i just revamped my sprinkler system and got my rachio going. i got a $10 coupon from home depot and a $70 rebate from my water service, so my net cost ended up being $40- a no brainer! very easy to setup an operate. i love the interface.
my old timer (setup when i bought the house in march, but really old) was set to start watering at 1030pm. we had a problem with mushrooms because the lawn was damp all night. they now go off at 730am and this has been helping. this is not really a problem, except we have a couple of curious german shepherds and if they eat them or ingest the spores, it could be a problem. so now that we are watering at a normal time, the mushrooms have been dissipating. we also try to pick them before they release their spores to reproduce.
for watering- it might be a myth that mid-day watering burns grass. i've been watching videos on this trying to figure out my watering schedule and a "secret" of golf courses in hot climates is to do a few minutes of "relief watering" mid day just to bring soil and surface temps down, so it is less straining on the grass.
i've been watching this guy's vids for a while (i also like his gold panning vids) and he seems to know his stuff.