B-hyve App Overview video

In this video, we will give a full overview of the B-hyve app. We will cover the app features, device commands, programming, smart watering, watering history, device settings, and basic app navigation. Let’s get started. First, let’s sign into the B-hyve app. We assume that you already have a B-hyve device on your account. If you have not added a device, please see one of our device onboarding videos to get started.

 

We will log in using our account email address and password. Once you log in, you’ll be taken to the home screen. You will see five different tabs on the bottom of the screen: Home, Program, Zones, Calendar, and My B-hyve. We will cover each one of these tabs in depth. Let’s start with the home tab. On the top left of the screen, you will have your connection status. This will display a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth icon, depending on the connection type. If you’re disconnected, it will show a slash through the icon. By clicking on this icon, you can change the connection type. Let’s go from controlling our device from Wi-Fi to Bluetooth. Select the control via Bluetooth and you will see that we are now connected over Bluetooth.

 

Note, in order to control a device via Bluetooth, you need to be in the range of the Bluetooth signal of the device. To change back to Wi-Fi, simply press on the connection icon and select disconnect Bluetooth. You should now be connected to Wi-Fi again. If you’re using a hose faucet timer, you should also have a battery percentage under the connection icon shown here.

 

Now, moving to the top center of the screen, you have your device list. If you click on this button, you’ll be shown all of your B-hyve devices with the ability to quickly cycle through the devices. Let’s select the XD timer and the app will switch to that device. I am now controlling the XD timer. If I wanted to switch back, simply press the list again and we will select the XR timer. On the top right of your screen, you will see the current weather in your area. Below the device list, there is schedule and shop. Schedule is the default view and shows upcoming scheduled programs. Once we program this device, we will come back and see the next scheduled watering time. Shop is a quick and convenient area to access our online store. You are able to find replacement or new products from our OrbitOnline store.

 

This is especially convenient while you’re working out in your lawn. You have a single location to find all your irrigation needs. Let’s go back to schedule. On the bottom left above the five tabs, you have rain delay. Rain delay is a way to manually apply a watering delay to your timer from your phone. It will skip scheduled waterings over the period of time that you manually select.

 

If you press the rain delay button, you’ll be given three options: 12 hour, 24 hour or 2+ days. Clicking the 2+ days, you are able to delay watering by days, up to 32 days. We will revisit rain delay after discussing programming, to show it in action. To the right of rain delay is manual watering. Manual watering allows you to send a watering command to your device outside of your scheduled programs.

 

This is useful if your lawn or garden needs supplemental watering or if you’re testing your system. If you have multiple devices on your account, manual watering only waters a single selected device. I’m currently on my XR device. Let’s do a manual watering on this device. Press the manual watering button. If your device has multiple zones, you’re asked to select the zones you’d like to water, or you can select to water an entire program, if you have a program built, by pressing the programs button on the top right. Let’s build a custom manual watering, starting with zone one. You can adjust how long your zone will water for by moving the timer dial. You are then given three options on the bottom. To the left is a red x.

 

Select this if you don’t want to water that selected zone. In the middle is a play button. If you’re only watering the selected zone, hit the play button and your watering will begin. To the right is a green checkmark. If you’re going to water multiple zones, select the green checkmark and you will begin creating a watering queue for the multiple zone manual watering events.

 

Let’s select the green checkmark and build a multi-zone manual watering event. We will select a few more zones to water.

 

Keep in mind that if you have more than six zones, you can swipe the zone list to show the additional zones on your timer.

 

Once you have built your watering queue, you can hit the play button at the bottom of the screen to begin the manual watering. You will see a watering wheel pop up on the center of the home screen with a countdown for the active zone watering. At any time you can stop your watering altogether by selecting the stop button, or you can skip to the next station by hitting the skip button.

 

Let’s skip to our next zone. You can see that we’re now watering our next zone. We will now stop the watering altogether by hitting the stop button. Our timer watering has now stopped and we should no longer be watering any of our zones. The queue of upcoming manual watering stations is also canceled. Now that we’ve covered the home tab, let’s move to programming.

 

B-hyve makes programming your timers easy. Let’s start by selecting the program tab on the bottom of the screen to the left of the home tab. At the top of the screen, you will see which device you’re creating programs for. In this case, it is our XR timer. Each device is independent, so you will need to create individual programs for each of your B-hyve devices. Below your device you will see smart watering program. We will cover smart watering in an upcoming segment of this video. Below smart, you will see a timed watering section. In this section, I have four slots available, plus a saved program section. This means I can have four active programs created and additional programs saved that are not active but can be swapped to active at any time.

 

You can select any of the program slots and create a program. However, I will start by selecting slot A. This is where we will create our first program. Start by giving your program a name. I’ll name mine Spring. Next, you’ll want to add a start time. You’re able to add four start times per program slot. Each start time will run the entirety of the program, so if you’re adding more than one start time, you risk overwatering. But it is also important that you know that this option is available. Let’s add a start time at 4am. This means that our watering will begin at 4am.

 

Next, we will add our zones. If you select the plus icon on the right of the timer shown, it will select all active zones and a single universal runtime for all those zones. This is only advised if you plan on watering all your zones for the exact same amount of time. If you want to individually select and customize the runtime for each zone, press the Modify/ Add Zones button.

 

You can then select each zone you’d like this program to water. We’ll do zones one through eight. Press the plus icon next to each zone and customize the watering time for that program zone.

 

Make sure you hit done on the bottom of the screen to save this selection.

 

We now have zones one through eight set up with runtimes. We will now select which days we want this timer to water. You’re given four options. You can choose to water on certain days of the week. Simply select the days you would like to water on. You can choose to water on only even days. This means it would water even numbered days of the month.

 

For example, it would water February 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, and so on. You can choose to water on only odd days. This means it would water on odd days of the month. For example, it would water February 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, and so on. Lastly, you can choose to water on an interval. This option lets you water every day, every two days, every three days, and so on, up to every 32 days. In this example, let’s water days of the week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Next, you have the program schedule section. This section allows you to activate the program on a certain date and subsequently disable the program on a certain date. If you know that you’ll be watering this program during a certain time period, you can enter that information in here.

 

Otherwise, you can leave the section in its default state of activating today and never ending until you manually deactivate the program. Lastly, there’s watering budget. Watering budget is a way to globally adjust your program’s runtime. This is useful for seasonal changes. It makes it so that you can adjust all your runtimes by a certain percentage based on your seasonal weather.

 

For example, if you’re watering this program in the spring, your lawn or garden may not need as much water. So you can cut the overall program watering down by adjusting the budget under 100%. At 50%, you’ll be watering at half your scheduled runtimes. Also, for example, if you’re watering this program during the summer and your lawn or garden needs more water, you can adjust your budget above 100%.

 

At 200%, you’ll be watering double your scheduled runtime. Keep in mind that making adjustments to the budget can cause confusion if you’re watering for an unexpected amount of time. It’s advised that you keep the budget at 100% until you feel comfortable with the app and timer performance. Now that we’ve filled out all of our program information, make sure you hit the save button to save your program.

 

You will now see Program A is active and in our program list. You can create additional programs by repeating this process. As you create programs, they are also saved in the Saved Programs section. You can also add saved programs to any slot by selecting the program slot and selecting the pick button. If that saved program is already active in a slot, it will move that program from one slot to another.

 

You can activate or deactivate a program at any time by selecting the toggle button next to the program.

 

If you need additional help on programming, scroll to the bottom of the program page and hit the question mark icon for additional resources.

 

Next, let’s take a look at the calendar and see our program schedule. Let’s start by selecting the calendar tab at the bottom of the page to the left of the program tab. You’ll be taken to a screen that shows the current month with the day highlighted. You will also see the weather forecast for each day, and little dots on certain days. Each that indicates a watering event.

 

Gray dots are from manual watering’s that occur. I also have green dots on days in the future. These green dots indicate that Program A will be watering on those days. During the programming section of the video, we scheduled Program A to water on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and that is now reflected on our calendar. If we had additional programs set up, you would have different colored dots for each of these programs on their watering days.

 

The dot color corresponds to the program letter. B is red, C is orange, and D is purple. Each watering day you select shows the watering history or expected watering for that day. Additional watering information can be found for each zone, including approximate moisture at the zone based on beginning moisture level, irrigated, rainfall, and plant usage. These are all approximations and can be improved by giving further information to the app about each zone set-up.

 

We will cover that in the smart watering section of this video. Selecting a future watering event shows the runtimes for that day. Let’s go back to our home screen and see how that has changed, now that we have a program set up. Select the home tab at the bottom of the screen. You can now see that we have a scheduled watering set up for Program A. Our next watering will happen on Friday at 4am. If for whatever reason we want to skip this scheduled watering, we can add a manual rain delay. Select the rain delay button, and let’s add a two day delay.

 

This should skip the Friday watering event, since it is scheduled to water at 4am and it is currently past 4am on a Wednesday. You will now see that the rain delay is active for two days and my scheduled watering time is now pushed to the next scheduled watering, based on my program, which is Monday. You can also go back to your calendar and see that the previously scheduled Friday watering is now skipped and the green dot is no longer on this coming Friday.

 

Back on the home tab, if you want to cancel the delay, you can hit clear delay on the bottom of the screen. This will cancel the rain delay and the scheduled watering will go back to normal. We will once again be watering on Friday.

 

We will now take a look at our zone settings. Select the zones tab at the bottom of the screen to the right of the home tab. On the top right of the screen, there’s an edit button. If you press this, you can add or remove active zones. Press on the big red X to remove specific zones or the blue plus to add zones.

 

This is useful if you didn’t add the correct number of zones during the device initial onboarding setup, or if you make changes to your zones in your yard. On each zone, you can select the zone and view the details of that zone. The picture of the zone can be changed by selecting the camera icon and taking a picture of the zone.

 

Next, you can change the name of the zone by selecting the pencil icon. Below the zone name, you will see smart watering and smart zone details. This information will be covered later in this video. Below the smart watering section is scheduled runtimes. This is where you will see a summary of the programs assigned to this zone and the runtimes of those programs.

 

Next is watering events. This section shows the last time the zone was watered and the next time it will be watered. Finally, the soil moisture meter is at the bottom of the zone detail screen. This moisture meter is used for smart watering programing. It gives you an idea of how your zone is doing. We will discuss this further when covering smart watering. On the top right of the zone detail screen, you can hit the test button to run a manual watering on that zone. You can repeat this process and make changes to each zone as desired. Let’s take a look at the final tab at the bottom of the screen. The My B-hyve tab is located on the far right. The my B-hyve screen gives you seven options. At the bottom of the options list is the B-hyve app version.

 

In this case, my app version is 3.0.333. Build 1179. This information is useful if you contact our customer support team. The B-hyve account page allows you to change your account name, change your password, delete your account, or log out from your account. The devices page displays all your B-hyve devices. You are also able to add additional devices from this page by selecting the plus icon on the bottom right.

 

Let’s start by selecting our active device, indicated by the yellow hexagon. At the top left of this page, you can select the camera icon to take a picture of your device.

 

At the top center, you can change the name of your device.

 

You can change or update your address below the name. Your address is used for smart watering, so it is advised that you use an accurate address. Below address is control via Bluetooth. You are able to change your device connection type here, if desired. This temporarily changes your communication with your timer, which is especially helpful if you’re having an interruption in your Wi-Fi connection. Under the control via Bluetooth button you will see that this is our active device. Next, you can turn your timer on or off by changing the timer run mode. Off turns your timer into an off state and will no longer run programs. This is good if you’re shutting your timer off for the winter season. By changing to auto, you are turning your timer back on and will run your scheduled waterings again.

 

The next two options are unique to my XR device. You may have other options available based on your timer. Weather delays is a setting that can be toggled on or off. The weather delay setting is used for auto weather delays. Wi-Fi connected B-hyve controllers have the ability to implement auto weather delays based on your local weather station.

 

This is why adding an accurate address is important. Auto weather delays add watering delays to your timer automatically based on weather conditions such as rain events, freeze events or wind events. Thresholds for each of these event types can be adjusted on the weather adjustments page. Note that you must have auto weather delays active to enable smart watering. If you do not activate weather delays, smart watering will not work. Below weather delays is smart watering restrictions, which will be covered in the smart watering portion of this video. Next is weather adjustments. This is where you can adjust the threshold for auto-weather delays. Each delay can be adjusted rain, wind and freeze. You can also change your weather station by selecting the weather station button at the top.

 

You should see a map of nearby weather stations. The nearest weather station is selected automatically based on your device address.

 

Next is the system on/off date. This is a way to turn your system automatically on or off on a certain date, if you have that available. It is not required as you can manually turn your controller on and off using the timer run mode toggle. Device sharing allows you to share your device with other B-hyve accounts. If you’re helping manage the device for someone else, this is where you can share the device to their account so they have access. You will generate a code and that can be shared to another B-hyve account, which can be added during the device onboarding process. Next, you can check for a firmware update by selecting update firmware. If a firmware update is available, your device will be updated automatically. Reset device connection is a step to help resolve potential connection problems.

 

Update Wi-Fi settings allows you to make updates to your Wi-Fi network. This is useful if you change your Wi-Fi network. For example, you purchase a new router. You can enter in your new network name and password to update the Wi-Fi as needed. Note that this video is sped up. Please allow for some time for your device to find its Wi-Fi connection.

 

The last selectable option is remove device. If you’re having issues with your B-hyve device and have exhausted all other options and are needing to factory reset and start over, you can remove your device from your account to start the factory reset process. Please see the individual device onboarding and troubleshooting videos for details on how to fully factory reset your device.

 

Please note that this should be your last option. It will delete all information about the device, losing programs, watering history, zone settings, and more. Lastly, on the device details page is the device information. This area shows important information about your MAC address and firmware version, which is useful if you’re working with our customer support team. Let’s go back to our device list and select a non-active device.

 

You can change this to an active device by selecting control this device. You will then be controlling this new device. This is similar to the home page device dropdown list discussed earlier in this video. Now let’s return to My B-hyve and select our next option, Device Groups. Device groups displays generation one hubs and the devices linked to them.

 

I don’t have any Generation one product on my account, so I don’t have any device groups displayed. See the generation one hose faucet timer and generation one hub onboarding and troubleshooting videos for more details on device groups if you need further explanation. Next, let’s take a look at watering history. A Wi-Fi connection is required for watering history to work properly.

 

Watering history is broken down by day, week, month or year. Each will be summarized based on the chosen calendar period. You can cycle through different days, weeks, months or years by using the arrows at the top of the screen, depending on which page you are on. You can see the waterings that occur based on specific time frames. Note that there is a blank volume of water measurement displayed with a dash.

 

You’ll most likely not have any information here unless you are utilizing a flow meter with Flume integration. This is a separate product that integrates with the B-hyve system. Also note that watering history won’t be updated until the entire watering event is complete. For example, if you’re in the middle of watering a program, the history of that watering won’t be available until the program has finished watering.

 

Let’s go back to the My B-hyve menu and select notifications. Notifications allow you to toggle push notification types on or off. This allows us to notify you of watering events, delays, faults and device status. Simply toggle each notification type on or off as desired. It is recommended that you keep your notifications on so you know what is happening with your B-hyve device.

 

The help menu will take you to further online help if needed. Lastly, if you’d like to provide feedback on app performance, you can select the feedback button. Please ensure that you include the device you’re using in your feedback. For example, this is a B-hyve XR, so I would include that information in my feedback. This is helpful for the B-hyve team to continuously improve the app performance, ensuring that you are getting the highest quality app possible.

 

There are two areas in the app that you can get started with smart watering. Both of them modify smart watering the same. Please note that in order for smart watering to be enabled, a Wi-Fi connection and the weather delay setting must be enabled. Do that prior to moving forward. The first method is through the program tab. At the top of the page under smart watering program, select the smart button. Setting up smart watering under programs is the most comprehensive method to adding smart information.

 

The first option you have is to learn more about smart watering and how it works. Next, you can add a suggested start time. This is not required, but if you have a specific start time you’d like your smart watering program to water, this is where you would enter it in. Under the suggested start time is the smart watering restrictions.

 

If your local area has laws or restrictions on when you can water your lawn, you should enter this information in here. Toggle the restrictions on and you can add a specific time that the smart watering should not water and specific days to water. Note that this is only affecting smart watering programs. If you’re manually entering programs into the device, it is up to you to ensure that you are abiding by local restrictions. Next, you can toggle all zones on for smart watering or you can select specific zones. Within each zone, there is a button for smart zone details. It is advised to enter in as much information as possible into the smart zone detail section to get the most accurate and efficient smart watering schedule for your lawn and garden.

 

We will select the zone details for zone one. You will see several options to help B-hyve dial in your smart watering schedule. We will start on the soil type. The app will walk you through each of these options, stopping before catch cups. Select the soil type that you have on this zone. If all else fails and you don’t know your soil type, you can select unknown.

 

You can also use the advanced settings to customize your soil intake rate. However, this is not advised. Each of the smart zone detail pages has a question mark at the bottom of the screen where you can get help on filling out this information. If you’re stuck on any of these details, try the help button. Soil type is important because it dictates how quickly our watering will be absorbed into the ground.

 

Different soils have different absorption rates. This also determines how the automatic cycle and slow process is developed to prevent water runoff. B-hyve smart watering will determine a total runtime for a zone, but it breaks that total time into multiple shorter runtimes to allow the water to soak into the ground and provide your plants with a deep watering and minimize the runoff waste.

 

Next, you will select the plant type within zone one. Again, this section has an advanced zone settings option, which we do not advise you change.

 

Next, you will tell B-hyve what type of sprinklers are in zone one. This page also has advanced zone settings that can be manually adjusted, but it is not advised that you make advanced adjustments here. Next, how much sun is your zone getting? Select either mostly shade or mostly sun, depending on the approximate amount of time the area is exposed to sunlight.

 

There is an advanced section on this page that can be adjusted even further if you desire to get a more accurate smart watering program.

 

Next, you identify how much rainfall gets to your plants. You can select three options: none, some or most. You can also further customize this as desired by selecting the advanced settings. Next, select the slope or grade of your zone. If the area is mostly flat, select that option. If it’s on a slope, select that option. You can customize this further under the advanced settings if you know the exact slope amount. Lastly, count your heads. How many sprinkler heads are on the zone? You can press the test button to test the zone so you can identify the heads on the zone. You have successfully entered in the basic requirements for smart zone details. Additional settings can be found, starting with catch cops. You can perform a catch up test on the zone to get even more accurate precipitation information about the zone.

 

Schedule adjustments is where you can view and adjust approximate watering days, runtime and cycles. Cycles refers to the cycle and soak method of watering, which provides the best deep watering possible and minimizes runoff.

 

Advanced details shows variables used to calculate your smart watering schedule. These variables are brought in by your selections from the smart zone details that we just made. It isn’t necessary to make changes to the section unless you are a highly advanced user. Leaving these in their default state is highly recommended. Lastly, you can set a drought level based on your area.

 

Adjusting drought level will help save water in areas that require drought restrictions. You can find the drought level in your area by selecting the check the drought level in your area button.

 

Now that we have fully filled out the smart zone details for zone one, we can repeat this process for the remaining zones, identifying the unique information about each zone. Once you’ve entered in your smart details, you can return to the home tab to see if a smart watering program was created. Depending on your environment and weather conditions, as well as your smart details, your zones will either all run or only some will run as required by the environmental conditions.

 

The idea behind smart watering is that you are only watering when needed. You can also take a look at the calendar and you’ll see a new icon displayed. A blue light bulb indicates a smart watering event. The second method for enabling and entering smart watering information is by going to the zones tab. Select the zone you’d like to edit.

 

You can toggle smart watering on or off, then select the smart zone details. The process is the same for adding smart zone details as previously covered in the first method. The main difference with this method is you don’t have access to the watering restrictions or suggested start time in the zones tab. To change the suggested start time, that must be answered under the program method. To change smart watering restrictions, navigate to the My B-hyve tab, select devices, select the device you’re setting up smart watering on, and then find the smart watering restrictions button. From here you can enter in the restrictions as described in the previous method. Once you have smart watering enabled and set up, B-hyve takes care of the rest. You do not need additional manual programs to water your plants. If you’re not satisfied with the watering, either too much or too little, there are a few adjustments that you can make. 

 

First, double check that you have entered your zone details in completely and correctly. Next, check the soil moisture percentage located under the zones tab. Select the zone you’re not satisfied with. At the bottom of the page is a soil moisture meter. Adjust this up or down to adjust how saturated the soil is.

 

If you feel that your plants are being over watered, adjust the moisture meter up, which tells a smart program that the plants don’t need any additional immediate water. Do the opposite if the plants aren’t getting enough water: adjust the meter down. Lastly, go to the smart zone details for the zone that you’re not satisfied with and make adjustments to your schedule by selecting schedule adjustments.

 

You can change how often and how long the watering events should be for that zone.

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