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2018

Archive

RainMachine Touch HD-12 and Touch HD-16 availability
(temporary out of stock)

Oct 20, 2018, by admin
 

Due to heavy demand, our RainMachine Touch HD-12 and RainMachine Touch HD-16 are currently out of stock. This problem was exacerbated by global long lead times for key electronic semiconductor components from Texas Instruments (US) and Murata (Japan).


New stock will be available at Amazon, Home Depot and Lowe's in the early January 2019 timeframe.


2019 RainMachine Touch HD-12 and RainMachine Touch HD-16 models will will be equipped with better Wi-Fi capabilities and for those that install RainMachine in tough Wi-Fi spots, we will provide a long range Wi-Fi radios with high gain / high power 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz versions.


Stay tuned for upcoming 2019 software preview (currently in beta). This firmware will be available to all RainMachine Touch HD models manufactured after October 2014.


Thank you

Summer 2018 New Integrations and Remote access additions

Jun 19, 2018, by admin

Summer 2018 New Integrations and Remote access additions

 

Rainmachine is constantly evolving

Starting this summer we released new 3rd party integrations and services and added new features to our remote access functionality.
We, at RainMachine, strongly believe that all smart controller functions should be running on the device itself without depending on cloud computing or subscription fees.


That being said we understand the benefits of having a smart controller (with 3rd party integration) and we are continuously improving in this area so we can offer our customers the best of offline and online worlds.


Here is a list of improvement and additions:

- Amazon Echo/Alexa integration
- Google Assistant integration
Both features now allow voice control for starting or stopping programs and zones and to list them.


- New RainMachine IFTTT actions like enabling or disabling a program are now available. These actions add more possibilities to control how RainMachine behaves under certain conditions triggered by the hundreds of IFTTT triggers. Also, with the next update, your applets on IFTTT will be able to pause or resume watering, again, depending on which conditions you set.


- New phone notification has been added: notify the user if their weather had not been updated for the last 24 hours.
Also in development: Sending program duration when a program starts and others.

- Faster Web UI loading on http://my.rainmachine.com.

More great features in development for the following period, stay tuned!
Thank you,
The RainMachine Development Team

Note: More details about integrations and other community developer integrations are available here: http://www.rainmachine.com/integrations/

RainMachine iOS mobile app update

Mar 14, 2018, by admin

We are proud to announce that the RainMachine iOS mobile app v4.5.102 is available for immediate download for all RainMacine iOS (iPhone and iPad) users. Most notable fixes and improvements* for the spring 2018 release are as follows:

Zones

- Minimum watering time per zone: Now you will be able to set a minimum watering time per individual zones.
- New zone vegetation types: Choose between Warm Season Grass and Cold Season Grass.

Programs

- Program Start Date and End Date: You can choose the start date and end date for your programs and this will repeat yearly by default. Imagine watering programs for each season.
- Program Use Adaptive Frequency: Allow RainMachine to manage irrigation by skipping non-optimal watering cycles, taking in consideration your soil moisture values.
- Weather-Adjusted Zone Duration: Choose to modify the program zone duration based on weather, or choose to have fixed watering times and ignore weather data available for program zones.
- Change program zones order: You will be able to order the program zones the way you want.

Settings

- Rain Sensor: Added last time the rain sensor detected rain event message.
- RainMachine Firmware Auto-Update: You can choose to let the RainMachine auto-update its firmware when a new one will be available.

Fixes

- Fix crash when trying to save a program.

Note: RainMachine device has to be updated to the latest firmware version in order to have access to all new features.
Check for firmware updates by going to Settings - System Settings - Software Update.

RainMachine complies with European Union GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

May 22, 2018, by admin

RainMachine complies with European Union GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

 

Cloud Independent by Design

RainMachine was designed from the ground up to be a cloud-independent device. We take pride in protecting the customer privacy and we have been doing so since day one. We are happy to announce that all our RainMachine devices are in compliance with European Union GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Furthermore, we also comply with the CalOPPA (California Online Privacy Protection Act).
Please consult the full Privacy Policy (effective date: May 22, 2018).

Nobody else but you own your private data

Going a bit into technical details, user email, location, password, settings, and backups are always saved locally on your RainMachine device, 100% 'standalone mode'. When the user accesses it through remote access server we get all this info, but after days of inactivity, all this info are automatically erased from the database. As a result, nobody else but you own your private data.

Disable RainMachine remote access service

To entirely disable the remote access service (paranoid mode) you can easily do so by going to
Settings - System Settings - Remote Access and simply switch it OFF. This way, all your RainMachine info will be erased from the remote access servers. Later, if you choose to re-enable the remote access service on your RainMachine you will have to revalidate your email address.

Switch off RainMachine remote access service


When remote access is disabled, the RainaMachine will continue to get updates from NOAA.GOV and other weather sources, but if the remote access capabilities will be disabled and you will not be able to access the RainMachine when away from home using the RainMachine mobile/web apps (as an workaround you can modify your firewall settings in order to access the RainMachine directly), you will lose the ability to control it by voice or use it as smart home device.


The RainMachine Team

- Consult the full Privacy Policy (effective date: May 22, 2018),
- How to reset your RainMachine password,
- How to set up RainMachine remote access service.

RainMachine iOS mobile app update

Mar 14, 2018, by admin

We are proud to announce that the RainMachine iOS mobile app v4.5.102 is available for immediate download for all RainMacine iOS (iPhone and iPad) users. Most notable fixes and improvements* for the spring 2018 release are as follows:

Zones

- Minimum watering time per zone: Now you will be able to set a minimum watering time per individual zones.
- New zone vegetation types: Choose between Warm Season Grass and Cold Season Grass.

Programs

- Program Start Date and End Date: You can choose the start date and end date for your programs and this will repeat yearly by default. Imagine watering programs for each season.
- Program Use Adaptive Frequency: Allow RainMachine to manage irrigation by skipping non-optimal watering cycles, taking in consideration your soil moisture values.
- Weather-Adjusted Zone Duration: Choose to modify the program zone duration based on weather, or choose to have fixed watering times and ignore weather data available for program zones.
- Change program zones order: You will be able to order the program zones the way you want.

Settings

- Rain Sensor: Added last time the rain sensor detected rain event message.
- RainMachine Firmware Auto-Update: You can choose to let the RainMachine auto-update its firmware when a new one will be available.

Fixes

- Fix crash when trying to save a program.

Note: RainMachine device has to be updated to the latest firmware version in order to have access to all new features.
Check for firmware updates by going to Settings - System Settings - Software Update.

Spring 2018 Firmware Release

Feb 23, 2018, by admin

We are pleased to announce the 4.0.926 firmware release.
This release contains enhancements and bug fixes. This release is available for RainMachine HD-12 and HD-16 made after 2015 and all Mini-8 devices.

Here are a couple of new features introduced on 4.0.926:


Web and Local UI improvements (15).
Many Web app and Local UI improvements, details available here.

Program Start Date and End Date
Choose the start date and end date for your programs and this will repeat yearly by default.
Imagine having separate watering programs for each season.

Program Use Adaptive Frequency
Allow RainMachine to manage irrigation by skipping nonoptimal watering cycles.
This feature promotes deeper root growth by skipping watering if the calculated daily amount is below a certain threshold.

Change program zones order
You can order the program zones sequence the way you want.
Drag & Drop to change their order under Program properties screen.

Minimum watering time per zone
Set a minimum watering time per individual zones, not per RainMachine device.

New zone vegetation types
Choose between warm season grass and cold season grass.
Open the Zone Advanced Settings and look for Vegetation Type option.

Adding Support for multiple weather stations for WUnderground weather service (Web).
No longer restricted to using just one station.

Open Weather Map weather service (Web)
With this release, you will be able to use OWM weather service.

RainMachine Firmware Auto-Update
Allow RainMachine to auto-update its firmware when a new one will be available.
This option is set "ON" by default but can be easily turned "OFF" from the RainMachine device system settings.

Fix for Wi-Fi WPA2 "KRACK" vulnerability
All our RainMachine devices have been patched against Wi-Fi WPA2 "KRACK" vulnerability.
To find out more about this Wi-Fi WPA2 security issue follow this link.