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Bought a refurbished board and controller from Irritrol ("Total Control"), but when I check for voltage when the controller is in the "rain off" position, Im getting 24V coming into the controller, and 0 volts at every terminal except for terminal #6, which is reading like 21.5V...at all times...



Is this a bad board?

It shouldnt be hot all the time???

Hmmm....

Anybody???



I called controller repair at Irritrol, and the service guy is stumped. For one thing, I dont think he believes me...then he tells me that all of the terminals are supposed to be hot....then he asks me which station it is...then he tells me he could "test one of ours and see if it does the same thing..."

not exactly garnering a lot of confidence in Irritrol, to be honest.



so...Im sitting here waiting for him to call me back, and probably tell me he has no idea why its hot, and then he'll probably tell me "don't worry about it..."



and then six months from now when my warranties up, I'll call them again, and they'll say....TOUGH SHI%....

ghost voltage? 22V? and only one terminal....? idk...sounds like a fubar'd board tbh.



Sent in an old James Hardie that got fried..they then told me they had 100$ repair minimum, and just by coincidence, they could send me a Total Control that was refurbished for like 125$.

I thought..hell...why not, its a better controller (old one didnt have surge protection), and I get a warranty...

doubt its supposed to energize just one terminal, and kinda doubt its a meaningless reading, or anomoly, as its always the same terminal, and always 21.5V...which wouldnt cause a solenoid to trip btw....

dont know what kinda refurb it was, it wasnt my controller, but I assume it was a board replacement.

Anyway, I called Irritrol's controller repair, and they hadn't a clue, and were supposed to "check into it" (whatever that means), and call me back...

still waiting....

dont think I was babbling....I tried to make it clear that it Does NOT activate the solenoid...at least not until called for by the controller...but it IS always supplying about 21-22 volts, even with the "rainoff" selected...

when its called by the controller, voltage jumps to 26.5...so I got the valve working after vampiring parts and a solenoid from another valve, but theres still this voltage anomoly, which while it may not directly affect that one valve, could potentially be a problem as the transformer only provides so much power...so....just sayin