All zones stopped working help troubleshooting

Troubleshooting
1

I could use a little help here before i try and spend an arm and a leg.

Last week, i was inside my sprinkler controller trying to see if a rain sensor wire was in there or had fallen down the PVC tube. I was undoing some pvc very carefully to check. What i noticed was there was no rain sensor and it appears my rain sensor ( it’s very old ) is spliced into the common wire.

Today, i tried to run the sprinkler and noticed that ALL zones are coming on, based on the lights on the rachio controller, but NONE of them are actually spraying out water. I’m assuming this might have happened when i was fiddling with the controller to see if a rain sensor wire was in there.

I immediately went to the controller and checked all wire nuts and also checked the COMMON and ZONE terminals. Nothing is loose. Therefore what’s going through my head is i might have a break in the common wire.

I then did the following

  1. Checking Resistance from Common to Zone’s
    1. Turned controller off
    2. Put multi-meter into resistance reading mode
    3. Put 1 probe on common wire and 1 probe on each zone wire. It read ~70 OHM’s. My understanding is this is proof there is no break in my common wire all the way to the valve boxes. is this correct or a false assumption?
  2. Checking Continuity
    1. Turned off the controller
    2. Put multimeter into AUDIBLE continuity mode
    3. Put 1 probe on common wire and 1 probe on each zone wire
    4. I heard NO beeping. Asking AI online it mentioned that i need to look at OHM’s ( like i did in step 1 ) and can’t using the audible continuity test
  3. Checking voltage from Common to Zone’s
    1. Turned ON the controller
    2. Put multimeter in VAC mode
    3. Put 1 probe on common wire and 1 probe on each zone wire. I noticed ~24 VAC.
    4. This means the controller is sending correct voltage to each zone.

Can anyone help me understand what other test i need to do or what i should do next?

ALSO, since my rain sensor is spliced with the common wire is it possible the rain sensor is just tripped still from a rain we had 5 days ago and i’m just going on a wild goose chase? The rain sensor is so old i really don’t know if it’s working but i find it highly suspect this all happened a week after i went into the controller box. The rain sensor is also dangling below my soffit/gutter so i mean i don’t think it could have gotten too wet…

2

@lawnhero - I’d suspect the in-line rain sensor.

The resistance seems to high to me. When I test resistance I always disconnect one side from the Rachio. I think you may have been back feeding the current through the controller on the resistance test.