I am trying to switch over from an old rain bird to GEN 2. I mapped all the rainbird connections so the zones 1-8 should be set up correctly on the rachio. (in pics below the 2 red shown loose were not connected on the rainbird, the black was). I did not see a common wire on the rainbird.
Rachio is connected to wifi and setup and ready to go but zones aren’t starting.
What am I missing???
From a quick glance, it looks like the black wire is your Common, connect the black wire to one of four C terminals you have available on Gen 2 Rachio.
@Rghinds - looks familiar to my old Rainbird, but with more stations. My guess is the black wire should go in the C(ommon) port on the Rachio unit. I tried blowing the attached picture up, but I couldn’t tell which wire was connected to the black wire. There will be a wire that is either all white and it may also have common printed on it in the Rainbird wiring bundle. It won’t hurt anything to try with the black wire in the C(ommon) port.
That was it guys. Black is common! Thanks for such quick replies!
So unusual to see a black common. Where did the extra red wire go?
Not sure. They were loose in the rainbird. New property for me so possible they had just come loose from a smaller connecting wire in the rainbird…so may be 2 zones out there I don’t know about. Will have to check them
@Rghinds - if you have an ohm meter there should be some resistance between those loose red wires (individually) and the black common wire if there is a solenoid on that wire. If the resistance is infinite then there is not a solenoid on that wire. Of course, it won’t harm anything if those loose wires are hooked up to spare ports on the Rachio and a zone configured and run. If those wires were connected to an underground drip zone, I don’t know how you’d figure out where that zone is. Are there green valve boxes that are one to one with the other zones? That might be a clue also, if there are extra valve boxes around.
I’ll check that out. If find anything I’ll let you. Appreciate everyone’s time and help.
