Hi all,
I’ve been trying to upgrade my system this morning and am running into a roadblock. Only the green wire works no matter what zone it’s connected to. Prior to install I tested all zones with my current rainbird system and they worked.
Attaching two pictures. One with original wiring and second with Rachio wiring.
I truly would appreciate any help. 
Thank you.
@Rachio-newb - thanks for testing the prior install and making sure all the zones worked and the pictures.
I think the thicker green wire (black bundle) is the C(ommon) wire. I didn’t see the thicker black wire (black bundle) hooked up the the Rainbird controller in the before picture. So not sure why it is in the M(aster valve) terminal on the Rachio. Do you have a master valve in the system?
I do green to C, white to 2, blue to 3, yellow to 4 and orange to 5. I’m not sure what the Rainbird device is just below the controller (wireless rain sensor) and why it is connected to zone 1 (thin green wire) and the thin red wire is connected to the thicker red wire - maybe place the thicker red wire in 1.
Post what the Rainbird device is below the controller and I’ll look at that wiring scheme to nail it down (if an irrigation pro doesn’t beat me to the punch as they know what that device is and how it is wired).
Hi!
Thanks for your help. I tried your configuration and it helped a lot but only zone1 is not working. I tried replacing the red cable with the brown one and black one and same issue.
Attaching pic of rainbird device and of updated configuration. I also don’t know if I have a main valve. We purchased the house new a couple of years ago.
Rachio Support reached out to me and sent me a link to help me setup with SMRT-Y sensor. Configured it according to the link and now nothing works even if I allow the sensor to be bypassed.
@Rachio-newb - OK, we’re getting close. Not sure (yet) why zone 1 wouldn’t work when the thick red wire was wired directly into the Rachio 1 terminal, as I would have thought we wired around the SMRT-Y controller (unless the Rachio can’t power the sensor and the solenoid at the same time).
I know you got directions from support, but humor me and try this setup: move the thin black wire from SC to the C terminal and the orange wire from the SP to the SC terminal. Here’s the reason, there is an old post from @Gene where the power on the sensor ports is actually the SC and the common is actually the SP - normally it doesn’t make a difference, but it can in some instances.
One option may be to disconnect the soil sensor if it is in the zone 1 valve box and just directly wire the solenoid. If one is running a Flex Daily schedule and the SMRT-Y controller doesn’t let the system water due to soil moisture the Rachio controller won’t know that and the available water balance will get out of sync.
I’ll give your idea a shot and report back the findings. I would ideally like to bypass the SMRT sensor and just rely on Rachio. I found the box with the valve system but have no idea what is what 
Thanks for your continued help!
Alright your idea absolutely worked!!! All zones working as expected. 
do you suggest bypassing the sensor though? I would hate for that sensor to cause issues.
Thanks again!!!
@Rachio-newb - If you are running any schedules that are Flex Daily then I would put the SMRT-Y device into the Bypass Sensor mode (hopefully it will stay on 24 x 7- not sure what happens when the power goes out and then comes back on). If you are running all Fixed schedule or Flex Monthly schedules then the SMRT-Y device shouldn’t impact Rachio’s smarts. Using the Bypass Sensor mode will eliminate the need to find the connections to the sensor and field wire out in the yard to remove the sensor from the wiring.
Just my $0.02.
Makes sense. Thanks so much for helping me with this !!!
