Forum Replies Created

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • in reply to: Smart home #81768
    smaug
    Participant
    Points: 9
    First Time
    Up
    0
    Down
    ::

    iOS: Try Homebridge to expose your devices to Apple Home. Works kinda nice, but requires a local computer up and running 24/7 (I use my Mac Mini, but a Raspberry Pi should do well, too), plus needs caretaking every now and then, and setting up watering schedules is not at all comfortable. But if you have some time left and always wanted to learn more about NodeJS operated stuff, you should give it a try.

    We can of course hope for Orbit to start supporting Matter one day. Not sure if their current devices could handle that though.

    in reply to: My B-hyve hose faucet battery #81766
    smaug
    Participant
    Points: 9
    First Time
    Up
    0
    Down
    ::

    @Tom Cunningham, we can try to figure out: I use devices listed at Amazon as Orbit B-hyve 94990 and 94995 (with and without hub respectively), hardware version HT25-0000 for hoses, HT1-0000 for hubs, B-hyve app version 3.0.28 on iOS 16.5. All hoses show plausible battery level values. Last firmware update performed one day ago. Do you spot any differences?

    Fun fact: I use a software bridge called Homebridge to have my devices shown in Apple Home, which is nice, but there all devices warn that battery level is 0%. Seems there were some incompatible API changes. I shouldn’t try to fix that by trying to get newer firmware for the time being…

    in reply to: My B-hyve hose faucet battery #81763
    smaug
    Participant
    Points: 9
    First Time
    Up
    0
    Down
    ::

    Same here: This seems to be fixed now. It’s not that simple though: In one case, firmware was updated to version 0041 some days ago but the battery still showed the wrong status. Switching to Bluetooth connection in the B-hyve app and back to Wi-if led to showing 100% temporarily, but values got down to the flawed value after some seconds. But now that changed (is there some connection to a recent server-down from Orbit?), toggling the connection type on B-hyve app start page now helped. Upgraded all remaining devices to new firmware, toggled the connection once for each device to force reset of battery status display, and voilà: I’m back in business. So thanks to Orbit for finally fixing this problem 👏👏👏
    A bit more transparency would be great next time 😉

    in reply to: My B-hyve hose faucet battery #81671
    smaug
    Participant
    Points: 9
    First Time
    Up
    1
    Down
    ::

    Hi @Chris5596, HomeKit is the Apple Smarthome environment. Adding B-Hyve devices there via a software bridge called Homenbridge allows you to control the faucets in the same environment you would use to control smart lights and other smart home devices. Unfortunately that doesn‘t fix any of the issues that Orbit has caused by the battery indicator bug (maybe a bit: you can start watering manually there even when the B-hyve app refuses because it thinks that the batteries are empty). Orbit doesn’t officially support Apple HomeKit, thus they won’t recommend anything into that direction as a workaround. I’m not an employee of Orbit, but I do hope they give us the battery status functionality back, because it’s a must-have feature for those devices. As a software developer I can tell what a bug is when I see one, and this is one, and the current workaround can only be acceptable for a very short period of time.

    Rachio doesn’t seem to be available in Germany, but thanks for the hint: I’ll keep my eyes open 🙂

    in reply to: My B-hyve hose faucet battery #81667
    smaug
    Participant
    Points: 9
    First Time
    Up
    1
    Down
    ::

    Thanks, @Chris5596: I tried this out for one of my six faucets. After the usual struggle (adding a device never worked for me on first attempt) it shows the same behavior as yours. At least the faucet can now be operated manually again. I use Homebridge to expose the faucets to HomeKit, and there I now get periodic alerts written into the log telling me that the battery is at 0%, maybe the plug in author will fix that from his side.
    This fix from Orbit is hopefully a temporary solution only. Taking away the battery state information for battery operated devices is not acceptable, as plants will die because of this – and I of course hate purchasing new batteries just to find out that it‘s not the batteries but the devices. In their current state, buying these faucets cannot be recommended at all. Orbit should get a chance to fix this though.

    in reply to: My B-hyve hose faucet battery #81640
    smaug
    Participant
    Points: 9
    First Time
    Up
    3
    Down
    ::

    Finally found this thread, hoping for a simple solution for my issue: All six devices show wrong battery levels, all different but specific for the individual devices (just swap the battery packages and you will get 3% for batteries that showed 11% in another one, while 11% are shown on the other device for the batteries that were rated 3% originally). Removing six devices, adding them again, and re-doing the programming will cost me a day‘s work. So did somebody already successfully try the solution proposal? I‘m close to sending the devices back and buying Eve watering devices with Thread support instead, to be honest. I would need some positive news to remain a loyal customer which doesn’t write furious Amazon one-star reviews. Fixing the firmware would do the trick, for example.

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)