I just ran a test cycle with my current controller which has 15 labeled zones. All 15 fired up. There are a few things I don’t understand, that I wanted to understand before I hooked it up to the Raicho controller.
I have a red jumper wire from zone 20 to the zone 9 module terminal. Zone 20 is programmed in the controller to run for 2 minutes, but during the test, zone 9 only ran when zone 9 was called for and nothing ran during the zone 20 test. Or I didn’t see zone 9 watering a second time.
On the two zone modules terminals 10 and 15 (zones 10 and 15), wires go from the zone termminals into a wire nut with a 3rd red wire which goes to another wire nut connecting to a grey wire that leads back out of the controller and presumable goes to a valve. Both zone 10 and 15 ran independently during the test run. I would have thought it would have run both during the test run. I should have taken a close up pic of this, but you can kinda see it in the bottom right corner of the picture.
I ran a raster wire test (some option on the menu) and all was clear except the terminals 17-19 because nothing was connected. That is correct though. What’s odd is that I have a wire on zone 16, but nothing happened during the test run. And as I said before, nothing happened during the test of zone 20 either. On the label for the zones, I have nothing listed for 16 or 20.
I have a wire going to the MV port, so I assume I have a maser valvle. I have a rain sensor, but I will be doing away with that to use the Tempest.
I have two zone modules, a 12 zone and an 8 zone. My understanding is that the top black holes are common on each module, then the 12 or 8 below are the zone ports. They have two for each zone in case you need to run 2 at once in one zone?
Not sure what is going on here. I might remove the wire from zone 20 and rerun zone 9 to see what happens. I’d also run zone 20 with the wire connected to zone 9 to double check that zone 9 didn’t run. If it doesn’t run, then I’d leave this wire out.
This may be some sort of zone double to deal with a broken wire or not enough wires in the bundle. A picture of the device showing a name should help solve this. I’d hook it up just like it is now.
Raster is a rapid station test to report back issues. I think the results make sense.
Yes, hook up the master valve to the Rachio and set the app appropriately.
Looks like you may have a wireless rain sensor as it is getting power also. Your call on hooking it up or not. Rachio has directions for how to connect the power if you want to install it.
I would label every wire before/as you take them out of the Rainbird so you know how to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
It looks like there are two field cables, each will have their own common wire and there are multiple Common terminals on the Rachio, so each common can be in its own terminal.
I think you have this. Post back with any questions or issues. Welcome to the community.
I finally labeled everything and swapped it over, like for like. I did just a few tests and also ran the valve test to see if any electrical readings were bad. I did get one bad reading that was on a zone that seemed to have standard wiring. I ran a zone or two that night, then went to bed because it was late. The next day I saw water bubbling up in one spot which I think is a separate issue of something broken. But then I went to the master valve and it was letting water through. So I manually closed it until I could figure out what was going on. I am shocked the master valve wasn’t closed as I had nothing turned on. I did notice something strange, but I can’t figure out what it’s purpose would be. In the old controller, zone 20 had a jumper wire from it to zone 9 and was scheduled to run for 2 minutes, nothing new there from my last post. It didn’t run anything though in the old controller. The old controller did however have the option to say that zone 20 was not on the master valve. That was the only zone not on the master valve out of the other 15 zones in use. Really zone 20 wasn’t in use, but just had that jumper to 9 and a 2 minute “on” at the end of the schedule. When I have time, I will check the wiring to the master valve to see if I can figure out why it was still on the next morning after I installed the new controller and did a few tests of zones that night. When zone 20 runs for two minutes, it should close the mater valve and open zone 9, since that is where the jumper is. Zone 9 is actually where the water was bubbling up from, that I assume is a leak, but maybe not a leak? If the master valve is closed during zone 20 sending signal to open zone 9, I am not sure the purpose of that? That is what I interpret that programming to do in the old controller.
@Ltucker - The master valve staying open could be the result of debris in the valve diaphragm or a failing diaphragm or valve cover.
With the latest description of zone 20 being excluded from the master valve my best guess is that was to relieve water pressure past the master valve and before the zone valves. When zone 20 fired, the master valve stayed close and zone 9 opened and the pressure in the main line went to zero. You wouldn’t have seen any water come out of zone 9 as there would be so little volume and the pressure wouldn’t be there to raise the heads.
