What is Rachio? Rachio is the Smart Sprinkler Controller that gives you control of your sprinklers and watering bill, right from your smart phone.
Why we did it – Per Chapter 19-91 of the City of Cape Coral Code of Ordinances Cape Coral City Manager John Szerlag has issued a Notice of Emergency – Stage I Water Shortage for use of water for irrigation purposes, we figured that if we had this problem as far as managing our Irrigation Sprinkler System that you might too, and Rachio was our Solution.
We started by getting Approved by as a Rachio Pro, this meant that we could sell and Install the Rachio Pro Systems to our Clients and Integrate the Rachio into our Alarm.com Platform for a One App Smart Home.
Our Old Sprinkler Controller was about 8 Years old.
We started by Labeling our Wires –
- Rain Sensor
- 4 Zone Trigger wires
- Common Ground for the Zone Triggers
We made sure we had ample WiFi Signal and bandwidth at the Installation Area of the New Sprinkler Controller – without that this project would be futile.
We Disconnected the Old Controller and Installed the Outdoor Enclosure – this will probably be needed in most of Southwest Florida since most of the Irrigation Sprinkler Controllers are Outdoor.
When we Installed the Outdoor Enclosure we thought that the wires may not be long enough for the New Gen2 Smart WiFi Sprinkler Controller (the wire were barely long enough, so it worked out)
Now that we had the Enclosure Mounted it was time to Wire in the Power Supply to the GFI outlet on the Wall. We cut the Power Cable from the old Controller and re used it – Luckily we had some 3/4″ Clamp Connectors on our Truck because we needed this to Properly Secure the Power Cable in the Enclosure. The Enclosure cam with wire nuts that we needed to make the connection in the Enclosure.
Once our Power Connection was made we installed the Supplied Transformer for the Controller.
We then Mounted and Wired the Controller following the Labels on the Wires we had made Earlier.
Once that was complete we plugged the Power Cable in, drank a bottle of water (it was noon and about 92 degrees out) this way the controller had some time boot up.
We made sure our iPhone was connected to our 2.4Ghz WiFi and proceeded to set up the Controller which took about 20 Minutes (including programing the new Schedule). After we tested the 4 Zones, we provisioned our System to be integrated into our Alarm.com System, since we are fans of Less Apps. This way the Rachio App is still on the Phone but with the Alarm.com App we can Access the Following.
- Security
- Door Locks
- Thermostat
- Overhead Garage Door
- Lights
- Cameras
- Irrigation
Since we have become a Rachio Pro Dealer our existing Alarm.com Customers love this Feature!
