Hi folks,
I installed my new Rachio3 into my existing watering system. Connected to 4 Gardena valves.
The valves OPEN perfectly when the area is started via Rachio, but they don‘t CLOSE anymore. I don’t think that it’s a physical defect of the valves as they all have been operating fine with the old Gardena control computer.
Any ideas what might be wrong there? How can I fix that?
Thanks, Martin
@e-maddin - which Gardena valves are being used the 9 V or 24 V version? Rachio DOES NOT work with DC based valves. Only 24V AC valves. On latching DC valves the valves open, but don’t close when connected to a Rachio.
@DLane the 24V version. According to the manual (Gardena article no. 1278-20) 24V AC.
The valves close as soon as I pull the plug from Rachio or disconnect the cable to the valve.
Thanks, Martin
@e-maddin - out of curiosity what country is the Rachio installed? If in a non-US location could you take a picture of the power supply being used and post it? This behavior will happen if a DC power supply is used (I believe from a prior post) instead of an AC power supply.
Germany. The power supply consumes 230V AC and provides an output of 24V (probably DC?)
Do you @DLane or anbody else have the exact specs for a power supply I could buy if that’s really the reason?
@e-maddin - here is a link to a post where another user found a 220V power supply that worked in Europe (YMMV) -> Source for European power 220V/24V AC supply for Rachio - Amazon.de and Poland
The requirements are 1 Amp (or 1000 milliamps) 24 V AC. The straight line on the output is DC, versus the wavy line on the input is AC.
@DLane Thanks! Ordered one - hopefully it will help.
The only thing I wonder about is: I did the whole setup, Wifi initialization etc. with a power supply that provides DC vs. the AC which is needed for Rachio3?!? And it worked so far? I don’t get why a device which has been designed for AC works with DC at all… But that’s probably another story 
Cheers, Martin
Rachio has two aspects to operation, the core which handles all of the smart parts (processor, wifi, etc…) and the zone controller which controls zone outputs.
While the core can work fully while powered by either AC or DC, zone outputs will only partially work on DC (can be turned ON, but not OFF).
