# Soil-moisture irrigation for Rachio — now installable via HACS, works with any weather source

**URL:** <https://geodrops.discourse.group/t/soil-moisture-irrigation-for-rachio-now-installable-via-hacs-works-with-any-weather-source/392>\
**Category:** Usage Tips & Tricks\
**Created:** [September 15, 2026, 1:43am UTC](https://geodrops.discourse.group/t/soil-moisture-irrigation-for-rachio-now-installable-via-hacs-works-with-any-weather-source/392 "2026-09-15T01:43:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Scythe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Scythe](https://geodrops.discourse.group/u/Scythe)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 1:43am UTC](https://geodrops.discourse.group/t/soil-moisture-irrigation-for-rachio-now-installable-via-hacs-works-with-any-weather-source/392/1 "2026-09-15T01:43:26Z")

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Hey all — if you’re running GeoDrops sensors and a Rachio controller, I’ve packaged up the soil-moisture-driven watering scheduler I’ve been running as a proper Home Assistant integration, and it’s now HACS-installable.

**What it does:** instead of Rachio’s fixed schedules or Flex Daily, it decides each night’s watering per zone from your GeoDrops soil-moisture readings, a drought level, and weather — then drives your Rachio zones. Cycle-and-soak, rain-skip, and per-zone runtimes are all handled.

**What changed:** it used to be a hand-edited pyscript app. Now you add it as a **custom repository in HACS** , install, and a setup wizard walks you through the bindings (Rachio device, notifications, zones, weather) — no YAML to hand-edit, and updates come through HACS like any other integration.

**On weather — this is the part worth calling out:** it works with _any_ HA weather source. A **local station (Tempest or similar) is preferred** — it reads your yard’s own microclimate at minute resolution — but you can absolutely run it on a public weather integration (OpenWeatherMap, Pirate Weather, Met.no, etc.) at reduced accuracy. The only fields public providers tend to handle poorly are rain-in-the-last-hour and precipitation-type, which may need a small template sensor.

**Prereqs:** HACS, pyscript, the Rachio integration, and your GeoDrops sensors flowing into HA.

- Integration: [GitHub - ajbaldwin/ha-geodrops-rachio-irrigation: Home Assistant irrigation scheduling for a Rachio controller driven by GeoDrops soil-moisture sensors — not a generic sprinkler integration. · GitHub](https://github.com/ajbaldwin/ha-geodrops-rachio-irrigation)
- Getting GeoDrops data into HA (BigQuery → MQTT sync): [GitHub - ajbaldwin/ha-geodrops-integration: Standalone BigQuery to MQTT sync for GeoDrops soil-moisture sensors, publishing to Home Assistant via MQTT Discovery. · GitHub](https://github.com/ajbaldwin/ha-geodrops-integration)

Happy to answer setup questions here.