SPRINKLER TALK FORUM - You Got Questions, We've Got Answers

My dog chewed up the sprinkler wiring and I have to rewire the whole thing. I got it up and running, but...4 zones did not work while 3 zones got watered twice. All 4 valves have 2 wires. This is my current setup:

All 4 valves have have 1 of their black wires and the white (hot) wire from the controller together in a wing nut.

Valve 1- black valve wire, black and yellow controller wires (waters area 1 twice)
Valve 2- black valve wire, green controller wire (waters area 2 only)
Valve 3- black valve wire, light blue and grey controller wires (waters area 3 twice), dark blue wire from bundle
Valve 4- black valve wire, red and orange controller wires (waters area 4 twice)

There is an extra bundle of wires going to areas 5-8 that are unconnected except the dark blue wire at valve 3. I only left that one there because the dog didn't chew it off. I am unsure where these were connected before dog chewed them but I know they have to be connected.

The areas that are double watering are the double wired ones. With 8 zones and only 4 valve, multiple wires will be needed on some valves...just not sure how so that I don't double water and all zones will water independently when selected by controller.

Controller is Toro Greenkeeper 212. I have the manual but it only shows how to wire equal wires to equal valves.

Here are pictures to show what I am dealing with. Thanks!!!

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Pictures didn't work for some reason. Tried again.
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http://i40.tinypic.com/znk38y.jpg

#mce_temp_url# OK I apologize for so many posts, here is the 2nd picture.

Yeah it's a mess, and I thank you for any help with it. I hooked it up the way I thought it was supposed to go-FAIL. I really can't be sure of any of the previous connections, except that they all worked independently and only used 3 wire nuts total. I will try to answer your questions in order:



You are correct that 2 were probably wired together. Station 4 on my controller has no wire inserted in it, not to be confused with zone 4 which receives water. I believe zone 8 was the one tied in with something else. The 2 colored wires going to 1 valve 3 times, I did that not thinking right and realized it was wrong after.

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I did see after I posted I was calling the white "hot" instead of "common". Sorry about that. Also not sure if I should besaying solenoid instead of valve?

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The wires for 5-8 that are at the pump, as previously stated I have no idea where to find the other end of them. The previous homeowner wasn't good at keeping things easy to find.

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I am positive the wires from the controller are for 1-4 and the other bundle is 5-8, but I am unsure what goes to the valve first. From what I remember seeing,in all the wires there were only 3 total wire nuts used. That was wiring for 8 zones connected with 2 different wire nuts and the 3rd wire nut used for the common+ 1 ea valve wires

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The wire bundle with the Dark Blue wire only connected comes up through the ground near the pump and I have no idea where the other end is, but all the wires have plenty of length, I just drew them shorter on the picture to show what is there.

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So I am to understand that I probably have another 4 valves hidden somewhere for zones 5-6-7-8. I have looked in the past and had no luck finding them.



Hopefully this information is more helpful. If not, let me know what more information I could provide.



Once again, that you greatly for your help!

Ok, so I took your advice and changed it slightly after coming to a major realization for myself. The wires don't control what zone is on...the valves do. This is what I did. I disconnected EVERY wire so they were all by themselves with the exception of the common attached to each of one of the valve wires. I then turned on system #1 for 1 hour. I wrote down 1-8 on a paper then went to work touching each wire to the #1 wire while it was hot. I thought I would make sure all 4 valves were working by touching them each with the hot wire and was surprised that different parts of the yard were getting watered, but it also finally made sense to me. Now, knowing this information I touched each valve and noted what zone they went to. Then I touched each wire coming from the extra wire bundle going to zones 5-8 with the hot wire and noted what zones came on.

With that information I was able to wire nut all the wires from the controller to all the wires from the valves and wire bundle so that each zone had individual power. I will now assume that there are 8 valves, 4 where all the wires are located and the other 4 are hidden somewhere with the wire bundle routed to the visible valves.

I was racking my brain wondering how the hell they got all zones to work independently until I figured out the valves are the zone controllers. I still don't know how they did it with only 3 wire nuts though. Thank you very much for your help with this ordeal. Now it is time to revive my lawn to what is looked like before it stopped getting watered.