I have a rachio irrigation controller but its not working as expected. I don’t think HA is receiving status from the cloud or something. I have a soil sensor I want to program to turn off the zone when it reaches a moisture level.
I set up an irrigation dashboard and but whenever I switch on a zone the dash shows the button switching on then it shows as off except it actually run for 10min (its a rachior setting I guess).
I have read that possibility this is an issue with webhooks IDK? I also run a pi-hole but I also tested without it and it made no difference.
Ideally Id like to keep the watering schedules setup on through the rachio app and just have the HA switch off the zone if the moisture level is high enough. But I’m not getting anything about the zones turning on or anything in the logbook and history???
I’m having the same problem in August 2024. The device integration loads, the Rachio turns on the zone if I activate the button manually, but when the schedules or zones are triggered automatically by Rachio, this integration shows all toggles off. It’s neither showing me active zones nor active schedules.
The log is strange, too. I see zones “turned off” at time I restarted HA, but nothing about the zones that ran last night or early this morning. It’s like it can’t get the Rachio info in, just out.
It seems there are many integrations but some just don’t work or are poorly documented. Plus, here we have a 1+ year-old reports of the same problem.
The Rachio has had external access for about 6-7 years since it was installed.
Rachio doc: “Once your Rachio controller is connected to your home’s Wi-Fi network, you can control it from practically anywhere as long as you’re connected to the internet (through your data plan, another Wi-Fi network, etc).”
Both my Homeseer plugin on the LAN and the Rachio cloud reflect current status, and I can see what’s going on externally when I’m away on the cellular network on the phone app, so the status is readily available from the device both internally and externally already.
The integration has also correctly read all the programming and setup the device and entities so it can clearly get to the API wherever it is looking to obtain data. Status and configuraiton data are accessible using the same API and credentials, so that is demonstrated to be working.
This leaves only the possibility that the integration isn’t polling to get the status either by design, or because it is missing some portion of the configuration.
If someone has it showing live status, then we could find out “what’s different?”
The controller doesn’t poll, the smart hose timers do. The controllers use webhooks like docs say. If that’s not working then you need to check your setup.
Thanks. What is it that talking to the webhooks? The Rachio cloud or the local device? I’m not about to open port forwards in the firewall for Rachio to reach into the HA system, and I don’t have a static public IP.
Thanks. This is disappointing. My Rachio is connected to Homeseer with a plugin and I get both control and notification when zones or schedules run without having any webhooks or ingress. It find the Rachio IP locally and just talks to it. I was hoping there was a similar capability in the HA integration.
I wanted to add my Rachio to home assistant, while the integration was easy to set up, I don’t like opening holes to network for webhooks. So I created Rachio local plugin.
While the name “rachio_local” might suggest purely local control, this integration actually takes a different approach to enhance security in your Home Assistant setup. Instead of true local control, it leverages Rachio’s APIs without relying on webhooks.
Why No Webhooks?
The traditional Rachio integration requires exposing your Home Assistant instance to the internet to receive webhook updates. This creates unnecessary security risks for your home automation setup. By avoiding webhooks, rachio_local eliminates the need to expose any ports or create public endpoints.
How It Works
The integration polls Rachio’s APIs directly to get device states and send commands. While this means we’re still using cloud APIs, the key difference is that all communication is outbound from your Home Assistant instance. This approach:
Keeps your Home Assistant instance secure behind your firewall
Eliminates the need for SSL certificates and port forwarding
Maintains reliable control of your Rachio devices
Provides near real-time updates through efficient polling
Simple Setup
Getting started with rachio_local is straightforward - just add the integration to Home Assistant and provide your Rachio API key. No additional security configuration or network changes required.
Please let me know if this solution will work for you or any improvements you would like.
Nice job on this so far, I can get the last time switched on to populate but its still having the some of the same issues as the official rachio.
When I trigger a zone in the ios app it doesn’t show as active, maybe this is just a polling issue as in testing I haven’t left the zone one for longer than 2 min. I am assuming this is the same when a schedule is triggered but idk as it’s been raining here so the schedules are not going to trigger for awhile.
If I switch it on in the local_rachio it shows as active in the dashboard, also after exactly 30 sec the switch turns off (also zone no longer shows active in the dashboard) but the zone is doing a 10 min run if I look in the iOS app. If I switch the zone on in local_rachio and switch it off before 30 sec the zone shuts off correctly but after 30 sec the zone shows as off and seems like its no longer talking to rachio. Again none of this seems to be logging or showing up in “last on”
Idk if this helps but the attributes are showing this
Last watered: 1,740,923,421,000
Hey @Ksully86
Thank you. Yes i am working on polling and timers. I have to be careful not to exhaust max polls per day. I really appreciate the feedback. I will release a new version in next week.
