Finished before sunrise scheduling issue? - Schedules & Zones / Flex Daily - Rachio Community
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post by BertSP on Apr 28, 2018
BertSP
I also just started using the end before sunrise setting instead of a fixed start time. I believe that the app calculates the total running time for that evening in advance and don’t really understand why it cant calculate backwards a start time to achieve this goal. It has all the information there in advance and certainly knows when sunrise is by one’s location. I guess the kinks need to be worked out. In my neck of the woods, the winds generally die down during the deep night. Nice feature if it could work.
11 days later
post by toddbecker on May 10, 2018
toddbecker
For now I have created an acceptable workaround for my situation. I split my single Flex Daily schedule in to two, using the odd/even interval days. This moved my start time from about 1:30 am to 3:45 am, getting much closer to sunrise. Luckily I do not have watering restrictions, so this was an option for me.
9 days later
post by tsaylor on May 19, 2018
taylor
I have this problem as well. I get that Flex is tricky but I also believe it can do better. In my case, I have 14 zones which makes the schedule something like 12 hours.
So… on a typical day it may schedule 2-3 hours and run it from 4:30 PM to say 7 PM. It’s beginning near the hottest part of the day, definitely not the best time to be watering, and a time when we’re still using our yard, and not watering overnight at all.
1 month later
post by DrTall on Jun 24, 2018
DrTall
This is my conclusion as well.
I’ve set it to start watering at 4 AM instead of “end before sunrise” and it seems to be a lot better even though it isn’t ideal.
15 days later
post by ram7108 on Jul 9, 2018
ram7108
Todd, how did you ‘split your single Flex Daily schedule into 2 schedules’? I need to do the same (for the same reason you stated), but not sure how to do this. Thanks!
post by toddbecker on Jul 9, 2018
toddbecker
I split my zones into two groups (I did plants and grasses) and then made two flex daily programs and set them on even and odd interval days.
Any zone can only be in one flex program, so you have to remove them from any existing flex schedules that you have.
Good luck, let me know if you have any additional questions.
post by MtnBkr on Jul 12, 2018
MtnBkr
Just adding my observation to this as I too was expecting the “end at sunrise” feature to calculate a start time for the zones that would result in a finish at or very close to sunrise. At the time of this post, sunrise is 6:02 AM. Tonight the Flex schedule has 3 of the 8 zones identified to run from 11:26p to 3:05a. I’m not sure how or why it chose those times.
Anywho, as a work around, I set it to “End Before a Specific Time” at 6AM, thinking it would calculate a start that would align with a 6a completion. Now the same schedule will run from 11:22p to 2:04a. So, I set to to complete at 9a and now it will run 2:27a to 5:09a…close enough. 10a setting will run 3:22a to 7:10a.
As a suggesting for future release, how about a “let Rachio choose” setting which calculates the best times based on the suggestions in this thread (wind, coolest temp, freeze, lowest fungus risk, lowest evaporation rate, etc.) and then adjust the calculations for “end at sunrise” and “end at (time)” to be intuitive.
13 days later
post by helosix on Jul 26, 2018
helosix
@theflexdude I had to read this like six times.
Is that max duration for all zones in the schedule, or only the zones scheduled to run that day? If all (which is what you wrote), I see why a single zone would start so early on any given day. Would it make more sense to create a unique Flex sched. for each zone? This way the max. duration is only one zone.
Honestly, I’m trying to understand how a max. is calculated considering the variables you mention.
post by JS_racer on Jun 10, 2019
JS_racer
new user, seeing this as well with flex daily. if end by sunrise, it starts the day before, the wrong day than selected, odd, it will start on the even day , looks like 10:15pm
for example, its set to go from 10:15 pm to 11:30pm on the wrong day
post by Toddbecker on Jun 18, 2019
toddbecker
FYI, this approach no longer works, you are not able to create more than one schedule with an ‘end by’ time.
post by dk4 on Jun 20, 2019
dk4
Sure you can. I just made two schedules both with an end by time 3 days ago.
Of course, it completely borked my entire system’s water timing.
post by KennyOD on Jun 25, 2019
KennyOD
While I dont have a finish by sunrise setting I do have my flex daily set to end by 5:45AM. Oddly enough when it determines only 1 zone needs to be ran that particular day for the 23min, it starts it at the original start time of the entire schedule instead of at 5:23am.
post by franz on Jun 26, 2019
franz
We stack all of the zones in a flex daily schedule and currently start the schedule at the furthest back point. Not ideal but it is what we have today.
post by Farlicimo on Jun 26, 2019
Farlicimo
If I took each zone and put in its own flex daily schedule and set an end by X time (can only do 1 by sunrise right?), what happens when multiple schedules want to run on the same day? Will it control so that they don’t try and all run at the same time?
post by counterparts on Jun 26, 2019
counterparts
Unless something has changed recently, you are only allowed one schedule to use End By Time or End By Sunrise. Once you have any one schedule using either of those, then none of your other schedules can use End By Time or End By Sunrise.
19 days later
post by chrisngrod on Jul 16, 2019
chrisngrod
Guess I’ll not use this anymore. Watering in the middle of the night doesn’t work for me.
post by scorp508 on Jul 16, 2019
scorp508
Please post in/heart this thread as well.
post by krowe001 on Oct 17, 2019
krowe001
I suffer from this same problem. It would be nice if the controller split watering across two or more days when there are too many zones and the runtime on the zones create this condition.
post by Tygger on Apr 13, 2020
Tygger
Signed up in this forum to solve this very issue and can’t believe it’s the same issue from two years ago. Seems like a simple programming change to adjust start time based on number of zones scheduled to run.
post by sm0ta on Nov 22, 2020
sm0ta
I am having the same problem described in this thread this year (did not have the issue last year, but I did recreate the schedule).
post by Thomas_Lerman on Nov 22, 2020
Thomas_Lerman
It seems like finish before sunrise really starts as if all zones were running so it would finish before sunrise.
post by diabetic_debate on Jul 14, 2021
diabetic_debate
I am surprised and disappointed that this has not been fixed for three freaking years. My flex daily is supposed to run for 2.5 hours and it is starting its run at 1AM and ending at 3.30AM.
post by rraisley on Jul 15, 2021
rraisley
Unless your maximum run time is extraordinarily long, just start in early morning instead. Here, sunrise is 6:29, so say you have about 5:30 of maximum watering time. Just start at 5 AM instead, and it will always finish by 10:30 AM (which is fine), and usually much earlier.
post by diabetic_debate on Jul 23, 2021
diabetic_debate
That is what I am doing right now but it is not optimal. I am basically starting at a fixed time.
post by pspider on Jun 1, 2022
pspider
@franz any updates on SW changes coming for this one?
post by spaceman_spiff on Jun 2, 2022
spaceman_spiff
+1 for this is super annoying.
post by kuryanthomas on Jun 2, 2022
kuryanthomas
1
post by ecoBeard on Jun 4, 2022
ECOBEARD
I completely agree with you. Here in Arizona, it’s best to water from 9pm to 8am, due to lower evaporation.
post by will74 on Jul 7, 2022
will74
I just wanted to follow up on this - is this even on a roadmap? @franz.
post by gizbug on Apr 28, 2023
gizbug
9 months later still waiting for an update from someone on the team @franz
post by dane on Apr 28, 2023
dane
Hey folks!
I understand that the End by setting on Flex Daily can be frustrating, specifically for users with a lot of zones and a long total schedule duration. We have thoroughly reviewed this request and unfortunately do not have any solutions that we can implement at this time.