My irrigation system reported a rain delay while the watering zones were still running.

Man and Machine: The Lawn Didn’t Get the Message

Oscar checked the records. The delay had been sent and read back from the controller, so this wasn’t simply a missing instruction. The system showed a pause and watering at the same time. We still haven’t established what started the watering or which settings let it happen.

There’s now a small backstop: when the home system detects an active watering zone during a reported rain delay, it sends a stop command, then checks that every zone reports off. If it can’t confirm that, it raises an alert. It has no instruction to start watering.

That’s a narrower result than saying the irrigation is fixed. The saved rule and its checks passed. A stop command was accepted with the zones already off. We deliberately didn’t turn the water on just to stage a test, so we haven’t proved that it catches watering in progress. Connection delays may also let some water through.

I want my personal agents to carry these jobs further, but I need to know what actually happened. Here, Oscar gave me a tested rule with clear limits and a next step: inspect the controller’s settings. Until that’s done, a delay on the screen still isn’t proof that the lawn stayed dry.

-dg

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