Help with Rachio 2ng Gen and old hunter

Hi, how do I wire this for the Rachio second Gen?
Thanks!

@xpertxp - simple.

  1. Ignore the yellow AC wires to the far left in the bottom picture. Trace them back to the transformer or wall plug they’re attached to and remove.

  2. Label the wires are they are one of two colors.

  3. The white wire in the Hunter C terminal goes to any Rachio C terminal.

  4. The red wire in the Hunter P terminal goes to the Rachio M terminal and be sure to enable Master Valve/Pump Start Relay in the Rachio app.

  5. The red wires in the Hunter 1, 2, 3 and 4 terminals go to a Rachio numbered terminal (e.g. 1, 2, 3 and 4).

  6. For the two white wires in the Hunter SEN terminals, one goes in the Rachio S1 terminal and the other goes in the Rachio SC terminal. Then be sure to enable a rain sensor in the Rachio app on terminal S1. This is connection is optional as Rachio will use forecasted weather for the rain and freeze skip.

Welcome to the community.

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I did all of that and still not getting them to turn on. Does it matter if I mixed up the zones?

@xpertxp - Is the water turned on to irrigation system? Sometimes there is a manual shutoff valve that can be closed and will present this problem.

If the M wire is in the wrong terminal that will prevent all but one zone from working.

If the Master Valve/Pump Start Relay is not turned on in the Rachio app then that will prevent all zones from watering.

Do you have access to a ohm meter?

Do you know where all 5 (master and four zone) valves are located? If so, one can manually activate the valves to see if water is on for the irrigation system. Depending on the valve, turn a bleed screw or the solenoid and that should open the valve. Open the Master valve and one other valve to see if it waters.

Post pictures of the Rachio wiring and a valve if you have any questions or problems.

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@xpertxp - was the old Hunter system run right before migrating over to the Rachio to see that everything was working?

I have the sensors unplugged right now until we figure out how to get this thing working.

I checked the water valve and they are in the On position. I changed the setting in the app like you mentioned and still nothing.

Hope the picture helps

@xpertxp - if the common wire was not moved correctly from the old Hunter system to the new Rachio system, that could explain this behavior.

If the water is on to the system, can the irrigation valves be manually activated (master and a zone will both need to be turned on) to see that water is actually in the pipes?

I made sure it didn’t touch any other wires and whenever I moved wires I also made sure the Rachio was powered off.

I do have access to a multimeter. How would I test with this? And what do I want to see if it’s working correctly?

@xpertxp - when I said not moved correctly I meant not hooked up in the C terminal. The voltage on an irrigation system is 24 VAC, so low voltage.

There should be continuity down the white Common wire back through the Master and any other valve. I think the ohm measurement should be in the 20 - 30 ohm range. Disconnect the Common wire and one other zone wire (M, 1, 2, 3 or 4) from the Rachio and see if there is connectivity down a pair. If not, then either there is a broken wire in the field wire bundle, a broken connection at a solenoid or the wrong wire was used as the common wire.

For the rain sensor pair, there should be connectivity with very little resistivity between those two wires as the rain sensor should be Normally Closed (unless there has been rain recently and the rain sensor is tripped). There should be no connectivity between either of the white rain sensor wires and the white common wire or the red zone wires.

Hope this helps. Let me know the results.

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I put one lead on C and then one on 1,2,3. Nothing. No power…I would guess then somewhere the wiring is damaged…

@xpertxp - we’re not looking for power, we’re checking resistivity. The ohm meter should be set to resistivity not voltage. Also, disconnect the wires from the Rachio. It could be the wrong wire was chosen for the common wire. See what the resistivity is between the two SEN wires (rain sensor) and then each wire individually with a zone wire. If one of the former SEN wires (now in S1 and SC) has resistivity with a zone wire then that wire is probably the common wire.

Well look at that. It looks like I mixed up the sensor wire with the C wire. When I test ohms with the sensor wire and 1,2,3 I get a reading in the 20s.

Should I try to rewire it?

@xpertxp - absolutely! Swap that sensor wire and the common wire and you should be good to go!

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Ok cool, in the process of doing all this wiring, the eject button for SC is stuck in the down position. I’m not able to insert any wires. Any way to fix this?

@xpertxp - that would be something for support@rachio to address. The rain sensor is completely optional and the system will work using forecast information.