Nothing jumps out as clearly wrong (besides the rain sensor being connected to commons), what does the ohm meter read when measuring between zone 2 (brown) wire and what looks like the second red common from the left (that is the common that looks like it belongs to the same brown cable bundle).
It may be that some residue is left on the wire from the black electrical tape of the original rat nest. You may wish to clean the end with alcohol to make sure that the proper connection is being made.
While on the subject, disconnect the white cable from the right most common terminal and follow it to the brown cable. Than follow the red wire that comes from the same brown cable (it looks like it is connected to the leftmost common terminal) and disconnect it as well.
Connect these two cables to the S1 and 24 - terminals to make the rain sensor readings possible (rain sensor would need to be enabled within software after the right hookups are done).
Great troubleshooting steps you’ve performed already. Thanks for posting that information.
I agree with @Gene - a) on the rain sensor, b) on the resistivity test down the wire for zone 2 and c) that everything else looks fine.
I’d find the valve for zone 2 and manually open the bleed screw on the valve just to make sure water is there - I bet it is.
I think the error domain is either the wire to zone 2 or the solenoid in zone 2’s valve. The old Rainbird would connect all available power down the wire path mechanically, where the Rachio can only put so much current down the wire electrically - one should get an error message in this case.
Appears to be a solenoid for Zone 2. The Rachio must not push as many amps. I’m having my yard guy swap it out next week. Thanks for all the help!! Scott
I’m about to attempt the conversion of my old rainbird esp modular to the rachio 3. To clarify the responses to this post, I have a brief question: Am I supposed to cut all of the wires going into the cream colored connector (from the water lines / supply side) and then attach them individually to the rachio 3 terminals?
@dmc - from memory the left half of the cream colored connector is a pigtail that the field wires are joined to with a wire nut. The right half goes to the controller. I’d look for the wire nut or join on the left half and undo that connection to connect to the Rachio controller. There may be unused wires depending on your set up.
Run all zones before disconnecting to verify that everything is working.
Take a before picture.
Label all the wires before disconnecting them.
The above three steps will help reduce any errors and troubleshooting time.
