I plan to install a rain sensor. Is it possible to bypass the sensor on specific zones? As an example, a zone is under the eaves of a home, or a zone with microsprinklers for pots. I could not figure this out. If not possible, this would be a great feature to have.
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@robertokc - I think multiple people have asked for this. So I would expect it to be on the Rachio features list - somewhere, no clue if it will see the light of day at V3.0.
I think the only way to do it at this time is to connect rain sensor directly to the common(s) going to the zones you wish it to control. It should not be connected to any of the Rachio’s sensor inputs, alas you will not get a notification if (or when) it is active.
The zones which should ignore the sensor should be connected directly to the Rachio’s C terminal, otherwise, they should connect to the NC terminal of the rain sensor and the other side of the rain sensor should be connected to one of Rachio’s C terminals.
I know this was possible with my former Toro Evolution controller, to the extent I could assign programs to sensor or no sensor.
@Gene Is correct. This ability to turn off certain zones with a rain sensor is not currently available at this time. If you wanted to shut off certain zones using a rain sensor via Rachio, you would need to splice the sensor into the wiring of the zones in question.
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How difficult would it be to make this addition in features? Obviously we can still water any valve manually.
A different subject. I am not a big fan of Rain Bird’s Lnk wifi, but they do have a lot of great alert features, such as a faulty solenoid, wifi disconnect, freeze warning, date/time error, wifi stick reboot. A contractor can get these alerts automatically. But the premise of this product is that is still like a basic controller with daily water adjustments. FyI, the Wifi reboot with Rachio has been a bit clunky at times.
Rain sensors work off of an entirely different circuit than the zones do, so I would think it would certainly be very possible for a triggered rain sensor to affect only a handful of zones. However I am no developer so I can’t say how easy of a feature this would be to build out. Plus the how of it could be done in several different ways. It could completely disable a zone until the sensor is deactivated, or perhaps have the zones in question removed from any/all schedules, etc.
That being said, the rain skip feature should handle this problem for you without the need for a rain sensor in the first place.
My biggest request is the pause and resume feature. That would be HUGE.
Yep we have gotten a good number of these requests for pause/resume. Perhaps you should take a look at joining the V3 beta program. You can get started here.
I have thought about the problem of not being able to bypass the rain sensor for one zone and am wondering if the following would work. Disconnect the common wire for the valve to bypass from the common buss and connect it to the 24 volt negative terminal at the far right of the wiring harnesses in the controller. This would provide an uninterrupted negative connection to the valve bypassed (I think). Love to hear your comments. Thanks, Jim