Indoor cabinet that fits Iro

ramblinwreck · March 20, 2015, 4:44pm

Any recommendations for a cabinet to enclose the Rachio unit on the garage wall? I had planned on putting the Rachio in my old Hunter Pro-C (plastic) cabinet, but it doesn’t look like it is going to fit without hacking up the cabinet…

I’m just looking for something to keep the dust off the Iro, and to provide a clean looking install on my garage wall. Would prefer a cabinet to installing the Iro directly on the wall, but due to my existing wiring (don’t want to cut any existing wires shorter) it would leave quite a bit of wire exposed. Want to conceal that inside a cabinet.

EDIT: Something like this I suppose: http://amzn.com/B00AAU5DAC

emil · March 21, 2015, 1:27am

Hi @ramblinwreck,

Good evening. Thanks for reaching out. Bummer on the Pro-C box not fitting the Iro. Good news – maybe you could sell that unit on CL

We recommend this enclosure for outdoor installation and should have plenty of room for any extra wiring. Additionally, this enclosure also works; it’s cheaper, but requires some creative installation skills.

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any other questions.

Best, Emil

ramblinwreck · March 21, 2015, 8:49pm

Thanks @emil. I picked up the Orbit box (model 57095) since it was in stock at my local Home Depot, and it worked out well. I didn’t have any problem because I’m not putting the power supply inside the box – I don’t know that it would have all fit if I had put the power supply inside, plugging into the supplied (internal) GFCI receptacle. I’ve got a little more wiring cleanup to do (that’s the rain sensor and power supply wire coming in the bottom left), but I’m very happy with the way it turned out.

ramblinwreck · March 28, 2015, 5:07am

OK finally finished up all the wiring to make it ‘permanent’ by splicing a new plug onto the extended wire from my existing 24VAC/1000ma power supply. Took me a little while to gather all the oddball pieces needed to make everything look professional with the Orbit box (didn’t want wires dangling loose out of the two pre-cut holes in the box), so I though I’d share my Bill Of Materials in case it helps anyone else who is starting from scratch like I did.

Basically, I started with a blank wall (Iro did not fit in old controller box, so I removed it), a 1/2" PVC pipe coming up the wall carrying all ZONE, COM, and MASTER VALVE wires, and then separate 24VAC and rain sensor wires by themselves (not in PVC).

Here’s the final result (will update with a photo in better light when I get a chance):
(and yes it bugs me very much that the Iro is not level! )

Here’s the BOM:
$31.97 Orbit Outdoor Timer Box
$0.34 3/4" Male Terminal Adapter - fits pre-cut hole on right side of Orbit box for zone wires
$0.46 3/4" to 1/2" PVC reducer bushing - step down 3/4" Terminal Adapter to existing 1/2" PVC
$1.04 3/4" Locknuts - for top of terminal adapter (inside box)
$4.66 (x2) CordMate Channel - for concealing rain sensor wires coming from ceiling
$1.73 (x2) CordMate 90-Degree Flat Elbow - for tidy CordMate Channel corners
$1.35 M20 x 1.5 cable gland - water tight connector for 24VAC/RainSensor wires (perfect fit)
$0.27 M20 cable gland nut - for top of cable gland (inside box)
$3.13 barrel plug to wire leads - new plug for Iro, soldered to existing 24VAC wire
$3.21 jack to barrel plug, right angle - alternative plug for Iro, if need to save space

NOTES:

Turns out I didn’t need both barrel plugs, but I listed them both here because I can confirm the right-angle plug does indeed fit Iro and it does save a bit of space over the straight-plug that comes with the unit. Would be useful for this installing Iro into a box with a tight fit, but I ended up not needing it for this box.

The Orbit box comes with a GFCI receptacle that sits in the lower left corner of the box. I am not using that GFCI receptacle and have removed it. My power supply sits on the wall, outside the box, and I run the 24VAC wires through the cable gland on the left side of the box (black wire in photo). If you use this internal GFCI receptacle to plug in the power adapter, then I think it would be a really tight fit for the Iro (maybe the right-angle plug would help).

This box is sealed pretty well, has a little gasket around the edge, and the cable gland ensures the power wire connection is sealed decently, too. Should keep the Iro dust-free and provide a nice tidy look in the garage.

Now I’m done working on it, and can let Iro take care of my lawn for the rest of the summer.

franz · March 28, 2015, 2:30pm

@ramblinwreck Thanks for the post, looking good! I’m sure this will help someone looking to do something similar.

Shoujin · July 23, 2016, 10:27pm

You’re right about it being a tight fit in the Orbit enclosure with the power supply. The only way I found to make it all fit is to use a right angle barrel plug and even then I had to leave the outer shroud and strain relief off the plug and just use some strategic heat-shrink tubing. Here’s a quick photo of what I ended up putting together. It is mounted to the eave of the house right now since I was pressed for time but I’ll be moving it down onto the wall soon when I have a chance to install the anchors in the stucco.

I also choose to use outdoor rated cable and install a water-tight compression gland grommet in the second conduit knockout for the zone wiring rather than running that cable in PVC so that’s the little black cable exiting the bottom of the enclosure. The power wiring of course is run through the liquid-tight flex conduit whip on the left side of the box.