Rainbird ESP Me controller

[RMoore22]

Hi all-

I have an ~7-yr old Rainbird ESP Me irrigation system. We just turned it back on for the season about 2 weeks ago and all has been operating fine. Last weekend I planted a lot of new foundation shrubs so I have been running the drippers for an extra 30-min each day using the manual station mode. For some reason today, it just stopped working. The display is still getting power, rain sensor has been bypassed, controller has been reset, controller has been unplugged for about 5-min and plugged back in but still nothing. When I hit/hold the right arrow button to manually start Zone 1, it engages for about 2 seconds and then just starts flashing again as if nothing happened. I tried it in auto-run with a manual start and also tried the test all zone function and it won't start there either. Any suggestions? The manual doesn't have anything other that what I have tried above. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!!

 

[WorthFlorida]

Disconnect all zone wires to eliminate any shorts to the zones. Usually the ESP will give a warning if there is a short. Solenoids usually go open when they go bad.

With everything disconnected, check that you have 24v ac. No load it may read as high as 29 volts. With load as low as ~18 volts.
With the zone wires disconnected, try to run a zone and check at the wire terminal for voltage.

Remove any expansion zone modules. They are the interface between the controller and the zones. They can go bad.

(I believe you already did this) At the rear of the control panel, there is a reset button. Will need a paper clip to push the button.

Disconnect the ribbon cable to the front panel and remove the panel. Plug in a 9 volt battery and see of the panel lights up. You can program the unit with a 9v battery. I'm not sure if it will allow to manual run a zone disconnected to see if the program runs for the time duration. If it works then a good chance the panel is good.

See page 12 for reset button and 9v programming.

https://www.rainbird.com/media/4335

If all of this fails