No zones working - going from typical household Rain Bird to a Rachio (gen 2) - SOLVED

I have one of these Rain Bird things that seems to be really common here in Texas…

The wiring seemed simple enough…

I plugged everything in…

And I disconnected the Irritrol wireless rain sensor (which I don’t think ever worked)

I think I have a Master Valve but i’m not sure. I’ve tried both ways, but so far, none of my zones are working at all. They were all working earlier today.

I do have an extra grey wire and a pink wire hanging around, and they were not being used before. Might they be of use now? I’m new to this, obviously.

The unit otherwise seems to be working. Now I just need to get water to go. Help!

The white wire (from irrigation bundle, not irritrol system) should be connected to one of the C terminals (where your black wire is connected now). You may have to use some sort of extension, because it is trimmed rather short at this time.
Move the black wire to the M terminal (you do seem to have a master valve), enable master valve in settings.

The second picture (Irritrol) is a wireless rain sensor. You don’t have to use it, but if you do, connect Red wires to SC and SP terminals (which one to which, does not matter), connect white cable to SC terminal (you will have two wires connected to SC terminal, I recommend you twist them together before inserting them in) and brown wire to S1 terminal.
Enable rain sensor on S1 terminal. Make sure you DO NOT use a yellow wire, rachio is not compatible with normally open (NO) wire.

Cheers,
Gene

P.S. I’ve made a correction, it should have been white wire (not gray as I’ve originally thought) which should have been connected to the C terminal.

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I believe that @Gene is spot on with his recommendations. It looks like you had a thinner brown wire connected to the common in your original setup, is this brown wire spliced in with the white wire in the irrigation wire bundle perhaps? I can’t really tell where the brown wire is coming from in the original picture.

If the suggestion still doesn’t work, I would recommend putting that thin brown wire into the C port of the Rachio. Don’t forget to move the black wire to the M terminal, and enable the master valve in the Rachio app (this option can be found in the device settings menu).

If you still have any issues please let us know.

After the suggestion by @Gene here is the new and improved wiring! I ended up just moving the unit about a foot lower than where it was and re-stripping the ends of the wires.

And I’m pleased to report that i was able to successfully test all 6 of my zones and set them all up. Thanks everyone!

This same type of Rain Bird controller seems to be really common here. So now if I can get a friend to buy a Rachio unit, it’ll be easier to set up. :slight_smile:

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That’s awesome news! I’m glad to hear you were able to get things up and running after a little finagling of the wires. If you ever need help in the future let us know!

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2 posts were split to a new topic: No zones working, app and lights look fine