As a fellow Rachio user, I wanted to do this too instead of using the airport weather station which is like 8 miles away. Even if this was possible (looks like it may not be yet), I’d make sure you trust your Bloomsky rain sensor enough to be using it for automation. I wanted to use it to let me know when it was raining and I had a window open. It was straight pouring for 20 minutes before I got the “It’s raining!” notification. I’m using IFTTT to log data to a Google spreadsheet and I’ve got multiple occasions where it’s recording nearly 90% humidity readings and the rain sensor indicates false. Given I live in Las Vegas, it would never be that humid here while not raining.
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I don’t intend to use the rain sensor…but like you, the station I use is some miles away, so the humidity and temperature may be off. I’ve been tracking the temp and humidity plus the forecast on the WU PWS and I think I’ll try to use it soon…
Yep. Same here. Actually, mine was doing that within the first week I had it outside.
Since it’s not even accurate anyway (and should NEVER be relied on for actual rain notifications if it’s an important thing to be notified of), it didn’t bother me, but it does look sort of nasty.
EDIT: I submitted a support ticket to find out the following…
- Are you planning on any sort of redesign for this particular ‘feature’ in future hardware versions?
- Is there anything that can be done to stop it from continuing to do this?
- Is there anything that we can (or should) be doing to the dots to help keep them from corroding like this?
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I wanted to give this a try today, but it requires WeatherSnoop, which is only available on iOS…bummer 
Good find, though…It connected me to Iro’s community and it looks like they may be working on this, however, “Timeframe is unclear”
I thought I read somewhere that it’s a known issue, but that the corrosion isn’t supposed to affect the performance. If I stumble back upon that blurp i’ll reference it here.
Thaks. That would be cool.
Ya, I don’t think it really has much to do with how it operates. It’s just nasty-looking; the kind of thing that would be better to not have on the ‘face’ of a thing that may in some cases be someone’s only exposure to BloomSky as a compnay. i.e. when people come over and see mine, if they look at the ‘face’, telling them it doesn’t really matter may be irrlevant since they’ve already seen it, and made an almost unconscious and involuntary decision to avoid the brand on the basis of its physical appearance alone.
Not a big deal for me, but it seems like something they’d want to get on-top of for future revisions.
Can someone explain these readings or where I can read up on them. First day out and it looks sunny but uv is reading 1, and temp is higher than any other around by 5 degrees or so.
UV = no idea
Temp = many possibilities…
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How far off the ground is the main unit?
The ground holds and then radiates heat, and I’ve seen mine thrown off by at least that much when near the ground (i.e. when just using the steak to put it on the ground). Conversely, it will read cooler in the morning, because the coolness of the ground will tend to keep the ambient temp neat the ground cooler than the ambient air even just a few feet up in the air at the same geographical location. -
Is it mounted just like in their official photos and diagrams, with the main unit on the steak and the steak poking down through the hole in the solar panel mount and the solar panel mounted 'properly?
In this configuration (‘proper’ and ‘official’ as it is), the heat from the solar panels will almost certainly cause the reading of the BloomSky’s temp sensor to be significantly off. -
Is it near any other type of device or structure that could be a heatsink and could be radiating extra heat back off/up/toward the main unit?
Some of the best mounting ideas we’ve seen are on people’s houses, and in those cases, those structures are most likely skewing the temp readings. -
Other? I’m sure there are other issues to think about, but this is a start.
pointless amount of characters.
I just got shipping notification from UPS, and my BloomSky should get here early next week. 
Summer is creeping in slowly in AZ and I’m worried the BS housing will crack before my 6 month commitment is up 
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I still have to install my 2nd BS in Las Vegas … I don’t expect that one to last one summer. I might try liberally spraying the housing with some kind of UVA/UVB protectant, like Armor All (yuk) or something. Of course, all the electronics could be roasted too 
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Coat of car wax.
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Are ppl having problems with the enclosure breaking down? Mine needs to last 3 more months. Then I can shut it down and repurpose the solar panel.
I was thinking the same thing a while back, but I really kinda like this thing and the video’s it makes. The solar panel is just big enough to be useful for a bunch of other ideas I have though…
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I’d love to see what other things you have in mind.
If willing, please do share at some point (general ideas and concepts as well as specifics on how you’re going to make the connections, etc).
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I have LED lighting around the stairs of my deck, with a not too pretty extension cord going to it’s power supply. First thought was put some agm batteries with a charger on them and have the panel charge during the day for light at night when I’m on the deck, the solar panel would be much less conspicuous on the other end of the deck than the extension cord from the side of the house.
Second idea, same as the first, almost. Put an automatic gate opener on one of my gates that’s nowhere near power, panel to charge.
Edit: sorry this is off topic, I’ll shutup for now on this.
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No sorries required. It’s great info that we should capture.
So, I created a thread for it…
Dunno … it’s still new for most of us here, but just about all things made of plastic don’t last too long exposed to the sun in the deserts of the US southwest (or just about anywhere). I guess we’ll find out soon enuf.
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I just put one up in AZ (Station name QCAZ). There are other stations down there, so I would guess they have planned for this. I will let the community know if it doesn’t hold up to the heat though.
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