Orbit to Rachio 3 with Pump Start Relay and Index Valve

[Robrivercity]

I’m trying to wire my new Rachio 3 with a pump start relay and an index valve using water from a pond.

From my old Orbit controller picture, it looks like the white wire was in the “COM” slot. The green wire went into zone one, then looped into zone 2 and 3. I have a 4 zone system that ran in this configuration.

On the Rachio 3, I put the white wire in the “C” slot and left the “M” empty. Then, I looped the green wire from zone 1 to 4. Is this correct?

Thank you

[Gene]

You can hook up the start relay to the M terminal and enable pump setting within Rachio. You will need to use pump setting to set 2 minute delay between zones in order for your index valve to cycle to the next zone.

More on the delay setting here:

Well, who's pumped for the next release?

Rachio’s 3.2 app update released today, and we wanted to show off what’s new! The Up Next cards were revamped and can now be tapped for more information! Check out what zones will be running in your schedule, or see why a run is getting skipped due to weather, all straight from the Home screen. [44 PM] Our new Delay Between Zones feature was added to improve the experience for our customers on wells or pumps. To use this feature, you must first enable a well or pump start relay in your contr…

You can keep zones 1 through 4 terminals disconnected on your new controller (they will be controlled via M terminal). Keep in mind that you will need to match all of the zone settings in order to use smarter flex schedules. With index valve you need to make sure that when one zone will require water, all of the other zones will require the same amount, otherwise you run into the risk of system going out of sync with your index valve and leaving some of the zones under-watered while others flooded.

[DLane]

@Robrivercity - for extra credit I’d recommend replacing the indexing valve with individual valves so that one can get the full use out of the Rachio. There are several pictures of the process by different posters - including @Gene. Depending on the indexing valve location, the most difficult item may be to run the field wires from the Rachio to the solenoids.