Hi,
Short background... Long post... I have an 18 zone system; the timer box has two 13 strand cables with 6 extra strands (2 on one and 4 on the other). Whites are connected to common leaving 12 each for zones.
Last year I found that the Zone 9 valve stopped opening. I had an irrigation company come out and test the solenoid and it was fine. The repair tech said he'd need to use a wire locator to find the break. Could take hours... It was late in the year so I left it until I could try to figure it out myself. Or at least educate myself so I'd understand what would be needed.
The Zone 9 strand comes from the cable that has 2 unused strands. I read that I can use one of the unused strands in the valve box (4 extra strands), but there is no matching color in the timer box. Another thing is the valve box cable has only 10 wires (white common). This alone leaves me stumped... 13 strands in timer and 10 in the valve box...
The current non-working setup is orange to orange...Huh... black, purple, red and brown are unused in the valve box and there is tan and pink in the timer box. For some reason the pink wire also was also attached with the orange wire but at the top of the screw where it is plastic not metal (I assume there is no connection unless the wire is pressed between the two metal bits screwed tight). I hope this is making sense...
Today I connected one of the 2 extra wires to zone 9 in the timer box and tested all the extra wires in the valve box trying to find the matching line. No joy... I am able to open the valve manually... I didn't want to detach one of the wires from a working valve to test the non-working valve as the wire is attached with a crimp style cap and can't be reused. I have to get some grease caps...
Pertinent info maybe??? While looking at the orange wire in the valve box I found that about 3" of the orange plastic coating was shrunken and black. I cut it down to a clean section and reconnected, but it didn't help. Also inside the valve box I found the cut off piece of the original valve connection (using the orange wire!) with a crimp style cap like the other 4 valves. This says to me that something happened in the past... maybe a bad section of wire was removed and reconnected? This and the pink wire attached to Zone 9 in the timer seems to be saying something.... Any guesses? I think I'll try connecting the pink wire and testing the 4 in the valve box...
If for whatever reason the timer to valve box wires are not compatible, I was thinking maybe I could double up a zone; there are 4 other valves in the box.
So if anyone has any ideas please post them...
Thanks in advance,
SBerg
Short background... Long post... I have an 18 zone system; the timer box has two 13 strand cables with 6 extra strands (2 on one and 4 on the other). Whites are connected to common leaving 12 each for zones.
Last year I found that the Zone 9 valve stopped opening. I had an irrigation company come out and test the solenoid and it was fine. The repair tech said he'd need to use a wire locator to find the break. Could take hours... It was late in the year so I left it until I could try to figure it out myself. Or at least educate myself so I'd understand what would be needed.
The Zone 9 strand comes from the cable that has 2 unused strands. I read that I can use one of the unused strands in the valve box (4 extra strands), but there is no matching color in the timer box. Another thing is the valve box cable has only 10 wires (white common). This alone leaves me stumped... 13 strands in timer and 10 in the valve box...
The current non-working setup is orange to orange...Huh... black, purple, red and brown are unused in the valve box and there is tan and pink in the timer box. For some reason the pink wire also was also attached with the orange wire but at the top of the screw where it is plastic not metal (I assume there is no connection unless the wire is pressed between the two metal bits screwed tight). I hope this is making sense...
Today I connected one of the 2 extra wires to zone 9 in the timer box and tested all the extra wires in the valve box trying to find the matching line. No joy... I am able to open the valve manually... I didn't want to detach one of the wires from a working valve to test the non-working valve as the wire is attached with a crimp style cap and can't be reused. I have to get some grease caps...
Pertinent info maybe??? While looking at the orange wire in the valve box I found that about 3" of the orange plastic coating was shrunken and black. I cut it down to a clean section and reconnected, but it didn't help. Also inside the valve box I found the cut off piece of the original valve connection (using the orange wire!) with a crimp style cap like the other 4 valves. This says to me that something happened in the past... maybe a bad section of wire was removed and reconnected? This and the pink wire attached to Zone 9 in the timer seems to be saying something.... Any guesses? I think I'll try connecting the pink wire and testing the 4 in the valve box...
If for whatever reason the timer to valve box wires are not compatible, I was thinking maybe I could double up a zone; there are 4 other valves in the box.
So if anyone has any ideas please post them...
Thanks in advance,
SBerg