@Teresea - normally black is hot and white is neutral. It looks like in the picture the black and green wires from the Rachio are connected together in the wire nut.
Do you have access to a volt meter?
Are the white wires shown connect directly to the old controller? I’m with @DLane, if you can get your hands on a volt meter, we may discover that these are low voltage wires.
@Teresea - and/or post a picture of where those electrical wires are connected from/sourced on the other end. They should be connected to a 120 V AC source.
I’m pretty sure you guys have solved our problem. Looks like the Hunter X-Core we had previously was using low voltage wiring and the outdoor enclosure requires 110. (Guess that’s what happens when an amateur plays electrician.) We’re going to have a “real” electrician come out to install long-needed additional outlets in our garage. We can Then plug in the sprinkler controller and I’ll have extra outlets, too.
@Teresea - thanks for letting us know “the rest of the story” - as Paul Harvey used to say. The best way is to have 120 V AC brought to the external enclosure, however there is probably a transformer on the other end of the low voltage wire (which you’ll want to unplug any way). Another option (if the electrician is too much) is to replace the existing transformer (assuming it is plugged in) with the Rachio transformer, cut the wires on the Rachio transformer, splice in the white wire running to the enclosure and then use the Rachio plug on the other end to plug into the Rachio unit as normal.
Welcome to the community and enjoy your Rachio when you get it powered up!
Nice Paul Harvey reference!
