Possible Reasons of Why Components Fail in Your Irrigation System
A ZONE/STATION DOESN’T WORK ANYMORE
A couple of things --- First, the controller has most likely been hit by multiple power surges over the past 2 summers, which means it may have suffered. Some things that may have been affected by the surges: ports, program memory, wiring and possibly valve solenoids. Second, does area #4 run during the program A cycle? If that answer is yes, check the test for the Program below. Thirdly, according to our notes, your system has 1 “extra” field wire pulled to the controller (this is typical, during installs proactive irrigators frequently lay an extra unused wire in the trenches in the event of wiring damages or possible expansion in the future life of the system). See the Wiring test below to check this out.
Check these things:
Valve Port ---- If area 4 is not running at all, then it could be a bad port node. There are additional open ports on the back panel (they are numbered and a field wire is connected to a little screw on the board each with a corresponding number) for every station you have in your yard – 4 in total. Try unscrewing the field wire from port number 4 and moving it to port number 5. Now adjust program B for station #5 instead of 4. Test the new station in a manual mode retaining Program B in the display. If that fixed it great!
Program Memory ---- If the Port swapping didn’t work, let’s check to see if the Program memory function for Program B may have been adversely affected by the surges. Keeping the ports changed from 4 to 5 (as indicated above) try clearing out the settings for Program B and setting them for Program C. Test in a manual mode retaining Program C in the display. If that fixed it great!
Wiring ---- If the above fixes didn’t work, there are 2 wiring diagnosis remaining to check out. First, since you know the valve on port #1 works (area 1) try using that port to see if we can get station #4 valve to activate. Temporarily remove the field wire from port #1. Connect the field wire that was originally on port 4 to the working port #1. If it works, it could again be a bad port on 4 (and 5 if you already tried the first Valve Port option). If it didn’t work, try the “extra” wire (the open previously unconnected wire) to port #1. It may be that this wire is the “real” wire to the valve for area 4 and it somehow got disconnected during the past couple of seasons…Again if the “extra” wire worked, try it on port #4 and see if everything works OK now that you would be using the actual valve wire. Second Wiring test, the wiring could have a short in it somewhere along its underground path to the actual valve out in the yard near area 4. Testing this requires an ohms meter or tracing the wiring for a continuous current signal with a valve locator. --- Call the professionals, locating a wire break underground is usually a challenge, but you could check areas where digging may have occurred during the past 2 summers. It only takes a small nick to interrupt a current.
Valve Solenoid ---- If all the above failed to activate the valve out in area #4, chances are the valve electrical component has been damaged by the surges and will no longer hold a current strong enough to open or close the valve. A valve has both a hydraulic element (just like your kitchen faucet handle, when it turns, the flow runs) and an electronic element (the solenoid which receives a low voltage 24 volt current from the port on the controller that tells the device to automatically open or close the hydraulic “faucet” part of the valve). Tests on this can vary from measuring the current at the port to checking the resistance along the wiring to finding the valve and checking the end of the wire run by activating another test valve.
Contact us if you need assistance --- 214.837.1553
A couple of things --- First, the controller has most likely been hit by multiple power surges over the past 2 summers, which means it may have suffered. Some things that may have been affected by the surges: ports, program memory, wiring and possibly valve solenoids. Second, does area #4 run during the program A cycle? If that answer is yes, check the test for the Program below. Thirdly, according to our notes, your system has 1 “extra” field wire pulled to the controller (this is typical, during installs proactive irrigators frequently lay an extra unused wire in the trenches in the event of wiring damages or possible expansion in the future life of the system). See the Wiring test below to check this out.
Check these things:
Valve Port ---- If area 4 is not running at all, then it could be a bad port node. There are additional open ports on the back panel (they are numbered and a field wire is connected to a little screw on the board each with a corresponding number) for every station you have in your yard – 4 in total. Try unscrewing the field wire from port number 4 and moving it to port number 5. Now adjust program B for station #5 instead of 4. Test the new station in a manual mode retaining Program B in the display. If that fixed it great!
Program Memory ---- If the Port swapping didn’t work, let’s check to see if the Program memory function for Program B may have been adversely affected by the surges. Keeping the ports changed from 4 to 5 (as indicated above) try clearing out the settings for Program B and setting them for Program C. Test in a manual mode retaining Program C in the display. If that fixed it great!
Wiring ---- If the above fixes didn’t work, there are 2 wiring diagnosis remaining to check out. First, since you know the valve on port #1 works (area 1) try using that port to see if we can get station #4 valve to activate. Temporarily remove the field wire from port #1. Connect the field wire that was originally on port 4 to the working port #1. If it works, it could again be a bad port on 4 (and 5 if you already tried the first Valve Port option). If it didn’t work, try the “extra” wire (the open previously unconnected wire) to port #1. It may be that this wire is the “real” wire to the valve for area 4 and it somehow got disconnected during the past couple of seasons…Again if the “extra” wire worked, try it on port #4 and see if everything works OK now that you would be using the actual valve wire. Second Wiring test, the wiring could have a short in it somewhere along its underground path to the actual valve out in the yard near area 4. Testing this requires an ohms meter or tracing the wiring for a continuous current signal with a valve locator. --- Call the professionals, locating a wire break underground is usually a challenge, but you could check areas where digging may have occurred during the past 2 summers. It only takes a small nick to interrupt a current.
Valve Solenoid ---- If all the above failed to activate the valve out in area #4, chances are the valve electrical component has been damaged by the surges and will no longer hold a current strong enough to open or close the valve. A valve has both a hydraulic element (just like your kitchen faucet handle, when it turns, the flow runs) and an electronic element (the solenoid which receives a low voltage 24 volt current from the port on the controller that tells the device to automatically open or close the hydraulic “faucet” part of the valve). Tests on this can vary from measuring the current at the port to checking the resistance along the wiring to finding the valve and checking the end of the wire run by activating another test valve.
Contact us if you need assistance --- 214.837.1553