a week from Midnight to 8:00 AM and again from 8 PM to midnight. I have a wide variety of zones (Drip irrigation, Grass, Vegetable Beds, shrubbery, Fruit Trees, etc) all with different timing needs. The current method of creating different programs for each type (timing) and stringing them together can be quite frustrating; especially if you want to make seasonal adjustments. Since you have to state the exact time that each program starts; you can’t easily string multiple programs one after another without leaving time gaps to account for a seasonal percentage increases in normal watering levels. This in turn makes it extremely difficult to fully water everything within my allowed 12 hours per week. (32 Zones) . The new approach sounds like an excellent enhancement. Thanks for your ongoing enhancements to the system.
