Installed my Gen 1 Rachio a couple weeks ago and now only zone 9 works and 1-8 do not. Is it possible that there is an issue with the left zones of the motherboard? You’ll see here we don’t have rain sensors which I know was an issue for another user. Can anyone help?
Did they all work to begin with?
The picture looks like it has two black wires as commons. White is usually the common color. Since it is two black wires, it also tells me there is two multi-strand wire sheaths going to the controller. Is that correct?
Have you or anyone done any yard excavating since you installed the controller?
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@Downey04 - thanks for posting the picture!
Here’s what I would try to determine the error domain:
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Re-seat the front plate and see if zones 1 through 8 work. I’ve seen mention that should be the first step in troubleshooting issues with a Rachio Gen 1 (I’ve got a Gen 2).
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Either swap zone 9 with a zone from 1 through 8 (temporarily) or move a zone from 1 through 8 to 10 through 16 and see if they work If zone 9 is swapped, test both it (9) and the swapped zone.
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Find a valve for a zone from 1 through 8 and manually activate the valve to see if water comes out of the zone.
I might try to pull some of the wire back so there won’t be as much build up under the faceplate.
The rain sensor setup that gets folks is where the rain sensor is not installed into one of the sensor ports, but is actually put in-line on the common wire. When the rain sensor is wet enough it opens up the connection, it is normally closed, an so a complete connection can’t be made from any solenoid back through the common wire.
As there are two common wires, I’m wondering if this sprinkler system was expanded at one time. Could there be a separate cut off valve to turn the water off to zones 1 through 8?
Do you have access to a volt meter?
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To rule out a unit defect you could plug zone 3 into the 9 port and run zone 9
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