Rain Bird to Rachio 3

Troubleshooting Tech Support
1

I know there are many posting about this but none of them cleared my concern.

My Rain bird model is RD600 and the connection is as attached.

KakaoTalk_20220430_104328637
KakaoTalk_20220430_1043286371141×758 181 KB

  1. 24 VAC
    Some people here say I don’t need to connect this line and some others say I can connect this too into “C” in Rachio. But Rachio actually has “24 VAC” connection. What do I do?
  2. VC
    Where I put this two white ones into Rachio?
  3. I also bought an outdoor case. How to seal the two holes at the bottom of case to avoid water?

Thanks,
doomoo

2

Looking at the Rain Bird instructions that I found at manual_raindial07.pdf (rain1.com) to verify:

  1. The 24 VAC going to the Rain Bird does not get hooked to the Rachio. You will want to use the Rachio supplied power supply (as long is your outlet is 120 VAC)
  2. “VC” is the “Valve Common” wires, so those would go to “C” on the Rachio
  3. I do not have one, so not sure. If it is threaded, you probably can get a cap for the holes at your favorite supply store
3

Oh, 24 VAC is for power input…yeah, Rachio has a separate power supply, thank you so much.

4

Exactly, glad to try to help. If you have a rain, soil moisture sensor, or whatever, that would be connected differently if you were still wanting to use them.

5

@doomoo - to be clear, the 24 VAC on the Rain Bird is for power INPUT. The 24 VAC + - on the Rachio is for power OUTPUT to rain sensors, etc. Do not connect a power supply output to the Rachio 24 VAC + - terminals.

6

No problem, I already finished the installation and it works great now. There are a few questions.

  1. You mean, in addition to Rachio 3, we can connect an extra sensor which is getting power from Rachio through 24 VAC port right? What kind of sensor will be? It looks like the app is controlled by the weather report through internet information, not by sensor. Am I wrong?

  2. When there was a connection issue while installation, Rachio support asked me my address and they connect it from their side and force it to connect to my home network. How it is possible? If they know my address and the serial number of device, they can control through internet?

7

@doomoo - some users have a wireless rain sensor that needs power. This is a “belt and suspenders” approach that will catch a pop-up storm that is very localized and was not forecasted and prevent Rachio from watering if the rain sensor is wet.

I’m not 100% sure of which address you’re referring to. All Rachio devices get their instructions from the cloud. All the intelligence is in the cloud. The local Rachio device just holds the schedule for the next two weeks and knows how to get an update from the cloud, but it has to connect to your WiFi first to get out to the cloud.

8

:+1: