[notatoad]

Not only is it unnecessary to poke around under the hood, it's bad. If you're changing your sprinkler configuration, you're doing it wrong. You're supposed to set the schedule and never touch it again. Changing the schedule (because of rain or weather) is not as good for your lawn as just leaving everything alone. The only control you should ever be touching is the master shutoff valve. Your sprinkler isn't supposed to care about daily rainfall, because that doesn't matter in lawn care.

The only problem with the sprinkler in the article is that the internal clock is set wrong, and you can be pretty sure that the reason the internal clock is wrong is because the author tried to tweak things. Don't do that, and the problems go away.

[cfinke]

If you're changing your sprinkler configuration, you're doing it wrong.

Or your lawn is dying because there hasn't been enough rain. Or your lawn is dying because there's been too much rain. Or you're resodding a part of your lawn. Or you're removing part of your lawn to put in a garden. Or you've started using rainbarrels to naturally irrigate your backyard. Or your city has changed which days you can water your lawn on.

you can be pretty sure that the reason the internal clock is wrong is because the author tried to tweak things.

It could also be because the power went out or because of Daylight Saving Time.

[iooi]

What? You are speaking as if all seasons are the same year after year. Last winter here in the valley during winter the rain started months after it was supposed to and it was spotty at best.

I would argue the opposite, that the more you tinker with your system you will get better and better results. Daily rainfall does matter in lawn care because during hot summer days like this, you do need more water than during cool, cloudy winter days. This is common sense to anyone with half a green thumb. Not to mention, during the rainy season, you will probably do damage to your lawn if you over water.

[sbuk]

And all of that doesn't forgive bad UI. As the end user, the chap that installed the system shouldn't have to put up with a bad UI. There is absolutely no excuse for a poorly designed interface. None.

[sopooneo]

But completely apart from the health of your lawn, wouldn't you save water if you had the sprinkler cancel a regularly scheduled watering if it fell during a rain storm?