I recently moved into a new house that had an older sprinkler controller. I tested the system to confirm it worked before switching in my rachio gen 1. When I wired up my rachio gen1 no zones turn on. I swapped the unit back and everything worked with the old controller. There is an extra red and white wire attached to the old controller that I’m not sure what it’s used for so it was not connected to the rachio. Any ideas? I attached a picture of the original wiring.
If you post a picture of your Gen 1 setup, issues may become more apparent. Not quite sure what model the old controller is, but the white wire looks like common, Green would be zone 1, red 2, blue 3 and yellow 4.
The smaller brown cable with Red / White wires looks to be likely a master valve or a pump relay driver. Posting a picture of your valves may explain what is going on.
I have no clue what the Red / Black individual wires going out of the frame are. They almost look like they are connected somewhere behind the old controller and probably would not be used with your Rachio.
2 Likes
@vaccaromp1 - Let me second @Gene’s post. If you can provide the make and/or model of the original controller I’m betting that Gene or I will have a solution after a quick internet search to verify the terminals on the existing controller.
2 Likes
Unfortunately the old controller has no markings so it’s hard to determine the manufacturer and model. I have included a better picture of the whole unit. I had the gen1 wired as stated with the 4 color wires wired to zone 1-4 and the white as common. I left the other 2 red and white wires
left unconnected. The additional red and black are for battery backup and were originally unconnected on the unit.
@Vaccaromp1 - for giggles I’d hook up the red wire in the brown wrapper to the M terminal on the Rachio, with the paired white wire going to a C(ommon) terminal and set the master valve option on in the Rachio app.
Can you also post a picture of the Rachio Gen 1 wiring connections?
1 Like
Thanks for the better picture. Looks like you had something like Richdel 446pri:
http://www.normac1.com/pdf/manuals/irritrol/manual_richdel_lawngenie_446pri.pdf?lbisphpreq=1
Page 11 shows that @DLane and I were right. You have a pump relay or a master valve connected to the brown wire. Hook up both white lines to an available common C terminal and the red wire with brown cable to the M terminal as @DLane has recommended. Do not forget to turn on the master valve option within Rachio app.
If this does not work, please attach pictures of yoru Gen 1 setup.
Cheers,
Gene
2 Likes
Thanks for the quick responses and support. Hooking the 2 extra wires up as a master valve and common did the trick.
3 Likes