One question - if I setup a flex schedule with all zones in it, will it water one zone at a time or all zones at once?
Shane.
It will water the zones in a sequential fashion. For me with zones 1- 5 they go in order, but only the ones scheduled for water. If you have clay or slopes or other factors which need smart cycling, all zones will sequence and the controller will wait until the 1st zone watered has had enough soak time before starting it. For me, since all zones have the same soak time, they sequentially water on the second time around as well.
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Hi Simon,
Rookie question… but give this is a bare ends transformer - is it clear which pole (+ and -) needs to be soldered to the appropriate pins on the adapter plug?
Not keen on getting the wires the wrong way round and frying the unit.
Thanks
It’s an AC device so no +'ve or -'ve to worry about like with DC. A friend just used this adapter in Oz and cut the end with the plug off the US adapter and paired them up just fine (FYI she matched the white trace on the two pieces but it should not matter).
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Given that it’s AC it shouldn’t matter. I did however match the wiring i.e. dashed wire to dashed wire. If unsure you might want to contact Rachio Tech support.
I staggered the joins by 50-60mm to minimise the chance of wires shorting and added a couple of layers of heat shrink tubing to tidy it up. (remember to slip the heat shrink tube on before joining the plug to the adaptor.)
Sorry I didn’t document with photos.
Good luck
Cheers both for the guidance.
Will head to jaycar this weekend.
Just followed this process and set mine up in Australia without too many problems.
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Buying was easy enough, bought the Gen 2 and Outside Enclosure from Amazon, shipped to Australia without any hassles (not cheap AU$344, but no hassles).
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Power Supply: Bought this from Radio Parts ($40 shipped). This has the correct plug for the Gen 2 and so plugs straight in without any issue.
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Enclosure: Since my old controller was directly wired, I got a short wired extension cord to plug the adapter in and had that connected to the incoming power (see picture). I drilled a small hole to match where my old retic wires came in. And I glued a small block of wood ion to ensure the plug pack didn’t move around while I was assembling it.
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Initial Setup: Worked easily without any issues with my iPhone. I have no idea how it worked, so I will probably have to investigate the security implications of the device, but that’s an issue for another day. I am also boggled that the iPhone cannot simply turn a station on without multiple taps. For testing purposes, I wanted to just select a zone and say “on”, just like the trivial three button interface on the device can manage, but my $1000 phone can’t!
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Localisation: There no issue with it picking my location and weather station in Perth. However I currently have an issue where the watering days are off by one, which may or may not be a time zone issue.
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Connections: Simple enough but I did not realise you had to push the button and then insert the wire, so that confused me for a while. I was thinking it was some sort of punch down thing.
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Programs: Set up an initial Schedule but since the watering days are not matching my legal requirements, I am a bit stuck for the moment. I’ve left it in stand by mode to avoid it watering tomorrow and then will enable it and see if it waters correctly on Saturday or not.
Still, the process was all straight forward, wiring up the adapter was the most tricky, but even that was fairly straight forward.
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Hi,
Where did you purchase your power supply transformer from?
Just installed mine yesterday. It’s all working a treat. Just wish it had a new grass option to set up watering 2-3 times a day. It’s a bit clunky having to create 3 separate schedules.
As mentioned above just go to Jaycar and get one of these for $25, cut off the plug and join the wires. AC so polarity doesn’t matter…piece of cake
https://www.jaycar.com.au/mains-adaptor-24vac-1a-unregulated-bare-ends/p/MP3032
Another option would be to buy a 240V to 120V step down and use the power supply that comes with the Rachio except the step downs cost about $50 from Jaycar.
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I used a Transformer with 70 watts rating(240v to 110v) to get this going since original PS is 110v and in Australia we use 240v. It will be a good idea for this company to supply 100-240v ac power supply since it is a global market now. 100 v ac is for Japan.
Initially I plugged this to the power point with out connecting my existing old Orbit 6 ch analog controller. Opened the app and ask to search for the Rachio, it found immediately and then start to work with my wifi ( Apple Airport Extreme) and got all blue leds on except the last one… It said it had a problem and then gave 3 options, which I selected the 3rd, meaning 3 leds on and it seems 4th led is for the cloud and after that it fixed the issue and got all connected. I suspect cloud part may be due to my firewall. So far all good with the network side.
I removed my old Orbit and start to connect wires and after that, I used manual select of 2 min each zone to be on. It worked like a charm and fired all my 6 zones perfectly.
Few observations,
Controller does not recognise unconnected zones automatically and you have to switch them off via the app. Also it multiplied 16 zones with 2 minutes and gave wrong water consumption . They need to fix this issue.
Also need real time indicator to show which zone is on and need a run down counter to see how many minutes of time left with existing sprinkler that is active. One time I saw two zones on, which is a bug…
Also I use metric settings water usage is shown in Gallons .
Nice perfect controller and hope they improve the App…
transformer was with me and bought in US about 10 yrs ago… You can buy the same transformer from Amazon and also I bought Rachio and Nest Thermostat from Amazon as well.
Same one and this one got 100w load and ideal.
Just FYI 110-240v transformers are a waste of money use a 24VAC transformer like @kimone posted. 110-240v transformers will waste power on the conversion (heat) and cost you more in the long term. A digital device like this has not problems with the 50/60hz difference as it’s timing is digital not analogue.
Hi,
Just an FYI for those interested… it is a 2.1mm plug… instead of cutting off the OEM one… I just bought another from jaycar… part no: PP0510
Along with the plug pack: MP3032
And a bit of soldering and heat shrink…
All up and running now.
But I agree a 110-240vac is plug park would have been better option for us running on 240v… then it would have just been a plug converter…
Cheers,
Ap
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Just wondering if anyone has used the Rachio outside a capital city? I’m near Castlemaine, Vic, and have a BoM weather station. Does Rachio just pick up the airport stations or will it pick up any BoM weather station?
Hey @mann_rj-
If you would like to DM me your location, I can plug it in and see how many stations are available to you! I am not sure if BoM weather stations are available, but I do know we have quite a few users in Australia that have been able to find stations no issue.
McKynzee 
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I used to see some stations around the state (Tas), but recently they all disappeared. Would love to get BoM data as their station is just up the road. Any suggestions?
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